Diving into memories. Letting oneself seep through the terrifying and crashing waves of the fractured past.
There is a beautiful woman, no, a gorgeous one, and if she isn't gorgeous, she has surprising charisma. She looks at me from afar with her bastard doe eyes and a marvelous voice, like a jazz siren able to chain you to the chair, with no hope of escape. You see her strutting in the kitsch rhythms she has dragged along, in two solo albums that aren't exactly exceptional, you see her hesitating in front of the retro blunders that look chic but don't scratch the surface. You see her flaunting everything with her voice, while the haunting and threatening shadow of the past sucks at her neck.
The Moloko. God bless, the Moloko.
One of the most beautiful and underrated musical acts of the electro-jazz-trip hop scene of the late '90s and early '2000s. Remembered only for a couple of smashing singles like a crackling "Sing It Back" and a wonderfully elegant "The Time Is Now", one of the best ways to greet the new millennium that was then awaited with dancing lighters. And in 2003 they bid farewell, unfortunately, to their short but certainly impactful career. Not that they invented much, but they added stardust to a genre that by then seemed all too saturated. And there was no better farewell than "Statues", an album of disarming beauty, which went almost unnoticed compared to the previous ones. And that's a pity, because while the previous albums flowed with an often abysmal number of songs, "Statues", in just ten tracks, tells you the universe.
Homogeneous but never repetitive. Unintentionally chic for an elegance that never feels forced, it remains etched at different moments. Because you really have to find them, digging through piles of crap, such surprisingly sensual records that in its opening, it slaps you with one of the greatest pop masterpieces of the last ten years: a fabulous, colossal "Familiar Feeling", almost 7 minutes of continuous vocal ellipses and unperturbed whirlwinds of rhythms and violins, opening with two heavenly minutes of pure, breathless rhythm, only to completely annihilate the dance oasis in what is an original and irresistible electro swing impossible to erase. And although the beginning is the peak of an album that continues to bloom like a rose, track by track, the other pieces also manage to burrow into the listener's ears. Even powerful tracks like the pumped-up "Forever More", which in another seven minutes condenses the more powerful and danceable Moloko sound into a more elegant and sumptuous attire, meticulously crafted but neither ambitious nor self-indulgent: the easy chorus, the movements, the beats stitched in every detail, the trembling flow of the voice... everything becomes paradoxically intimate and vital, a new apéiron.
The same sensation is felt in the splendid title track, a jazz ballad that manages to unite warm and cold in a whirl of spiritual emotions, transforming with each note until the calm and sweet chorus wraps around us, becoming part of the body itself. Intimate and sexy is also "Blow By Blow", poignant but not heartbreaking, keeps its jazzy line and vocal interweaves, becoming a splendid and simple flower to gift to someone you love.
"Statues" is one of those albums that needs to be experienced in every moment, that requires digging deep for a better understanding. Not because it's difficult to listen to, on the contrary, but because it consists of a magnificent network of primordial sensations, sighs and small, great musical ideas waiting to be discovered, where even small tracks like "The Only Ones" hide an immortal soul and where simplicity and complexity combine, giving life to jazz finds like the enchanting and engaging "I Want You".
An album that is the swan song of one of the most beautiful realities of the last decade.
If only one found the courage to rediscover it...
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Familiar Feeling (06:33)
Nothing can come close (x3)
I never doubted it
What's for you will not pass you by
I never questioned it
It was decided before I asked why
It's all there ever was
And it's all there ever will be
How could you have questioned us?
It's yourself you deceive
Nothing can come close
To this familiar feeling
We say it all without
Ever speaking
x4
Hush now
No need to say the words
At first sight you perfectly heard
Love in all its entirety
Is no less than we deserve
I saw, your face
Some place
I felt this feeling before
Is it deja vu?
Do I somehow know you?
Nothing can come close
To this familiar feeling
We say it all without
Ever speaking
x3
Nothing can come close
To this familiar feeling
We say it all without
Nothing can come close
To this familiar feeling
We say it all without
Ever speaking
To this familiar feeling
We say it all without
Ever speaking
Nothing can come close
Nothing can come close
(Ever speaking)
Nothing can come close
To this familiar feeling
Nothing can come close
03 Cannot Contain This (05:41)
Don't put yourself down, don't be hard on yourself
You didn't do wrong baby, don't blame yourself
I know how you feel I've been there myself
It's what the devil may fare what do you care
Can you control yourself?
I won't stick around to watch you get colder
I know I couldn't be told, don't suppose, now I'm a little older
The fault was all mine, I don't blame you if you blame me
I know I was wrong, I just cannot contain this
Chorus:
I just cannot, just cannot contain this (4x)
just cannot contain this
And if it's a crime then can you explain to me
Where do I belong? I just cannot contain this
Can
not
con
tain
this
Just
can
not
con
tain
this
I just cannot contain this (2x)
Chorus
Just cannot contain this etc.
04 Statues (05:29)
So goodnight my dear
Hope you're feeling well
Hope your�re feeling very clear
In this song and rhyme
Thoughts of changes that
Keep ourselves intact
And yes
It's hard to fake but I'm faltering
In the steps I'm about to take
I am sure it's true
What is all for me is much the same to you
If all the statues in the world
Would turn to flesh with teeth of pearl
Would they be kind enough to comfort me
The setting sun is set in stone
And it remains for me alone
To carve my own and set it free
So we wait and see
How this backward chapter reads
In verse inadvertently
And it feels like fading light
But that's all that's left
Only what's left is right
If all the statues in the world
Would turn to flesh with teeth of pearl
Would they be kind enough to comfort me
The setting sun is set in stone
And it remains for me alone
To carve my own and set it free
Jumping from a balloon
A carried aloft by a parachute in June
Twisting round and round
Well I hope the ground is what you find
The setting sun is set in stone
And it remains for me alone
To carve my own and set it free
05 Forever More (07:24)
And if I drown in this sea of devotion
Just a stone left unturned
My need is deep
Wide endless oceans
Feel it furious
The fire burns on
Let there be love
Everlasting
And it will live eternally
Will we receive without ever asking?
I'm just curious
Gotta find me somebody
But there's nobody
To love me
And it's driving me crazy
There's nobody, to love me (pause)
(oooh baby)
Somebody tell me
How could there be nobody
Nobody to love me
And this life is so empty
There's nobody, to love me
Endless tears
Forever joy
To feel most every feeling
Forever more
Endless tears
Forever joy
To feel most every feeling
Forever more
Endless tears
Forever joy
To feel most every feeling
Forever more
Endless tears
Forever joy
To feel most every feeling
Forever more
And if I drown in this sea of devotion
Just a stone left unturned
My need is deep
Wide endless oceans
Feel it furious
The fire burns on
Let there be love
Everlasting
And it will live eternally
Will we receive without ever asking?
I'm just curious
Don't want you to see me crying
Just want you to see me flying
I need to get so high and
Want somebody to blow my mind
Don't want you to see me crying
Just want you to see me flying
I need to get so high and
Why don't you blow my mind
Blow my mind
Blow my mind
Got to find me somebody
But there's nobody
To love me
Anybody could love me
And it's driving me crazy
There's nobody to love me
Anybody could love me
Somebody to hold my hand
Someone who understands
Somebody to help me write
The poetry of life
Someone to love me
Someone who loves me
Ooh Baby
Endless tears
Forever joy
To feel most every feeling
Forever more
Endless tears
Forever joy
To feel most every feeling
Forever more
Endless tears
Forever joy
To feel most every feeling
Forever more
Endless tears
Forever joy
To feel most every feeling
Forever more
Gotta find me somebody
But there's nobody
To love me
And it's driving me crazy
There's nobody to love me
Most every feeling
To feel most every feeling
06 Blow X Blow (03:14)
I cant forgive and
I cant forget
Its never simple that way
Too proud to let you know
Oh know I wish it was so
It frightens me to say
Why dont I let sombody new
Take me home
Lately I feel so alone
Somebody new would make it easier
For me to let you go
Oh no
So be it
Let it be so
Its better this way Baby
Well you can take me down
What a way to go
Blow by Blow
Its how it always happens
In the throws of passion
Is it any wonder
Its no wonder at all
Just to live a lifetime
In the space of a lifetime
Well its the hardest thing to do
But therell be nothing after you
Blow by Blow
Kill me slow
Blow by Blow
What a way to go
Hey hey hey..........
You didnt mean those things you said
You didnt mean those things
07 100% (05:16)
Sure as a circle
Just keeps coming round
Sure as we've reached
The speed of sound
Sure as the sun will rise
In the morning sky
We'll never say it, never say goodbye
Now I know it will be
A hundred percent certainty
I'm giving you more
You can be sure
A hundred percent
Je t'adore
Now I know it will be
A hundred percent certainty
I'm giving you more
You can be sure
A hundred percent
Just as there's beauty
In everyday things
There is joy universal
When the bird sings
As sure as there's changes
We will all stay the same
The immortal pose
Just pictures in a frame
Now I know it will be
A hundred percent certainty
I'm giving you more
You can be sure
A hundred percent
Je t'adore
Now I know it will be
A hundred percent certainty
I'm giving you more
You can be sure
A hundred percent
Je t'adore
Now I know it will be
A hundred percent certainty
I'm giving you more
You can be sure
A hundred percent
Je t'adore
Now I know it will be
A hundred percent certainty
I'm giving you more
You can be sure
A hundred percent
Je t'adore
Show me amore
Trust in every sign
So be gone the space between us
There's no doubt in heart and mind
Now I know it will be
A hundred percent certainty
I'm giving you more
You can be sure
A hundred percent
Je t'adore
Now I know it will be
A hundred percent certainty
I'm giving you more
You can be sure
A hundred percent
Je t'adore
Now I know it will be
A hundred percent certainty
I'm giving you more
You can be sure
A hundred percent
Je t'adore
Now I know it will be
A hundred percent certainty
I'm giving you more
You can be sure
A hundred percent
Sure as a circle
Just keeps coming round
The speed of sound
Sure as the sun will rise
In the morning sky
We'll never say it, never say goodbye
Never say goodbye
08 The Only Ones (04:16)
If often in the still of night
Thoughts turn out twisted
Well unwind
Uncurl and lay the worries of the world
By any fire you find
Dreamers only believers in their sleep
Under archievers take a leap
Tell her the secrets that you keep
So close and yet too far out
Maybe someday you'll hear
Sweet somethings whispered softly
Into your ear
To those with afflictions
Prone to addictions
To users and to losers
Doubters and their daughters and sons
Your Angel will come
Maybe she's come and gone
Already lost the one
What have you done
You lost the only one
If you came from something
And you're headed nowhere
Out on the run
Allow this thought to crystallise
It is better in the long run
To never get there
And let the journey decide
In all this doom and this gloom
And pessimistical visions
Came all condemned men
All fatalists in metaphysical fear
How could love be here
To those with afflictions
Prone to addictions
To users and losers
Doubters and their daughters and sons
Your Angel will come
And to those with intentions
In all three dimensions
To jokers and to the joke
Doubters and their daughters and sons
(maybe you've found the one)
Maybe she's come and gone
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