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Rating: Courage, whether it leads you to sit on a throne or lie inside a coffin, should be rewarded. Then, people always remember those who win and quickly forget, after burying them under infamous criticism, the losers. Unfortunately, that's how it goes, and that's why (at least in Scandinavia) people remember the Kent and their seventh work very well, trailblazers of the electronic turn that casts a mysterious and slightly decadent tone over their music that only a synthesizer can offer.
It was a winning idea, yes, but because, like most winning ideas, it was carefully studied and not risked in a night of madness: if the listener, accustomed to the guitars that had characterized every album of the Swedish band until two years prior, initially finds themselves bewildered by the dark and mammoth pace of "Elefanter" as well as the electronic cathedral "Columbus", upon closer inspection, they will realize that Kent is actually still there, and with them is the healthy dose of melancholy that has always characterized their music productions.
"Tillbaka till samtiden" is nothing more than the plasticized coat of their typical home sound, it's a grown-up boy who prefers slim shirts and thin ties over jeans and a t-shirt. Joakim Berg's voice is still there and it's always the same, intense and delicate, while Martin Sköld increasingly contributes to the writing of the music and helps to shape what slowly but inevitably becomes the new profile of the band: an electronic setting that frames the romantic and poignant power of their compositions.
The already mentioned "Columbus" is a clear example, as is the single "Ingenting" or "Vy från ett luftslott", which will enjoy greater fame in the remixed version featured in upcoming tours. Unlike other works by the Eskilstuna boys, not all the tracks here are memorable, which makes the album a bit fluctuating; however, like the previous masterpiece "Du Och Jag Döden", it has managed to include a concluding trilogy worthy of applause: "LSD, någon?", at number nine, moves over an arrangement so fine and meticulous that it seems drawn on graph paper, and when Joakim Berg shouts "I'm here for you", it makes you think "thank you".
"Generation Ex", in a duet with the beautiful Camela Leierth, is an overwhelming whirlwind of emotions that want to be shouted, thrown away, a whirlwind that culminates in the final epitaph, sad and solitary, icy and deep: "Ensammast I Sverige" concludes the album, sweeping away the dry leaves and releasing a dirty, cold, and sharp rain from above.
Time passes, and the albums proposed by Kent become increasingly less immediate while retaining a solid commercial aspect that always shoots them to the top of the Swedish charts; this "Return to the present" is not immediately appreciated and, in fact, initially, one might have the impression of having been somehow betrayed if one still expects the guitars to dominate, but continuing in that vein would have meant repeating themselves by now. And repeating oneself is always tremendously boring.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
05 Columbus (04:29)
Du har tänkt allt som sagts om mig
Du kan tro allt du hört om mig
Du kan ställa frågor om sanningen
Finns de en eller finns det tusen?
Svara rakt från hjärtat nu
Ditt medlidande kan jag vara utan
Om det här ska vara allt vi hann
Så håll mig hårt,
håll mig älskling nu
Stockholm vaknar långsamt på droger och på sorg
Snön hyr ut sin oskuld till hela Kungsholms torg
Det känns som när jag kom hit way back in 93
En ynklig rad av fotspår,
en okänd kontinent
Släpp snälla, släpp taget nu
Jag kan stå, gå eller krypa härifrån
Om det här är allt vi hinner med,
så håll mig hårt min älskling
Nu vaknar staden långsamt och jag är full igen
Snön hyr ut sin oskuld för skiten bara känns
Det känns som när jag kom hit way back in 93
En ynklig rad av fotspår,
en oändlig kontinent
Stockholm vaknar långsamt och jag är full igen
Snön hyr ut sin oskuld till hela Kungsholmen
Det känns som när vi kom hit till möjlighetens land
Du kan följa mina spår hem
Columbus var mitt namn
------------------------------
You've been thinking all that has been said about me
You can believe everything you hear about me
You can ask questions about the truth
Are they or are there thousands?
Reply straight from the heart now
Your compassion can I be without
If this is all we got
So keep me hard,
hold me baby now
Stockholm wakes up slowly on drugs and in sorrow
Snow rent their innocence throughout Kungsholmstorg
It feels like when I came here way back in 93
A measly number of footsteps,
an unknown continent
Release please, release the time now
I can stand, walk or crawl from here
If this is all we have time to,
so keep me hard my baby
Now wake up the city slowly and I am again
Snow rent their innocence of crap just feels
It feels like when I came here way back in 93
A measly number of footsteps,
an endless continent
Stockholm wakes up slowly and I am again
Snow rent their innocence throughout the Kungsholmen
It feels like when we came to this option country
You can follow my home track
Columbus was my name
07 Vy från ett luftslott (04:25)
Ett framsteg blir ett bakslag
Nånting måste undgått min blick
Objekten under radarn
är de som skapar myter som slår hål
på en orättvis värld
Ohhh...
Jag önskar att du var här
Men ingen är där, när jag vänder mig om
Jag vet du menar allvar
Nånting måste undgått min blick
Dödligt, giftigt allvar
Smestans tegelarmar sträcks mot
molnen
Där charterplan möts
De viskar: hålen
i himlen ska bli våran död
Men ingen är där när vi vänder oss om
Vi undviker så skickligt ämnen som leder någonstans
Du är tätt vid min rygg
Äntligen somnar du om
Det svider till i mina ögon när musiken tar slut igen
Har du tänkt på att vi nästan aldrig lyfter vår blick från marken
Mot den svarta rymden ovanför molnen
Men ingen är där när vi vänder oss om
Jag dansar runt, parerar vant din bedjande blick
Vi är rygg emot rygg
Äntligen somnar du om
Och jag känner en sån lättnad när musiken går på igen
Har du tänkt på att vi nästan aldrig lyfter vår blick från marken
mot den svarta rymden ovanför
molnen
Där missilerna möts
De viskar: hålen
i himlen ska bli våran död
Ovanför molnen
Där djävulen bor
De viskar: hålen
i himlen är från hans klor
--------------------------------------
English - View From a Castle in the Air
--------------------------------------
Progress becomes reversed
My vision must have missed something
The things under the radar
Are what create myths that make holes
In this unfair world
I wish you were here
But no one is there
When I turn around
I know you mean business
My vision must have missed something
Deadly, toxic business
Smithstown's arms of bricks stretch to the clouds
Where charter planes meet
They whisper holes in the sky
They will be our death
But no one is there
When we turn around
We skillfully avoid all the
Subjects that lead somewhere
You lie close to my back
Finally you fall asleep
My eyes sting
As the music finishes again
Have you thought about
How we almost never lift our eyes
From the ground
To the black space above the clouds
But no one is there
When we turn around
I dance around
Parrying your usual pleading look
We lie back against back
Finally you fall asleep
And I feel such relief
As the music begins again
Have you thought about
How we almost never lift our eyes
From the ground
To watch the black space above the clouds
Where the missiles meet
They whisper holes in the sky
They will be our death
Above the clouds
Where the devil lives
They whisper
Holes in the sky
They are made from his claws
10 Generation ex (04:30)
Stå vid min olåsta dörr
I rakblad av billjus från gatan
Ditt ansikte blekt nästan grymt
Det ekar i trapphuset
droppar från fingrarna
Allting går igen kommer tillbaks
En dag ska alla skulderna betalas
Och du vet jag har rätt
jag har rätt du har fel
Har inte tid med all din skit
Ja ja jag vet vad vi förlorat
Och jag vet att du vet
Jag har rätt
Jag har rätt du har fel...
Hur kan det spela någon roll
Framtiden är ändå utom räckhåll
För oss
Säg nånting säg nånting nu
Du vet att jag får panik
av dina tårar
Gör nånting gör nånting nu
Förstör nånting,
slå mig förstör nåt jag överlever
Jag skulle alltid vara
Den som stod bakom dig
Jag skulle alltid svara
när du kallade på mig
Jag skulle alltid vara den
som vaktade din rygg
du skulle alltid alltid alltid vara
Den som går igen kommer tillbaks
En dag ska alla skulderna betalas
Och du vet jag har rätt
jag har rätt du har fel...
javisst så längtar vi tillbaks
till allt vi ljög om att vi gjorde
och jag vet att du vet jag har rätt
jag har rätt du har fel...
Hur kan det spela någon roll
Framtiden är ändå utom
räckhåll för oss
--------------------------------------
English - Generation Ex
--------------------------------------
Stand by my unlocked front door
In car lights from the street like razor blades
Your face looks pale, almost cruel
It echoes in the stairwell dripping from fingers
All that goes will come back again
One day all debts will be repaid
And you know I am right, I am right, you are wrong
I don't have time for all your shit
Yes, yes I know what we have lost
And I know that you know I am right, I am right and you are wrong
How can it matter
The future is still out of reach for us
Say something, say something now
You know that I panic from your tears
Do something, do something now
Destroy something, hit me, destroy something, I'll survive
I was always meant to be
the one who stands beside you
I was always meant to answer
when you call on me
I was always meant to be
the one who watches your back
You were always always always
Those who go will come back again
One day all debts will be repaid
And you know I am right, I am right, you are wrong
Of course we long for back then
To all our lies about what we did
And I know that you know I am right, I am right and you are wrong
How can it matter
The future is still out of reach for us
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