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In 1995, Alice In Chains were winning awards, handed out by the usual music magazines, as the best "classic rock" band... It meant that the formulas, tastes, and perspectives of grunge had already been assimilated in record time. And a year after Kobain’s death, that was already "classical music."
This, however, is (just) a band from those days whose music draws from the eternal pop and rock, starting with a certain preference for semi-acoustic sound, as it was and still is for many other bands. There are also tracks that, in taste and style, seem to come from the Screaming Trees' repertoire, or from certain non-commercial grunge bands. The opening "Gammer Gerten's Needle," entirely instrumental, speaks (sounds) for itself. Or the concluding "Wouldn't Change A Thing": they are not catchy tracks, but they are nonetheless grunge. So take Mark Lanegan and his companions from those times, put their sound through a thousand filters and strainers, and there you have the pop sound of a good piece of this record.
Grunge too are the purring riffs of the guitar in the choruses of their hit "Breakfast At Tiffany's," a well-mannered semi-acoustic tune. Here it is: the songs from "Home" and by Deep Blue Something are well-behaved, courteous, delicate, the choruses are light, even if there’s a somewhat noisy rhythm underneath, and the threads of the verses are very gentle, if not almost banal. But...
The verses of "Halo," with a chorus perfect for breakfasts in any venue, have interesting and dense arrangements. And then that sound of electric guitars seems to emerge from a rock even more classic than grunge, it seems to belong to the dark style of The Cure. In the following track "Josey," the matter becomes more evident: the guitar solos are flat and continuously echoing, and in the specials the vocalist even has the courage to sob the words like Robert Smith!
We are still in the eighties with "A Water Prayer," which sounds like a piece from early Duran Duran, naturally rearranged in an acoustic key; "Song To Make Love To" seems like Echo & The Bunnymen at high speed (and still unplugged); "Red Light" is so acoustic new wave that it sounds like a ballad by New Order from "Get Ready." The kaleidoscopic lullaby "Home," on the other hand, put in the hands of other people, with quite different ambitions one might say, would have been worthy of ending up in "The Unforgettable Fire," or, quite the opposite, in "Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness." And there is even room for a further leap back, that into post-punk, in "Done"...
A band with exceedingly unique arrangements, perhaps due precisely to an excessive desire for palatability in all circumstances and for all audiences. In the end, perhaps because more than a decade has passed, this lean grunge, this acoustic wave, these eighties played by a band from the nineties, these nineties played neither plugged nor unplugged, this music for kids seems pleasant. Provided you don't have what grunge and dark had: pretensions.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Breakfast at Tiffany's (04:17)
You'll say, we've got nothing in common
No common ground to start from
And we're falling apart
You'll say, the world has come between us
Our lives have come between us
Still I know you just don't care
And I said what about Breakfast at Tiffany's?
She said I think I remember the film
And as I recall I think, we both kind of liked it
And I said well that's, the one thing we've got
I see you, the only one who knew me
And now your eyes see through me
I guess I was wrong
So what now?
It's plain to see we're over
And I hate when things are over
When so much is left undone
And I said what about Breakfast at Tiffany's?
She said I think I remember the film
And as I recall I think, we both kind of liked it
And I said well that's, the one thing we've got
You'll say, that we've got nothing in common
No common ground to start from
And we're falling apart
You'll say the world has come between us
Our lives have come between us
Still I know you just don't care
And I said what about Breakfast at Tiffany's?
She said I think I remember the film
And as I recall I think, we both kind of liked it
And I said well that's, the one thing we've got
And I said what about Breakfast at Tiffany's?
She said I think I remember the film
And as I recall I think, we both kind of liked it
And I said well that's, the one thing we've got
And I said what about Breakfast at Tiffany's?
She said I think I remember the film
And as I recall I think, we both kind of liked it
And I said well that's, the one thing we've got
03 Halo (02:44)
Souls suffer the landscape
In shrouds of dew, as ghosts.
Their eternity is for searching
But a certain dissnsion grows.
I've seen them wander,
Voices raised in prayer
Consorting in whisper,
They curse the ones not there.
If you didn't want this and I didn't need it,
Then how has this interest become an addiction?
If you didnt want it, then why cant you do without?
I know I'm not your first one,
But I pray I'll be your last.
I've never seen you cry before,
But I know when I make you laugh.
I know and you know, you've heard this all before...
These arms are for holding on.
This heart won't stray from home.
I know, I know...
God tell me, where's my Halo?
04 Josey (04:07)
Take my head out of my hands,
I'll never go through this again.
I couldn't do it without my friends.
Get it out of me,
And I won't,
I won't
Sweat it.
"Jack Flo and Josey 19,
Come on in, I hope you're clean.
Do you know how to use this thing?"
I know, I know.
What do you want and where you go
And wherever you go, I'll go
We'll never let it come to this
This comforts me, 'cause I know
We can do most anything-
To this I toast and go home.
Don't ever let them pull me out
And I know I'm not alone.
So you think you can change my world,
And the thoughts of my little girl,
All of these thing are in my head,
And she says, she said. . .
08 The Kandinsky Prince (02:25)
I've got the same Kandinsky prints that my brother's got,
With the same black frames, like he bought.
In between them, on the wall is something my girlfriend calls trashy...
Brownie and the Boo-man got that for me.
On the wall faceing us is a black-and-white of all of us back in Brighton,
I remember it like today, but the sun has made it fade...
Still, I know you know where England is.
And I know this ain't home,
But it sure feels like home,
I know this somewhere is really nowhere.
I've got a black-and-white t.v., but I don't really see
The need to burden it with cable.
I got the sofa from the folks, and the table I just stole...
With a neon Mickey's sign for no reason.
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