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Quando si suona del pop da classifica e ci si sforza palesemente di tenere pose e look che impressionino ancor prima l'occhio dell'orecchio, vi è un'unica possibilità per non risultare insignificanti, se non sgradevoli, a chi ama profondamente la musica e mal sopporta le eccessive sovrastrutture che eventualmente la accompagnano: avere comunque dei grandi pezzi, delle belle canzoni, dei dischi fatti bene.
E' il caso di quest'album dei Thompson Twins: contiene buone melodie, arrangiate bene e prodotte meglio (nello stile del tempo, ché siamo in pieni anni ottanta edonistici, variopinti e sintetici), discotecare ma consistenti, ruffiane ma intelligenti, nel quale le poche, ma limpide idee musicali del leader del gruppo Tom Bailey, nonché la sua più che ordinaria voce, vengono rese al meglio da arrangiamenti dinamici e particolarmente solari.
Merito questo del produttore, il bravo e purtroppo prematuramente scomparso Alex Sadkin, il quale teneva base fissa alle Bahamas e si era fatto le ossa negli anni settanta con gente come Bob Marley, quindi sapeva molto bene che cosa fare per iniettare dosi di luminosità e ritmo al britannico grigiore musicale di questi tre proletari giovanotti, tutti provenienti dagli squat londinesi, i famosi appartamenti occupati della capitale.
Passati dunque in poco tempo dall'espediente di prelevare abusivamente l'energia elettrica dal contatore di un altro appartamento limitrofo, ed altri simili accorgimenti, alle gioie delle classifiche discografiche di mezz'Europa, i tre firmano nel 1984 questo loro terzo album che può individuarsi come l'apice di carriera. L'onda giusta durerà un altro paio di anni dopodiché uno dei tre amici, il mulatto tastierista Joe Leeway, se ne andrà per i soliti problemi di sottostima e mancanza di adeguato spazio creativo. I due superstiti, Bailey e la rossa Alannah Currie (che facevano coppia anche nel privato, in quegli anni) andranno avanti fino al 1993, con riscontri sempre meno estesi fino al getto finale della spugna.
Tornando a Sadkin, egli si fa dunque artefice di una trama elettronica brillante e agile per tutti i nove pezzi in scaletta, appoggiata sulla sintesi di suoni percussivi ed etnici (marimbe, sonagli e guiri a tutto andare), riuscendo a trasmettere calore e naturalezza alla resa sonora, nonostante il ruolo minimo riservato dagli strumenti tradizionali (pianoforte, qualche arpeggio di chitarra elettrica, sporadici interventi di armonica a bocca e di melodica).
"You Take Me Up" è la più incisiva dell'album e si avvale di cori africaneggianti in risposta alla linea vocale di Bailey, nonché di suggestivi contrappunti della melodica di Leeway. "Day After Day" prende un poco a prestito lo stile vocale semi parlato e folleggiante dei Talking Heads. "Sister Of Mercy" mischia pianoforte e percussioni latine con la tradizionale, danzereccia cassa in quattro, per un funky quanto più melodico possibile. "Hold Me Now" è la mia preferita, con un cantato ipnotico e insistente, circolare.
Non vi sono comunque riempitivi, la qualità musicale resta costante lungo tutto l'album, supportata da adeguata varietà. Al tempo c'era anche di meglio da ascoltare nell'ambito di questo genere (Tears For Fears e Talk Talk, ad esempio), ma nell'occasione i Thompson Twins seppero essere all'altezza dei migliori.
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
01 Doctor! Doctor! (04:39)
I saw you there
Just standing there
And I thought I was only dreaming, yeah
I kissed you then,
Then once again
You said you would come and dance with me
Dance with me
Across the sea
And we could feel the motion of a thousand dreams
Doctor! Doctor!
Can't you see I'm burning, burning
Oh Doctor! Doctor!
Is this love I'm feeling?
Ships at night
Give such delight
But we all leave before the morning light
Please don't go
No, please don't go
Cause I don't want to stay here on my own
Oh Doctor! Doctor!
Can't you see I'm burning, burning
Oh Doctor! Doctor!
Is this love I'm feeling?
Doctor! Doctor!
Can't you see I'm burning, burning
Oh Doctor! Doctor!
Is this love I'm feeling?
Fever breathe your love on me
Take away my name
Fever lay your hands on me
Never be the same
Oh Doctor! Doctor!
Can't you see I'm burning, burning
Oh Doctor! Doctor!
Is this love I'm feeling?
Doctor! Doctor!
Can't you see I'm burning, burning
Oh Doctor! Doctor!
Is this love I'm feeling?
Come with me
And make believe
We can travel to eternity
03 Hold Me Now (04:46)
I have a picture
Pinned to my wall
An image of you and of me and
We're laughing and loving it all
But look at our life now
All tattered and torn
We fuss and we fight and
Delighting with tears
As we cry until dawn
Oh, whoa
Hold me now, whoa
Warm my heart
Stay with me
Let loving start
(Let loving start)
You say I'm a dreamer
We're two of a kind
Both of us searching
For some perfect world
We know we'll never find
So perhaps I should leave here
Yeah, yeah, go far away
But you know that there's nowhere
That I'd rather be
Than with you here today
Oh, whoa, oh, whoa
Hold me now, whoa
Warm my heart
Stay with me
Let loving start
(Let loving start)
Hold me now, whoa
Warm my heart
Stay with me
Let loving start
(Let loving start) whoa
You ask if I love you
Well, what can I say?
You know that I do
And that this is just one
Of those games that we play
So I'll sing you a new song
Please don't cry any more
I'll even ask your forgiveness
Though I don't know
Just what I'm asking it for
Oh, whoa, oh, whoa
Hold me now, whoa
(In your loving arms)
Warm my heart
(Warm my cold and tired heart)
Stay with me
(Oh, won't you stay with me)
Let loving start
Let loving start
Hold me now
(In your loving arms)
Warm my heart
(Warm my cold and tired heart)
Stay with me
(Oh, won't you stay with me)
Let loving start
Let loving start
05 No Peace for the Wicked (04:09)
There's a scandal in the city, lots of rumors flying round
I gave them all my money, what I lost they found
Sometimes I think they're madder than hatters having tea
Setting up the situation to destroy the scenery
(chorus)
(There's no peace) No peace for the wicked
We're dancing till we drop
(There's no rest) No rest for the wicked
And we're all too scared to stop
Oh can't you see the trouble?
It causes me much pain
Cause I don't understand
Why should I stand out in the rain?
Sometimes I think they're madder than hatters having tea
Setting up the situation to destroy the scenery
(REPEAT CHORUS x 2)
Satellites spin through the air, suffragettes are everywhere
When the headlines hit the streets they're gonna knock you off your feet
Satellites spin through the air, acrobats of atmosphere
Maybe love will disappear
I wonder if you really care
There's two people on the wire
Making fun of what you said
Say you're looking for affection
Won't you look at me instead?
No peace for the wicked
We're dancing till we drop
No rest for the wicked
And we're all too scared to stop
(REPEAT CHORUS x 2)
06 The Gap (04:44)
Wake up in a strange land, one of forty thieves
And I see for the first time just what you believe
I go down to the market where I can buy or sell
And listen to the chanting and all the lies the wise ones tell
They say
East is east, west is west
Two diff'rent colors on the map
We say break the line, chew the fat
a keep moving out into the gap
Beggars in the back street, there for all the world to leave
It's you that's begging for attention
Well it's all the same to me
And I won't ask permission, not from teachers or from kings
Cause I can see for myself all the pain that you will bring
They say
East is east, west is west
Two diff'rent colors on the map
We say break the line, chew the fat
a keep moving out into the gap
They say
East is east, west is west
Two diff'rent colors on the map
We say break the line, chew the fat
a keep moving out into the gap
They say
East is east, west is west
Two diff'rent colors on the map
We say break the line, chew the fat
a keep moving out into the gap
Can you smell the perfume of a hundred thousand years?
Dare you look into the eyes that hide a hundred million tears?
And there's no need to be so fightened of all the figures in the night
Cause we share the same emotions and no one's wrong and no one's right
They say
East is east, west is west
Two diff'rent colors on the map
We say break the line, chew the fat
a keep moving out into the gap
They say
East is east, west is west
Two diff'rent colors on the map
We say break the line, chew the fat
a keep moving out into the gap
They say
East is east, west is west
Two diff'rent colors on the map
We say break the line, chew the fat
a keep moving out into the gap
07 Sister of Mercy (05:09)
She lives in a big white house
The rooms are lemon and she's devoted to life
of keeping this house just right, ooh, ooh
The weekends are perfectly nice ooh, ooh
And she doesn't talk when he comes home at night
Twenty five years she's just the same
She's a lonely woman, quiet in her ways
Then he comes home one night
She kills him with a knife
Now she's the one who's a living in paradise
(chorus)
(Sister of mercy) No sister of mercy
Oh don't cry for me
(sister of mercy) No sister of mercy
It's all alright for me
Now she sits in a big white chair
In a room that's not so different to the one back there
She turns her face to the light
But she is blinded by her life
You can hear her cry alone at night
(REPEAT CHORUS)
So have mercy on that woman you don't know the way it's been
You don't know the trouble her eyes have seen
Can you feel the kiss of life when you come home at night?
Well, you better not turn your back on a paradise
(REPEAT CHORUS)
Sister of mercy (Sister of mercy)
Sister of mercy oh, oh
Sister of mercy (Sister of mercy)
Sister of mercy oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
(REPEAT CHORUS x 2)
09 Who Can Stop the Rain? (05:17)
I was dancing in heaven, you were keeping time
Then I read your letter, sent shivers down my spine
Said our love was over, I was not the one
If it lasts forever, forever wouldn't be much fun
(chorus)
Who can stop the rain?
Who can stop the rain from falling?
Who can stop this pain that's drowning me?
I could hear the sound of laughter
I thought that love was in the air
I was drowning in that golden age
You really seemed to care
I'm haunted by a dream, a giant human beings
I wait alone for hours
Love is never what it seems
(REPEAT CHORUS)
(REPEAT CHORUS)
You always had fantastic plans, that I always knew
And now you want to leave me out, so it's raining just for you
Those changes that you wanted make you ten feet tall
I tried to move those mountains but mountains never move at all
(REPEAT CHORUS x 3)
Who can stop the rain? (can stop the rain?)
Who can stop the rain from falling? (can stop the rain?)
Who can stop this pain that's drowning me?
Submitted by Michael Hack
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