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Pop explained to my mother (who has never heard of the Jesus and Mary Chain) or the poetry of feedback in the anthology of distortion:
1)"Three Way": come on, let's listen to a jest like we were the Beach Boys on poppers. No, they don't sing because sometimes the melody and the blend of instruments are enough. And why are there all those whistles: those whistles are not whistles, they are part of the melody and then, listen to how well everything sounds, piano, guitar, and dadada?
2)"California Girls": actually the girl's voice is beautiful, but it seems like I've heard it somewhere before... - yes, mom, it's a cliché like fm pop, college rock, with stop & go that nail you to the chair and the chorus that sticks to you like... never mind, you don't even know what college pop is, right?
3)"Old Fools": this instead is a melò, like popcorn and pomade, only the distortion gives it vitamins and the singing a crooner style... -crooner? - yes, like Sinatr - oh!.
4)"Xavier Says": what do they say in the lyrics? - they talk about love, mom - oh - and then? - and then they say that even if you have nothing in common, you can still love. And so, let me explain, the song, the distortion we talked about earlier, brings it to the forefront and it remains a background itself. Do you like it? - yes -.
5)"Mr.Mistletoe": this one seems a bit boring to me, it reminds me of things I listened to when I was young - see, music is a circle that connects time and space in an asynchronous way, creating short circuits. Thirty years ago there was a string orchestra, today there are distorters, reverbs, the return of sound. Things don't change, they modify and improve (if someone like Merritt is involved, it's easier - metatextual note).
6)"Please Stop Dancing" here I'll keep it short: they talk about love again but the kind that becomes an obsession, a punctual obsession and you hear the snare drum emphasizing the sense of pounding but also of happiness - what does soul mean? - there you go, exactly.
7)"Drive On Driver": but how beautiful...! eh you see mom... it doesn't take much, but it's not just the melody. It's the opposition of contrasts, the juxtaposition of alpha and omega, of graceful beauty and virulence... do you understand now what I was telling you in the last lesson? - what were you telling me... oh, about those who made the album with the banana on the cover, the ones who used syringes... - well done mom!-
8)"Too Drunk To Dream": here they might argue a point you're not ready to accept. He says he wants to be too drunk to dream because he always dreams of her and that if he's too drunk because he misses her, it's better... - no, I don't understand. But the melody is beautiful again... - there you go.
9)"Till The Bitter End": remember the lesson about the Velvet. Only here there's the glockenspiel - oh - here, virulence and butterfly-like quality. Man with guitar and woman with angelic voice. Fallen.
10)"I'll dream alone": dream means to dream? Yes! - and then what do they say? - it doesn't matter. Close your eyes and imagine that to write a love song you don't have to use the foil; you can also use the axe, to cut the thicker feelings.
Listen, you understand, right? I don't feel like going all the way, I've run out of oxygen. I hope something stayed with you..
- Will you copy it for me? So I can listen to it in the car..
The misery of artists is to be remembered only for beautiful melodies.
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Other reviews
By easycure
The greatness of the record lies in its being unabashedly full of references yet never trivially revivalist.
It is a record that holds the power of storytelling, which makes it confusingly genius.
By m
"Distortions like surges of white granite that crash down from above onto the melodic textures, submerging them up to the neck and, in doing so, making them... even more piercing."
"This album primarily stands on the strong legs of the sharp and refined melodies that make it up... a distillation of years of toil and experience."
