Blonde Redhead
Melody Of Certain Damaged Lemons

THE REVIEW

Perhaps I made a huge, colossal mistake/horror: the first Blonde Redhead album I listened to was "Misery Is A Butterfly" from 2004.

That album captivated me like a bear caught in a trap. For once, the title of an album truly emphasized its content: the songs contained were so ethereal and muffled, but never boring or banal, appearing like the movements of a butterfly dancing in the wind, with very rare instances of speeding up the rhythm (above all, "Equus," a devastating indie-rock masterpiece). That album captured me deeply, tore my heart away making it its own, casting a powerful spell over my ears, intent on enjoying an ecstatic and enraptured "Elephant Woman." No doubt about it: that Italo-Japanese group was manna from heaven. I didn't pursue it further, and I still don't understand why. Perhaps because I was so lost among those tracks that I didn't want to listen to their previous works, fearing them too inclined to something different and less magical.

Only a few days ago I decided to muster the courage, attracted by the scarlet red cover of "Melody Of Certain Damaged Lemons" abandoned on a shelf in a record store for 6.90€, as if it were any Tatangelo's disc. I was tempted, like bees are by honey. The title for that little masterpiece dated 2004 was so spot on and impressively faithful. I imagined the sound of tortured and smashed lemons. I couldn't imagine it.
Sour? Rough? = Iron guitars and screeches?

I didn't think twice and picked it up.

The beginning is stunning. We are far removed from the ethereal visions of "Misery Is A Butterfly" and yet it captivates me once again. A brief instrumental is a sort of intro to the splendid six-minute suite "In Particular."

Kazu is a siren who has lost her foothold and is lost in the midst of a storm of devastating waves. The rhythm is almost ambient, but a sharp guitar is an integral part of a truly enviable and enveloping sound structure.

"Lying on my back/I heard music/I felt insecure and catastrophic/I had to tell myself it was just music/It blows in my head/Everyone else is so boring/No one is good enough." Kazu is speaking to me!

I'm wondering if this almost ancestral and feverish melody comes from another world and is truly music or if it's just my senses. Amidst all those repeated "X"s at the end of the text. I'm lost.

Until I rejoin a rough and poignant post-rock of "Melody Of Certain Three." Kazu returns in an almost post-rock piece called "Hated Because Of Great Qualities." Kazu is a witch, with her fairy child voice that is at times whiny and unbearable, but you can't free yourself from it. It scratches your skin inexorably. While the instruments below accompany her to a fountain of senses, concluding with a spurt of hallucinated emotions.

I find myself on a deserted island. I never would have thought the band from "Misery" could have produced another album of chronic hallucination, so far off in terms of sound, yet compelling and poignant.

Gorgeous "Love Despite Of Great Faults," which is a sort of love encounter between rock and the human soul. Completely different "Ballad Of Lemons," which dangerously veers into ambient. Surprising, in its scant two minutes, which plunge into the indie-rock march "This Is Not," percussions, synthesizers intertwine in a dance of macabre intuitions. Kazu's voice is quite delirious, but well at ease with the quirky choice of musical accompaniment.

"A Cure" is a splendid and unexpected duet between the two voices of the group. Man and woman meet, musically court, until complete final absolution. The atmosphere is tense and sharp, like a sheet of paper staining the wrinkled fingertip with blood. More emotions in "For The Damaged," an amazing voice-piano interpretation, offered by the sensational sensuality of a Kazu in a state of grace, on tiptoe.
"Mother" is pure hardcore anger: exactly what I expected from the album's title. Kazu has lost control, she's possessed like a wounded phoenix. Sensual and cursed. A bonus track closes Pandora's box with extreme grace and sensuous erotic ambiguity.

Much more wicked and sour than "Misery," yet still surprising. I mentioned earlier having made a mistake by listening to this album second? Yes, and I'm still convinced... perhaps I would have appreciated the music contained in both albums even more, managing to enjoy the musical and inner evolution of this incredible band.

To be listened to with fervor.