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Rating: This is not how a review should start.
It's not quite right for me to want to tell you about my own stuff, just because I've run out of all the available alcohol but I realize I'm still able to use a keyboard.
So I won't do it.
But I have to tell you that this album is something that goes beyond the moment and the contingencies, because it might be useful to you.
"We Can Have It" starts with a voice, at times two, and a few notes and echoes, it seems to say: take your seats, breathe, don't worry if all this seems excessive to you, in reality, it's of an incredible simplicity.
"Who Are You, Defenders Of The Universe", the second track and the first real blow to the heart, the directives of this journey begin to reveal themselves, always the same two voices that risk getting trapped in a too-dark sentence spitting while the instruments create atmospheres that smell too much like Nick Cave. Yet there is something more in that simple "I can't love you / you can't love me": a call to something we know and have forgotten, something that will become clear, if not brilliant, later, after surpassing the Robert Smith-style clichés of "Lost In The Plot", with the acoustic intro of "The Second Part".
An unknown alchemy of dark guitars and orchestrations that directly call to that 60s sound hardly definable without mentioning Françoise Hardy or Nino Ferrer or even the theatrical push of Lewis Furey (Canadian like The Dears), a mood that in recent, but not very recent, times was evoked so well only by the splendid soundtrack of The Virgin Suicides by Air.
The following "Don't Lose The Faith" and "Expect The Worst/'Cos She's a Tourist", the latter a true hybrid suite between constructed 80s decadence and real decadence dictated by organ layers and choirs of voices and winds that have no temporal belonging, serve to dissipate all the musical backstories we carry with us waiting to bring them out; this is the music of the "here and now": misted and dirty with all that we have been, and perhaps we will forever be, torn and ripped by the keystrokes or the guitar distortions of "Pinned Together, Falling Apart" but still drunk with lightness and spirituality as in "Never Destroy Us" before it becomes punk violence at the end, after all, we are also this.
I take a breath with "Warm And Sunny Days", before the simple melody of "The Death Of All The Romance" transports me elsewhere between interwoven voices like threads and dreams told as if they were real life, the reason why I am here writing.
"Postcard From Purgatory" is a tango, sad and dirty with unusual frequencies, but it's a tango: sensual and nostalgic, strong and compliant, visceral and melancholic, fierce in its conclusion among feedback. The concluding "No Cities Left" is an accordion that laments us from a place we will never be.
It laments us and mocks us: "don't you think it's time to stub out that cigarette and get up off the floor?"
"No".
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Who Are You, Defenders of the Universe (03:42)
We want your information
We will do what we must
But not here or in front of people or
on the phone
We're not all blood-sucking leeches
For we all have families too
But that don't mean that we really
love them or that we don't
'Cos I can't love you
And you can't love me
But I can love you
And you can lover me
Love me
It's not a confrontation
(ALL ACROSS THE WORLD OPEN YOUR MOUTH)
We are here because we are broke
(GIVE US WHAT WE WANT, WE'VE HAD ENOUGH)
But we don't expect a hand out of anything
(SOUL! SOUL! SOUL! SOUL! SOUL!)
'Cos I can't help you
And you can't help me
Oh I can help you
And you can help me
I can help you
You can help me
I can help you
You can help me
Help me
Help you
(It's not an impossible situation)
Help me
(It's not an impossible situation)
Help you
(It's not an impossible situation)
Help me
(It's not an impossible situation)
I know there is doubt we can do this
but
I can help you
03 Lost in the Plot (04:49)
Take me for drive to the coastline
Pull me to the depths of the sea
Leave me in the middle of the ocean
I can walk the rest of the way
And I promise not to cry anymore
All the reasons beat the crap out of me
Everyday when I wake up they are waiting
But I promise not to cry anymore
'Cos it's the same old plot these things
Oh it's the same old plot these things
Oh it's the same old plot these things
Oh it's the same old...
Our love, don't mess with our love
Our love is so much stronger
Our love, don't mess with our love
Our love is so much stronger
Oh it's the same old plot these things
Oh it's the same old plot these things
Oh it's the same old plot
Same old plot
Same old plot these things
Oh I promise not to cry
Oh I promise not to cry
Oh I promise not to cry
Anymore
06 Expect the Worst/'Cos She's a Tourist (07:52)
This town
A likely down
Well, my summer in Perth was nice
Gimme Corona
Aeroplanes
And buxom dames
Oh I haven't been sleeping well
I've been a loner
My heart is aching
My back is breaking
It's me
It's you
It's me
It's you
So you've decided on an art school
So it's not that you were trying to be cruel
All she wanted was a boyfriend
Or a means to justifiable ends
Thirty years ago this wouldn't be
I was happy
Last night I flickered off to sleep at four AM
Now it's seven
Well, the ocean is long and deep but I'm gonna try
Maybe I'll die (don't hold me back, don't hold me back,
don't hold me back, don't hold me back)
Maybe I'll die (don't hold me back, don't hold me back,
don't hold me back, don't hold me back)
Maybe I'll die (don't hold me back, don't hold me back,
don't hold me back, don't hold me back)
Maybe I'll die (don't hold me back, don't hold me back,
don't hold me back, don't hold me back)
07 Pinned Together, Falling Apart (06:01)
I
Have
Been terrified
By the thought of losing you
So very terrified
By the thought of losing you
Stop telling me
I don't want to know
Stop telling me because I just don't ever
Want to know
No no no
No no no
No no no
No no no
I've been petrified
By the thought of losing you
Absolutely horrified
By the thought of losing you
Stop telling me
I don't want to know
Stop telling me because I just don't want to know
No no
No no no
No no no
No no
No no
No no
08 Never Destroy Us (04:29)
Whatd'you say that we go down together
And try to find out all the answers
Whatd'you say that we go down together
And try to find out what we missed
I will drop everything you better believe it
'Cos I mean it
And I know we can last
If we can forget about the past and start
again
Again
'gain-start again-start again-start a-
10 22: The Death of All the Romance (05:56)
I have never cried in anybody's arms
The way that I have often cried in yours
Please be the one to take my tears away
I was 22, I've had my share of views
I just can't steal that "happiness" from you
But I'll be the one to take your tears away
I can't believe the things you say
tell me, tell me
tell me the lies
Fasting love will lead us all to nowhere
When, when will we learn
I shall avenge the death of all the romance
Until, until I'm gone
I can't believe the things you say
tell me, tell me
tell me the lies
I can't believe the things you say
tell me, tell me
tell me the lies
I can't believe the things you say
tell me, tell me
tell me the lies
tell me the lies
tell me the lies
tell me, tell me the lies
12 No Cities Left (05:23)
Let's just keep fighting the end
We're holding hands
We're making plans
For Life
Let's just keep fighting the end
Last time I swear
or we'll go nowhere tonight
Don't you think that now
is the time to move on
If you don't mind well I'll
just keep holding on for good
Let's just keep fighting
the end of the world
We will hold hands and
We will make plans
For Life
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Other reviews
By Socrates
No Cities Left is not just an album that tries to retrace the most virtuous paths of ’80s rock, but much more than a successful copy of the Smiths.
The Dears are, unequivocally, one of the most exciting bands listened to over the course of this year and I believe one can bet on their bright future.
