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Rating: As soon as the record starts spinning, your ears are filled with a typically retro sound. Definitely from the '80s. "Let's go to bed" opens this album with such sweetness that you can feel the Christmas atmosphere in your veins. Strangely pop (good old Pop), this single is a little treasure to be cherished. The structure, as with most of The Cure's songs, is very stable, but gradually many facets are added that enrich the sound, nuances sometimes imperceptible yet giving that touch of magic to the melody. In this track, it's the case of the guitar, which plays a funky rhythm at the end, just as Robert is about to dream "tu tutu tu..tu tutu tu... Let's go to bed..".
The next track, "The dream", is influenced by a Japanese sound, to say the least, delightful. Complicated and cryptic, it offers a pearly energy, leaving much to hope for in what is about to come. The keyboards insult each other through unusual and experimental verses, just as the drums articulate in a ruthlessly impossible and engaging tempo. Following this splendid beginning, the album takes on a shape all its own, indescribable. "Just one kiss" is the first piece that resumes the dark atmospheres, but it does so in an unusual way. I admit to shedding a few tears listening to it. A tribal beat joins the mix, supporting the anguish delivered by the voice. A delicate arpeggio weaves throughout the piece, while the keyboards add pathos with their faint whispering. It's moving when Robert sings "Remember the sound that could wake the dead...but nobody woke up at all..somebody die for this...somebody die for just one kiss". The bass grows more insistent as we approach the end of this marvel. The arpeggio shatters into millions of noises, giving way to "The upstairs room". Even here, the dark theme is present. Meowing guitars blend with the bass, which reaches a climax in the chorus. The harmonics that play in the background during the bridge and intro immerse the listener in a crystalline and fragile world.
"The walk" turns out to be the most "Dance" track of the album. The references to Japanese sounds are much more explicit here. It's a great track that breaks things up a bit, acting as a bridge between the two parts of the CD, one more Pop, the other almost Jazz. Indeed, "Speak my language" presents itself with an almost Jazz tendency. Double bass instead of bass, brushes instead of sticks. Those typical '80s effects are missing. Shadowy and comfortable, joyful and fun, especially when Robert starts mumbling incomprehensible words while screaming "Speak my language!!". Splendid. But the following track is even more wonderful. If "Just one kiss" brought tears to my eyes, with "Lament," I burst into desperate tears. Sublime. Shocking. The '80s drums return, overwhelming with their hammering sound, perfectly marrying the mighty bass with a profoundly unsettling line. The arpeggio takes your breath away with its sinuosity. The keyboards scream in pain, suffocating in their Japanese whispers. A rising climax that explodes like fury, drenching the heart in tears, down to the bones, which helplessly shatter. A masterpiece. Indescribable the emotions it makes me feel. I wouldn't even know where to begin. Visceral emotions.
We head towards the final track, "The lovecats", which returns to the Jazz theme. Crystal clear and clean. It moves like a cat, with the same curiosity, the same indifference, the same softness. The piano gives gentle strokes, as if played by the timid paws of a kitten. The album is over.
It is a compilation (although to me it's an album in its own right). It's hard to believe this record came right after "Pornography" (just the name gives me chills). The chameleon-like nature of The Cure is great, morphing into genius.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Let's Go to Bed (03:34)
Let me take your hand
I'm shaking like milk
Turning
Turning blue
All over the windows and the floors
Fires outside in the sky
Look as perfect as cats
The two of us together again
But it's just the same
A stupid game
But I don't care if you don't
And I don't feel if you don't
And I don't want it if you don't
And I won't say it
If you don't say it first
You think you're tired now
But wait until three...
Laughing at the Christmas lights
You remember
From December
All of this then back again
Another girl
Another name
Stay alive but stay the same
It's just the same
A stupid game
But I don't care if you don't
And I don't feel if you don't
And I don't want it if you don't
And I won't play it
If you don't play it first
You can't even see now
So you ask me the way
You wonder if it's real
Because it couldn't be rain...
Through the right doorway
And into the white room
It used to be the dust that would lay here
When I came here alone
But I don't care if you don't
And I don't feel if you don't
And I don't want it if you don't
And I won't say it
If you don't say it first
Doo doo doo doo
Let's go to bed!
Doo doo doo doo
Let's go to bed!
04 The Upstairs Room (03:30)
I love it all
These games we play
I close my eyes
You run away
I'm sure I asked you to stay
But now you're gone
And so I feel the grey
Pulse in my head
I turn off the lights and crawl into bed
I try to think of sunshine
But my body goes wet
With the first crash of thunder...
I don't think I can know
Anyone but you dear
That's for sure!
When it gets to four
It's my turn to go
Oh the kiss!
So alcoholic and slow
Arranging me for Saturday
I thought you would know
That I always sleep alone...
I don't think I can know
Anyone but you
Dear
That's for sure!
The upstairs room is cool and bright
We can go up there in summer
And dance all night...
Your sister started talking at a minute after ten
So everyone jumped up
And then fell over again
In April you can join them
And stare at me
At the ghost from your past...
05 The Walk (03:30)
I called you after midnight
Then ran until I burst
I passed the howling woman
And stood outside your door
We walked around a lake
And woke up in the rain
And everyone turned over
Troubled in their dreams again
Visiting time is over
And so we walk away
And both play dead then cry out loud
Why we always cry this way?
I kissed you in the water
And made your dry lips sing
I saw you look
Like a Japanese baby
In an instant I remembered everything...
I called you after midnight
Then ran until my heart burst
I passed the howling woman
And stood outside your door
I kissed you in the water
And made your dry lips sing
I saw you look
Like a Japanese baby
In an instant I remembered everything...
06 Speak My Language (02:40)
It was only yesterday
Waving arms across the street
Your white face left me blue...
How can I say all the things
I have to say to you?
Oh! all the people here
All look the same...
The little time I spend with you
We drink each other dry
Mammnnarghaassstmmetc!
Speak my language!
It was only yesterday
My eyes touched yours across the street
We cut the words
And waved goodbye
And dropped off the edge of the world
Mammnnarghaassstmmetc!
Speak my language!
08 The Lovecats (03:40)
We move like caged tigers
We couldn't get closer than this
The way we walk
The way we talk
The way we stalk
The way we kiss
We slip through the streets
While everyone sleeps
Getting bigger and sleeker
And wider and brighter
We bite and scratch and scream all night
Let's go and throw
All the songs we know...
Into the sea
You and me
All these years and no one heard
I'll show you in spring
It's a treacherous thing
We missed you hissed the lovecats
We're so wonderfully wonderfully wonderfully
Wonderfully pretty!
Oh you know that I'd do anything for you...
We should have each other to tea huh?
We should have each other with cream
Then curl up by the fire
And sleep for awhile
It's the grooviest thing
It's the perfect dream
Into the sea
You and me
All these years and no one heard
I'll show you in spring
It's a treacherous thing
We missed you hissed the lovecats
We're so wonderfully wonderfully wonderfully
Wonderfully pretty!
You know that I'd do anything for you...
We should have each other to dinner
We should have each other with cream
Then curl up in the fire
Get up for awhile
It's the grooviest thing
It's the perfect dream
Hand in hand
Is the only way to land
And always the right way round
Not broken in pieces
Like hated little meeces...
How could we miss
Someone as dumb as this?
I love you... let's go...
Oh... solid gone...
How could we miss
Someone as dumb as this?
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Other reviews
By the clash
Robert Smith... so real with his doubts and troubles and so transcendent in the way he narrates them.
"Japanese Whispers" is a way to understand the evolution, for others devolution, of Robert Smith’s Band.
By Algeone
The break from the prolifically dark and nihilistic atmospheres of Pornography is immediately evident.
Japanese Whispers encapsulates the essence of this phase and becomes its unique testimony.
