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Rating: The debut of Semisonic is exactly as I expected it. Perhaps, back in 1996, it was bewildering, and perhaps, quite the opposite, that way of playing couldn't help but feel natural and obvious. I don't remember and I don't know. Looking back after so much time, I say it's exactly as I imagined it: after the (bad) end of grunge, survival doesn't depend on those who pretend for money the same impetus and suffering, but on those who more honestly settle for something less bombastic. And this 'something' is cutting your hair, arming yourself with goodwill, taking out the contact lenses that irritate your eyes and putting back on the lunettes, shedding those flannel shirts because it's the middle of August, slipping off the combat boots and thick socks, and above all returning to a more classic writing approach. Not only to pop-rock and root-rock but also to the alt-rock of many of the fathers of grunge.
In short, this debut from Semisonic, whether you like it or not, they're still from Minneapolis, seems born to obey a very clear imperative: to mellow out. It's in this sense that a good part of the tracklist heads, starting with "F.N.T.", a melodic pop-root arranged by the then-fashionable rock beauty standards, or with "Down In Flames", decidedly tougher.
Simple melody on good riffs, or big guitars on easy stuff ("If I Run" and "Delicious"): it's not indie-punk-pop in the Weezer style, but rather grunge-root-pop. Such stuff, when rock was the music of fun, would have been anthology-worthy, but today you might feel like moving on after thirty seconds of listening. Incidentally, the most fun is "Brand New Baby", almost like a vitaminized version of a Supertramp hit.
Dan Wilson definitely doesn't dare with the sound, but he knows what melody is. In the almost title track "Across The Great Divide," among other things, he lands a chorus you've already heard... Oh God, but it sounds just like the recent "Long Road To Ruin" by Foo Fighters! Then I think about it for a moment, and I wonder: how much stuff have the unfortunate Dan Wilson and the lucky-miraculous Dave Grohl stolen here and there from past alt-rock? After all, that's how it was for many in that decade, even among the most representative. And here, in his positioning between pop-rock, root, indie-alt acoustic or thereabouts, Dan Wilson seems a bit like a crowd-pleasing Lou Barlow from some of his solo works.
The inspirational proximity to the elite of historical alternative echoes loudly in the diagonal indie of "The Prize", and everything seems even clearer. In "No-one Else," Semisonic gives a demonstration of great taste and chill sensitivity, and in the concluding "I'll Feel For You," they seem to come from sleepy London 1977 and "Animals".
There are pieces that can only be fillers, from whatever point of view you observe-listen to "The Great Divide," and depending on your approach to pop-rock, you'll end up discarding the simplest or the tougher tracks, the slower ones or those less catchy. That said, it seems to me that Semisonic in this album have shown they can do and be a bit of everything (except pure grunge) and quite credibly. As often happens, though, the more things you know how to do, the lower you fly, and in this debut, the big chart-busting singles are missing on one side, and the more "bold" tracks on the other. That is, the two extremes are missing.
Rock music doesn't seem to be made for moderates, but only for extremists, even if fake or lying; rock is obviously good for paradoxes, contradictions, like people who do nothing but whine from morning till night with rock but then have the megamillions and the gorgeous chicks. The world of rock music, in short, I believe is the only world where if you're center, you surely lose. And perhaps that's precisely why I like it more than other worlds.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 F.N.T. (03:29)
Fascinating new thing
You delight me, and I know you're speaking of me
Fascinating new thing
Get beside me, I want you to love me
I'm surprised that you've never been told before
That you're lovely
And you're perfect
And that somebody wants you
(Come on now)
Fascinating new thing
The scene makin', want a temporary saviour
Fascinating new thing
Don't betray them by becoming familiar
I'm surprised that you've never been told before
That you're lovely
And you're perfect
And that somebody wants you
I'm surprised that you've never been told before
That you're priceless
And you're precious
Even when you are not new
Lallallalallallalaa x3
I'm surprised that you've never been told before
That you're lovely
And you're precious
And that somebody wants you
I'm surprised that you've never been told before
That you're priceless
Yeah, you're holy
Even when you are not new
(Come on now) x2
Fascinating new thing (fascinating new thing) x2
02 If I Run (04:16)
Morning comes and morning goes
Now it's me against the sun
The day goes by and darkness grows
And it's over before it's done
Well I know it'll be alright if I just get on the road
If I run I can free my worried mind
Yeah I know on the day I die I will lose my heavy load
But I wouldn't want to leave you behind
All my time keeps creeping on
Now I've grown into a man
But Mr. Child still wants to run
From the cradle to the van
Keep thinking it'll be alright if I just get on the road
If I run I can free my worried mind
Keep thinking of the day I die when I lose my heavy load
But I wouldn't want to leave you behind
03 Delicious (03:57)
You're delicious
When you call me
I've got nothing left to wait for
You're delicious when you see me
I've got nothing left to pray for
Woo-hoo, woo-hoo
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
You're delicious
Come and feed me
I've got nothing left to cry for
You're delicious
Oh you sweet thing
You've got something I should open wide for
I would give my one last chance to you
Never to waste it
I would give my one last kiss to you
If you told me that you wanted to taste it
You're delicious
When you call me
I've got nothing left to sigh for
You're delicious
When you save me
I've got nothing left to die for
04 Down in Flames (04:02)
It's not the pain, that I'm used to it
It's feeling like I'm already dead
I see from a ceiling of misty spirit
Rising from a place in my head
And I never even get to go down
Down in flames
I said, friend you have a life to see
Why do you want to scare me so?
All the suffering and mystery me
I can't even pretend to know
So you never even get to go down
Down in flames
You never even get to go down
Down in flames
We had plans to explore the stars
Be rejected by stage door guards
Mining for gold, the time unreels
Not stifling behind Suburban wheels
Not stifling behind Suburban wheels
Yeah
The plan was to burn up when the air was clear
We'd all wear our visors down
Not from a spark in the atmosphere
Not this man-sized hole in the ground
Now your father's face is frozen between anger and tears
You're mother's hair's amazingly gray
And I'm seeing these friends for the first time in years
It's icicle reunion day
And you never even get to go down
Down in flames
You never even get to go down
Down in flames
05 Across the Great Divide (03:00)
Over mountains, that's where my love lives
A long, long ride to sunland here where I did this
Across the great divide alone (wondering open afraid and)
Arriving alive unknown (unknown unwise and unaided)
If I could I might
Send my love on a plane ride
A black cross high in a blue sky
A green cross gliding on a million pines
Across the great divide alone wondering open afraid and,
Arrive in a life unknown (unknown unwise and unaided)
Across the great divide alone (wondering open afraid and)
Try to find a life unknown (unknown unwise and unaided)
07 The Prize (03:58)
The night of a thousand verses
One thousand friends said have you heard
What we expected
We are all working late and
Waiting to win a prize we don't deserve
And live to collect it
Can't you see I'm weary
Maybe this news can wait
The night of a thousand verses
One thousand strivers strain to hear
A voice that's left us
And the magazines still have to sell us
Twelve mastergeniuses a year
It's all so shameless
Can't you see I'm weary
Maybe this news can wait
Can't you see I'm blurry
Maybe this news can wait
Maybe there was a message in it
I don't know where you hid it
Maybe there was a piece that will fit
I don't know where to fit it
Tell me what kind of prize can you get
Where you don't want to win it?
Can't you see I'm weary
Maybe this news can wait
Can't you see I'm blurry
Maybe this blues can wait
09 Brand New Baby (03:37)
Time, you needed time
Out of the mainstream
Out on your only
Alone, to find yourself somehow
So I'm a bit surprised you lately
Beside a brand new baby
Well if it makes you happy now
I guess that's great
I guess you're not mine
Brand new baby beside you now
Oh, yeah
I guess that's great
You don't see me cryin'
And there's nobody to slow you down
Oh, yeah
If you're feeling sorry, try to contain it
You don't need to save me
Don't waste your pity anyhow
And you might like to believe I'm devastated
To see you with your lovin' baby
Well if it makes you happy now
I guess that's great
I guess you're not mine
Brand new baby beside you now
Oh, yeah
I guess that's great
You don't see me cryin'
And there's nobody to slow you down
Oh, yeah
Seen you with your brand new baby
Sure, it phases me just to hear you laughing
Makes me just a little crazy
But I guess it's a great thing
If it makes you happy now
10 Falling (03:37)
High above the midway lights
High above the rides
You, me and the sky
The whole world looks small tonight
And you said we could never really fly
If you're right and we're nothing at all
Tell me, why did I keep thinkin' 'bout your calling
If you're right and we're nothing at all
Tell me, why do you keep thinkin' that your falling
Swayin', sighin' at the skywheel top
Then you say that I could never make you mine
The lights, springs, constellations will turn and stop
Kiss me once again and change your mind
If you're right and we're nothing at all
Tell me, why did I keep thinkin' 'bout your calling
If you're right and we're nothing at all
Tell me, why do you keep thinkin' that your falling
Falling
Falling...
08:49, 14 April 2006 (PDT)08:49, 14 April 2006 (PDT)08:49, 14 April 2006 (PDT)
If you're right and we're nothing at all
Tell me, why did I keep thinkin' 'bout your calling
If you're right and we're nothing at all
Tell me, why do you keep thinkin' that your falling
If you're right
Tell me why
If you're right and we're nothing at all
Tell me, why do you keep thinkin' that your falling
Falling...
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