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Rating:
When Mr. Wyatt left the Soft Machine, he decided to form a new little band together with David Sinclair from Caravan and a couple of other fine fellows.
The group's name is a pun based on the translation of "soft machine" into French: "machine molle". Some people just don't know what to come up with anymore. "O Caroline" opens the album: a not terribly original ballad, but one that redeems itself with an excellent melody, a humble and sincere flute and piano, and the beautiful voice of the beard. It's the catchy-song-that-stays-in-your-head, a song that every good album possesses. After "Instant Pussy", a dissonant, lethargic track full of those disoriented vocalizations typical of Wyatt, there is "Signed Curtain", whose lyrics simply state the part of the song being played at that moment: "this is the first verse... and this is the chorus, or maybe it's the bridge...". It would be a simple meta-musical divertissement if the melody and piano arrangement weren't magnificent. The problem lies in the fact that the second half of the album features well-structured tracks that are overall quite enjoyable, especially after consuming strange stamps with a drawing of Buddha on them, but not exactly essential or memorable.
Following the cunning and troubling acrimony of the stentorian "Part Of The Dance", in fact, tracks develop that are not exactly pedestrian or boring, but definitely flounder in wavering dissonances.
So four stars! There!
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 O Caroline (05:05)
David's on piano, and I may play on a drum
And we'll try to make the music work, we'll try to have some fun
But I just can't help thinking that if you were here with me
I'd get all my thoughts in focus and play more excitingly
I love you still - Caroline
I want you still - Caroline
I need you still - Caroline
If you call this sentimental crap you'll make me mad
Cause you know that I would not sing about some passing fad
And if my attempts at rhyming aren't convincing to your ear
Then memories betray you through the passing of the year
I love you still - Caroline
I want you still - Caroline
I need you still - Caroline
You must think it doubtful that I mean the words I sing
Or that all attempts to reach you this way could not mean a thing
But you must admit we both thought we'd be man and wife
And that I could make you happy for the best part of your life
I love you still - Caroline
I love you still - Caroline
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