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Rating: Tucson, Arizona.
This is where the music of the duo Joey Burns/John Convertino, otherwise known as Calexico, is born.
This logistical detail is essential to understand the music they express. Desert stretching for kilometers around them, Mexico is right there, a few steps over the border. And then that sun that cracks the stones, that burns everything. That sun that still shines and illuminates everything. And our duo (bass and percussion) knows those places well, so well that their music mirrors them, it is the desert in notes, scores of sunlit lands, frontier melodies. Calexico (could it be a mix between California and Mexico?) is capable of showing us the bright yet solitary life in that town lost in those sun-scorched lands. Here it is, you'll say, I've started rambling again about how music can transport us far away, how instruments take on new roles, and the poetry, and the melody...
OK, OK, I could tell you about the splendid initial overture, the instrumental "Gypsy's Curse," a concert for guitar, accordion, violin, and cello, or the rhythm of "fake fur" marked by Caribbean percussion, the wonderful "Over your shoulder," a magnificent instrumental ballad. Or I could tell you about the long service of the two Calexico in Giant Sand, or their collaborations with Friends Of Dean Martinez or with Lisa Germano...
But to what end? What use are technical details when their music speaks to us? When a "Frontera" projects us to a Mexican party, or "Minas de cobre" to a small concert in the middle of the desert, and still "Missing" in front of a campfire set on a starry night?
No, I leave technical reviews for other albums. Calexico is Arizona, is the frontier desert, the loneliness and brightness of those empty spaces. Nothing more.
It's up to you to judge my words, and I'm sure, Calexico will convince you...
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
03 The Ride, Part II (03:09)
Beneath the neon hub of downtown
The local hotel ghosts blow back around
Descend on those drugstore cowboy nights
Cling to the bar, then disappear from sight
Back to the daily regime
Where the late night graveyard shift dampens your dreams
Bitten by the desire and the spell
That leaves you stranded out
On the other side of town
12 Trigger (02:34)
Walking south along the river
never had he found that twist of pleasure
remembering times when they were younger
setting the town on fire
and watching as his fellow friends
fell apart in the wake
claiming it was all just a mistake
when his finger pulled the trigger
and he shot everyone
it was all just a mistake
when he shot everyone
nothing will stand in the way
when hunger hasn't eaten for days
scrounges around where ends meet
and disappears into the fray
he hopes for awhile he'll reconcile
the pain that never dies
the ghosts of his family constantly
gnawing at his insides
he pulls out a worn photo
and an old handmade gun
wishes it was he who was frying
when he set the whole town on fire
he walks off crying
he shot everyone
14 Stray (02:54)
It rained the whole day he spent at his lover's grave
Said his goodbyes to her family and friends
Packed his things in a rusted car
And rode off in the rain
Came upon a church in ruin
With an old man dwelling within
Who said, "watch where you stray my friend.."
Old man spoke of meanings lost and without name
Never shifting from their worn and weathered place
What was found in the endless search
For truth behind the tale
Beneath the ash and ember lies only one story to tell
"Watch where you stray my friend.."
There's a flower that grows in a cave
So lovely to see but need to be saved
Its' beautiful blossom will wither and die
If ever this flower leave the darkness for daylight.
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Other reviews
By UcCaBaRuCcA
Music is not a means, but an end in itself.
The night in this place creates bonds. The darkness hides differences, colors.
By Angeldust82
Not coincidentally, I referred to soundtracks a little while ago; in fact, the "Morricone-inspired" "Gypsy’s Curse" introduces us to this lysergic fiesta.
Whether used as "musical wallpaper" or given a close listen, this "The Black Light" will not disappoint anyone.
