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Rating: To tell the truth, there was already a review of this album, but it was almost completely overlooked, so I'm bringing it back to you, hoping it will be clicked more than the other one. This "Leave The Story Untold" is the first album by Soulwax. I intend to spare you discussions like "now with this DJ stuff, they really suck," which would only lead to heated and pointless debates. Instead, I would like to draw your attention to this record, which in my opinion has a lot to say.
So, the "Intro". For some, it serves to get the listener into the mood of the album, while for others, it can be safely tossed aside. I'm among the latter. So, after the pointless 36-second introduction, we start with "Reruns". From the left speaker first and then from the right, you hear the guitar perfectly emulating the sound of Formula 1 cars racing at 300 km/h before being engulfed by a powerful riff that then softens to make room for an acoustic chorus. One of the best. It is followed by "Caramel," an idyll of synthesizers now sharp, now sweet like caramel accompanied by an acoustic guitar.
Not to drag it out too long, the album's formula consists of an alternation between decently powerful rock tracks and much more relaxed ballads. Among the explicitly rock songs, to highlight " Kill Your Darlings," "Soul Simplicity" (which in its slower parts seems to evoke " Creep" by Radiohead), and "The About It Song," which starts with a series of surprisingly pleasant distortions and pre-concert-like chords. On the other hand, for the more relaxed tracks, I would mention "Great Continental Suicide Note," "Tales Of A Dead Scene," and the Californian "Rooster" (the record was produced in Los Angeles, maybe that's why it reminds me of California) that doesn't shy away from some electric guitar parts which, although slow, are quite hard.
The band's more instrumental aspect emerges in the last songs "Long Distance Zoom" and "Vista Grande", where guitarist David Dewaele tries his hand at the role of experimenter (not succeeding, in my opinion). The "seal" is "Acapulco Gold", which is probably meant to be a sonic recap of the entire work: beginning with a crescendo, a rock-like chorus, and an acoustic interlude. All in all, it fits well.
Broadly speaking, this is "Leave The Story Untold". If you expect to find the electro-rock of "Any Minute Now," you're off track. If you expect to find the deadly riffs of "Much Against Everyone's Advice," you're already more on the right path, but here the sound is much rougher. Ah.. I almost forgot: if you like "Nite Version," here we're really on another planet.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Reruns (Daisy Duke) (03:10)
Hell, spookin' all over me
But the sight of you just
Breaks my heart in
Three - Ways of tellin' you
First you scratch the surface
Then you pull the plug!
Chorus:
If you get low it takes you by the hand
Daisy Duke
Don't you know
Soon it will start again
Daisy Duke
Like a dreamy resonance
The same chase oasis
Quick in a slow way
Can't you see
That I know: You won't come around
To take me away from here
(Chorus)
03 Caramel (04:20)
You fell down the stairs,
been done before
stuck to the seats like Caramel
caramel
No word is spoken,
try and act serene
stuck on each other
like caramel
caramel
Red splendour above my head
the ugly, the bad and the good.
I saw you projected there
on canvas oil of blood
World where have you gone
watch them leaving
stuck on somebody else
like caramel,
Caramel
Red splendour above my head
the ugly, the bad and the good
I saw you projected there
on canvas oil of blood
Strung out on each other's lines
heroes with an edge
I saw you projected there
but it didn't make any sense
04 Kill Your Darlings (03:19)
There's a script - but I ain't writin'
Left that stage all in my mind
Cause I'm not hip to your sign language
Sticky fingers of a different kind
The same word, foreign language
In the same season, they killed you twice
For the sake of human nature
Sweet smell shotgun for the hip and blind
She strokes the gun - feel how it's warm
Got a mouthful dirt and razors
It'll cut right through last month's flavour
with a mouthful, wasted terrors
Kill your Darlings, Kill your Darlings
Cause I tried bein' helpful
Sayin' things I don't understand
Can't come up with no new lines
from their sweet surfaced mouths
She strokes the gun - feel how it's warm
Got a mouthful dirt and razors
It'll cut right through last month's flavour
with a mouthful, wasted terrors
Kill your Darlings, Kill your Darlings
Kiss the gun, bite the bullets
Get off the stick - get on
She can
Well I've seen all their faces
Shakin' hands full of napalm traces
She strokes the gun - feel how it's warm
Got a mouthful dirt and razors
It'll cut right through last month's flavour
with a mouthful, wasted terrors
Kill your Darlings, Kill your Darlings
06 Soul Simplicity (04:34)
Try me
You heard me
Standing there
I don't agree
Before being crushed
This is a call
Soul Simplicity
No need to rush
This is the soul of a new identity
Can't You See
Why so mean
chorus
I Feel
You do it to yourself
Noone gets out
Stop competing with God Come to me
On my knees
I Feel they
Whisper at me
12 Long Distance Zoom (03:08)
Feels like nothin' is real
when all you can hear is sorry again
please don't take my fraud
as I finish my thoughts for you
it's my new favourite word
it's a three letter hurt from inside
As I try to forget
it's as far as I'll get to hatin' you
Complicated - cannot find the words
Let your mind fall down
Sophisticated - love the way, it hurts
Let your mind fall down!
It's a long distance zoom
As I try to forget
It's as far as I'll get to hatin' you
Tell me - write it down - long distance zoom!
Complicated - cannot find the words
Let your mind fall down
Sophisticated - love the way it hurts
let your mind fall down
14 Acapulco Gold (13:32)
Common cancer - on the telephone
Dead stop radio - try an suck a hole
Gif wise tongue - dead gone monotone
It's all around your big white ears
A life in the day - dream on dreamin' on
Milk my mind - keep on keepin' on
Make me cream - have a taste son
10 000 Miles under the soul
Leave the story untold
But the map's already unfold
Everybody's soul searchin' for
Acapulco gold
Hands up raised high
Keep your mind blowin'
Won't you pay no mind
Got your face glowin'
Keep your fi-hi
With my mind blowin'
It's been travellin' to wherever it should
Leave the story untold
But the map's already unfold
Everybody's soul searching for
Acapulco gold
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