• Voto:
Quando sono entrato in possesso di “The Crane Wife”, ero come mio figlio più piccolo davanti ad un pacco regalo, impaziente di aprirlo con la speranza di trovarci qualcosa di sorprendente ed i presupposti perchè ciò avvennisse c'erano tutti: un'ottima band indie-pop fuori dal comune ed un concept album basato su una famosa fiaba giapponese (una gru salvata da un pover uomo, che per gratitudine si ripresenta a casa di costui sotto le sembianze di una bellissima donna, ne diventa la moglie, lo rende ricco, ma scoperta volerà via).
Con questo lavoro, il quintetto di Portland ha debuttato per la Capitol Records e la felice sorpresa (forse non per alcuni dei vecchi fans) è quella di averli trovati su strade decisamente più pop-rock, guidati come sempre dal loro Deus ex machina Colin Meloy (ex dei Tarkio). Si, perchè Meloy (faccia da studente universitario fuori corso e pazzo per gli Smiths, tanto da incidere un EP di loro canzoni) è per i Decemberists, quello che Will Sheff è per gli Okkervil River ed in questo suo ambizioso progetto musicale, si mostra oltre che appassionante interprete, un grande compositore. A giudizio di chi scrive, “The Crane Wife” è un grande album poliedrico, una raccolta di vari stili, tra cui spiccano delle gemme di rara bellezza come l'intensa “The Crane Wife 3, 1 and 2” (l'ordine è proprio questo), l'allegro duetto di "Yankee Bayonet" con la cantautrice Laura Veirs, il ritmo funk (?) di “The Perfect Crime 2” , ma soprattutto la straordinaria epicità di “The Island, Come And See, The Landlord's Daughter, You'll Not Feel The Drowning”: 13 minuti per una suite di puro rock progressivo come da tempo non si sentiva, tra le cui note si aggira il fantasma di Jan Anderson e dei suoi Jethro Tull.
In conclusione, sono rimasto molto soddisfatto del regalo, ma qualcosa di non preciso mi ha lasciato l'amaro in bocca, forse alcuni episodi troppo semplici o scontati. Peccato, perchè “The Crane Wife” poteva essere un capolavoro assoluto e comunque pur restando un album straordinario, che piacerà a molti, nel suo insieme c'è qualcosa che non convince appieno.
Comunque sia, i miei complimenti ai menestrelli dell'Oregon. Voto 4,8
Saluti, Addison.
Elenco tracce testi e video
02 The Island: Come and See / The Landlord’s Daughter / You’ll Not Feel the Drowning (12:26)
03 Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then) (04:18)
''Soldier'': Heart-carved tree trunk, Yankee bayonet
A sweetheart left behind
''Girl'': Far from the hills of the sea-swelled Carolinas
That's where my true love lies
''Soldier'': Look for me when the sun-bright swallow
Sings upon the birch bough high
''Girl'': But you are in the ground with the wolves and the weevils
All a'chew upon your bones so dry
''Both'': But when the sun breaks
To no more bullets in Battle Creek
Then will you make a grave
For I will be home then
I will be home then
I will be home then
I will be home then
Then
''Girl'': When I was a girl how the hills of Oconee
Made a seam to hem me in
''Soldier'': There at the fair, when our eyes caught careless
Got my heart right pierced by a pin
''Soldier'': But oh, did you see all the dead of Manassas
All the bellies and the bones and the bile?
''Girl'': No I lingered here with the blankets barren
And my own belly big with child
''Both'': But when the sun breaks
To no more bullets in Battle Creek
Then will you make a grave
For I will be home then
I will be home then
I will be home then
I will be home then
''Soldier'': Stems and bones and stone walls too
''Both'': Keep me from you
''Soldier'': This skein of skin is all too few
''Both'': To keep me from you
''Both'': But oh my love, though our bodies may be parted
Though our skin may not touch skin
Look for me with the sun-bright sparrow
I will come on the breath of the wind
04 O Valencia! (03:47)
You belong to the gang
And you say you can't break away
But I'm here with my hands on my heart
And our families can't agree
I'm your brother's sworn enemy
But I shout out my love to the stars
So wait for the stone on your window, your window
And wait, by the car, and we'll go, we'll go
When first we laid eyes
I swore to no compromise
Till I found my caress on your skin
But how soon we were betrayed
Your sister gave us away
And your father came all unhinged
So wait for the stone on your window, your window
And wait, by the car, and we'll go, we'll go
But oh, Valencia!
With your blood still warm on the ground
Valencia!
And I swear to the stars, I'll burn this whole city down!
All I heard was a shout
Of your brother calling me out
And you ran like a fool
To my side
Well the shot, it hit hard
And your frame went limp in my arms
And an oath of love was your dying cry
So wait for the stone on your window, your window
And wait, by the car, and we'll go, we'll go
But oh, Valencia!
With your blood still warm on the ground
Valencia!
And I'll burn this whole city down
Valencia!
With your blood getting cold on the ground
Valencia!
And I swear to the stars, I'll burn this whole city down!
05 The Perfect Crime #2 (05:33)
Sing muse with passion of the pistol
Sing muse of the warning by the whistle
On a night so dark in the waning
A dawn obscured by slight sky raining, oh oh
Five and twenty burglars by the reservoir
A teenage lookout on the signal tower
The moguls daughter in hard time
The mogul figures a one guy, one guys
It was a perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect crime
It was a perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect crime
The bagman's quaking at the fingers
The hand-off glance a little lingers
A well-dressed man in the crosshairs
A shot rings out from somewhere upstairs
It was a perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect crime
It was a perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect crime
It was the perfect crime
It was like a ticker-tape parade
When the plastique on the safe was blown away
And we all gaze from eye to eye
As we mouth our silent goodbyes
The valley's sleeping like a bastard
It stinks of slumber and disaster
Two words are spoken with tap wire
The agent's pull finds a surefire backfire
It was a perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect crime
It was a perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect crime
06 When the War Came (05:06)
With all the grain of babylon
To cultivate, to make us strong
And hidden here behind the walls
Are shoulders wide and timber on
'Til the war came
'Til the war came
A terrible autonomy
Has grafted onto you and me
Our trust put in the government
They told their lies as heaven-sent
'Til the war came
'Til the war came
[Chorus]
And the war came with a curse and a caterwaul
And the war came with all the poise of a cannonball
And they're picking out our eyes by coal and candlelight
When the war came, the war came hard
We made our oath to Vavilov
We'd not betray the solanum
The acres of asteraceae
To our own pangs of starvation
When the war came
When the war came
[Chorus]
With all the grain of Babylon
07 Shankill Butchers (04:39)
2, 3, 4...
The Shankill Butchers ride tonight
You better shut your windows tight
They're sharpening their cleavers and their knives
And taking all their whiskey by the pint
'Cause everybody knows
If you don't mind your mother's words
A wicked wind will blow
Your ribbons from your curls
Everybody moan
Everybody shake
The Shankill Butchers wanna catch you awake
They used to be just like me and you
They used to be sweet little boys
But something went horribly askew
Now killing is their only source of joy
'Cause everybody knows
If you don't mind your mother's words
A wicked wind will blow
Your ribbons from your curls
Everybody moan
Everybody shake
The Shankill Butchers wanna catch you awake
The Shankill Butchers on the rise
They're waiting 'til the dead of night
They're picking at their fingers with their knives
And wiping off their cleavers on their thighs
'Cause everybody knows
If you don't mind your mother's words
A wicked wind will blow
Your ribbons from your curls
Everybody moan
Everybody shake
The Shankill Butchers wanna catch you
The Shankill Butchers wanna cut you
The Shankill Butchers wanna catch you awake
Awake (x3)
08 Summersong (03:31)
Ramblin', where to begin?
I taste the summer on your peppery skin.
Been saved, the warmer the waves
I felt us slip into a watery grave, oh
Oh ho ho
La di dada da
Oh ho ho
My girl, linen and curls
Lips parting like a flag'll unfurl
She's grand, the bend of her hand
Digging deep into the sweep of the sand, oh
Oh ho ho
La di dada da
Oh ho ho
And summer arrives
With a length of lights
And summer blows away
And quietly gets swallowed by a wave
It gets swallowed by a wave
Waylay the din of the day
Boats bobbing in the blue of the bay
In deep far beneath
All the dead sailor slowly slipping to sleep, oh
Oh ho ho
La di dada da
Oh ho ho
My girl, linen and curls
Lips parting like a flag'll unfurl
She's grand, the bend of her hand
Digging deep into the sweep of the sand, oh
Oh ho ho
La di dada da
Oh ho ho
And summer arrives
With a length of lights
And summer blows away
And quietly gets swallowed by a wave
It gets swallowed by a wave (x3)
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