'90's never ends.
Questo è stato il motto dei Manic street preachers (o per gli amici, Manics) per costruire questa piacevole sorpresa del 2007. O almeno, per me è stata un gran sorpresa, dopo la delusione che ebbi nell'ascoltare quel "Lifeblood" (2004), eccessivamente danzereccio e pop per il vocione di Bradfield e per le mie povere orecchie.
Però, cari lettori, parliamoci chiaro, non sono mai stato un fan dei Manics, certo sono un loro amico (da come li chiamo l'avrete capito sicuramente!). Ho adorato "Everything Must Go"(1996), sono stato interessato dal bellissimo "The Holy Bible" (1994) ed anche i precedenti album come "Gold Against The Soul" (1993) e "Generation Terrorists" (1992) mi hanno preso anche se non eccessivamente. Insomma credo che questi gallesi siano "roba buona" ma non credo siano stati in grado di scrivere dei capolavori musicali assoluti. Lo stesso penso di questo magnifico "Send Away The Tigers" la sorpresa del 2007, che a mio modo di vedere si colloca benissimo fra l'immenso "Everything must go" e lo straordinariamente graffiante "The Holy Bible".
Poche volte si assiste a cambiamenti radicali di band che infestano le proprie sonorità : arricchendole, cambiandole, sporcandole, impreziosendole. Ma qui i Manics cancellano "Lifeblood" e "Know your Enemy" dalla loro discografia e si divertono a riscoprire ciò che avevano fatto prima.
James Dean Bradfield & Co. in questo "Send Away The Tigers" inseriscono elementi che ricordano i tempi del "vuoto di andare in moto" o della "sacra bibbia" che tanto li hanno resi celebri ("Imperial Bodybags" e il singoletto "Underdogs") oppure riprendono le sonorità Brit-Rock/Pop del doposcomparsa del povero-mai ritrovato Richey James ("Indian Summer" e "Autumnsong", che con "Winterlovers" fanno la trilogia delle stagioni, ironici i manics, battutaccia la mia, lo ammetto). (Ri)Pescare con un amo ben appuntito un pò quel glam che fu dei Queen più di due decenni fà ("Send Away the tigers").
Un album che da molta energia e che non disdegna però passi falsi ("Winterlovers"). C'è anche un duetto con Nina dei Cardigans . Dove anche Nicky Wire prova a fare I coretti ma con scarsi risultati, anzi dirò di più, risultando un pò fuori luogo data la voce potente del bravo Bradfield e la cristallina prova vocale della Cardigan(s). Nonostante ciò "Your love is not enough" risulta una grande canzone pop che ricorda un pò l'atmosfera di "This is my truth, Tell me yours" (1998) con quella musica in bilico fra la ruvidezza rock e la dolcezza pop al miele.
In alcune canzoni risulta invidiabile l'arrangiamento d'archi, quasi all'altezza dei migliori Oasis che, ditegli ciò che volete, ma indovinavano di brutto le melodie per fiati e violini.
Insomma siamo davanti ad un bell'album che mette energia e nonostante sia molto orecchiabile non vedremo mai i Gallesi buttare il loro talento in mano alla commercialità, come molte ottime band hanno - ultimamente - fatto ("Coldplay" e "Muse" su tutti) anche perchè forse Bradfield è palesemente brutto (atipico per una rockstar no?), ma chi sono io per giudicare ? E poi ha una fottuta gran voce (che spesso ce la faccio a canticchiare le canzoncine dei Manics).
La chicca finale - di cui voglio subito informarvi - è che dopo la traccia finale, c'è la oramai consueta ghost track. Oramai nel mondo indie-rock se non fai almeno una ghost track per album e fai un album che è più di 40 minuti sei considerato l'ultimo dei deficienti. Trattasi, comunque, della cover di "Working Class Hero" del defunto Lennon, che a me non è mai piaciuto a dirla tutta, la canzone non l'avevo mai sentita nominare nè ascoltata, ma oh! sarà brutta forse quella di Lennon ma, come la suonano i Manics a me piace!
Detto questo mi congedo ed esprimo il mio preciso voto di questo album (le 4 stelline sono puramente indicative): 7.1
Buon Ascolto e grazie per aver letto fin quì. Alla prossima.
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
02 Underdogs (02:49)
This one's for the freaks
For you're so beautiful
For all the devotion
Written in your soul
This one's for the freaks
For the lost and weak
For the butterflies and devotees
And the disciples of our destiny
And like the underdogs we are
Shining bright but now disappeared
And like the underdogs we are
Passing like some fading stars
Like some fading stars
This one's for the freaks
Beaten down and crushed
The shy and withdrawn
Or just out of touch
May you stay like freaks
May you make mistakes
May ya will never break
For underdogs revenge is sweet, revenge is sweet
And like the underdogs we are
Shining bright but now disappeared
And like the underdogs we are
Passing like some fading stars
Like some fading stars
This one's for the freaks
This one's for the freaks
People like you need to fuck
Need to fuck people like me
This one's for the freaks for the lost and weak
This one's for the freaks
03 Your Love Alone Is Not Enough (03:55)
Your love alone is not enough not enough not enough
When times get tough they get tough they get tough they get tough
Trade all your heroes in for ghosts in for ghosts in for ghosts
They're always the one's that love you most love you most love you most
Your love alone is not enough not enough not enough
It's what you felt it's what you said what you said what you said
You said the sky would fall on you fall on you fall on you
Through all the pain your eyes stayed Blue they stayed Blue Baby Blue
But your love alone won't save the world
You knew the secret of the universe
Despite it all you made it worse
It left you lonely it left you cursed
You stole the sun straight from my heart from my heart from heart
With no excuses just fell apart fell apart fell apart
No you won't make a mess of me mess of me mess of me
For you're as blind as a man can be man can be man can be
I could have seen for miles and miles
I could have made you feel alive
I could have placed us in exile
I could have written all your lines
I could have shown you how too cry
Your love alone
Is not enough
Your love alone
Is not enough
I could have shown you
Shown you how to cry
Your love alone
Is not enough
Your love alone
04 Indian Summer (03:54)
If God persists, persists in saying yes
I guess we'll have, we'll have to test ourselves
Maybe the Summer, will come and clear our minds
And find the impulse, to love the sunshine
I guess we'll have to test, until there's nothing left
We said the truth was fixed, it's lost without a trace
This crime is eternity
When time lost its certainty
The Indian Summer
Maybe this time
We'll kiss and we'll not shake hands
Indian Summer, still hurt and broken
And leave all this material belief
Remember the reasons
The reasons that made us be
I guess we'll have to test, what's darker than ourselves
We said the truth was fixed, it's lost without a trace
This crime is eternity
When time lost its certainty
The Indian Summer
I guess we'll have to test, until there's nothing left
We said the truth was fixed, it's lost without a trace
This crime is eternity
When time lost its certainty
The Indian Summer
The Indian Summer [x3]
06 Rendition (02:59)
Rendition, rendition, blame it on the coalition
All the emeralds that are missing, oh I wish we still had Jack Lemmon
Rendition, rendition I never knew the sky was a prison
It's a long hard revolution, oh good god I feel like a liberal
For tomorrow I will beg, steal and borrow
And at the moment I'm jumping at sorrow
I wish I knew what I did wrong
Can anybody hear the screaming of us? The screaming of us
In the long hard revolution
Rendition, rendition, blame it on the coalition
The CIA will stay invisible, oh good god I sound like a liberal
Rendition, rendition, I never knew the sky was a prison
It's a long hard revolution, oh good god I feel like a liberal
For tomorrow I will beg, steal and borrow
And at the moment I'm jumping at sorrow
I wish I knew what I did wrong
Can anybody hear the screaming of us? The screaming of us
In the long revolution
For tomorrow I will beg, steal and borrow
And at the moment I'm jumping at sorrow
I wish I knew what I did wrong
Can anybody hear the screaming of us? The screaming of us
In the long revolution
08 I'm Just a Patsy (03:11)
I am just a patsy
The Oswald in Lee Harvey
Made of my own misery
The footprints of history
I am just a patsy
I sell vague conspiracy
I'm slow and I'm easy
And I'm waiting for delivery
I'm just a patsy for your love
I need an angel from above
To a life depraved and lost
Inevitable like scars and dust
I'm just a patsy for your love
Even with the most control
Tied to fragments born and grown
All fucked up with nowhere to go
The best thing I ever saw
I am just a patsy
I sell vague conspiracy
I'm slow and I'm easy
And I'm waiting for delivery
I'm just a patsy for your love
I need an angel from above
To a life depraved and lost
Inevitable like scars and dust
I'm just a patsy for your love, love, love
A patsy for your love, love, love
I am just a patsy
I'm just a patsy for your love
I need an angel from above
To a life depraved and lost
Inevitable like scars and dust
I'm just a patsy for your love
09 Imperial Bodybags (03:30)
Imperial bodybags, coming home in dribs and drabs
Life is numbers, with doggy tags
Filled with holes and coming back
So come on up the sky?
Can't make out this line very well
Never had a chance to wave goodbye
Thrown away and unhappy
Driven by hypocracy
Nothing's finished it just fades away
Like a lover who has lost her faith
Nothing's finished it just fades away
Fades away
Imperial bodybags, Prom Queen disposible
Children wrapped in home-made flags
Imperial bodybags, Prom Queen disposible
Children wrapped in home-made flags
And here we love the kids
We're still human like everyone else
I have no idea what this line is at all
Stuck in school
Always willing to stick by the rules
Nothing's finished it just fades away
Like a lover who has lost her faith
Nothing's finished it just fades away
Fades away
Fades away
Imperial bodybags, Prom Queen disposible
Children wrapped in homemade flags
Imperial bodybags, Prom Queen disposible
Children wrapped in homemade flags
Imperial bodybags, Prom Queen disposible
Children wrapped in homemade flags
Imperial bodybags, Prom Queen disposible
Children wrapped in homemade flags
Carico i commenti... con calma
Altre recensioni
Di Alex1965
"Il cantato straordinario di Bradfield ti sfonda letteralmente il cuore."
"Altro che i Darkness!!!"
Di GrantNicholas
Stavolta hanno rischiato di farlo davvero. Il capolavoro, intendo.
L'anima rock dei Preachers viene fuori in tutta la sua prepotenza e spontaneità.
