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Rating:
The first album, "See This Through And Leave", opened with a very light touch of electronics and continued as a good electro-rock album, probably the English debut of the year.
The second album, "Kick Up The Fire, And Let The Flames Kick Loose" (what a wonderful title), opened with a soft carpet of loops and continued as an art-rock masterpiece, one of the best English albums of my own.
The third album, "Make This Your Own" (what a banal title), opens with a nervous guitar, an aggressive voice, and continues with a sense of foreboding. It's not a good omen either that a hurried listen suggests the best of the batch is the next track, "Homo Sapiens", a raunchy metal-rock for MTV-esque palates, and the subsequent one even the more commercial, "Waiting Game", which instead seems to sound like a decadent cross between the rhythm section of Feeder and Brian Molko (no wonder the two songs were introduced as singles).
The last album from the worst-dressed band in the United Kingdom, "The Cooper Temple Clause" (what a magnificent name), is one of the most anticipated releases of recent years, due to a career matured through a very particular search for sound, which has roots in that oblique pop-rock that flatters us craving alternative pulses, without disdaining even more refined Radiohead-like sorties.
Previously some changes caused concern for the guys: one in the lineup (the departure of the bassist for the comfortable arms of the unbearable Carl Barat - see "The Libertines") and one in the label, after the major double whammy that had opened the dances.
Leaving the post experiments at home, then, "The Cooper Temple Clause" seeks, through these new ten tracks, the pursuit of melody at all costs, even at the risk of bordering on Placebo-esque plagiarism of the innocuous and annoying "What Have You Gone And Done?", strategically placed as the turning point. Did they want to cash in with this? The doubt remains. "Make This Your Own" is not a bad album, as long as it is given due time and one can grasp the intact stature of pieces like "Head", beautiful with its heavy and thoughtful articulations; or the closure of "House Of Card", with the voice (which I personally adore and in this last effort seemed often tired) reaching the ancient vibrations of a small jewel like "Written Apologies"; or finally the sudden changes in "All I See Is You", which starts off soft before once again touching dangerous alternative metal, and which the crystalline class manages to stop at the brink of the abyss.
Two and a half stars, then, which rise to three because ogni scarrafone è bello a mamma soja.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Homo Sapiens (03:26)
You can't overestimate the limits of aggression of an animal created in the image of God himself
You can't allow for subtle defects, there's no time of reflect, there's no time to cover your tracks
It's not a mistake to fear an animal's own limited access, the plan just keeps without his hopes and dreams
Such a cause of satisfaction, such a cause of action, search evaluate and destroy.
I am man, I'm a superstar, I shine so bright, a worldwide success
I said hammer it home, I'm a superstar, a glowing example of a dream come true.
I am a man, I'm a work of art, I'm fashioned in God's own image, I am holy and clean
I am a man, I'm a superstar, I shine so bright, a worldwide success
Let me curl myself into a ball before you let me understand
Let me curl myself into a ball before you let me understand
You cant underestimate the feeling of attraction of the animal in question to the marvel of what he's made
You can't escape the sense of pride, he's created a divide between, you'll suffer it to rain on his parade.
Don't even think about it, it's enough to read about it
Force an animal to circle and keep an eye on you should you decide to have a go and try to rattle his cage
I am a man, I'm a gift to the world, I wish I was born as civilised and set free
I am a man, I'm a market tool, the sell of the century of the bargain of a lifetime
Hammer it home, I'm a superstar, a glowing example of a dream come true
Let me curl myself into a ball before you let me understand
Let me curl myself into a ball before you let me understand and make me realise
I'm havin' a ball just being a man
I'm livin' it up just being a man
It sure as hell rocks just being a man
There's nothin' quite beats just being a man
Like being a man
05 Waiting Game (03:33)
From the littlest things
To the pain that it brings
Down to the things you miss the most
But you won’t let yourself go
No you won’t let yourself
‘Cos time and time again
We feel the load a little more
If you can let yourself go
Then we won’t hit that road.
‘Cos I can see the sky
But it is yours to be seen
If you can be with someone else
If you can let yourself
But is this the time?
Is this the place?
And is this the end
Is all I can say
I promise I never meant to turn you away
Why did you trust me with your heart?
So consider the things
From the pain that it brings
Down to the things that you miss the most
But if you let yourself go
Well then the next thing you know
Is I have seen this guy
He is looking at me
Yeah and he thinks I’m something else
So you can walk yourself home
Yeah you can go
Even though you waited
I know that you can begin on your own
You can begin on your own
But is this the time?
Is this the place?
And is this the end
Is all I can say
I promise I never meant to turn you away
Why did you trust me with your heart?
I promise I never meant to turn you away
Why did you trust me with your heart?
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