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Rating: What is art? What does it really mean to be an artist? Try asking Nicholas Grant and then analyze his answer. If you can't be among the fortunate ones who have the burden as well as the honor of meeting the destined singer-songwriter from Cardiff, then you can search for the answer by listening to the restless "Polythene."
Still worth asking, where can creativity reach? When the melancholy British notes intersect with the playful American punk rock nuances, not forgetting that someone there, in the States, launched rough grunge, that's when the 'melting pot' labeled Feeder comes to life.
It's basically useless to explain the tracks of this album simply because the overlap of emotions created while listening to the first work of the Welsh band is practically indescribable. The timid roar of the 'semi' title track "Polythene Girl" disappears submerged by a sympathetic and winning punk rock chorus. But this is nothing more than a prelude, a prelude that serves almost as a cover-up, because in my opinion the goal of this album is to hide the cards at hand, in other words, we are too good but we don't want to make it understood yet. And it's in this context that the alternatives "My Perfect Day" and "Suffocate" fit perfectly, not to mention the carefree "Cement" and the first big ballad "High", Mr. Grant shows that he's not just one of the many, he can afford to step out of reality for a moment just to feel different, "I'm going out for a while so I can get high with my friends" sings repeatedly the genius from Wales. The extreme pleasure that the trio has in playing up and down between notes is fully understood also in "Radiation" and the cheerful "Stereo World", a track already part of their debut demo "Swim."
Lots of sweet words for the three Nippo-Brits (for those who don't know, Taka Hirose the bassist is Japanese), and so I know you might think I'm biased, one of the many fanatics of the "brit-movement," well yes, I am, the problem actually isn't that, the problem is that if you notice the touch of class of this CD, you will become followers too. In the end, this is the power of art, to involve as many people as possible in something that can't be described, I may not be Nicholas Grant, but I think my definition works just fine.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Polythene Girl (03:29)
I wish that I could touch the sky
Elevate me
I hope that I don't burn my eyes
As I drift free
Don't think that I can help myself
Guess it's true
CHORUS:
Polythene, Polythene Girl
Wrap me up in a cellophane world
Polythene, Polythene Girl
I'm breaking the seal, never thought I would
I wish that I could heal myself
Addicted to you
Wrap me up in cotton wool
Just to feel new
Don't think that I can help myself
But it's true
CHORUS
Suffocate, elevate
Suffocate, elevate
But it's true
CHORUS
03 Cement (03:17)
It's funny how I watch the day go by
I'm sitting watching TV talk shows high
There's banging on the walls
My head aches
I'm drinking out the world that I hate
I had a big car, new clothes, everything
I've had a watch engraved in Switzerland
Today I saw her buying a magazine
It's time to get myself some therapy
How can I stop this, how can I stop this disease?
She's got a new dress on
(I'm in cement)
Sits by her radio
(I'm in cement)
She's got those x-ray eyes
(I'm in cement)
Don't know which way to go
It's funny but i dream of yesterday
I'm blistered by the burns that life has made
I'm staring out behind the window shade
See her face across the street again
I'm in quick sand sinking in again
I've got conrete shoes and I can't swim
How can I stop this, how can I stop this disease?
She's got a new dress on
(I'm in cement)
Sits by her radio
(I'm in cement)
She's got those x-ray eyes
(I'm in cement)
Don't know which way to go
She's got a new dress on
She's got a new dress on
I don't know what to do, but I know that I must pull thru
I can't keep watching you
How can I stop this, how can I stop this disease?
04 Crash (04:09)
I put my best foot first and it got burnt communication always hurts
I've got myself so deep inside a hole I taste the air go thin as I get old
I don't think so as I get old I don't think so
She's my hands she's my hands picks me up when I crash down
Build me wings so I can fly she's my novacaine ride novacaine
Pick up the pieces of my world glue them together I wish I could
I can't believe it as the picture fades just like a TV but the sound remains
I don't think so no I don't think so
She's my hands she's my hands picks me up when I crash down
Build me wings so I can fly she's my novacaine ride
Feel it as I shake shatter illusions fade taste my bitter tears
Cut my heart with shears I don't think so I don't think so
She's my hands, she's my hands picks me up when I crash down
Build me wings so I can fly she's my novacaine ride
She's my hands she's my hands picks me up when I crash down novacaine
05 Radiation (04:38)
Pull back my skin look deep within
Transparent grins the more you kill me
Just see how it is just see how it really is
Theres radiation in my head can't you see I'm going mad
See the colour of my skin turning blue as I breathe in
Theres radiation in my head
Suffer for life my soul divides I'm reaching high
But no one sees me Just see how it is
Just see how it really is
Theres radiation in my head can't you see I'm going mad
See the colour of my skin turning blue as I breathe in
Theres radiation in my head get it out get it out get it out
Trapped in my shell my fingers melt
All by myself I'm all by myself
Just see how it is just see how it really is
Theres radiation in my head can't you see I'm going mad
See the colour of my skin turning blue as I breathe in
Theres radiation in my head
Theres radiation in my head can't you see I'm going mad
See the colour of my skin turning blue as I breathe in
Theres radiation in my head
Radiation radiation
You hear me breathe a little more a
And see me walk into the storm
The more you give yourself away
The more it burns and breaks away
06 Suffocate (03:53)
Show it to me one way I've got to see it all scientific radar
Reaching through the storm there's got to be hope
As people move on we've got to keep on believing
It's the time to give it everything a world unite let us in
Hear me hear me cry suffocate let them die
A better life say goodbye hear me hear me cry
I see everything silver and gold way up I'm reaching out clouds white as snow
There's got to be hope as people move on and on and on
It's the time to give it everything aworld unite let us in
Hear me hear me cry suffocate let them die
A better life say goodbye hear me hear me cry
Hear me cry why don't you hear me why don't they hear me
Suffocate let them die abetter life say goodbye
Give give enough I care
07 Descend (05:20)
Sitting back I only wish \
today will turn out fine
And wash away the stain
the poison in my eyes
What do you recommend?
I feel my life descending
I'm falling out of reach
catch me as I bleed again
I'm not insane
can't reach the pain
If I could be all by myself
I could be me
If you could see
live with my pain
the thoughts that I keep
I hate the way they are
their patronising thoughts
Tried to get inside my head
ask the questions I have read
But one thing makes it hard
feel so fragile as I cry
So confused yet so alive
so abused
the system lied
They lied
If I could be all by myself
I could be me
If you could see
live with my pain
the thoughts that I keep
Hands appeared around my neck
Felt so hard to breath I stared
As my focus turned to haze
I could see them
If I could be all by myself
I could be free
If they could see
live with my pain
the thoughts that I keep
Yeah, yeah
Alone, alone
Yeah, Yeah (alone, alone)
Descend
Descend
08 Stereo World (03:24)
Staring at the ideal world my bubble begins to break gazing at the ceiling cracks
The more the picture fades It's just that I can't see when I'm down like this
I just feel the weight as I try to resist
It doesn't matter when I can dream away life in a stereo world
Something happens as I drift away away
Floating out of sync again reaching for a cloud levitated high I'm free
Turning myself around just as I feel fine it begins to break
Now the pain is here what a big mistake
It doesn't matter when I can dream away life in a stereo world
Something happens as I drift away away
It just explodes as I drift in athousand hands caress my skin
I feel so free as it begins
It doesn't matter when I can dream away life in a stereo world
Something happens as I drift away away
You make me feel so good feels so good away away
Life in a stereo world away away life in a stereo world
Stereo world stereo world life in a stereo world
Stereo world stereo world feels so good
09 Tangerine (03:58)
Tangerine turning green
Cellophane
Window pain
Socialise
Paralysed
Pastic faces suck me dry
Tangerine tangerine
Tangerine tangerine
I know it's sad life's just a piece of fruit
Touch down new ground stop living on the moon
I know it's sad life's just a piece of fruit
Touch down new ground stop living on the moon
Twenty eight
Suffocate
Take a ride
See me fly
Detonate feel it break
See myself disintergrate
Tangerine tangerine
Tangerine tangerine
I know it's sad life's just a piece of fruit
Touch down new ground stop living on the moon
I know it's sad life's just a piece of fruit
Touch down new ground stop living on the moon
See me as I climb
The rain burns in my eyes
So catch me as I fall
Away
Tangerine tangerine
Tangerine tangerine
I know it's sad life's just a piece of fruit
Touch down new ground stop living on the moon
I know it's sad life's just a piece of fruit
Touch down new ground stop living on the moon
I know it's sad life's just a piece of fruit
Touch down new ground stop living on the moon
I know it's sad life's just a piece of fruit
Touch down new ground stop living on the moon
I know it's sad
11 Forgive (04:41)
Shoot holes in me, then you watch as I bleed
Sticks, sticks and stones
Break my bones, as I speak
Leave me to burn, as I melt in my pain
Watch as I drown, in the tears we have made
Cause we've got to forgive
We've got to forget
Things are changing at last, I hope for the best
But I don't understand, I'm just a man
I'm still trying to see
Love, love is hate
Can't separate how it is
Deep in a grave
Can't pretend when it's real
Cause we've got to forgive
We've got to forget
Things are changing at last, I hope for the best
But I don't understand, I'm just a man
I'm still trying to see
See a way
Move away
See a way
Shoot holes in me, then you watch as I bleed
Sticks, sticks and stones
Break my bones, as I speak
Cause we've got to forgive
We've got to forget
Things are changing at last, I hope for the best
But I don't understand, I'm just a man
I'm still trying to see, yeah
Cause we've got to forgive
We've got to forget
Things are changing at last, I hope for the best
But I don't understand, I'm just a man
I'm still trying to see
Cause we've got to forgive
We've got to forget
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Other reviews
By presoblu
Polythene is a not very Brit and perhaps not very mature album, but certainly a valid work, full of anger and scratching guitars.
"Tangerine" is considered by Nicholas himself as one of the worst pieces ever written by Feeder.
