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Rating: LIVING LIKE A SPACE GIRL
or the sound of white magic for lovers
Today I want to introduce you to what I believe is the most inspired and expressive CD from one of the most underrated and unknown indie-pop Anglo-Brazilian bands: Drugstore! Note that it came out in 1998 while Brit-pop was sending out its last gasps of pain into the ether...
It starts off with a bang with "Say Hello", an exceptional presentation of the band that greets with a magnificently electric, folk, and at times Mexican style all those who play the guitar, who believe in human life on Mars, who walk in the rain
and who are convinced that an accordion weaving exceptional riffs together with an electric guitar can remove every trace of love despair from your eyes.
Skipping with both feet over the dog of "Mondo Cane" (the only barely impactful episode along with "I don't wanna be here without you"), here comes a Spanish guitar which, with the intrusion of a string quartet (in particular Ian Burdge’s cello), announces the arrival of "El President", the band's only "famous" single, also thanks to the very successful collaboration with Thom Yorke, who lends his most velvety and inspired voice. Poetry and electric melancholies introduce us to "Sober", while in "I Know I Could" the violin and electrified acoustic sing to us the despair and illusion of a girl with a dangling cigarette and a heart like an empty brandy glass about to fall off the kitchen table. But as we young men know, every girl soon regains her honor, her life, and her happiness, as Isabel Monteiro, singer-bassist of Drugstore, shows us in "Spacegirl", an orchestral, pounding glam anthem (at a precise point Mike Chylinski's snare drum does its job well), lively and furious.
It is only now that I recognize I have a concept album in my hands, in which a first "booming" side is followed by a low-fi one. "Never Come Down", sung by guitarist Daron Robinson, could be a sunny minor ballad by James from "Pisces Iscariot", while with "A Song For Pessoa" sweetness rains from the sky for those who dream of playing verses to a poet now gone... here is encapsulated all the harmony and confidence Isabel's voice can achieve, whispering to us a poetry vanished in the time of a night. In "White Magic For Lovers" the expressive capabilities of the entire band soar like precise and thin paper airplanes in the wind: this track clearly expresses the soul of the entire album, alternating calm and nocturnal moments with choruses where the sun of the "first weekend of May" pushes its rays over a hill... it seems a true magic unfolds where tears find peace only in water and secretly in our pocket we hold a lucky charm made from the hair of our love.
"Tips for travelling", the second track by Daron Robinson, is still melancholy in pumpkins style, made of black cats crossing abandoned streets of unknown towns. The group bids farewell with "The Funeral (But most of all)", a ceremony like the ancient ones, in which with an often boisterous and goliardic dirge Isabel self-celebrates an impossible future departure, with mounds of snow in July, a lot of money to have fun in the afterlife, fireworks, the sun saluting the moon, dozens of roses around the bed and all the ex-lovers telling heartbreaker stories, the same with which this fabulous and magical band has moved us.
PS (this PS is like the ghost track of the record, soft and just hinted): the artwork is truly remarkable, colorful with tempera, stars, glitter, patchwork, themed photos, and voodoo lover dolls (at the end of "Spacegirl" the singer ironically says she hates them). All this makes the product even more appealing and appreciable!
from "The Funeral (but most of all)":
"...but please put me somewhere near the sea
with one caring angel waiting for me
he'll be holding my heart in his hands
but most of all
i'd like to go with a friend"
5/5: Good job! One of the first albums I truly loved, I was still young, it was 1998 and Brit-pop was sending its last gasps of pain into the ether...
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Mondo Cane (03:34)
You can get your life stolen and die in the shade
Lie in the bed that your parents have made
You can all go to hell at a red traffic light
As a matter of speaking I couldn't care
You can stuff your beliefs and your nursery rhymes
I drink till I'm senseless whatever the wine
With no hope, no glory and no jesus christ
We all turn into ashes, welcome to the show
But hold tight and hold still
For a little while and for real
I could break it up
I could break it in two
Are you holding tight?
Are you holding still?
Holy father and son change your disguise
For all the good people and sinners alike
So I try and have fun in a rock n' roll band
And your party is over, do you understand
And the future is set in a shadowy road
You can try to walk back through the streets
that you know
But the houses are empty and nobody's home
Only sad looking dogs and welcome to the show
But hold tight and hold still
For a little while and for real
I could break it up
I could break it in two
Are you holding tight?
Are you holding still?
03 El President (02:50)
It came from the skies,
It burst through the gates.
With no mercy or disguise,
with their hearts set out in flames,
I know I've seen the master plan.
I'm just a man,(2)
I'm not giving in,
all the people understand
cause they all fell down and prayed,
I know I've seen the master plan.
They've killed the president,
they've killed the president.
It came from the skies, (2)
in all shades of green.
We can always justify,
we can measure up your dreams,
I know I've seen the master plan.
They've killed the president,
They've killed the president.
They've killed the president,
They've killed the president,
I'm just a man
05 I Know I Could (04:09)
I feel stained and I’m in pieces
In my mouth the sad taste of the past I had
A thousand wasted kisses
But another glass
And a cigarette
Just anything
To help forget the things that
Every day I still find missing
Let the whole world crash down on me
And let the curtains rise
I could do so much harm
I could do you no good
I’ll leave a stain in your heart
I would
Yeah, I’m gonna mess up your life
And make you forever blue
’Cos I could hurt you
I know I could
I know I could
Misty haze and the final rest
They say the first shall be the last
But not for me
’Cos I don’t believe it
So another glass
And a cigarette
Just any man
To help forget the things that
Every day I still find missing
Let the whole world crash down on me
And let the curtain rise
I could do so much harm
I could do you no good
I’ll leave a stain in your heart
I would
Yeah, I’m gonna mess up your life
And make you forever blue
’Cos I could hurt you
I know I could
I know I could
'Cos I could do so much harm
Yeah I could do you no good
I’ll leave a stain in your heart
I would
Yeah, I’m gonna mess up your life
And make you forever blue
’Cos I could hurt you
I know I could
I know I could
12 The Funeral (But Most of All) (10:50)
I want to seemountains of snow in July Fireworkscrossing across the blue sky When Igo I'm taking afew things with me I'd like to goin the late afternoon With thesun going down To give wayto the moon When Igo Make sure Idon't feel a thing I want dozens ofroses surrounding my bed Sad lookingfaces with pain and regret When Igo I want thewhole place painted red All my ex-loverswill talk through the night Heart breakingtales of passion and pride But they'll say That I had acunt made of gold I wanna gosideways and facing the sun With money tospend so I can have some fun When Igo Those thingswill matter to me Please putme somewhere Nearthe sea With onecaring angel Waitingfor me He'll be holdingmy heart in it's hand Butmost of all I'd like togo with a friend
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