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Rating: Strange days, unsettling days the last ones.
The tragic end of Kobe Bryant overwhelmed me last Sunday. I have loved NBA basketball since the days of Michael Jordan, and Kobe was a most worthy heir of the unparalleled MJ.
Today, I gave up the mountain; I didn't feel like a group hike. I wasn't in the mood for laughter, for fun.
I went out yesterday morning to wander in my valleys, choosing one of the historic routes of Valle Anzasca. Alone and in silence.
My Music came to meet me once again, ready as always to warm me, support me, and comfort me.
The solemn majesty of the places I traveled through, walking "La via del Pane" in the municipality of Calasca Castiglione, brought to mind the English band Anathema, whom I've appreciated for decades and seen many times in concert.
Resonance is a collection covering the band's career from its beginnings up to 1998.
It explores and retraces the most intimate, minimal, decadent side of the Cavanagh brothers.
There are no electric guitars dominating the scene, except for some rare and very delicate touches as in Eternity (part 2); solely and simply songs supported by acoustic guitar phrases, hinted keyboards, and very little else. Delicate female voices accompany Vincent's equally faint and sorrowful singing.
The cover image is a guide to understanding what lies ahead in the placid flow of the songs: solemn twilight notes, like the red sun that sets and fades toward nighttime rest.
They pay rightful honor and merit to Pink Floyd, with emotion becoming purity in the fragile and intangible One of the Few and Goodbye Cruel World.
But that's not all because they manage to go beyond, to do even better with a heartbreaking version of Bad Religion's Better off Dead. Innocent strokes of piano, a distant and barely perceptible violin arrangement, accompany Michelle Richfield's splendid voice.
Solemn chills
Pure and simple emotion... Duncan Patterson, author of many Anathema tracks, was still present in the band.
To listen to and admire
Today I think it's right not to conclude the review with my usual "signature"...
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 Scars of the Old Stream (01:10)
scars of the old stream..
trailing down the hills
where we once lived
02 Everwake (02:39)
Somniferous whisperings of scarlet fields
Sleep calling me and my dreams are wondrous
My reality abandoned (I traverse afar)
Not a care if I never wake
03 J'ai fait une promesse (02:39)
The way that the willow bows over the stream
like a mourner crying for their loved one
reminds me of last fall
when on one knee, I pledged myself to you
04 ...Alone (04:29)
I gave you my soul
You left me dying
(freezing in the cold wind that screams through
the silence, in the barren wastes of my heart)
Within the walls
Of my mind ..... alone
The winter serenade
Fell silent to me
05 Far Away (acoustic) (05:22)
One common, subterranean destination
One life, another day
A vestal child unveiled by temptation
Innocence slips away
Far away
Been down so long
Too deep the water that I tread
Sometimes I feel myself going under
Sometimes I envy the dead
08 Better Off Dead (04:22)
I'm sorry about the sun
How could I know that you would burn?
And I'm sorry about the moon
How could I know that you'd disapproved?
And I'll never make the same mistake
So next time I create the universe
I'll make sure we communicate at length
Oh yeah
But until then... better off dead
A smile on the lips and a hole in the head
Better off dead, it's better than this
Take it away cuz there's nothing to miss
I'm sorry about the world
How could I know you'd take it so bad?
And I'll never make the same mistake
So if you're looking for a patsy
why not try the entire human race
Just to play it safe
Until then... better off dead
A smile on the lips and a hole in the head
Better off dead, better than this
Take it away cuz there's nothing to miss
Better off dead, better off dead
Why don't you try pushing daisies instead
Better off dead, better off dead
A smile on the lips and a hole in the head
And I'll never make the same mistake
The next time I create the universe
I'll make sure you participate
Oh yeah
And I'll never make the same mistake
The next time I create the universe
I'll make sure we communicate at length
Just in case
10 Inner Silence (03:08)
When the silence beckons,
And the day draws to a close,
When the light of your life sighs,
And love dies in your eyes,
Only then will I realise,
What you mean to me
12 Destiny (02:14)
I tried to murder the lonely,
Contemplate our mortality.
Into infinity,
Frozen memory
Wipe the tears from yesterday,
A time for change, take the pain away.
Angel, my destiny,
Can you feel me?
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