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Rating: When "From the Lions Mouth" was published, I had already dropped out of school. After finishing high school, I enrolled in Mathematics because as a kid I read too much Asimov and wanted to become a psychohistorian.
Game theory and Nash's name were no longer taboo in Italian universities, so I had come to believe that with the use of mathematical methods and formulas, one could arrive at something not too dissimilar to Psychohistory. I was fascinated by the worlds Asimov described, the evolution of society and the human race, and how the mathematician, created by the writer, Hari Seldon, studied and elevated it, making it a real science. I wanted to be a psychohistorian. A psychohistorian and a dreamer. However, things didn't go as I hoped, and I left university and much of my youthful dreams without too many regrets. Those came later.
Instead, Irene was studying architecture when I met her. Now she too had left her studies and was working as a sales assistant in a clothing store downtown. The store belonged to an old aunt of hers who, besides the job, also offered her hospitality, a place to stay when Irene left Calabria. The aunt, as far as I remember, was a nice person and actually couldn't wait to hand over the store to her niece and retire to live in her beach house. Besides her aunt and two mysterious brothers who lived in Pavia, about whom I knew nothing else, Irene had no family. She had fled from Calabria and was also trying to escape her past.
Irene was very pretty, but her eyes were sad and seemed to have seen hell. She had beautiful long brown curly hair that reached past her shoulders and was ten years older than me. I had known Irene for a while, but we had a fairly formal relationship, and then I, typically, was sure she wasn't interested in me. Nobody was interested in me. One evening, I ran into her while I was having a beer or two alone at the usual place. We went on till morning, me drinking, her talking, and that's how we started hanging out.
Irene recited Ian Curtis and Baudelaire from memory and knew a lot about music. At home, she had hundreds of LPs, many of which were by bands and artists I had never listened to or only heard mentioned, and many of whose names I can't even remember today. She knew her new wave, that girl: her listening ranged from Joy Division—her favorite band, of course—to the Birthday Party, from Suicide to Tuxedomoon, to Adrian Borland's Sound and "Jeopardy," which she introduced me to and immediately struck me. When "From the Lions Mouth" came out, I gave her a copy. I used to tell her they even had a bit more edge than Joy Division, whose sound they certainly resembled—but I find the Sound played better than Curtis and his companions, no offense to old Sumner. She used to laugh, take off her boot, and throw it behind my head. In this way, yes, she reminded me a lot of my mother. Irene laughed little. She smiled, of course, and had a very sweet smile, but it didn't take a genius or a particular sensitivity to understand that something wasn't right, that it was a tired, almost heavy smile. She didn't laugh, but she loved to talk: she said I made her comfortable, and that's why she liked spending time with me. But nothing ever happened between us beyond a good friendship. I was too shy to make a move, and the ten years of difference made me think she'd reject me, or that it would end badly in any case. Knowing it would end was enough to make me give up. I hadn't even sorted it out when, one evening, I walked her home, and she told me in tears she preferred not to see me anymore. She knew I liked her, and the ten-year difference scared her. I went along with it because I couldn't do otherwise and because, somehow, I'd always known it would end like this: we kept in touch for a while, occasionally, but then everything ended. I didn't suffer too much and when I met Chiara, I almost forgot about Irene.
A few years ago, I heard about the tragic end of Adrian Borland. I believe he too played a game against his ghosts for much of his life. I don't know if he lost, and I don't really care, but he decided to end it. I believe albums like "Jeopardy" and especially "From the Lions Mouth," even if perhaps undervalued by the public and critics, are a valid testament and testimony to his compositional skills and artistic sensitivity. I haven't seen Irene since. Every time I listen to "Silent Air," I think maybe things could have been different. Sometimes I passed by the store where she worked, and without her seeing me, I watched her for a few minutes.
One day the store was closed, she had closed it. She no longer lived there. I haven't seen Irene again.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Winning (04:18)
What holds your hope together,
Make sure it's strong enough
When you reach the end of your tether
It's because it wasn't strong enough,
I was going to drown,
Then I started swimming
I was going down,
Then I started winning
Winning - winning
When you're on the bottom
Crawl back to the top
Something pulls you up,
and a voice you can't stop,
I was going to drown,
Then I started swimming,
I was going down
Then I started winning
Winning - winning
02 Sense of Purpose (03:52)
Look in my eyes
See the lust and the love
Look in my eyes
When I'm talking to you
I'll take my life
Into my own hands
I'm the one that I will blame
I'm the one that understands
What are we going to do?
While we still got the strength to move
What are we going to do?
I'm asking, I'm asking you
A call to arms, a call to use arms
A call to brains, a call to use some brains
A call to the heart, a call to have a heart
To have a sense of purpose again
Are we where we want to be
All wrapped up in our safety?
Comfort and complacency
It hurts me, it hurts me so
What are we going to do?
While we still got the strength to move
What are we going to do?
I'm asking, I'm asking you
03 Contact the Fact (04:21)
You mean the world
The real world to me
So watching you go
Is like watching a film in slow motion
Everything I touch
Turns to dust
And everyone I turn to
Turns on me
Strange the way
We accept our lot - living together
Strange the way
We self-destruct - dying together
All the beauty gets taken for granted
All the pain gets put in the way
Put in our way
Contact's the fact - I need it
Contact you because I need you
Take me out
You take me out of myself
You can take what you want from me
Because I know you
Hate it when I'm crazy
It's a side of love
You never wanted to see
Contact's the fact - I need it
Contact you because I need you
04 Skeletons (03:27)
Look in my eyes
See the lust and the love
Look in my eyes
When I'm talking to you
I'll take my life
Into my own hands
I'm the one that I will blame
I'm the one that understands
What are we going to do?
While we still got the strength to move
What are we going to do?
I'm asking, I'm asking you
A call to arms, a call to use arms
A call to brains, a call to use some brains
A call to the heart, a call to have a heart
To have a sense of purpose again
Are we where we want to be
All wrapped up in our safety?
Comfort and complacency
It hurts me, it hurts me so
What are we going to do?
While we still got the strength to move
What are we going to do?
I'm asking, I'm asking you
05 Judgement (05:03)
I can't tell it's now or never
If we don't act now it could be now and forever
The moment is near, the moment of truth
But just what scared the life out of you?
You're so still, silent motionless
I can't watch and wait just to pay the price
Of your judgement
I will push at the powers that be
I will pull you close to me
And if I fall I go gracefully
No regret's, don't pour your pity on me
You're so still, are you so lame?
I can't watch and wait just to take the blame
For your judgement
Can there really be someone up above me
Who judges me when my time is up
I can't believe, I can't believe
That I'm not the one that I should trust
He's so still, silent, motionless
I can't watch and wait just to pay the price
He's so still, he's silent, motionless
I can't watch and wait just to pay the price
Of his judgement
06 Fatal Flaw (04:36)
A fatal attraction
Been growing away from the light
And I can't come back now
Until I drag myself out of this vice
Sense of distance when you stand next to me
I've made a strange disappearance
One that no-one can see
You can't reach me anymore
Turn to face the fatal flaw
We all have weakness
Moments that we can't contain
Right now I'm all weakness
I'll make another retreat again
Sense of distance when you stand close to me
I've a strange disappearance
One that no-one can see
You can't reach me anymore
Turn to face the fatal flaw
A fatal attraction - fatal flaw
Been growing away from the light - fatal flaw
09 Silent Air (04:14)
Thunder in the air,
Before a storm that rips,
Anger in my heart,
A finger on my lips,
You showed me that silence,
That haunts this troubled world,
You showed me that silence
Can speak louder than words
Words end in disaster
On the rocks, in pieces,
I know something lives on there,
But I can't say what it is,
You showed me that silence,
That haunts this troubled world,
You showed me that silence
Can speak louder than words.
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Other reviews
By Fidia
In “Possession” Borland’s voice seems truly possessed by that of Ian, enveloped in a dark and fascinating ambiance.
A date to remember as much as May 18, 1980, with the hope that The Sound will reach that firmament where Joy Division have stayed for almost three decades.
By Marco Orsi
The first "Jeopardy" is, without a shadow of a doubt, their best release.
The fault for this miserable disinterest is, in reality, attributable solely and exclusively to the music critics of the time.
