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Rating: What does it mean to be mature? Is it a desirable condition?
What is a mature album?
These are some of the questions I find myself facing while listening to this latest effort by SFA.
Inevitably, there comes a time in every band's life when there's a need to make a leap in quality, to expand their audience, to make a "mature" album. It's part of the normal growth process.
The same group members are no longer in their twenties, so their perspectives, needs, and ambitions change.
The question remains whether pop/rock music is not a young person's affair, doesn't it, in fact, suppose a certain dose of recklessness, a love for risk, even incompetence, in short, immaturity?
Could it not, therefore, be a contradiction in terms the very idea of a mature pop album?
In the case of a group like SFA, the question is all the more pertinent because their best qualities - unpredictability, madness, inventiveness - require that initial enthusiasm that inevitably diminishes over time in favor of technical skill and compositional solidity.
Thus, "Phantom Power" marries a more cohesive, structured, "classic" type of writing and sees a general predominance of the "ballad" form over faster numbers (one of the few being the excellent single "Golden Retriever").
In general, there's a sense of recovering sixties vocal forms ("Piccolo Snare", "Hello Sunshine", “Sex, War And Robots") with good results.
In the second part of the album, the quality of songwriting drops with the banal "Bleed Forever" and "Out Of Control" only to rise again to the excellent closing track "Slow Life".
A well-crafted, well-played, lush work: very sunny in sound, very grounded in reality in the lyrics with various references to the winds of war that have swept through the West in recent years ("Piccolo Snare", "Out Of Control", "Slow Life", the same phantom power alludes to the hidden power that controls individual destinies).
In short, SFA is maturing. It's not necessarily a bad thing. There are enough jewels to look forward to a bright future.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Hello Sunshine (03:35)
Sample: - So hard to say goodbye
Meaning it today
I've said goodbye before
Leaving you alone
By the sea
So hard to say goodbye
SFA: - Hello sunshine
Come into my life
In honesty
It's been a while
Since we had reason left to smile
Hello sunshine
Come into my life
I'm a minger
You're a minger too
So come on minger
I want to ming with you
In honesty it's been a while
Since we had reason left to smile
Hello sunshine
Come into my life
You're not so innocent
You're a disgrace to your country
If you fled a million miles
I'd chase you for a day
(If I could be bothered)
Hello sunshine
Come into my life
03 Golden Retriever (02:28)
"Hey!" said the devil
When I met her at the roundabout
She's got powers magnetic
Devours you of everything you've got
She's a golden retriever
Retrieves your oldest coin
Leads you blindly down every dark alley
And then she'll cream you dry
Wow!
"Stop!" said the puppy
When I met him at the zebra cross
Said "you'll need protection from every direction
But she'll get you anyhow"
Coz she's a golden retriever
Retrieves your oldest coin
Leads you blindly down every dark alley
And then she'll cream you dry
Wow!
She's a golden retriever
04 Sex, War & Robots (03:49)
Twenty Twenty Vision 2 see
Said a little voice 2 me
I can see
Tell me what was it like
When U switched off the lights
Went to bed before midnight
Fail to find you at home that night
So finally
It's got to be
Down, down to me
Living '94
When me and you were at war
I'z born a baby that didn't cry
I programme Robots 2 make them lie
Twenty twenty vision to see
I can see
So finally
It's got to be
Down, down to me
If tears could kill
I'd be a long time gone
If tears could kill
I'd be a long time gone
If tears could kill
I'd be a long time gone
If tears could kill
I'd be a long time gone
05 The Piccolo Snare (06:08)
Have you ever seen the sun
(Have you ever seen the sun)
Rising high to the sound of a gun?
Blue and white and yellow sun
(Blue and white and yellow sun)
Capturing the imagination
We went down to the piccolo drum
Never made it into the hum
Down to the piccolo
Down to the piccolo
Down to the piccolo snare
Have you ever seen the sea
(Have you ever seen the sea)
Painted red by a bleeding army?
Sky hawks gather for a feast
(Sky hawks gather for a feast)
Of pawns who will never find peace
Tumbledown to the piccolo snare
Never made it into the square
Down to the piccolo
Down to the piccolo
No-one particular cared
Dreaming, dreaming, dreaming, dreaming
Now we can go home again
To our old haunts again
Together
Now scatter us all around
Far from the bugle sound
Surrender
Safe in the exclusion zone
Catch me and take me home
As brother fights brother
Wrapped up in tarnished flags
Banners and body bags
Surrender!
Phantom!
(Dreaming, dreaming, dreaming, dreaming) (X3)
08 Bleed Forever (03:39)
Cloud upon cloud cries poison rain
Slate, hair, roads glisten again
There's no console, it's no game
We were going places it's such a shame
Bleed forever
Seep from the stones
Bleed forever
Silence atones
Bleed forever
Mould us like clay
For everything we had is taken away
The gurning gunrunner wakes from his sleep
With no remorse for those who kick by his feet
Skin care consultant calls the police
But from this dungeon there is no release
Bleed forever
Seep from the stones
Bleed forever
Silence atones
Bleed forever
Mould us like clay
For everything we had has wasted away
Fate decided, rubbing your eyes
Men in tailcoats absorb the cries
Milk the scapegoat, milk it dry
Put it down and watch it die
Bleed forever
Seep from the stones
Bleed forever
Bleed to the bone
Bleed forever
Burn us away
For everything we had has wasted away
Everything we knew has wasted away
09 Out of Control (02:43)
Fast and cheap
Ninja jihad
Suck my oil
Feel my vineyard
I am scum
You are scum
Bus has gone
Bye so long
We are scum
We are scum
Bus is gone
Overrun and
Out of control (X4)
Holy wars
Phantom power
Phantom lies
On the hour
We are one kind
Bear it in mind
We are one kind
Bear it in mind
We are one kind
Bear it in mind
We are one kind
Unrefined and
Out of control (X8)
10 Cityscape Skybaby (04:34)
She came in smelling of cabbages
Pumpkin roots and all winter's ravages
She came in around dawn
Took her coat off
Burdened down by the Russian winter
Felt the warmth of the hearth
Bathed a while naked in hot water
Wash away imminent disaster
Thinking through her today
And the murder
Of the bailiff and the landowner
Felt no shame
Only gain
Cleansed the pike
Peeled all the potatoes
Beetroots ripe for bellies of gigolos
Served it up for her son and her daughter
For the last time she imagines
Reprobates lie in wait
Baby bye-bye
(Bye-bye, bye-bye)
(Sky, sky)
Bye-bye baby
(Sky, sky)
Skybaby
(Sky, sky)
Bye-bye baby
(Sky, sky)
Sweet vigilante
(Sky, sky)
Bye-bye baby
(Sky, sky)
Skybaby
(Sky, sky)
Bye-bye baby
(Sky, sky)
Sweet vigilante
(Sky)
Baby bye-bye
12 Valet Parking (04:35)
Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba...
Vilnius vacation
And I don't need any inoculation
I just jump in my car and go
For how long? I do not know
The Eurozone is my home
(I'm carsick)
(Vilnius vacation)
Passed my driving test last year
You know it took me some years to get there
It was my fourth time around
And I was in perfect mind of sound
Underneath my chair is the road to her
(At this point I switch my radio on)
If it's not crap trance on the radio
Then it's problem rock on every show
You know it's got no more lows to go
They're making too much money and taking too much Blow
Your mind is behind
(And this is total nowness)
Fly away in my silver Bluebird
Some would argue that it's grey
Fly away in my silver Bluebird
Sleep in lay-bys on the way
(Coming up to Berlin, I have a mild accident)
Well it's Solvent Abuse Awareness Week
At the clinic in a Berlin backyard
Sleek as the big lump on my head
I could really do with a bath and a bed
But underneath my chair is the road to her
(So I just head on for Poland and, er)
Reach my destination with no satellite navigation system
Just a map and a clear mind
If I run out of bucks
Maybe I'll drive a truck
But it's a lonely way to make some pay
Fly away in my silver Bluebird
Some would argue that it's grey
Fly away in my silver Bluebird
Sleep in lay-bys on the way
Fly, fly away (X3)
Valet! Valet!
La la la la la la la la (X16)
13 The Undefeated (04:07)
Lies! Pollution! Solution! Solution!
I, I lose again
You are the victor I confess
You are David and Goliath
I'm but the dirt
Beneath your feet
Yes so shallow the undefeated
(Lies! Pollution! Solution!)
Yes so shallow the undefeated
Step, step into my shoes
I'll try and make you understand
I lead my life without a plan
I need no guidance
Just your patience
For so shallow the undefeated
(Lies! Pollution! Solution!)
For so shallow the undefeated
Every animal has its day
We will chase the phantoms away
For so shallow the undefeated
(Lies! Pollution! Solution!)
Yes so shallow the undefeated
Yes so shallow the undefeated
(Lies! Pollution! Solution!)
Yes so shallow the undefeated
Oh so shallow the undefeated
Yes so shallow the undefeated
Yes so shallow the undefeated
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Other reviews
By temi
They have overdone the experimentation and have produced an album that I find boring and lacking in ideas.
The cover art is also dreadful... consistent with the content of the album.
