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Rating:
With its sweet psych-pop confections drowned in sophisticated neo-romantic wave, Kilimanjaro (1980) is an album that captivates at the first listen, engaging the emotional sphere and enchanting it to such an extent that any attempt at auditory detox becomes futile.
A surprise that renews my worn-out passion for that singular figure of mystical/ecological guru known as Julian Cope, a musician who has absorbed and understood the essence of all underground rock (perhaps too much, given his excessive drug use), but also an expert in druidic culture and a historian/writer of diverse topics like German cosmic rock (narrated and analyzed in his book Krautrocksampler) and the mythological places of the United Kingdom (the book and site The Modern Antiquarian). An eccentric jester lost in the dream of a distant reality, committed to reinterpret with new romantic/decadent emphasis the visionary nursery rhymes of Syd Barrett and Jim Morrison and to express his pessimism for the ills that afflict the world.
His story begins with the Teardrop Explodes, a Liverpool band illuminated by the seminal insights of masters like Television and Brian Eno and oriented towards the neo-psychedelic wing of the British new wave, populated by groups such as Soft Boys, Xtc, Echo And The Bunnymen. Songs like Treason, Went Crazy, Reward, Sleeping Gas, Bouncing Babies to name a few, are examples of melancholic and disoriented melody, accompanied by unpredictable gashes of garage guitars, punk rhythms, funky horns, keyboards that strongly recall the Doors and the farfisa bands of the sixties. At certain moments you find yourself facing pieces that seem to come directly from the pen of Robert Smith, but with the Cure directed towards old-school lysergic paths. Instability and differences of opinion are the elements that will lead the band to dissolve, leaving the following year the testimony of a second episode Wilder and a third unfinished album Everybody Wants To Shag. From that moment, Cope will have the opportunity to start an astonishing solo career, churning out in the '80s some milestones of English rock such as World Shut Your Mouth and Fried.
In the '90s, the courage to reinvent himself, experiencing a second artistic youth with increasingly eccentric and bizarre releases (Peggy Suicide, Jehovahkill, Autogeddon, 20mothers), characterized by evident contaminations with Barrettian folk, hard rock, krautrock, electronics (Queen Elizabeth), instrumental experimentation (Rite, Odin), and the recent revisitation of the Stooges sound with the Brain Donor project.
An underrated masterpiece highly recommended to all lovers of good old wave. Take that:)
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
02 Sleeping Gas (03:45)
Sometimes I wonder if your really living
Oh what is this feeling you think that you’re giving
Well you can sit down, wrecked and dismayed
Wondering why are all the plans that you laid
You can watch rafferty turn into a serial
You can watch rafferty turn into a serial
You can watch rafferty turn into a serial
Just like a cartoon by AAP
Oh it’s just like a cartoon by AAP, oh yeah
Oh whether to phone you
Or whether to see you
I never do anything
You never do things for me
I wander around
I just wander around
I just wander around
I just wander around
You can watch rafferty turn into a serial
So here comes my head
And my hand just behind oh yeah yeah yeah
I stand in the street
I look for someone to meet
But you don’t call me or phone
Oh you're never alone
I wander around
I just wander around
I just wander around
I just wander around
You can watch rafferty turn into a serial
You can watch rafferty turn into a serial
You can watch rafferty turn into a serial
Just like a cartoon by AAP
You can watch rafferty turn into a serial
You can watch rafferty turn into a serial
You can watch rafferty turn into a serial
It’s just like sleeping gas
It’s so ethereal
I wander around
I just wander around
03 Treason (03:05)
I've been living through changes
And I could swing for you
I can see the veins in my hands
Are showing through
But if you disguise
What these things are doing to me
If you criticize them
I'll know that you can see
Until you realise
It's just a story
Consequently my reaction
Was getting rather strange
I can see your course of action
Leading to a change
You've got to get ready for me
Is it real
Or is it treason
Is it treason
I've been living through changes
It's not the same thing every day
I hope it's not my age
But I wouldn't like to say
Mirror hopping days of coarse reaction
Oh it's very hard to fight
I tried to find a plan of action
But I couldn't get it right
Until you realise
Tt's just a story...
04 Second Head (03:10)
Look, look into my eyes
Outside a sudden footsteps
Take control, control of movement
Wait, I’m still hoping, hoping
I’m still hoping
Like a second head
Is it the first one you started out with
Seen, seen from the stars
I know the banisters leaking
That I can breath freely, that I can breath freely
I wait, oh I wait for a sign, hoping and praying
Hoping it’s mine
Like a second head
Is it the first one you started out with
Oh you can see much more, but can you learn
Don’t throw anything
I’m scratching my back while you’re scratching the surface
Beware, beware of false promises
You must be wary of people, the knives in their backs
Like a second head
Is it the first one you started out with
Waiters and callers
Trapped by the door, looking for something
That I didn’t come for
Decisions, decisions, it’s only a sign
But what and who is this, well next time
Like a second head
Is it the first one you started out with
06 Went Crazy (02:38)
I’m in my room I’m looking sideways
I look up and I look down
They told my friends it was a secret
But it’s rumored that some of us went crazy
So I packed all my clothes and I went on back home
I was standing on the tarmac ready to go
Then I looked al around and I looked all around
And I looked all around and I went crazy
But I sincerely sad and resigned
I look up and I rest sometime
Then I think for a while and I sit for a while
And I sing for a while and I go hazy
Oh I go
If you have a daughter bounce her on your knee
If you have a son send the blighter off to sea
If you have a daughter bounce her on your knee
If you have a son send the blighter off to sea
If you have a daughter bounce her on your knee
If you have a son send the blighter off to sea
If you have a daughter bounce her on your knee
If you have a son send the blighter off to sea
Oh yeah
Well fun and games and laughter for the chosen few
Here comes your nose and here comes you
Je suis suicide, je suis pain
J'avais indecision here we go again, I’m going
Oh we’re in love with beauty
We’re in love with health
We’re in love with mental health
I’m going crazy
07 Brave Boys Keep Their Promises (02:30)
Brave Boys Keep Their Promises
They fight fight fight they're way up to the top
Holding back the images
They gave them all they're early start but they move on though
Lets get off at the next step
Braving all the elements
All the things that nature throws at you
Fighting for the first time
It's hard for you and it's hard for me but we keep on now
We're always moving
Move move
Brave Boys Keep Their Promises
You've got to do do do do the things they say
Fighting with your relatives
You've got your mother and your father and your brothers to Your aunts and your uncles are all against you
08 Bouncing Babies (02:28)
I was a bouncing baby
I fell down
I looked around
I didn’t stay too long
And it’s true
It’s true
It’s true
All the things that they tell you
Oh it’s all there
For you to see
And so why is it
All so easy for me
Cos it’s true
It’s true
Oh it’s true
They create things
When they’ve got nothing they can believe in
Believe in
I was a poison child
I was fighting for my life
Clinging to something
Fighting for anything
It’s true
All the things that they tell you
Oh it’s true
All the things that they said that they said
That they tell you
All the things that they tell you
I was a bouncing baby
Now I’m a bouncing bomb
So won’t you come and diffuse me
Before I kill someone
09 Books (02:37)
You said you couldn’t find anyone to love you
I said there’s more to life than a broken heart dear console you
I’ve seen it in your eyes
And I’ve read it in books
Who wants love
Without the looks
Well you said I tend to spend my life chasing rainbows
And I said that’s a clichéd phrase and anyway I like it when the rain goes
I’ve seen it in your eyes
And I’ve read it in books
Who wants love
Without the looks
Books without looks
Who wants love
Without the looks
And I came a long way before I came across the sea
Oh I did love for you and what did you do for me
Oh but I’m gonna be strong
And it’s getting much stronger
it may take a week
But it won’t take longer
No no no no etc.
11 When I Dream (05:10)
I’ve been thinking about you
I hope that you’ve been thinking about me
I’ve been talking about you
I’ve been talking about you in my sleep
And when I dream I dream about you
And when I scream I scream about you
I go ba ba ba ba oh oh
Oh I go
I’ve been sad and ever sadder
I’ve been living, living far away
Now it’s you I think it’s true
And I’m running, running, running back to stay
And now I’m counting I’m counting for two
And when I shout I shout about you
I go ba ba ba ba oh oh
Oh I go
Here you come again
Playing with my feelings
There you go again
Playing with my heart
And when I dream I dream about you
And when I scream I scream about you
I go ba ba ba ba oh oh
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