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Rating: It was Andy Warhol who encouraged. To recommend. Come on, come on, they're good.
A bit of arrogance (“Keep Your Distance”, the title of the first work), a decent approach to the instruments, a not too syrupy pop tinged with funk, the alluring voice of the charismatic leader, Ben Volpeliere-Pierrot. Life, death, and miracles of the CKTC.
Two successful singles, the pleasant and spring-like “Misfit”, the pragmatic and sober “Down To Earth”; a third moderately received, the rocking “Ordinary Day” and the last, the most beautiful, “Free”, ended up forgotten.
The mixing, arriving at our days, bothers the listener. Too bare, dry, little revised. The trademark of the producer, the multi-awarded Stewart Levine, makes the ensemble plausible.
The album went straight to number one. It was a swan song anticipated. The subsequent “Getahead” (1989) left no trace except for the launch single “Name And Number”.
Special mention for the third album, so far from the spotlight and the interest of major labels that it was only released in Japan. The writer set out to review this very last one, but already, good heavens, you're caught off guard, Curiosity that?, it was just missing that I served you “Back To Front” (1994), small great dispersed pearl. So it is.
“Keep Your Distance” is the definitive imprinting of CKTC. The best episodes are “Free”, a hybrid that accelerates and decelerates gracefully, “Know What You Know” also for the exquisite work of the backing vocalists, and “Red Light”, the ultimate love song, potential single, whose outro could never finish/tire.
Why did CKTC die so soon? Surely, in the hectic 80s, two years between debut and following albums were decidedly too many. The second album, it has been said, did not rise to the occasion. Well played, but with too many eddies and rivulets, without personality. It was then that the record label, Mercury, terminated the contract. Move aside, we have a need to fill the top ten, that sort of thing.
Ben, the frontman, a pleasant person even on social media, open to dialogue, ironic and proactive, made a living in the years that followed, often making appearances in the beautiful country. Always present in the 2 Men 4 Souls project with Danny Losito of the Double Dee, occasional vocalist for the Datura, great support of Daniele Stefani in “People And Places”.
Always with dignity, always with the inevitable cat fur cap...oops.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Misfit (04:05)
Sensitive child
keep running wild in a confined space
You're not to blame 'cause you're not the same
get on the case.
Crazy sheep
you are the odd one out
Crazy sheep
let them know what you're all about.
Misfit
freak that's on the street
Well
I can see the sorrow in your eyes.
How long
how low
how high can you go
There'll be a bind for every kind
you'll see.
Sensitive child
your threat is so mild
it worries me.
Build yourself some protection to avoid the injection
Then you can be happy.
Crazy sheep
you are the odd one out
Crazy sheep
let them know what you're all about.
Misfit
freak that's on the street
Now I can see the sorrow in your eyes. . . .
Set your mode to emotion
your secret potion
Designed to satisfy your soul
And underneath your broken dreams
you need to satisfy your soul.
Misfit
freak that's on the street
Now I can see the sorrow in your eyes. . . .
Too fat
too thin
you lose or you win
This may come as some surprise.
Too tall
too short
too loose or too taut
There'll be a bind for every kind.
Misfit
freak that's on the street
Now I can see the sorrow in your eyes. . . .
Too fat
too thin
you lose or you win
. . .
You're got to satisfy your soul
And underneath your broken dreams
you need to satisfy your soul.
02 Down to Earth (04:20)
Shooting stars in midnight pastures
And hanging out on clouds beneath the moon.
Hitching rides on magic carpets
It's a fairy tale to me but you're in tune.
You're shattered by the final frame
Of the movie scene that generates your evely aim.
You ain't no bird and so for whot it s worth
Gonna bring you straight back down down.
Straight back down - come down
Come back down down - come down
Straight back down y'all straight back down to earth.
In times when you're in need of assistance
You're looking for a lead and in the distance
You hear them calling come back down again
But you don't know how
you don't know where
And don't know when.
You're shattered by the final frame . . .
Of the movie scene that generates your evely aim.
You ain't no bird and so for whot it s worth
Gonna bring you straight back down down.
Straight back down - come down
Come back down down - come down
Straight back down y'all straight back down to earth.
Don't wanna wanna be misled - come down
Don't wanna fall on a razor's edge and
You feel at ease you're begging please
Don't take me down for nothing.
Don't wanna wanna be misled - come down
. . .
You're shattered by the vital pain
That is needed now to tell you not to go insane.
You're tempted by I say the cooling breeze
That will bring you down
oh come back please!
Straight back down - come down
. . .
Don't wanna wanna be misled - come down
. . .
Don't wanna wanna be misled - come down
. . .
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