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Nice site, DeBaser: it's frequented by great people (sometimes even less than great...) as I once said; I'm fascinated by the controversies and discussions triggered by some reviews, as well as those that arise by chance, having nothing to do with the works under review.
I like the fact that everyone is given a voice: the ignorant and the literati, the humble and the smug, the learned and the know-it-alls, jesters and bean-eaters, everyone has their say, and in the end, the veil that separates right from wrong is so thin that it's no longer clear which side you're on, and the important thing isn't to reach a conclusion, a final statement, but to keep discussing, review after review, page after page.
So, friends, what I want to offer you today is precisely a starting point for discussion.
Why, wanting to continue being a part of this community, should I keep swallowing without batting an eye your most eminent and balanced reviews of immense and mostly untraceable masterpieces of post-doom-noise-electro-emo-folktronica?
Why should I feel more ignorant than I already am, just because I'm subtly suggested that if I don't "understand" a certain album, I don't know what good music is?
Why do many (so many) of you talk about albums that will only be released in months as if they had composed and played them themselves, and others chorus back "great, I'll get it!" knowing they're extolling more or less legal downloads, amassing hundreds of files that will never be listened to properly?
Well, my answer to all this is "48 Hours".
An album that doesn't exist as a physical entity, as a reproducible medium, but exists on the net, or rather the web... Because "web" better conveys the idea of something that captures you and won't let you go, just like a "spiderweb," the "spider's web," in which we get entangled without realizing it, and it steals precious time from us with our consent, never giving it back.
The "web," however, grants us glimpses of hope, flashes of joy, and occasionally jewels, like this album, (for now) rejected by its own creator; I say "for now" because it seems that in the infamous upcoming box set, Ryan will include the album along with other rarities. Knowing the type, though, I wouldn't take anything for granted.
To the fans of the American wonder boy, some of the titles included here will sound very familiar: "Desire", "Hallelujah", and "Chin Up, Cheer Up" were included in the demo collection "Demolition," and here (apart from the first) they aren't even the best tracks in the batch; for that, you'd need to look to the delicate and folkish "Karina", the lively "Angelina" (indeed very similar to the mentioned "Hallelujah"), and the troubled "Born Yesterday", which Ryan sings with the intensity as if it were a blues.
"Walls" made me think of how it would be sung by Springsteen, reminding me of certain things from "Devils and Dust"; the noted "Desire" also evokes the Boss's spirit thanks to the harmonica and the poignant melody.
"Drunk & Fucked Up (Like The Twilight)" is one of the most beautiful songs crafted by Ryan Adams, featuring an epic chorus accompanied by a poignant mandolin and guitar, with lyrics about spectacular benders and sleepless nights spent getting wasted waiting for the dawn.
The rest of the album moves between country-rock moods and slide guitars, with generally calm tempos and rhythms, but the quality remains extremely high, enough to make one wonder what could have driven Ryan or his record label not to officially release an album that would certainly be on the podium of his best works.
Now, DeBaserian friends, it's up to you to decide whether I'm just a hopeless case, or if I've provided a good service to you all by presenting what I believe is the "Great White Wonder" of the 2000s.
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 Hallelujah (03:20)
I've been a desperate man
I've been sheltered by a lonely dream
There's a stranger here
Looking back above the bathroom sink
Every night I throw you out
Leave you stranded on the boulevard
You know that I use you up
I used you like I used a mop
Well the band's singing hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
You're all gone. Yeah, you're all gone.
If I could have a simple love
How would it feel and what would it mean?
I'd only trade you away
For Mary Magdalene
Oh, it wouldn't make me insane
And it would make me the king
And I wouldn't have to wait
Wait around for the real thing
Well the band's singing hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
You're all gone. Yeah, you're all gone.
Hallelujah
You're all gone. Oh yeah, yeah, hey.
02 Walls (05:44)
These are the walls
Walls our emptiness made
And this is the storm
Looks like it's gonna hold
Yeah, nobody knows
Who they are around here anymore
Cigarettes and some beers
Then it's back in the car [???]
Ain't it funny how we forgot who we were through the years
Put your fist through the wall cryin' television tears
Maybe I had something nobody saw
Blame it on the wall
Well the rain's gonna come
Come and wash away all of our sins
And if the damn doesn't break
Go and we'll wash it away with some gin
Cause they got money to make
And I've always got a reason to go
Sheets don't move from the bed
My head don't move from the floor
Ain't it funny how we forgot who we were through the years
Put your fist through the wall cryin' television tears
Maybe I had something nobody saw
Blame it on the wall
Ain't it funny how we forgot who we were through the years
Put your fist through the wall cryin' television tears
Put your fist through the wall cryin' television tears
Put your fist through the wall cryin' television tears
Put your fist through the wall cryin' television tears
Put your fist through the wall cryin' television tears
Yeah . . . yeah . . . yeah
Oh . . . oh
03 Desire (03:51)
Two hearts fading, like a flower
And all this waiting, for the power,
For some answers, to this fire
Sinking slowly, the waters higher...mmm
Desire
Desire
With no secrets, no obsession
This time I'm speeding, with no direction,
Without a reson, what is this fire?
Burning slowly, my one and only...mmm
Desire
Desire
Desire
Desire
You know me, you don't mind waiting
You just can't show me, but God I'm praying
That you'll find me, and that you'll see me
That you'll run and never tire...mmm
Desire
Desire
Desire
Desire
04 Angelina (03:10)
Johnny held a picture of you
Yeah he kissed it and threw it away
Discarded on the avenue
Just like all those letters that you threw away
Oh, Angelina, you lied
Oh, Angelina, you did it and smiled
Oh, Angelina, you went to town hall dance
With your hair pulled back and a dress
Johnny took an airplane back
Shuffled his feet on the street in L.A.
Two hundred dollars and a gunny sack
He bought a guitar and sang with a band
And he sang:
Oh, Angelina, you lied
Oh, Angelina, you did it and smiled
Oh, Angelina, you went to town hall dance
With your hair pulled back and a dress
Well job's hard enough when you ain't got a girl
And the weekend won't leave you alone
And with money to spare and with nights at the end
Till he ends up at a pay telephone
Said:
Oh, Angelina, you lied
Oh, Angelina, you did it and smiled
Oh, Angelina, you went to town hall dance
With your hair pulled back and a dress
Oh, Angelina, you lied
Oh, Angelina, you did it and smiled
Oh, Angelina, I'm tired, it's the end of the night
Yeah, it's the end of the line
11 Karina (04:07)
Karina, if I told you what I wanted to
I wonder if you would have stuck around
Well I could take you walking down to Hoxton Square
With the lazy afternoon still kickin’around
Karina if I left it where I wanted to
Yeah, I wonder if you sit around and smile
When you’re dreamin’ of America, your father's ghost
Breaks the door with all his chains just rattlin' around
Cause if it were easy
You wouldn’t need me
If it would bring you any ease
I'd beg to Jesus "won’t you let Karina free"
Karina all the silence, it’s so deafening
And all the leaves have fallen from the trees
I could hold your cigarette on Oxford Street
But I’m back here, where your lover wants me to be
And Karina, there’s this patience in the things we see
It’s the harbouring of all the things we do
Yeah, and everytime I tell myself there’s nothing left
May I always say your name and think of you
Cause if it were easy
You wouldn’t need me
If it would bring you any ease
I'd beg to Jesus "won’t you let Karina free"
I'd beg to Jesus "won’t you let Karina free"
Karina, if I told you what I wanted to
I wonder if you would have stuck around
Well I could take you walking down to Hougston (?) Square
With the lazy afternoon still kickin’around
Karina if I left it where I wanted to
I wonder if you sit around and smile
When you’re dreamin’ of America, your father's ghost
Breaks the door with all his chains just rattlin' around
Cause if it were easy
You wouldn’t need me
If it would bring you any ease
I'd beg to Jesus "won’t you let Karina free"
I'd beg to Jesus "won’t you let Karina free"
I'd beg to Jesus "won’t you let Karina free"
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