Japanese Whispers fu pubblicato ufficialmente come una raccolta dei principali brani scritti da Robert Smith in una delle fasi più instabili della band britannica. Fase cronologicamente collocabile tra Pornography (1982) e The Top (1984) e di grande rilevanza nella prospettiva storica dell'evoluzione del gruppo. In quel periodo, infatti, Robert Smith maturò indipendentemente dagli altri membri della band svariate idee e progetti, che lo portarono a scrivere molto materiale sia in autonomia, sia collaborando con altri musicisti della scena post-punk dell'epoca.
Ma il nome dei Cure, tralasciando il lungo tour con Siouxsie and The Banshees (con il relativo doppio album live Nocturne) e l'album dei Glove (Blue Sunshine scritto assieme a Steve Severin, bassista dei Banshees), si legò comunque ad una linea progettuale ben precisa, che vide Smith affrontare una svolta stilistica e iconografica notevole.
Dall'essenza delle canzoni che finirono poi pubblicate su Japanese, maturarono infatti la rifondazione del gruppo e i due significativi dischi della metà degli anni '80: The Top e The head on the door.
Lo stacco dalle atmosfere prolissamente oscure e nichiliste di Pornography risulta subito evidente, laddove brani come Lovecats, Upstairs Room e The Walk mostrano un approccio più disinvolto, disilluso e spesso scanzonato con le emozioni della vita. Pur restando aderente ad una visione non luminosa del futuro e dei rapporti con gli altri, Robert Smith nel 1983 cominciò a scrivere testi meno incentrati sui corti circuiti interiori; cominciò a guardarsi intorno, a descrivere amori quotidiani (Let's Go To Bed, Speak My Language), piccoli drammi urbani (Lament), sensazioni oniriche (Just One Kiss, The Dream). Il tutto impostato su una scelta di sonorità sicuramente meno tradizionali per lo standard dei Cure; sonorità generate dall'uso di strumenti a loro volta rivelatori di una sfumatura più sarcastica e trasognata, al punto da contaminare di jazz il mood di certi brani (pianoforti, trombe, contrabbassi, flauti) o di tecnopop (sintetizzatori, drum-machines).
Tutto questo, non a caso, si riverserà parzialmente negli album successivi di cui sopra, mitigando talvolta la vena scanzonata, ma cancellando fortemente le impressioni depressive e dark degli esordi. Mantenendo forse più viva l'impronta jazzistica che non quella elettronica.
Japanese Whisper racchiude l'essenza di questa fase e ne diventa unica testimonianza, proponendo otto canzoni tra le molte che furono pubblicate su mix, remix, mini-LP nell'arco di quei quindici mesi.
Da rilevare, tra i vari strumentisti che collaborarono con Smith allora, il bassista Phil Thornally (che suonò anche in The Top e nel relativo tour) e il batterista Steve Goulding.
Elenco tracce testi e video
01 Let's Go to Bed (03:34)
Let me take your hand
I'm shaking like milk
Turning
Turning blue
All over the windows and the floors
Fires outside in the sky
Look as perfect as cats
The two of us together again
But it's just the same
A stupid game
But I don't care if you don't
And I don't feel if you don't
And I don't want it if you don't
And I won't say it
If you don't say it first
You think you're tired now
But wait until three...
Laughing at the Christmas lights
You remember
From December
All of this then back again
Another girl
Another name
Stay alive but stay the same
It's just the same
A stupid game
But I don't care if you don't
And I don't feel if you don't
And I don't want it if you don't
And I won't play it
If you don't play it first
You can't even see now
So you ask me the way
You wonder if it's real
Because it couldn't be rain...
Through the right doorway
And into the white room
It used to be the dust that would lay here
When I came here alone
But I don't care if you don't
And I don't feel if you don't
And I don't want it if you don't
And I won't say it
If you don't say it first
Doo doo doo doo
Let's go to bed!
Doo doo doo doo
Let's go to bed!
04 The Upstairs Room (03:30)
I love it all
These games we play
I close my eyes
You run away
I'm sure I asked you to stay
But now you're gone
And so I feel the grey
Pulse in my head
I turn off the lights and crawl into bed
I try to think of sunshine
But my body goes wet
With the first crash of thunder...
I don't think I can know
Anyone but you dear
That's for sure!
When it gets to four
It's my turn to go
Oh the kiss!
So alcoholic and slow
Arranging me for Saturday
I thought you would know
That I always sleep alone...
I don't think I can know
Anyone but you
Dear
That's for sure!
The upstairs room is cool and bright
We can go up there in summer
And dance all night...
Your sister started talking at a minute after ten
So everyone jumped up
And then fell over again
In April you can join them
And stare at me
At the ghost from your past...
05 The Walk (03:30)
I called you after midnight
Then ran until I burst
I passed the howling woman
And stood outside your door
We walked around a lake
And woke up in the rain
And everyone turned over
Troubled in their dreams again
Visiting time is over
And so we walk away
And both play dead then cry out loud
Why we always cry this way?
I kissed you in the water
And made your dry lips sing
I saw you look
Like a Japanese baby
In an instant I remembered everything...
I called you after midnight
Then ran until my heart burst
I passed the howling woman
And stood outside your door
I kissed you in the water
And made your dry lips sing
I saw you look
Like a Japanese baby
In an instant I remembered everything...
06 Speak My Language (02:40)
It was only yesterday
Waving arms across the street
Your white face left me blue...
How can I say all the things
I have to say to you?
Oh! all the people here
All look the same...
The little time I spend with you
We drink each other dry
Mammnnarghaassstmmetc!
Speak my language!
It was only yesterday
My eyes touched yours across the street
We cut the words
And waved goodbye
And dropped off the edge of the world
Mammnnarghaassstmmetc!
Speak my language!
08 The Lovecats (03:40)
We move like caged tigers
We couldn't get closer than this
The way we walk
The way we talk
The way we stalk
The way we kiss
We slip through the streets
While everyone sleeps
Getting bigger and sleeker
And wider and brighter
We bite and scratch and scream all night
Let's go and throw
All the songs we know...
Into the sea
You and me
All these years and no one heard
I'll show you in spring
It's a treacherous thing
We missed you hissed the lovecats
We're so wonderfully wonderfully wonderfully
Wonderfully pretty!
Oh you know that I'd do anything for you...
We should have each other to tea huh?
We should have each other with cream
Then curl up by the fire
And sleep for awhile
It's the grooviest thing
It's the perfect dream
Into the sea
You and me
All these years and no one heard
I'll show you in spring
It's a treacherous thing
We missed you hissed the lovecats
We're so wonderfully wonderfully wonderfully
Wonderfully pretty!
You know that I'd do anything for you...
We should have each other to dinner
We should have each other with cream
Then curl up in the fire
Get up for awhile
It's the grooviest thing
It's the perfect dream
Hand in hand
Is the only way to land
And always the right way round
Not broken in pieces
Like hated little meeces...
How could we miss
Someone as dumb as this?
I love you... let's go...
Oh... solid gone...
How could we miss
Someone as dumb as this?
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Altre recensioni
Di the clash
Robert Smith, nel corso degli anni ha letto la propria mente, soffrendo, rischiando il suicidio ma sempre chiarendo la sua condizione.
"The Lovecats", i Cure a ritmo di swing, Robert Smith miagola fra i versi di questo classico, molto divertente sui "gatti dell’amore".
Di vikcrow
"Questo Singolo è un piccolo tesoro, da conservare con cura."
"Con 'Lament' esplodo in un pianto disperato. Sublime. Sconvolgente."
