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Rating: And at a certain point, the music changes. What lies behind the Jesus And Mary Chain transforms, morphs, molds, and sticks to you like honey dripping and becomes Darklands. Sweet, bitter, melancholic Darklands. The layered feedbacks dissolve, the noise melts away, and the rage slowly evaporates, giving way to a melancholic sweetness of memories and hopes left to run on barren lands, like thoughts free to chase each other in the heavy air.
It's 1987. The world sings to Europe and dances to Madonna. Italy acclaims the scantily clad Sabrina Salerno, I watch the stormy sea from my new home, and in foggy Scotland, the two Reid brothers, one on vocals and the other on guitar, look within and pull out this decadently ecstatic jewel, this introspective journey made of reverberations and honey, of poetry and sadness. So a bit quietly, away from the spotlight, the charts, and the mainstream, as with anything full of 'heart', it explodes in all its dark-bright beauty.
10 tracks for 35 minutes of perfect pop grace and the magic begins. It starts right with the splendid title track 'Darklands' and we realize from the very first moments that everything we will hear is light-years away from the lashing strokes of the previous Psycocandy. The guitars no longer screech sick and raging calls but gently accompany William's whispers and his barely mentioned choruses. Three chords and the beats slow down. Then there's 'Deep On Perfect Morning' and you realize perfectly well that it could be you singing it in front of the rising sun, vainly trying to gather the pieces of a world that keeps spinning even without you. With the subsequent 'Happy When It Rains' and 'Down On Me', the rhythm picks up and the bubblegum flavor, more typically rock 'n' roll of the Scottish band's songs, takes over. But even if the pace advances, the languid sense of incompleteness of the soul remains and darkens the sky with thick clouds of rain on the horizon. No love will find refuge from this downpour of emotions. Then 'April Skies' comes and you bitterly laugh disenchanted under its dark skies. You realize that someone slips away from your thoughts, shattering the world, making it fall down ('And the world comes tumbling down'), leaving you making love on the edge of a blade ('Making love on the edge of the knife') at the feet of a violent life that doesn't understand you, dead and cracked like a broken heart. And you stop and think that every word weighs inside Darklands, every melody enchants, every sigh knocks inside you and wets your lashes with glistening tears. 'Cherry Came Too', for example, is so sweet and hurts so much at the same time that you feel it pulsating under your skin; with that tender little chant, those 'kisses scratching like barbed wire', those repetitive four chords and that sensation of incredulity it leaves on you... Not to mention 'On The Wall' where for the third time, Jim steps aside, leaving the singing to the other Reid who rocks us, transporting us into his foggiest electric thoughts. 'About You' is the last among the grooves of Darklands. The last sugar-free candy that for its barely hinted 'warmth' lets us glimpse a languid beginning of spring, the one that always struggled to light everything in our hearts... but only for a moment, only for a moment.
It's the album for the disillusioned. Those who always dream and always realize that there is little time to have their heads in the clouds. For those who are not afraid to torment their souls with the astonishingly sweet voices of William and Jim. It's for those who still get emotional in front of the April skies or for those who, smiling, manage to be happy even just for an instant when the sky cries...
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Darklands (05:29)
i'm going to the darklands
to talk in rhyme
with my chaotic soul
as sure as life means nothing
and all things end in nothing
and heaven i think
is too close to hell
i want to move i want to go
i want to go
oh something won't let me
go to the place
where the darklands are
and i awake from dreams
to a scary world of screams
and heaven i think
is too close to hell
i want to move i want to go
i want to go
take me to the dark
oh god I get down on my knees
and i feel like i could die
by the river of disease
and i feel that i'm dying
and i'm dying
i'm down on my knees
oh i'm down
i want to go i want to stay
i want to stay
06 April Skies (04:00)
hey honey what you trying to say
as i stand here
don't you walk away
and the world comes tumbling down
hand in hand in a violent life
making love on the edge of a knife
and the world comes tumbling down
and it's hard
for me to say
and it's hard
for me to stay
i'm going down
to be by myself
i'm going back
for the good of my health
and there's one thing
i couldnt do
sacrifice myself to you
sacrifice
baby baby i just can't see
just what you mean to me
i take my aim and i fake my words
i'm just your long time curse
and if you walk away
i can't take it
but that's the way that you are
and that's the things that you say
but now you've gone too far
with all the things you say
get back to where you come from
i can't help it
under the april skies
under the april sun
sun grows cold
sky gets black
and you broke me up
and now you won't come back
shaking hand, life is dead
and a broken heart
and a screaming head
under the april sky
07 Fall (02:28)
Fall to my bended knees
Shoving up till I freeze
Falling on down to you
Down down down
So choked up in the dust
Hand held holy lust
Dragging me to her cross
Fall fall fall
So I dragged you down
C'mon drag me down
So it seems to be
So it seems to me
That I just can't fail to see
Falling on down to you
Down down down
Everybody's falling on me
And I'm as dead as a Christmas tree
08 Cherry Came Too (03:06)
when she walks towards me
i feel something
crawl beneath my skin
and all the electric stars are shining
beneath my skin and
cherry takes me to the place above
with barbed wire kisses and her love
we're going where the oceans blue
kick the dust and you can come too
in the light of all my darkest mornings
things fall into place
and all the soft orange coloured dawnings
fall into place and
cherry's scratching like a grain of sand
the trigger itch in the killer's hand
me and cherry are so extreme
making love to the sound of a scream
oh cherry honey you got me stuck on a rope
you got me running around
with the fear in my head for you
and i want you
and i'll give you my head
and all the things it said
and i'll give you my thoughts
if those things weren't lost
and i'll give you my soul
to beat it with your pole
i'm going to give you my head
you could kick it dead
and i'll give you my head
come on and kick me dead
come on and push me down
come on and drag me down
oh cherry be bad
come on and kiss my head
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