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Rating: The new prog was a more varied genre than it might appear at a cursory glance.
Pendragon had adopted a literal yet fascinating approach, Marillion had refined the early Genesis's insights, Pallas were captivated by the more "hard" side of the movement. Often in the pot of '80s progressive music, another group is chosen to be included (perhaps mistakenly): Twelfth Night.
Unlike those mentioned above, Geoff Mann's great group attempted to almost entirely eliminate the genre's stereotypes, being effectively prog more in intention and ideas than in the choice of sounds.
It’s then not surprising the essential (and never intrusive) use of keyboards, relegated to the background compared to the bass and guitar.
In a certain sense, the Twelfth Night can be assimilated to new wave and dark for the sound blend, to new prog for the musical environments attended (the same as Marillion, Pendragon, and Iq) and for the refinement of sounds.
The debut album is a live (a unique case): Live at the Target, where the group has the opportunity to showcase their instrumental qualities, based mainly on guitars and a dark and romantic approach.
However, it's with the arrival of the unusual vocalist that Twelfth Night takes off, and Fact and Fiction, their masterpiece, is released. The themes of the album feed on fears related to the Cold War, and they expand them, the lyrics climb onto lyrical virtuosity that encloses madness, alienation (at times you feel Orwell's influence), the fear of being alone, and the rejection of capitalist ideology.
Significant then is "We Are Sane", which opens with the mad and changing voice of Geoff Mann, surrounded by an apocalyptic soundscape: a clock ticks away the time while echoes of death and desolation are heard. The text is fascinating and captivating, while the histrionic Mann leads the track onto changing scenarios, yet permeated by that cosmic pessimism that will never abandon the group.
"Human Being" ups the ante, with even more hallucinatory and "insane" singing, while the musicians seem to indulge in a bit more instrumental finesse (even though the track is shorter).
With "This City" it maintains the same spirit, but here the vocals are more subdued, resigned (the abstracted shapes of the people's thoughts/different shops and pubs/all the cheap facades).
The beautiful instrumental "World Without End" is a faint reason for relief: the atmospheres remain dark, but here Twelfth Night seems to want to remind us that they are still tied to progressive, albeit done in their own way. The interlude also contains some delicate and dreamy elements, which we will not find again throughout the album.
However, the group plays with us, almost teasing us (in the kindest sense), shuffling the deck.
Here is then, after a hint at prog, a shift towards new wave (with drums at the forefront): the title track. Everything, however, appears more stereotypical, and it markedly deviates from what was done before. The track is enjoyable and easy to listen to, but it becomes infatuated with the '80s pop disease.
"The Poet Sniffs a Flower" is a beautiful and engaging instrumental, with relaxed and interesting atmospheres. The group maintains commendable cohesiveness, even when everything gains vigor, with a more lively and frenetic second part. The guitars are then in the foreground, but do not exceed in excessive virtuosity.
The masterpiece within the masterpiece is "Creepshow".
An apotheosis of the leader's ideologies, it features a text worthy of the imperfect and the macabre festival (in this aspect it recalls something from films like Freaks). The real freak shows are those who pay to see such a chilling spectacle, those who use human disabilities for show. Here Mann is particularly inspired and vicious: listen to the hallucinated and angry scream halfway through the track.
The second part also presents delightful instrumental cues, but it is the vocalist who sets the pace, leading the track towards courageous insights (the long talk section might seem boring, but it is fundamental in the context of this track).
The album closes with the resigned "Love Song". Everything is more delicate, and the anger seems to have ended: the chorus repeated numerous times leads us to the end of the journey, and it does so in the best possible way.
Unfortunately, the magnificent idyll created by the group will break soon after: Mann will leave the group at the end of the tour, leaving an unfillable void for the fate of Twelfth. Andy Sears (the new singer) will not know how to repeat the feats of his predecessor, and the group will disband soon after.
The final word on Twelfth Night will be set by a tragic event: Geoff Mann dies in 1993, struck down by cancer.
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 We Are Sane (10:27)
(Geoff Mann)
i) te dium
ii) we are sane
iii) dictator's excuse me
i)
In upstairs rooms
The meals are eaten
The cars in the garage ready to go-go
Disco baby shed no tear
Hot light overhead
Shaking meat meet
Ho ho weekend ha ha party
Moo moo sacre
d cow
The White House somedays
on the lawn
well kept pedigree
snap over bones
surplus requirements
appetite angel going down
ii)
Meanwhile below reports flop into the in-trays in-trays
Meanwhile below reports flop into the in-trays
She stares out
of her window
Her will is still in bed
She has no memory of herself
For care has drained her head
The poster on the billboard
says she should paint her lips
like the smiles on the tv people
02 Human Being (07:50)
Tremulous and quivering such victims as there are
Contend with emotions under skin
Without wearing water wings
The strike against the stream
hopelessly believing they might swim
Here they all come rushing down again
Here they all come rushing down again
Time has hardly swallowed up the evidence
How is it they say they did not know
That history grows up like a weed
Doctrine pinned upon it
Bars across the window destroy human being
Static mind solidifies
Can no longer flow
Up against it's borders and unable to pay much
Attention to human being...
When in doubt you turn to find a scapegoat on the wall
Gaze into the mirror begging pardon
If everytime we tell a lie a little fairy dies
They must be building death-camps in the garden
Pacing back and forwards
Conscience in a box
Barred in from the sunlight getting pale
And losing every sense of human being....
The forces of oppression
Forge links around the earth
Ordering our faces to the floor
The wilful non-involvement
By hirelings of the crimes
Is futile and inhuman as before
The sum of our best efforts
Shouldn't lead us back to here
On the road to murder where we can no longer
Admit to any
Human needing human feeling
Human living human loving
Human fragile human being...
====================================================================
THIS CITY (Geoff Mann)
The abstracted shapes of the people's thoughts
Different shops and pubs
All the cheap facades
It is all this city it is all this city
Wind shaken trees
Half crumbling parks
The enquiring eyes
Fingers parting lace
It is all this city it is all this city
Long straggling queues
Of the our of work
A baby sucking sweets
Dribbling down his quilt
It is all this city it is all this city
All this city
====================================================================
FACT AND FICTION (Geoff Mann)
TV is switched on
The screen reveal a spokesperson
Adverts politics editing the real
Cheap words money talks
Naming itself to be the key
To utopia cornucopia
To a better world you go buy and buy
And if you listen carefully
You can hear the bacon fly
Don't make me laugh!!
History shows that policy demands weapons
Selfish desires simply lead to pain
The chit-chat continues
A big pretence that divides
Into power blocks
Where the orthodox
Have a propaganda war to fight
And if you're looking closely
You can see that black is white
Don't make me laugh!!
If the "unthinkable" should happen
And you hear the sirens call
Well you can always find some shelter
Behind a door against the wall
Don't make me laugh!!
====================================================================
CREEPSHOW (Geoff Mann)
Welcome
Welcome
First today to see the creepshow
Come see the exhibits
But do not touch
They cannot bear touch
Here in the freak show
Please do not hang back
It's hard enough to show people around
The creep show
The creep show
First here on the rack strapped a child's virgin mind
We see the careful whitecoats
Affix their machines veins
To the pulsing neck side
Checking dials they monitor reaction
She must love her daddy's banker
She must love her daddy's banker
For her part in the creepshow
The creepshow
Amanda so sad
Amanda
But let's brush over sadness
Give her the pills
And diagnose madness
Give her give her give her...
Amanda
Amandahahahahaha
Anymore for any more?
Cyril has-or-might-have-been
Must fill his lust
They let him bayonet robots
As his morning constitutional
To sate his rage
Unless he feels his age
We can't have that
Sometimes he'll watch a war-film
On the moron machine in the corner of his cell
Lost in time
Lost in mind
Cyril writhes like smoke
His bigot's eyes are slashed skin
Their expression none the nicer
For being blank
Amanda still mad
Amanda
still sad...
And so ladies and gentlemen we come to the nerve centre of the whole
Affair, as you will see it is a mirror. To some it is the mirror of
Dreams, where every passion, desire and action flit through the still
Spaces behind its surface, tantalising yet distant. Of these many
Stand before it until death. To others, it is distorting, everything
In it being warped and buckled by fear, yet perceived as reality.
These will cringe before it, wimpering and immobile, though a few
Batter their skulls against the dull sheen, attempting to smash the
Horrors they believe to be in the glass or at least attain oblivion,
Whichever comes first. Some see just a mirror, whilst some see what
At first appears to be their own image which, however, moves _them_
Saying, "Come On, Wake UP! Who's running this show anyway?"
NOW
It's up to you
Use your free will
You dec
ide
Yes
You you you decide
Whether or not you will return
For if you come again
You'd better bring your ball and chain
Unguided embittered attraction of
The creep show
The creep show
The creep show
====================================================================
03 This City (04:01)
The abstracted shapes of the people's thoughts Different shops and pubs All the cheap facades It is all this city it is all this city Wind shaken trees Half crumbling parks The enquiring eyes Fingers parting lace It is all this city it is all this city Long straggling queues Of the our of work A baby sucking sweets Dribbling down his quilt It is all this city it is all this city All this city
05 Fact and Fiction (03:59)
TV is switched on The screen reveal a spokesperson Adverts politics editing the real Cheap words money talks Naming itself to be the key To utopia cornucopia To a better world you go buy and buy And if you listen carefully You can hear the bacon fly Don't make me laugh!! History shows that policy demands weapons Selfish desires simply lead to pain The chit-chat continues A big pretence that divides Into power blocks Where the orthodox Have a propaganda war to fight And if you're looking closely You can see that black is white Don't make me laugh!! If the "unthinkable" should happen And you hear the sirens call Well you can always find some shelter Behind a door against the wall Don't make me laugh!!
07 Creepshow (11:57)
Welcome Welcome First today to see the creepshow Come see the exhibits But do not touch They cannot bear touch Here in the freak show Please do not hang back It's hard enough to show people around The creep show The creep show First here on the rack strapped a child's virgin mind We see the careful whitecoats Affix their machines veins To the pulsing neck side Checking dials they monitor reaction She must love her daddy's banker She must love her daddy's banker For her part in the creepshow The creepshow Amanda so sad Amanda But let's brush over sadness Give her the pills And diagnose madness Give her give her give her... Amanda Amandahahahahaha Anymore for any more? Cyril has-or-might-have-been Must fill his lust They let him bayonet robots As his morning constitutional To sate his rage Unless he feels his age We can't have that Sometimes he'll watch a war-film On the moron machine in the corner of his cell Lost in time Lost in mind Cyril writhes like smoke His bigot's eyes are slashed skin Their expression none the nicer For being blank Amanda still mad Amanda still sad... And so ladies and gentlemen we come to the nerve centre of the whole Affair, as you will see it is a mirror. To some it is the mirror of Dreams, where every passion, desire and action flit through the still Spaces behind its surface, tantalising yet distant. Of these many Stand before it until death. To others, it is distorting, everything In it being warped and buckled by fear, yet perceived as reality. These will cringe before it, wimpering and immobile, though a few Batter their skulls against the dull sheen, attempting to smash the Horrors they believe to be in the glass or at least attain oblivion, Whichever comes first. Some see just a mirror, whilst some see what At first appears to be their own image which, however, moves _them_ Saying, "Come On, Wake UP! Who's running this show anyway?" NOW It's up to you Use your free will You dec ide Yes You you you decide Whether or not you will return For if you come again You'd better bring your ball and chain Unguided embittered attraction of The creep show The creep show The creep show
09 East of Eden (03:27)
it seems that paradise
has been well locked and barred
to all the issues of Adam
it seems that children must
pay for their parents crimes
until they wish they never had them
the clouds are fabric balls
the earth machinery
to gather power from the stars
each of us has a gateway
through which infinity calls
to touch each victim through their scars
we are walking through
a kingdom that is found
out here somewhere East of Eden
East of Eden
East of Eden
East of Eden
East of Eden
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Other reviews
By Jesterhoax1
It’s an album of such beauty that it would be a crime to leave it out of your collection.
Geoff Mann's voice... stands as the absolute protagonist, giving the song a hallucinatory and sinister atmosphere of great effect.
