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The little Lisa. Fragile, delicate, tossed around by events and by a musical world that almost ignores her, and that has certainly excluded her from major distribution. But in my opinion, Lisa's music is among the most brilliant of our time. Her albums are pearls of sadness and infinite poetry. Lisa has a voice made to sing terrible stories, everyday stories that must be accepted because there is no choice. Lisa sings them with a fairy-tale voice, because only by estranging oneself can the drama be accepted. Don't be deceived by the dreamlike atmosphere of her songs; she sings of nightmares and lives that make sense only if lightened from the present and the real. Useless lives, but that also have the right to dream. Lisa is their voice, Lisa is the voice of the lethargy of this time.
When I found this latest album of hers, I already knew I would suffer from it and that my listens would be monopolized. "Lullaby For A Liquid Pig" is her latest effort, from 2003, home-produced, Lisa plays piano, keyboards, guitars, mandolin, violin, and for the other instruments, she is helped by the usual friends from Calexico, she then mixed everything with Pro Tool, because she can't afford a recording studio, and the result of all this is her usual standard: Masterpiece.
Musically, Lisa is a singer-songwriter, but such a definition does not describe the immense work and complexity of her songs. We are faced with a new John Cale, when he was in a state of grace. Lisa releases into the ether a few precious chords that overflow, burst, and die, while new ones take their place. In this album, there's a piano riff in the opening "Nobody's Playing" that is revisited at other points, though filtered and distorted. The initial dream turns into bitter realities, loves sought in the most impervious ways and paths. "Pearls", "Paper Doll", "Candy", are woman's reflections, simple questions about her own unhappiness, justified as temporary, a malaise that indeed passes, but fleeting are the moments of amusement, not the malaise. And so there's time even to smile, to socialize, and it's party time. "It's Party Time" has the true atmosphere of those parties where smiles are mere courtesy. We are prisoners of society. Forced, with other prisoners, and you might even hook up out of that need to feel alive. But your true nature comes out with all its might as soon as loneliness replaces the occasional partner from a moment ago, and this solitude warms much more than that body. In "Lullaby For A Liquid Pig" Lisa sings of this inseparable companion: seen with love, experienced as if it were her man protecting her with his reassuring embrace.
I need a fix
A little one
And then it's over
Then I'm done
I got my own
I need to find
But in between
You are a lifeline
A heartbreaking, warm mandolin, like the tears that flow every time I hear this piece. Genius, Lisa is the redemption for all women in a world, the musical one, where genius seems a male prerogative. Extraordinary is the production despite everything. Despite the difficulties she faces every time she brings a new album to light. Lisa must be supported, protected, encouraged. Because everyone has the right to dream, and everyone has the right to have a voice, and Lisa Germano is simply the voice of infinitesimal things.
From "...to Dream":
Only when it's real
When it speaks to you
And no one else can hear
Don't give up your dream
It's really all you have
And I don't wanna see you die
To dream
To live
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Nobody's Playing (03:10)
These are your secrets
Hidden inside
Wherever you go
Wherever you hide
Nobody's playing
Nobody knows
Circles and circles
Places to drown
All that you feel
Is you're going down
Everyone's wondering where you are
Circles and circles
Holding you down
All that you see
Is you're not around
Somebody knows
How this feels
Nobody's playing
No one comes near
No one can tell you
What you won't hear
07 From a Shell (02:58)
And the earth spins round while the people fall down
And the world stands still not a sound not a sound
There is love there is love to be found
In the worst way
In the worst way
In the worst way
It's the buzz
It's the buzz
It's the buzz
It's the buzz
It's the buzz
I wish I was
It's the buzz
It's the buzz
With the most fun
From a little shell at the bottom of the sea
With the earth and the moon and the sun above me
Well the world fell down with the people still around
There is love
There is love to be found
While the gods are gone and the souls making sounds
In the worst way
In the worst way
In the worst way
It's the buzz
It's the buzz
It's the buzz
It's the buzz
It's the buzz
I wish I was
It's the buzz
It's the buzz
With the most fun
From a little shell at the bottom of the sea
With the earth and the moon and the sun around me
There is love
There is love
There is love
It's a buzz
It's a buzz
It's a buzz
It's the buzz
It's the buzz
I wish I was
It's the buzz
It's the buzz
It's the buzz
10 Lullaby for Liquid Pig (03:08)
I need a fix
A little one
And then it's over
Then i'm done
I got my own
I need to find
But in between
You are a lifeline
But if i do (stop)
But if i don't (stop)
It doesn't matter
I probably won't (stop)
Without you here
Without your love
The world is just there
It doesn't move me
I want it now
I want it bad
And when it's done
I'll start over
And i can give
Oh i could give
But when your're in
I give better
Without you here
Without your love
The world is just there
It doesn't move me
I got my own
I need to find
But in between
You are a lifeline
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