• Voto:
Quando si parla di new-wave non si possono certamente omettere gli Psychedelic Furs, che dopo l'ottimo esordio omonimo datato 1980, pubblicarono quest'album dallo strano titolo l'anno successivo.
E' il lavoro della loro piena maturità, ed uno dei dischi più interessanti della loro decade. La formazione si componeva di un sestetto, formato da due chitarre, basso, batteria, voce, ed un sassofono, opera di Duncan Kilburn, che era la vera particolarità del gruppo. Le sue impennate donavano infatti al sound una qualità sinistra, un'identità ambigua che li rendeva molto affascinanti. In più, la poderosa impronta delle due chitarre risuonava di un'eco hard-psichedelica, assecondata dalla vigorosa sezione ritmica, che scandiva un battito potente ed ossessivo.
La voce di Richard Butler era dissonanate al pari delle chitarre, roca e graffiante, proprio quello che ci voleva per il loro suono. Tutto ciò, unito ad un gusto per la melodia puramente rock, formava un connubbio che marchiò a fuoco il post-punk.
"Dumb Waiters" lancia subito il disco in grande stile, col sassofono che a pieni polmoni si lancia in un grido epico sul passo marziale della batteria, con Butler che intona il suo cupo baritono sulle note distorte di chitarre sovrapposte.
La trascinante melodia di "Pretty In Pink" è un piccolo capolavoro di rock inquieto e obliquo, che alterna a momenti di solari aperture melodiche altri di cupa paranoia.
L'anima new-wave della successiva "I Wanna Sleep With You" è evidentissima sin dalla partenza a raffica della batteria, metronomica e affannosa, che ricorda i grigi paesaggi metropolitani dei Wire. La cristallina melodia che pervade "No Tears" si insinua sottopelle come quelle canzoni che non riesci a scrollarti di dosso, e che ronzano in testa di continuo. In ogni brano fa sempre capolino lo splendido fiato del sassoofono lunare di Kilburn, indelebile segno distintivo. Gli Psychedelic Furs non si fanno mancare neanche ballad atmosferiche dal mood tenebroso come "All Of This And Nothing", che parte su un prezioso giro di chitarra acustica e vagiti di sax per poi irrompere con un ritmo ipnotico e monocorde, che accompagna il brano sino alla conclusiva "reprise" dell'inizio. Un piccolo gioiellino. "She Is Mine" possiede invece un umore più tenero, una dolce serenata sussurrata delicatamente da Butler, che scivola via morbida e delicata.
Tutto il disco è segnato da melodie di facile presa e da un'orecchiabilità sincera e mai di maniera, che ne fanno uno dei risultati migliori in ambito puramante rock di inizio anni '80.
Un gioiellino che non può mancare in ogni collezione new-wave che si rispetti.
Elenco tracce testi e samples
01 Dumb Waiters (05:04)
give me all your paper ma
gimme all your jazz
give me something that i need
something i can have
mrs. london's coming round
she's coming with her son
gimme all your paper ah
so i can get a gun
she has got it in for me
yeah i mean it honestly
she's so mean
give me all your paper ma
so i can buy a train
they just wanna suck you in
to being one of them
tell her that i'm not in here
tell her i'm a freak
tell her that i fall about
every time i speak
she has got in for me
yeah i mean it honestly
i just scream
give me all your paper ma
so i can buy a train
i don't know how i got in here
it's making me insane
have another cigarette
and have another cigarette
in a room where lovers go
talking on the telephone
they have go it in for me
yeah i mean it honestly
they all dream
02 Pretty in Pink (03:58)
Caroline laughs and it's raining all day
She loves to be one of the girls
She lives in the place in the side of our lives
Where nothing is ever put straight
She turns herself 'round and she smiles and she says
"This is it, that's the end of the joke"
And loses herself in her dreaming and sleep
And her lovers walk through in their coats
She's pretty in pink
Isn't she?
Pretty in pink
Isn't she?
All of her lovers all talk of her notes
And the flowers that they never sent
And wasn't she easy?
Isn't she pretty in pink?
The one who insists he was first in the line
Is the last to remember her name
He's walking around in this dress that she wore
She is gone but the joke's the same
Pretty in pink
Isn't she?
Pretty in pink
Isn't she?
Caroline talks to you softly sometimes
She says, "I love you" and too much
She doesn't have anything you want to steal
Well, nothing you can touch
She waves, she buttons your shirt
The traffic is waiting outside
She hands you this coat
She gives you her clothes, these cars collide
Pretty in pink
Isn't she?
Pretty in pink
Isn't she?
04 No Tears (03:17)
there's demonstrations
and demonstrations
listen to the weathermen
they're not saying anything
they're tripping flags for you
this crazy face for you
you don't have a point of view
you don't have to say you do
no tears, no colours, yeah
there's conversation
and conversation
talk about yourself again
talk about the rain again
another lie for you
another point of view
how can you believe in them?
don't believe in anything
no colours, no tears, yeah
there's demonstrations
and demonstrations
listen to the weathermen
they're not saying anything
there's conversation
and conversation
talk about yourself again
talk about the rain again
no tears, no colours,
no you now
05 Mr. Jones (04:03)
Mrs. Jones is 17 and 6 and 24
Moderately pretty
She is all the girls you know
We are going far away
We're going for a ride
Mr. Jones has got a plan
If you just come inside
So good so far
Slow down ha ha
Movie stars and ads
And radio define romance
Don't turn it on
I don't want to dance
Mr. Jones is beautiful
Your eyes are made of glass
Looking through the window
You can see the world go past
Here's another 9 o'clock
And here's another day
Wonder how the weather is
And what the people say
So good so far
Slow down ha ha
Movie stars and ads
And radio define romance
Don't turn it on
I don't want to dance
Mr. Jones can turn you on
And turn you off again
Mr. Jones is all of you
Who live inside a plan
Put your head upon the pillow
Never put it down
That would only wake you up
And turn your head around
So good so far
Slow down ha ha
Movie stars and ads
And radio define romance
Don't turn it on
I don't want to dance
06 Into You Like a Train (04:35)
no kind of love
no kind of love
i don't wanna make no scene
lovers come and go
or make you mrs. anyone
or make you mr. me
i'm into you like a train
into you like a train
into you like a train
yeah fall in love
yeah fall in love
i don't wanna tape you down
or shack you up with me
or put you where the flowers go
or get into your mind
i'm into you like a train
into you like a train
into you like a train
now fall in love
yeah fall in love
if you believe that anyone
like me within a song
is outside it all
then you are all so wrong
if you believe that anyone
like me within a song
would try and change it all
then you have been put on
i'm into you like a train
into you like a train
into you like a train
yeah fall in love
yeah fall in love
no kind of love
no kind of love
i don't wanna wear no side
or complicate it all
or celebrate your prettiness
and kick you in it all
i'm into you like a train
into you like a train
into you like a train
yeah fall in love
yeah fall in love
if you believe that anyone
like me within a song
would try and change it all
then you have been put on
so wrong
into you like a train
07 It Goes On (03:52)
you laugh at her in all the cars
she's easily confused
there isn't any wrong or right
or up and down on you
there isn't any reason
there isn't any sense
nothing else is happening
this is where you are
it goes on and then it rains
we run away
it goes on again
if you say no just one more time
he's gonna trash your wife
he has to have a lie to live
or something to believe
he has a god
he calls it you
he has a highway too
inside his head these wheels go round
he says that he loves you
it goes on and then it goes around again
it goes on again
it goes on
it goes on and then it goes
around again
it goes on again
you know this guy that lives downstairs
there's parties all the time
where they put on wigs and stuff
so they can be themselves
he calls you this
he calls you that
you lose your memory
all this goes on all the time
so i don't go down there
it goes on and then it rains again
it goes on again
it goes on and then it goes
around again
it goes on again
09 All of This and Nothing (06:23)
a phonebook full of accidents
a girl to drive your car
a suit to wear on mondays
and a coat a magazine
a heavy rain a holiday
a painting of the wall
a knife a fork and memories
a light to see it all
you didn't leave me anything
that i can understand
hey i never meant that stuff
i want to turn you round
dominoes a pack of cards
a picture of the queen
a dress to wear on sundays
and a handle for the door
a letter that i sent for you
a note you left for me
a wave a pack of cigarettes
a pocket full of beads
you didn't leave me anything
that i can understand
hey i never meant that stuff
i want to turn you on
you didn't leave me anything
that i can understand
hey i never meant that stuff
i want to turn you round
you didn't leave me anything
that i can understand
hey i never meant that stuff
i want to turn you on
the sound of people getting drunk
a ceiling and a sky
a bank that's full of promises
a telephone that lies
a visit from your doctor
he crawls in through the door
a mirror you can look in
so that you know where you are
you didn't leave me anything
that i can understand
hey i never meant that stuff
i want to turn you round
you didn't leave me anything
that i can understand
now i'm left with all of this
a room full of your trash
10 She Is Mine (03:53)
i hope you get your invitation
it is here for you
listen to the conversation
playing pretty tunes
sorry i can't wait for you
i couldn't stand to stay
you have to get right out of here
you have to get away
i had to pay the doorman
just to let me use the door
i had to use a muscleman
to pick me off the floor
they're making up things
that we've all heard before
like romance and engage and divorce
you have to be crazy to stay in this place
you just have to laugh at it all
i met this girl and called her ma
i called her everything
i called her fab and mrs. fish
i didn't get her name
she's making me a pair of shoes
so i can run away
she's making me a plastic wig
she's making me again
i had to pay the doorman
just to let me use the door
i had to use a muscleman
to pick me off the floor
they're making up things
that we've all heard before
like romance and engage and divorce
you have to be crazy to stay in this place
you just have to laugh at it all
some people are dancing
and some fall in love
to the music of military tunes
you have to be crazy to stay in this place
you just have to laugh at it all
i didn't want to put you on
or tape you down at all
or leave you here so all alone
or put you in this room
they're making up things
that we've all heard before
like romance and engage and divorce
you have to be crazy to stay in this place
you just have to laugh at it all
Carico i commenti... con calma
