• Voto:
Premessa: so che una recensione di questo disco è già presente, ma non sembrandomi abbastanza esaustiva, vorrei esprimere un differente punto di vista.
Che situazione strana quando vai a acquistare un disco idolatrato dai più, spinto dalla voglia di conoscere un genere a te poco familiare e soprattutto di ritrovare in quell'album le sensazioni bellissime che tutti hanno provato... Situazione strana dicevo perché quando poi ascolti quelle canzoni esse non ti lasciano niente se non indifferenza, continuo senso di già sentito e una generale piattezza. Certo, su undici tracce magari ci sono quelle quattro che ti colpiscono, lungi però dall'essere quelle botte al cuore tanto poeticamente descritte in altre recensioni. A quel punto, nella più totale indecisione, ti viene da pensare che quello sbagliato sei te, che un album, che è piaciuto alla più vasta moltitudine di persone deve per forza riuscire a comunicarti qualcosa, anche poco, uno straccio di sentimento... E allora lo riascolti, dieci, venti volte, ma ancora niente. Alla fine ti arrendi all'evidenza della totale incompatibilità di "caratteri" tra te e il disco, e lo lasci lì, in un angolo della tua discografia, in attesa di una qualche epifania.
Ecco, senza citare né autore né titolo del disco potrei chiudere qui questa mia recensione dell'album dei Thursday dal titolo "War All The Time", ma voglio andare avanti, per almeno tre motivi: uno, per fare una recensione quantomeno decente; due, per parlare almeno un po' del disco e del poco che mi ha colpito; tre, soprattutto e se possibile, per avere qualche giudizio esterno dato da chi conosce già l'opera in questione, tanto per confrontarsi un po'.
Gruppo emocore di notevole risonanza negli USA, i Thursday si muovono sulla scia di gruppi storici del genere (ben più validi sotto tutti i punti di vista) come Fugazi e Sunny Day Real Estate, puntando in questo disco su un rock venato di temi fortemente emozionali (e qui legati all'11 Settembre) che conserva comunque forti cadenze radiofoniche. Tradotto in soldoni, l'album punta a farsi ascoltare facilmente lasciando comunque il segno, con una profondità emotiva ammirevole (o almeno dovrebbe puntare a farlo, vedi sopra).
Buoni fraseggi di chitarra, talvolta taglienti e chiassose, altre volte più cullanti e dolci, linee vocali nella prevalenza pulite ma con squarci in scream (ben fatte comunque), una martellante sezione ritmica su cui domina un ottimo basso e un buon pianoforte a tratteggiare di tanto in tanto in modo più particolareggiato l'atmosfera: questi sono gli ingredienti usati dal gruppo.
Il risultato? Oggettivamente mi hanno colpito solo quattro tracce. L'apertura, "For The Workforce, Drowning", bordata elettrica di buon valore, incisiva, diretta, rapida e piuttosto varia, colpisce piacevolmente. La canzone si mantiene su livelli alti e tirati per tutta la sua durata, con una prestazione maiuscola del cantante che non sembra mai prendere fiato tra una strofa e l'altra.
"Signals Over The Air" parte piano, ben cadenzata e ottimamente strutturata grazie a intelligente linee chitarristiche, per poi esplodere nel ritornello. Buona l'alternanza clean - scream, usato nei momenti di maggiore pathos, e buona pure la generale atmosfera ricreata dalla traccia, contorta e convulsa in certi momenti eppure davvero orecchiabile.
Diversa da tutto il resto la poetica e intima "This Song Brought To You By A Falling Bomb". Creata tutta intorno a un bel giro di pianoforte e alla voce, spesso sussurrata, la traccia è a mio avviso il pezzo migliore del disco. Davvero toccante e appassionante grazie a delle liriche malinconiche e rassegnate, il pezzo vede ancora nella prestazione vocale del singer la sua arma vincente. Davvero un pezzo molto interessante, seppur (purtroppo) brevissimo.
Concluderei con la ben fatta title track. Aperta da un preciso giro di basso sorretto, piano piano, dalle chitarre che crescono dal nulla, la canzone cresce alla lunga, con un chorus azzeccato e molto ben congegnato, in cui gli arpeggi si intrecciano (devo dire con ottima creatività) in maniera labirintica, e il drumming sorregge il tutto in maniere precisa e veloce. Come al solito validissima pure la voce (ma è un po' una costante del disco).
Il resto, almeno per quanto mi riguarda, rimane su un livello nettamente inferiore. Più confuse, meno elaborate e qualitativamente più basse, le altre canzoni non raggiungono l'intensità di queste da me elencate. Tutta questa recensione però può essere anche attaccata in base al fatto che sono (e resterò sempre) un neofita del genere emo, che non rimane affatto nelle mie corde, sebbene riconosca in esso ottimi gruppi e altrettanto ottimi dischi. In base a ciò mi si può confutare ogni singolo ragionamento, ma in fondo, come ho già detto in apertura, ho scritto questa recensione anche per sapere i commenti di chi, in questo campo, è più competente di me. Per quanto mi riguarda i buoni pezzi non riescono a alzare più di tanto il voto di un disco che spacca la sufficienza, ma non va certo oltre. C'è molto di meglio in giro su questo stesso genere, non fermatevi qui.
Elenco tracce testi e video
01 For the Workforce, Drowning (03:16)
Falling from the top floor your lungs
fill like parachutes
the windows go rushing by.
the people inside they're
dressed for the funeral in black and white.
These ties strangle our necks, hanging in the closet,
filed in the cubicle;
without a name, just numbers,
on the resume stored in the mainframe, marked for delete.
please take these hands
throw them in the river,
wash away the things they never held
please take these hands,
throw me in the river,
dont let me drown before the workday ends.
9 to 5! 9 to 5!
and we're up to our necks,
drowning in the seconds,
ingesting the morning commute
lost in a dead subway sleep
now we lie awake in our parents beds,
tossing and turning.
tomorrow we'll get up
drive to work,
single file
with everyday
just like the last.
waiting for the life to start,
is it always just always ahead of the curve...
please take these hands
throw them in the river,
wash away the things they never held
please take these hands,
throw me in the river,
dont let me drown before the workday ends.
just keep making copies
of copies
of copies
when will it end?
it'll never end,
'til it gets so bad
that the ink fills in our fingerprints
and the silhouette of your own face becomes the black cloud of war
and even in our dreams we're so afraid the weight willl offset who we are
all those breaths that you took have now been cancelled in your lungs.
last night my teeth fell out like
ivory typewriter keys
and all the monuments and skyscrapers burned down and filled the sea.
save our ship
the anchor is part of the desk
we can't cut free,
the water is flooding the decks
the memos sent through the currents
computers spark like flares
i can see them.
they don't touch me,
touch me.
please someone,
teach me how to swim.
please, don't let me drown,
please, don't let me drown.
02 Between Rupture and Rapture (03:03)
In the veins of of the ultraviolet light
The phosphor is starting a fire
Shooting up in the iodine
It's turning on
Rupture the wall around my heart
I feel so lost
I've been shaking
You can't save me
Forget what the doctor said
Every bird in mid-flight
Is calling out your name
Before it hits the window
And sings the rapture
Without a second opinion
The chemicals saturate to counteract the code
Through the double helix we are twisting
Too scared to let this go
Someone call the head nurse
She's coming to the capitol
To wrap us up and throw us in the dirt
With a dream that's turning off
We are coming to the Capitol
The distance between us will rupture
In our hearts the disease won't touch us
...Love....
Now it's too late to turn this off
Alone is all we are
Even when we feel this close
It's just a lie we believe
These are the words that escape from our lungs
Rupture the wall I've built around my heart
I've been shaking
You can't save me
I'm turning off
We can't find a way
Out of this moment
We're lost in a dark hallway
03 Division St. (04:14)
Lights out on Division Street
and all the hate that rises
through the cracks in the pavement,
as the temperature falls.
(This is where is hits the ground)
Lights out on Division Street
I'm repeating
Goodbye to the memories,
(the fever that will not break)
the night is pouring down,
it's not enough to put this out,
i'll burn up before i wake up.
(on Division Street)
This is serious,
This is serious,
If this is serious
I'll hide my heart in dark parades.
Lights out on Division Street
I held you tight like an empty bottle...
But the glass broke
(and the poison spilled out of your mouth)
Hello? Hello? Is anybody there?
The house turned black and sat in silence
(while a mockingbird sang)
lalalalalala, listen to yourself
go on and on, as if you spoke to someone else.
Lights out on Division Street
I'm repeating
Goodbye to the memories,
(the fever that will not break)
the night is pouring down,
its not enough to put this out,
i'll burn up before i wake up.
(on Division Street)
This is serious,
This is serious,
If this is serious
I'll hide my heart in dark parades.
To dance between the scirror's blades
without getting cut.
I drew an X on your city's name
LIGHTS OUT. BLACK OUT. BLOW OUT THE CANDLE AGAIN.
spin the room around
FALL DOWN. PASS OUT. GET UP. I CAN'T KEEP REPEATING.
Between the footsteps I hear crickets in the trees
a silent army marching with me through a swarm of bees
a needle dragged across a record slowing down
along Division St. the lights were dying out
endless rows of houses stretched on for miles and miles and miles...
TURN THE WINDOWS BLACK
Lights out on Division Street
repeating (repeat it)
Lights out on Division Street
repeating, (turn the windows black)
lights out. lights out. lights out.
turn the windows black
la la la la la la
listen to yourself.
04 Signals Over the Air (04:10)
This is what you see
when you look in my direction:
Incandescent corsets draw eyes tight, like wires,
this is how it feels, calling out
but no one even hears
the signals that we send over the air
(over the air, over the air, over the air)
When you say my name,
I want to split it from your lips
And hide like whispers in the rain
When you say my name
I want to stop it in your lungs
And collect all of your blood to put in the radio
Is this how it feels when you don't even fit into your own skin?
And it's getting tighter,
Everyday I'm getting smaller
If I keep holding my breathe I'm going to disappear
When you say my name,
I want to split it from your lips
And hide like whispers in the rain
When you say my name
I want to stop it in your lungs
And collect all of your blood to put in the radio
There's nowhere to hide
They stole the love from our lives
And put the sex on the radio
There's nowhere to hide
They stole the love from our lives
And put the sex on...
If I keep holding my breath all of this will fade away
If you keep driving we'll be lying in the wreck
Changing the shape, folding like an envelope
to keep each other in
Shattered glass, broken looks and
Mascara gets washed away by windshield wiper blades,
When you say my name,
I want to split it from your lips
And hide like whispers in the rain
When you say my name
I want to stop it in your lungs
And collect all of your blood to put in the radio
Theres nowhere to hide
They stole the love from our lives
And put the sex on the radio
Theres nowhere to hide
They stole the love from our lives
And put the sex on the radio
Thats where we hide
The love and lies and sex on the radio
05 Marches and Maneuvers (04:27)
This is a war we live and the sides are drawn.
We're all wrapped up in fatigues and they wear us out.
There is a storm at sea. If we fly a white flag
under a black and blue sky, will the red sun rise?
(The taste of your kerosene lips burn me up)
The glare from your enemy sights make me go blind.
Blinds divide the sunlight into thin strips, the size of a blade,
in this trench that we dig for ourselves, fourscore and fade.
Glare with the enemy heat of the bodies in the bed.
There's no retreat. This is a war we live in.
Now we're up in arms, with our heads pressed against the wall
(And it's wearing thin)
These are the screams we swallow. If we fly a white flag,
under a black and blue sky... this is our war.
Administer the pill before the cell divides
(Keep marching--keep fightinng)
and we'll both go down like toy soldiers. Threats and pickets
lines are forming around our beds and the landmines
in our chests will all go off in time. If we trip each other
into this, do you think we'll find a way out?
We've synthesized a compound to treat this conscience
It's: one part loss, one part no sleep, one part gunshot we heard,
one part the screams mistaken for laughter,
one part everything after, one part love,
one part stepping out of the driving rain,one part parting ways,
in the cold apartment. Don't look back, just keep on
running down the stairs. Do you hear the footsteps?
Can you hear the voices in the traffic, communiques
in the attic? They say, after time, all this will heal,
we will rebuild and these broken arms
will mend themselves in our embrace
06 Asleep in the Chapel (03:46)
Three chalk outlines sleep in the dirty street
And in our beds
Under the sheets
They're the halo of guilt hanging around your neck
Next to the rosary
You count, falling asleep
And we're praying to treat the symptoms of letting go of all our hope
Since we can't compete with martyred saints
We'll douse ourselves in gasoline
And hang our bodies from the lampposts
So that our shadows turn into bright lights
White light
White heat
We'll make as we're blacking out in the center lane
We swerve to the beat
Spill all the ink
No revisions
Do you hear the church bells ringing?
Wake up!
Wake up in an outline
and try to speak with the shattered voice of the lives we lead
Have we slept too long
Between the bullet holes in a stained-glass window state?
When we repent
We fall on the page
Read, in the margins
We are the symptoms of letting go of all our hope
Someday we'll be complete like modern saints
Baptize our kids in gasoline
And hang our doubts up in cathedrals
So that they turn to faith in the colored sunlight
"Red rain, Red Rain"
We'll make as we're blacking out in the center lane
Do you hear the church bells ringing?
They ring for you
We woke up this morning to a street filled with a thousand burning crosses
And what we thought was the sunrise
Just passing headlights
Still the choir girls sing
"Oh lord, can you save us?
Oh lord, sing hallelujah"
They are the symptoms of letting go of all our hope
We're falling asleep with open eyes
Falling asleep inside the chapel
Falling asleep in chalk outlines
Falling asleep as the headlights pass us by..
08 Steps Ascending (04:26)
Steps ascend to a loaded gun
The scent of matches hangs in the air
A lit one flickers out in a heart beat
We don't want to see this:
A flash of light that's letting go of an empty bullet case
By the time it hits the ground he's out of reach
(Let go, let go)
Out reach
(Let go, let go)
Out reach
(Let go, let go)
out reach
(let go, let go)
Out reach
(Let go, let go)
(Out of reach)
The wolves are closing in
There's no room left to make amends
Do you remember when we'd fly that kite so high?
All the time we've wasted
(Wasted)
Spent fighting
(Fighting)
It'll burn in the fire of our regret
All the time we've wasted
(Wasted)
Spent fighting
(Fighting)
It's blood and it's running down the stairs
Freeze the frame
Between the gunshot and the hole it makes
(A spinning bullet hangs in the middle
There's no way to stop it
It will surely hit the mark)
You can try to understand but i'm giving up
Giving up
Giving up
They synapse fires, it's right on time, but i'm giving up
Giving up
(Giving up)
Giving up
Giving up
Giving up
This should always stay out of reach
(Let go, let go)
Out reach
(Let go, let go)
Out reach
(Let go, let go)
out reach
(let go, let go)
Out reach
(Let go let go)
The wolves are closing in
There's no room left to make amends
Do you remember when we'd fly that kite so high?
All the time we've wasted
(Wasted)
Spent fighting
(Fighting)
It'll burn in the fire of our regret
All the time we've wasted
(Wasted)
Spent fighting
(Fighting)
It's blood and it's running down the stairs
I ran down the stairs and into the garden
Put both my hands into the soil
In the spring you will bloom
Like her heart through the blouse in the back of the ambulance
As it turned and turned in the streets
(Out of reach, out of reach)
Just one more turn, won't you come back to me?
(Out of reach, out of reach)
As it turned on its red lights
(Out of reach, out of reach)
You were turning into red roses
Red roses
Red roses
Red roses
But I'm not giving up
09 War All the Time (04:33)
Standing on the edge of the palisades cliffs
In the shadow of the skyline very far away
A lightning rod that couldn't pull the storm from me
I was 5 years old my best friends older brother died
He fell from these cliffs
The river washed him away the current pulled him downstream
In our eyes, floating in the headlights, so we parked these cars
Parent�s garage
Listen to the lullaby
Of Carbon Monoxide
War all of the time
In the shadow of the New York skyline
We grew up too fast falling apart
Like the ashes of American flags
The sun doesn't rise
We replaced it with an h-bomb explosion
A painted jail cell of blood in the sky like Three Mile Island
Nightmares on TV they used to sing us to sleep
They burn on and on like an oil field
Or a memory of what it felt like
To burn on and on and not just fade away
All those nights in the basement the kids are still screaming
On and on and on and on
War all of the time
In the shadow of the New York skyline
We grew up too fast falling apart
Like the ashes of American flags
And we're blowing in the wind
We don't know where to land
So we kiss like little kids
We used to be very tall buildings
We've been falling for so long
Now your eyes follow the sign on the edge of town
They offer a welcome when you are leaving
War all of the time
In the shadow of the New York skyline
We grew up too fast falling apart
Like the ashes of American flags
The pieces fall it's like a last day parade
And the fires in our streets start to rage,
so wave, to the people that long to wave back,
from the fabric of a flag that sang "love all of the time"
War all the time War all the time
All of the time
War all the time
War all the time
All of the time
All of the time
War all of the time
War all of the time
War all of the time
War all of the time
10 M. Shepard (03:36)
The stage is set to rip the wings from a butterfly,
the stage is set,
don't forget to breathe,
between lines if the whole world dies,
then it's safe to take the stage,
these graves will stretch
like landing on strips - hospitals: all the dead museums,
we won't have to be afraid anymore.
The crowd is growing silent with the gathering storm.
When the curtain falls
and you're caught on the other side
(just trying to keep up the act),
we'll lie in the back of black cars,
with the windows rolled up,
joining the precession of emptiness,
if we say these words,
it will be too late to take them back.
So we hold our breathe and fold our hands,
like paper planes (and we're going to crash)
We don't have to be alone ever again.
There's a riot in the theatre.
Someone's standing the aisle,
yelling that the murderers are everywhere and they're lining up,
carving M in your side.
Pull the curtains back.
Kill all the house lights.
Pin the dress lotus flowers.
The silk is spinning around and around,
with the ceiling fan.
I'm disappearing into the spotlight.
I'm on display,
with the butterfly and the scare crow,
with smiles like picket fences, you tie us all up and leave us outside.
That voice is silent now and the boat has sunk...
We're on our own but we're not going to run.
11 Tomorrow I'll Be You (04:06)
In the circuit
The frequency's breaking up
The speakers can barely move
This is not a test
Tune to the broadcast
Witness the jetlag
Look in the mirror
Adjust the V-hold
Shatter the lens
Pull out the shards
Choke on her words
Caught in your throat
How long can the wheels maintain a spin at this velocity?
On every block, a reminder:
You can't stop this intersection
At every turn
Dead forests of tenements rise like antennas
The miles are adding up and the days are counting down
Cut the jet black from my hair
Before we're bathed in the dawn of New Year's Day
I will change back to myself in the glame
We burn like the paper hearts of dead presidents
We're too lost to lose hope
Maybe the night seems so dark because the day is much too bright
For us to see that we are cured
Shatter the lens
Pull out the shards
We are cured
Choke on her words
Caught in your throat
That's the sound of music from another room
The piano player hangs from piano wire
But the player piano carries on
Sit back and tune to the broadcast
This is not a test
Shatter the lens
Pull out the shards
Choke on her words
Caught in your throat
As the language dissolves
And the sentence lifts
A slow alphabet of rain is whispering
"aabcttipacbdefg..."
Since I replaced the "I" in live with an "O"
I can't remember who you are
But tomorrow I'll be you
Just pick up the phone
I'm calling from your house
In your room
In your name
Lying in your bed
Following your dreams
I listen to your voice get caught in my throat
As I sing
"This is just a dream" on New Year's Day
We will change back to ourselves
In the flame we are cured
We are cured
We are cured...
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Di sexyajax
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