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Rating: I love plunging headlong into memories, reliving my adolescence, unearthing from oblivion the emotions of that time.
Sometimes, a photograph would suffice, but nothing better than a song allows you to evoke past moments; nothing better than a song allows you to relive. I lie on the bed with headphones in my ears, and, with my gaze towards the balcony, I spend part of the afternoon painting my memories in the blue of the sky, the perfect scenario to project my emotions. The sky seen from my bed is so beautiful that it would be a shame to close my eyes.
Yet, I had the feeling that a song only made sense at a specific moment; listening to it today, hoping it could evoke new emotions related to my current state of mind, would be like decontextualizing a period of my life. I was wrong. And, with great amazement, I realized that my nostalgic, and in this case involuntary, rediscovery of the past had also satisfied my anxiety for a constant search for the new. I don't know how, but for a couple of days, a sunny tune was resonating in my head; I was a kid, that tune put me in a good mood but, for ten years, I always remembered it as the jingle from a mineral water commercial. Why did it come back to mind? I hummed ''You're Gorgeous'' in the shower, whistled it down the stairs. Intrigued, I decide to learn more about this Baby Bird, whose existence I barely remembered. And I discover that the British singer-songwriter has undertaken a rather singular artistic path.
While most artists, for market needs or merely artistic ones, venture into solo projects at the end or even during their group experience, Baby Bird (alias Stephen Jones) followed exactly the opposite path. After amassing, in years of strictly home recordings, enough material to produce three albums in the same year, in 1996 Jones unveiled, with the support of a real band, what for me was an authentic revelation: ''Ugly Beautiful'', a magnificent example of musical eclecticism that gathers some gems from his old productions (which by then had become collector's items) and new material. I never imagined I would be so struck by an album I decided to listen to only to satisfy my curiosity. I was bewildered, pleasantly confused; I had the awareness of holding a great record in my hands but couldn't find words to adequately describe it.
Despite a prophetic pseudonym, Jones is not exactly a nightingale, but he boasts a vocal depth that allows him to range from almost "crooner-like" singing to that of a shouter like the early Bono, managing to offer convincing interpretations in every track, seamlessly blending all his influences in a decidedly congenial manner, imparting that touch of ''personality'', typical of any charismatic and versatile artist. A case in point is the Smiths-like, bittersweet ''Goodnight'. And if the catchy ''You're Gorgeous'', considered as part of a trilogy including ''Candy Girl'' and ''July' (which revisit the same musical theme, with some variations), is certainly not the most ''romantic'' episode of the album, there are intense and heart-wrenching ballads like ''Dead Bird Sings'', ''Baby Bird', and especially ''Bad Shave'', a twilight folk serenade embellished with a delightful mandolin. ''Cornershop'', the melodic peak of the record, and the very long, delirious ''King Bing'', sustained by an obsessive groove and the vocal histrionics of a demonic Jones, are examples of how two polar opposite songs can get into your head in quick succession and with different effects. This formula seems to please Jones who, in the vaguely trip-hop experiments of ''Jesus Is My Girlfriend'', and the hallucinatory ''Atomic Soda'', revisits an insistent and assailing rhythmic register, reaching perfection in the highly successful ''Too Handsome To Be Homeless''.
The discovery of this pearl forgotten in the depths was serendipitous, and the treasure chest of memories proved to be more precious than ever.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Goodnight (02:53)
I hold you closely you push me away
I want forever you just want today
Give me your fingers wash out your mouth
Bite off my tongue on this bloody couch
But I don't blame you
You're always right
I'm like a bad day
On your good good night
I hear the tick of a bomb
All your hair in a fuse
You ask me for a light
To blow away these blues
Run me a bath, then plug me in
I'm like a T.V. learning to swim
But I don't blame you
You're always right
I'm like a bad day
On your good good night
I hold you closely you push me away
I want forever you just want today
Give me your fingers wash out your mouth
Bite off my tongue on this bloody couch
But I don't blame you
You're always right
I'm like a bad day
On your good good good good night
02 Candy Girl (03:56)
Are you the tornado in my sails
Are you Jesus without the nails
Are you the bury met without the rails
Are you Paris without snails
Of course you're not
But you're all I've got
And that's fine & dandy
When you lick my candy girl
(And I don't mean that rude)
When you lick my
When you lick my candy
Are you Disneyland without whales
Are you a farmer without bales
Are you the red lion without ales
Are you the lakes without the dales
Naturally you're not
But you're all I've got
And that's fine & dandy
When lick my candy girl
(And I don't mean that rude)
When you lick my
When you lick my candy
Are you Ra without Dion
Are you the words in the sky without neon
Are you indigenous or did you disappear
Are you the lime in my bottleneck of beer
Candy candy candy girl...
05 Dead Bird Sings (05:11)
Dead Bird Sings
Take me in your arms again
Wash me in your eyes
Tie me to the house again
Love me till love dies
Love me till love dies
Blame me for everything
Not just for the bad times
Whispering sweet nothings in your ear
Just like a dead bird sings
Look into my face again
Between us there's a mile
I can see a hole in the sky
As wide as your smile
It's not that you've gone away
It's that I've never met you
But I wish that you'd come back to me
Just like the night turns blue
Just like the night turns blue
Take me in your arms again
Balme me for everything
Not just the bad times
Whispering sweet nothings in my ear
Just like a dead bird sings
Love me till love dies
06 Atomic Soda (05:08)
Sha la la la la la la la la la,
Sha la la la la la la la la la,
Sha la la la la la la la la la,
Sha la la la la la la la la la.
You asked me not to speak, then kissed me on the cheek
You said that I was wrong, you said that I was weak
I tried to think a while you said it was too long
and when I tried to smile you sung this pretty song:
Drink this baby, it's atomic soda.
It'll blow your mind back to how it was.
Drink this baby, it's atomic soda.
It'll blow your mind back to how it was.
Standing in the snow, icicles on your nose,
I felt what once was through your frozen clothes.
Standing on the shore, looking at the lake
My arms around you won't stop you shake.
Drink this baby, it's atomic soda.
It'll blow your mind back to how it was.
Drink this baby, it's atomic soda.
It'll blow your mind back to how it was.
In the wintertime when the leaves are gone
I look at you and wonder what's wrong.
You were so strong, I was so weak.
Now I can't even get you to speak.
Drink this baby, it's atomic soda.
It'll blow your mind back to how it was.
Drink this baby, it's atomic soda.
It'll blow your mind back to how it was.
Back to how it was. Back to how it was.
Back to how it was. Back to how it was.
Back to how it was. Back to how it was.
Back to how it was. Back to, back to, back to how it was.
Back to how it was. Back to how it, back to how it, back to how it was.
Back to how it, back to how it, back to how it was.
Back to how it, back to how it, back to how it was.
Back to how it, back to how it, back to how it was.
Back to how it, back to how it, back to how it, back to how it was, was, was, was.
Sha la la la la la la la la la,
Sha la la la la la la la la la,
Sha la la la la la la la la la,
Sha la la la la la la la la la.
07 You're Gorgeous (03:42)
remember that tank-top you bought me?
You wrote "you're gorgeous" on it
You took me to your rented motor car
And filmed me on the bonnet
You got me to hitch my knees up
And pulled my legs apart
You took an Instamatik camera
And pulled my sleeves around my heart
Because you're gorgeous
I'd do anything for you
Because you're gorgeous
I know you'll get me through
You said my clothes were sexy
You tore away my shirt
You rubbed an ice cube on my chest
Snapped me till it hurt
Because you're gorgeous
I'd do anything for you
Because you're gorgeous
I know you'll get me through
You said I wasn't cheap
You paid me twenty pounds
You promised to put me in a magazine
On every table in every lounge
Because you're gorgeous
I'd do anything for you
Because you're gorgeous
I know you'll get me through
09 Cornershop (03:48)
[Stephen Jones]
What is this beautiful thing we've found
It's so shiny, bright & round
So I went into town
And bought a little patch of ground
And I put a shop on top
And bought myself some stock
Oh, my little cornershop
Oh I'm so happy I could scream
In my little store on the green
Where everything is fine
Where everything is fine
So fine, so fine ...
I found some corrugated steel
And banged it to the window with my heel
And now nobody's going to get in
After half past ten in the evening
In the evening...
Oh my 2nd little
Oh my 3rd little
Oh my 4th little...cornershop
Oh my 5th little
Oh my 6th little
Oh my 7th little..cornershop
Oh I'm so happy I could scream
In my 8th little store on the green
Where everything is fine
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