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Rating: There was a voice, named Jasper Steverlinck, that captivated everyone who listened to it, straddling the current decade and the last. Sharp and seductive, capable of high notes and falsettos, androgynous yet warm, it was the symbiosis between the ambitions of a young Freddie Mercury and the melodramatic expressiveness of a cool jazz vocalist.
After his band, Arid, debuted in 1999 with the marvelous "At The Close Of Every Day," titled for other markets as "Little Things Of Venom," "All Is Quiet Now" was born in 2002. The title alone explains that, unlike the debut, this is a more straightforward album, less packed and less pretentious; inferior, if you will, but better focused on melodies.
It's astonishing how they managed to reproduce the tones of old-style jazz and marry them with the "explosiveness" of rock; to blend "cool" intimacy with the genetic flamboyance of guitars: old jazz is whispered, rock is shouted... Above all, the unmissable "You Are".
Counterpointed by a few wholly rock tracks, "spring-like" such as the splendid "The Everlasting Change" or powerful and epic ones that try - in vain - to challenge Steverlinck's voice, yet, on the contrary, end up being the perfect testing ground for Jasper, who is free to express the power of his voice. And the higher he goes, the better he seems to deliver: it's no wonder Arid is known in Italy for the powerful choruses of "Me And My Melody," from the previous album, where Steverlinck reaches sky-high.
A voice always in the foreground against music undoubtedly akin to the pop-rock of the time and to the most famous bands from their home country, Belgium, but more melodic, arguably more beguiling, because it's more romantic. A voice that perhaps sometimes indulges in baroque embellishments for their own sake, but most often is a silver dust that settles on Arid's tracks and makes them shine. And splendid. A voice that is theatrical, that introduces you to the ideal atmosphere, that conveys the necessary mood. That knows how to soothe you, reconcile you... Oil that helps the ugliness slide off you and brings you into a secret garden of emotions.
Everything is quiet, now.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
03 Silent Reproach (04:11)
You riddle, you say
You throw yourself
On to me
It's kind of hard to lay it down
Just one two three
And I know
Just why you take it slow
You've got those things
Living down, down below Of the heart
You make it harder
Every time it comes around
We tell each other
It's not fair the way you take me there
And then you go and waive it off
Pretend you just don't care
But if you love me
With all of your heart
There's no need to worry
Why do you have to make it so hard?
And if you can't stay
Baby it's allright I
I'll be your blowtorch
Burning your way throughout
The night
You riddle, you say
You throw yourself
On to me
It's kind of hard to lay it down
Just one two three
And I know
Just why you take it slow
You've got those things
Living down, down below
With every tremor
Of the heart
You make it harder
Every time it comes around
We tell each other
It's not fair the way you take me there
And then you go and waive it off
Pretend you just don't care
But if you love me
With all of your heart
There's no need to worry
Why do you have to make it so hard?
And if you can't stay
Baby it's allright I
I'll be your blowtorch
Burning your way throughout
The night
Bridge
But if you love me
With all of your heart, yeah
There's no need to worry
Why do you have to make it so hard?
And if you can't stay
Baby it's allright I
I'll be your blowtorch
Guiding your way throughout
The night
But if you love me
With all of your heart
I'll make you proud of me
I'll guide your way throughout the
dark
And if you can't stay
Baby it's allright I
I'll be your blowtorch
Guiding your way throughout
The night
05 Everlasting Change (03:02)
It's a beautiful day to rest your soul
If you cannot girl
It will not let you go I
Have to strain every word just the same
It's a beautiful day
If you think so cause I still
Have no place left to go I am
Hanging in
Caught up in its swirling winds
And I hope you change your mind again
You wade right through me
Love undo me from
This everlasting change
Is swarming in my brain
It's taking over, it's drawing closer
It's a beautiful day to rest your soul
If you cannot girl
It will not let you go I
I am alright roaming into the
Wondrous night
It's a beautiful day if you think so
Cause I still have no place left to go
I am falling from
Everything that you're hanging
On to
I hope you change your mind again
You wade right through me
Love undo me from
This everlasting change
Left swarming in my brain
It's taking over, It's drawing closer girl
This change has come to change
Set our to rearrange
It's taking over, it's drawing closer
I am just going through the motions
Baby
You know I am just pretending to be
And that's all I have to do to make her wild
Got her come running right back at
Me oh girl
This everlasting change
Is swarming in my brain
It's taking over, it's drawing closer
Girl
Is it everything you want?
Is it everything you haunt?
Or are you feeling lonely?
Is it all you're hoping for?
06 Wintertime (03:54)
All of my life
I've always felt
All of my life
As if I was blessed
I don't really want to hold you now
Wasn't love supposed to show me how?
Oh it's getting kind of lonely now
In the wintertime
In the wintertime
All of my life
I've been foretold
All of my life
This secret I hold
I don't really want to hold you now
Wasn't love supposed to show me how?
Oh it's getting kind of lonely now
In the wintertime
In the wintertime
In the wintertime,ohoh!
Baby I know
It's all make-believe
And they're all just trying to make
You see
Baby you'll fall into my arms
And I will be holding you for charm
You will be loved, sent from above
I don't really know if we're going
To make it, love
And I've got to be
All that you'll be love, oohohohoh
In the wintertime
Won't you be the one?
Trying to hold on when love is gone
10 Million Lights (03:37)
Night has fallen
Curtains are drawn
And I've been singing
The same old song
About
How it feels
To be lost and alone
In a faraway place
My love
I see al million lights
And they all blend
Into the night
Visions slip into view
They all remind me of you
And what it is you might be doing
At the other end of the night
Every country I go
I travel the plane and open road
As the sky unravels, the truth unfolds
I've been looking in the eyes of love
I see a million lights
And they all blend
Into the night
Visions slip into view
They all remind me of you
And what it is you might be doing
At the other end of the night
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