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Rating:
I hear a beautiful song and ask him who is singing. With his usual face, he answers in his standard metallic tone, resignedly saying: "It’s Mark Lanegan." Then a flash of life, he awakens from his lofty and disconnected thoughts and tells me decisively: "I don't think you know him, he was the singer of Screaming Trees." *
"Uncle Anesthesia", from 1991, is the first album by Screaming Trees released with a major label, Epic, following "Buzz Factory" (for which I refer to the great review by Donjunio already present on these pages). The album was produced not only by Screaming Trees themselves but also by Chris Cornell, who provided backing vocals on three tracks (the eponymous "Uncle Anesthesia", "Before We Arise", and "Alice Said").
The record is decidedly more rock than grunge, and perhaps thanks to the production, it shows a certain professional attitude, let’s say you can smell the recording studio rather than the dust of a garage or the musty closeness of a basement. Guitars and drums are prominent, the sound is dense, full-bodied, compact, and homogeneous, strong but clean, without edges or smudges. The level is high, and it remains so for all thirteen tracks that compose it. Making a bold wine comparison, it’s almost an "assembly" album, or a glass of Cirò.
When I talk about homogeneity, I mean to highlight precisely the high content of the whole work, which does not show drops or relaxations, and offers a certain compositional and executional linearity and continuity, but this does not mean that the album is flat, boring, or monotonous. On the contrary, you’ll find psychedelic brushstrokes, catchy tracks, more restrained pieces, dark atmospheres, and sunnier and more melodic songs; all of which are excellently dominated by Lanegan’s perfect voice.
Paradoxically, precisely the album's merit then presents the flip side, becoming also its main defect, and perhaps one of the reasons it didn’t achieve the success it deserved, aside from the overshadowing caused by the deflagration of Nirvana's contemporary "Nevermind". I am referring specifically to the album's uniformity: while the standard of all the pieces is commendable, there is a lack of standout songs, those one or two tracks that rise above the otherwise high average of the others, that have that special touch which distinguishes them and engraves them in your memory and that, perhaps, would have decreed greater success, even commercially, for the album and the band (I do have my favorites: the ballad "Bed of Roses", the energetic rock of "Story Of Her Fate", the dark "Alice Said", the closing track "Closer").
A final note that enhances my pleasure for this album regards the spectacular cover: it might be my degenerate freak state, but that monster waving with one of its four hands like a Vulcan makes me smile every time... live long and prosper.
Now I understand, my ordinary appearance transmits deplorable listens to him. But I know who Mark Lanegan is, arrogant shopkeeper unworthy of the stuff you sell here, you alternative of my balls, when I was listening to the Dead Kennedys you hadn’t even started masturbating. I leave, I leave and I hate him. *
* from "Tono Metallico Standard", track no. 5 of "Socialismo Tascabile - Prove Tecniche di Trasmissione", Offlaga Disco Pax, 2005.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
03 Uncle Anesthesia (03:52)
Tries to preach us in the dark
By the river I hear you talking
Strike a match to the Western sky
Blowing fire in the sweet, sweet summertime
[Alright]
Eyes betray what your words don't speak
Burn my gaze with sadness
[Turn your head away]
I'd rather be almost anywhere else
A step away from madness
No man's promised land tell me what you may
Tell me what you mean
Saw the moonlight waiting somewhere further down the way
Wrong turn to Jahannon, I wonder if you'd stay
No man...
Just a preacher in the dark
By the river I hear you talking
Strike a match to the Western skies
Blowing fire in the sweetest summertime
No man's promised land tell me what you may
Tell me what you mean
Saw the moonlight waiting somewhere further down the way
Wrong turn to Jahannon, I wonder if you'd stay
No man, No man, I wonder if you'll stay
Yeah, wonder if you'll stay
Yeah, wonder if you'll speak
Yeah, wonder if, wonder if, wonder if
Wonder if you'll stay at home
Wonder if, wonder if...
07 Before We Arise (02:26)
Blackness all around
(Can you wake me)
Truthless little town
(Can you wake me)
Flying in your streets
(Can you wake me)
Drowning in your sleep
(Can you wake me)
From another dreamless night
Long before we arise
Howling in your field
(Can you wake me)
Unconquered and unreal
(Can you wake me)
I'm crawling deep inside
(Can you wake me)
Drifting with the tide
(Can you wake me)
From another dreamless night
Long before we arise
Long before we arise
09 Alice Said (04:11)
Alice said to come on in now
It's time for bed
The hour's quite late
I need a nap to clear my head
Laid it down, the pillow softly calls to you and me
I've been sat down, bounced all around
Now I can't see, blind happily...
Alice said have you forgotten what we'll be
Concealed in smiles that come too late
Now I can't see
The sun goes down, thoughts go astray
She might take my soul away
Don't close the shades until the twilight fades
Yep!
Alice said to come on in now
It's time for bed
The hour's quite late
I need a nap to clear my head
The sun goes down, thoughts go astray
She might take my soul away
Don't close the shades until the twilight fades
Don't close the shades until the twilight fades
Alice said...(repeat to fade)
12 Ocean of Confusion (03:05)
On a day so long ago now, no one can remember
There's a chance this too will pass vanish in the haze
This is moving too far under the skin of your sight
Ocean of confusion took me back to the end of the night
Transparent dreams fade in my head and in my eye
I'm looking back for one last time
Make a dash towards the door in sudden disarray
As the daylight turned to rust
The more you want to stay
Trapped within the silence
And do you think it's alright
Close your eyes and try to fly
Back to the end of the night
Transparent dreams made in my head and in my eye
I'm looking back for one last time
Now day has broken, scattered in the wind
Lies still unspoken, nothing left to say
Sliding by a picture and then fold it in your hand
Ride it out in hopelessness, now you'll understand
This is moving too far under the skin of your sight
Ocean of confusion took me back to the end of the night
Transparent dreams made in my head and in my eye
I'm looking back for one last time ...time
Back to the end of the night ...night
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