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Rating:
More or less well translated, the title of this album sounds something like: "the frames can be taken for good." Or for the more refined, "between being and seeming, the boundary is very thin (assuming it's always necessary)"
Surprisingly discovered even in Italy thanks to the (laudable) interest of Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth, who released their splendid debut "La Mia Vita Violenta" on the Smells Like Records SLR label, Blonde Redhead is, in fact, a group that is two-thirds Italian: the musicians (two brothers) develop refined and experimental "sonic" textures at the center of which is the Japanese vocalist and guitar-leader Kazu Makino.
After such a debut, enthusiastically received by critics, the group, naturalized in that New York post Velvet Underground and Andy Warhol and now the homeland of Sonic Youth (but the cultural profile is quite well preserved) which has experimented since its inception with the encounter between "Rock" (or music that connects to the idea of Pop) and Art (cultured), (Pop Music vs Pop Art), with this second work, they land at Touch & Go in Chicago, the label of Fugazi (historical leaders of noise-rock) and Shellac, to which another splendid Italian group had arrived shortly before: the Catanese Uzeda. Thus, it is sometimes the groups and producers from overseas who discover the jewels of "our home," and then the colleagues from across the Channel fall in love with them to the point of wanting them on tour: Stereolab, indeed prominent exponents of British indie-rock (also very close to Velvet Underground) adored in turn by Paul Hartnoll of Orbital ("other faces, other voices" but the same very high level) heard through their leader Martin Kean... let it be known that Blond Redhead are "like Sonic Youth, but perhaps a bit better, with something more that is not easily defined..."
Momentarily under the same spotlight as Page Hamilton and Ian McKaye in the States, regular guests of Arezzo Wave, and other fundamental (but unfortunately "elite") events in Italy, the authors of these authentic fictions or (authentic fictions) on this album approach perhaps a more electric and compact form of their compositions (the languages used are English, sometimes French and German) always with a melodic intuition that emerges from a form now structured in more sophisticated architectures now more "fractured," to use another slang.
More percussive, denser at the guitar level (it seems that the proximity to the bands mentioned with the addition of the top-class Jesus Lizard, also signed to Touch & Go) has resulted in a further enrichment from a compositional point of view. In episodes such as "Kazuality," "Symphony Of Treble" or "Pier Paolo" (the same dedication to the great Director and Writer of the debut album) this perhaps appears more evident. Perhaps it doesn’t have the same lyrical pathos as the debut album, perhaps a more "ad hoc" production that nevertheless allows less freedom to creative expression has ended up acting as a limiting factor, perhaps (simply) it is a less inspired work than the previous one.
Mastery on the guitars and rhythmic and hypnotic bass lines like certain post-wave, and the drumming that sometimes seems really one of the most fascinating aspects, as well as the very particular, thin, almost fragile yet at the same time strongly expressive voice of the singer, characterize what, if not "the best album" (also because it's only the second one), is certainly at least a confirmation of the real and tangible talent of its Authors. Who have recently stated to "live the experience of music close in form to Sonic Youth but with the soul of Lucio Battisti..." Perhaps what the frontman of Stereolab couldn't grasp is precisely this... we (hope) it's just like this.
Lucio Battisti meets Thurston Moore? Possibly Maybe...
Mind the Gap, please.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Kazuality (04:25)
I want you too shy
one time one two slow
kid and kiss one line
get ahead get inside
i was wrong yes or no
king of skills rubber man
kazuality
i want you to shout
one shout one down slow
dance to the host with ambition
learn to learn open wide
when we meet when we please
get attacked get inside
kazuality
one down one crown
no shame like a fire
timeless fire
that burns
me to you, you to me
old love new idea
02 Symphony of Treble (04:10)
close your spine till you're a ball
tihs is a good way to break off from the party
pretend you're lost pretend you're dog
i know you can chew a shoe like a piece of steak
now you can hide
now you can seek
like a pleasure treasure hunter killers
...why go home?
stretch your face until it makes sense
wrap your heart with all the nerves and veins
...am I not my body?
I seem to remember numbers figures details of this life
now you can count
now you can act
like an enemy sister social worker
...are we damned?
05 Bipolar (05:02)
Say wrong
I won't say anything...anyway
Fake can... fake can be just as good
Place you've never been
Patience on the way
Place you've never been
No way...anyway
Why then
You renew in so many ways
How far
Fake can be no flaw on the way
I know
I'm just a flaw...anyway
so I
**** some space...and come back
I know good walk away
I need to shut away
What I throw away
I want your way
I know I get away anyway
I know it's hard to get ahead, boy
Say wrong
I won't say anything...anyway
Fake can... fake can be just as good
Place you've never been
Patience on the way
Place you've never been
No way...anyway
I know a man is somewhere..,where?
Here I am, just shot it again
I know you'd walk away
I need to shout away
What I throw away
I want your way
06 Pier Paolo (05:38)
I turn to you
young man poet insane
for you I find myself alone too soon
today you are in my way
18 a promising age
the sweetest act of life repeated till I bled
CHORUS:
a place in the world
an expression
no salt no fear
caoutiously with you
on detention
i submit and you smile
unknown and uninvited
as for me my life today
young man insane you are i pray
i pray to you..i pray
i am here alone with you
and one plus one the sun
CHORUS
07 Oh James (03:32)
K: "What? Do you want me?
What are you waiting?
Love was ill and
no...no...no!!"
"Say...what your name is and
say...what's the magic?
Kill your sad expressions
Nobody should touch
what's in your heart!!"
A: "What I'm trying to sell
isn't all the same.
And what is every side? Sensual?
and would be in distance
It's just a genuine need
for an average man
you and I nothing more
than love what I love"
There's someone watching you
K: "Love all your sad expenses
just a little more
will you ever live it?
will you ever know?"
What? Do you want me?
What are you waiting?
Love was ill and
no...no...no!!"
A: "What I'm trying to sell
isn't all the same.
And what is every side? Sensual?
and would be in distance
It's just a genuine need
for an average man
you and I nothing more
than love what I love"
There's someone watching you
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Other reviews
By ZiOn
"Fake Can Be Just As Good" is an excellent album, a summary of early Blonde Redhead and their noise-rock.
The wonderful and super-fast instrumental conclusion of "Futurism Vs. Passéism," truly recalls the best Sonic Youth of "Cross The Breeze."
