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Rating: Chapter I
And I still remember when summer and joy were reflected in my eyes at the very scent of that windy and warm May's arrival. School was about to end, and the sparkle in my eyes grew increasingly powerful and extraordinarily bright.
Even a year ago, with the advent of the end of the nightmare, I found myself happy, running through the woods on my new bike. That particular smell of green, the blue sky, and within me, while everything was revolutionizing, changing, I felt something for someone far away whom I didn't even know. I didn't know it would all end soon, and that I would enjoy my last summer, nor did I know that a very important person would enter my life who is perhaps still one of the few rays of sun seen not in black and white. The album that, alas, reminds me of this, the album that reminds me that adolescence is over and there will be no more holidays, that there will be no more summer, and it is precisely this album by the little-known Jack, a great band with a lineup to envy Arcade Fire. And it would be so wrong towards them to categorize them as brit-pop because it would make skeptics raise their eyebrows. The Jack, with their melancholy, their stories of alcohol and sex, and their decadence, reminded me that it's all...
The album that forcefully entered my stereo. The review.
The long ride of "... of lights" with a very long introduction accompanied by apocalyptic and prophetic music gradually distorts and destroys itself with the bridge that comes out every now and then filled with "Do, do, do, do, do, do." "Wintercomessummer" explores shoegaze territories with its guitar saturated with reverb and delay, but Anthony Reynolds' voice deceives and does not convince. The introduction of "White Jazz" irritates, but then the song balances well with a finale rich in brass and violins. The album's atmosphere begins to improve with the fourth song. "Biography of a first son" is somewhat a turning point of the album, which consists of somewhat pompous and more rockish songs at the start; this, however, is a song with a lot of rhythm, almost danceable. The second part of the album opens with "Filthy Names" that steals the guitar intro from the wonderful Made Of Stone by the Stone Roses and ends with the mournful "Hope is a Liar" a slow ballad filtered with a touch of orchestra. The second part of this album is decadent, sad, talks about death ("Who'll be beside you to dress you in mourning?", Dress you in mourning) of premeditated murders on the verge of madness ("I wanted to feel, I wanted to see So I tried to kill you...but believe me I didn't mean it Marie", I didn't mean it Marie) of hookups and alcohol ("'Cos we are healthy and we're in love we work out so we can get fucked up", "So it's like this the drink goes to my head and then Champagne legs", Filthy Names). Thus presenting itself with excellently orchestrated songs with string lines clearly written in a masterly way.
The second album is a bit of a joke. One expects to find unreleased tracks and rarities but finds versions of songs already present in Pioneers, (White Jazz, Wintercomessummer) others that are versions present on the band's second album, The Jazz Age (Kid Stardust, I was drunk in the underworld). Then there are B-sides and demos very similar to the originals. Among these, it is worth mentioning the four excellent "The 7th day", "The Ballad of misery and heaven", "Ballad for a beautiful blonde eye" and "Josè's dream". Additionally, there are 6 tracks recorded in Paris at a live session at Le Cigale in November '96 which don't reveal anything new except that they give us a preview of the Jazz age to come with "Nico's Children" and "Saturday's Plan".
Another thing to note is the cover which has been - fortunately - stylized at its best. The original cover is very ugly (click here to see it).
The Jack release a decadent and mysterious work at the same time. An album little known here in Italy. If you get the chance, get it. Even if it's not very straightforward and takes some time to digest, because the songs are long and in some cases can be very heavy.
... continuation Chapter I
.. .just begun, my life has started, carefreeness died, adolescence ended inexorably crushed on a rock and now I can still see the vultures eating its remains! There won't be anything you deserve, everything will be just for yourself, and nothing more! It might seem like a victimizing speech, but when the blue of the summer turns gray, you can't do anything but wait for the gray winter to see black and hope that somehow the warmth of a blanket keeps you company.
The album by Jack is 11 years old but feels more than 100. It mixes high-class music with rather trashy stuff and quite out of tune vocally and musically. "10th Anniversary Edition" but I had never noticed it, yet it should have been released last year but just like one of those magical objects it jumps out at me, to those my tired and drooping eyes like rainwater. With this, I kill two birds with one stone. What do you hope to find in this absurd city where other music is appreciated? In a secluded section of the largest music store in your city, this double album and in a period where you can only replenish by spending money, in a period where you make the biggest madness, escape and buy this album. You put it in the player and like a déjà-vu, everything bounces back to you, while inexorably the expiration dates approach and the books you see on the windowsill you know will be there and will never attempt suicide. That was how the CD entered forcefully into my stereo.
Chapter II
Satisfactions and dissatisfactions in life do not reveal themselves blatantly but rumble like an airplane taking off in your mind. There are moves and funerals, people who go, people who come but the substantial difference and the substantial meaning of this is that in every way...
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