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Rating: Nico was one of the most mysterious and fascinating figures in the history of rock.
After the successful adventure with the Velvet Underground in the eponymous '67 album, she embarked on a solo career, bestowing two albums upon history: "Marble Index" and this immense "Desertshore", accompanied in both cases by the great John Cale on arrangements.
Describing this monument is not simple, it is indeed impossible. We are faced with one of those things that render language powerless, gestures useless, words superfluous.
We are projected into the abyss of the human soul.
This term is too often abused, in reality, it is always reassuring to believe that there is something "finite", something beyond which one cannot go.
"Desertshore" cruelly reveals to you that this is not true, it is your tenuous construction., "Desertshore" is a journey toward negative infinity. Negative because the human condition painfully oscillates between ambition and finiteness, between instinct and reason, wandering in its ancestral error.
"Desertshore" strips you of the smile you wear for good occasions, whispers to you in a glacial tone your uselessness, rendered vulgar by your obtuse pursuit of affirmation, by your short-sighted ideal of a better life.
The point is here: What is the best way to exist?
It is to become aware of one's own existence. And it is here that Nico, despite her austere and icy voice, helps you, extends a charitable hand.
Now it is you, a wonderfully alone man.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Janitor of Lunacy (04:05)
Janitor of lunacy
Paralyze my infancy
Petrify the empty cradle
Bring hope to them and me
Janitor of tyranny
Testify my vanity
Mortalize my memory
Deceive the Devil's deed
Tolerate my jealousy
Recognize the desperate need
Janitor of lunacy
Identify my destiny
Revive the living dream
Forgive their begging scream
Seal the giving of their seed
Disease the breathing grief
02 The Falconer (05:43)
The falconer is sitting on
His summersand at dawn
Unlocking flooded silvercages
And with a silverdin arise
All the lovely faces
And the lovely silvertraces erase
My empty pages
The falconer is sitting on
His summersand at dawn
Beside his singing silverwaves
And his dancing rebelrace
That compose ahead of timeless time
A sound inside my candle light
Father child
Angels of the night
Silverframe my candlelight
Father child
Angels of the night
Silverframe my candlelight
The falconer is sitting on
His summersand at dawn
Unlocking flooded silvercages
And with a silverdin arise
All the lovely faces
And the lovely silvertraces erase
My empty pages
05 Abschied (03:05)
Seinem Geiste bekenne Ich Mich
Ein Sehnen verzehret sein schones Gesicht
Das ermattet von Gute beschattet allmachtig ist
Sein Korper bewegt sich nicht
Im Traume sich endlich sein Zwingen vergisst
Den heulenden Jubel erkenne Ich nicht
Der Mir den heiligen Frieden zerbricht
Sein schweigender Mund, seine schlafende Brust
Harren zartlich der sussen Lust
Sein Korper bewegt sich nicht
Im Traume sich endlich sein Zwingen vergisst
06 Afraid (03:31)
Cease to know or to tell
Or to see or to be your own
Cease to know or to tell
Or to see or to be your own
Have someone else's will as your own
Have someone else's will as your own
You are beautiful and you are alone
You are beautiful and you are alone
Often the adolescent plague
Reward your grace
Often the adolescent plague
Reward your grace
Confuse your hunger capture the fake
Confuse your hunger capture the fake
Banish the faceless reward your grace
Banish the faceless reward your grace
08 All That Is My Own (03:28)
Your winding winds stood so
All that is my own
Where land and water meet
Where on my soul I sit upon my bed
Your ways have led me to bleed
Every child will be able to weep
Every wise man spoke of him
Every keeper will be sleeper
And a guide to ways unsure
Your winding winds did sow
All that is my own
Where land and water meet
Where on my soul
I sit upon my bed
Your ways have led me to bleed
He who knows may pass on
The word unknown
And meet me on the desertshore
Meet me on the desertshore
Your winding winds did sow
All that is my own
Where land and water meet
Where on my soul
I sit upon my bed
Your ways have led me to bleed
He who knows may pass on
The word unknown
And meet me on the desertshore
Meet me on the desertshore
Meet me on the desertshore
Your winding winds stood so
All that is my own
Where land and water meet
Where on my soul
I sit upon my bed
Your ways have led me to bleed
He who knows may pass on the word I know
And meet me on the desertshore
Meet me on the desertshore
Your winding winds did sow
All that is my own
Where land and water meet
Where on my soul
I sit upon my bed
Your ways have led me to bleed
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Other reviews
By COX
Desertshore is one of those milestones that makes its gloominess and spectral theatricality its strong point.
Dark and new wave enthusiasts cannot afford to have Desertshore absent from their discography.
By alaindelon
Apathetic and calm, this cry gently cradles itself amidst a swirling and gloomy orchestral ensemble dominated by the harmonium and an imperious organ.
In the immobile and icy panorama of infinity, Desertshore is a mere, superb instrument in which Nico... seeks successfully in the impossible endeavor to untangle that very intricate knot that prevents Man from glimpsing the Truth.
By luludia
A divine and human voice (all too human).
Desertshore is a perfect title, but The Inner Scar would have been perfect too.
By Caspasian
The temple of Pöffgen is a psychic construction; the brazier burns eternally.
The High Priestess is surrounded by nothing, the noise of nothingness is deafening.
