So, it's been awhile, but I actually did manage to get some new music while I was in Italy, and now I've got the time to review it. For this half, I've got three albums: Portastatic's Slow Note from a Sinking Ship, The Verve's Urban Hymns, and Verdena's Solo un grande sasso.
PORTASTATIC - SLOW NOTE FROM A SINKING SHIP - 7.5/10
This album is a very different beast from I Hope Your Heart is not Brittle, which I reviewed previously. Mac's Portastatic debut is a very enjoyable little album that's grown greatly on me since I first got my copy. What it lacks in the catchy hooks that define much of McCaughan's work with Superchunk, with "Polaroid," "Naked Pilseners," and "Creeping Around" being the only songs likely to get stuck in your head, it makes fantastic mood music, with its relaxedly flowing, rustic sound that's pretty consistent from start to finish. Slow Note From a Sinking Ship, meanwhile, is a bit closer to Superchunk's style, although in places it preserves the introverted style of I Hope Your Heart is not Brittle. While there are a fair number of laid back jams, with a more overt country influence than on I Hope, like "Skinny Glasses Girl" and "Running Water", there are also some more energetic songs with that typical Superchunk touch of angst and energy. These include songs like "San Andreas", which would be at home on Here's Where the Strings Come In and has an awesome music video, and "A Cunning Latch", which is filled with an angst more comparable to songs like "Misfits and Mistakes" than more lo-fi offerings of early Superchunk or I Hope Your Heart is not Brittle. One result is that Slow Note has perhaps higher highs than Portastatic's debut, with "A Cunning Latch" and "When You Crashed" among the most powerful songs Mac McCaughan has ever recorded. At the same time, however, the album falls off pretty noticeably in the second half, where "On Our Hands" and "Pastime" approach the earlier Portastatic aesthetic, but are still a bit too crisp and follow on too overtly compelling music for them to fit in as well as they would have between songs like "Beer and Chocolate Bars" and "Receiver". There are certainly enough high moments on this album to make it a great listen, but it suffers a bit from an identity crisis. Highlights include "When You Crashed", "A Cunning Latch", "You Can't Win"
THE VERVE - URBAN HYMNS - 9/10
Yes, this is the album with "Bittersweet Symphony" on it, and although I wasn't expecting it to be the case, Urban Hymns is pretty justifiably considered The Verve's capolavoro, even if I don't think that means their more atmospheric music as just plain old Verve (A Storm in Heaven and singles like "Gravity Grave") deserves its current place gathering dust on the shelves of our collective memory. As I was saying, Urban Hymns is a very good album, and "Bittersweet Symphony", though incredibly catchy and quotable - how many lines from music are more subtly, effortlessly, and ironically relevant than "try to make ends meet, you're a slave to money, than you die"? - isn't even the tip of the iceberg, and to be honest, doesn't really sum up the sound of this album very well. Where you could take a song like "Virtual World" or "Beautiful Mind" from A Storm in Heaven and pretty much extrapolate what the album sounds like, Urban Hymns weaves deftly from upbeat ditty to depressing ballad without any awkwardness whatsoever, so that this really does seem like a collection of urban hymns - a sort book of psalms to modern working class life on par with the introspective classics of the Britpop age. How The Verve somehow avoided that label eludes me, because Urban Hymns has a lot of the same hallmarks of (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, Different Class, and Parklife. You've got your making-the-most-of-it songs - compare, if you will, the sentiment behind "Bittersweet Symphony" or "Lucky Man" to "She's Electric" or "Parklife" - and your depressing moments of clarity - "Sonnet", "The Drugs Don't Work", and "Weeping Willow" echo "The Wild Ones", "The Universal", and "The Fear". These are nicely jumbled together in a way that feels proper but natural, carrying throughout the album a passion and energy that feeds it all the way through. Songs like "The Rolling People" and "This Time" even manage to evoke retro rock without seeming tacky, as some consider Oasis' less graceful moments to be. All in all though, it's the poignance of this album that makes it special. One liners scattered throughout are like little moments from our own lives. I've mentioned that line from "Bittersweet Symphony" that seems to come back to be every so often, but it's hardly the only example. "I know I'm on a losing streak as I walk down my old street" from "The Drugs Don't Work" strikes me in a similar way. Finally, the apex in "Velvet Morning" bears many repeated listens. While there are weak moments - "Catching the Butterfly" attempts to reconcile Verve's quasi-shoegaze sound with their new poppier style without the same success that "The Rolling People" and "Neon Wilderness" have - all in all it is really a terrific album. Highlights include "The Drugs Don't Work", "Weeping Willow", and "Velvet Morning".
VERDENA - SOLO UN GRANDE SASSO - 9/10
I really want to give this a 9.5, but then I see that I gave the untouchable Dog Man Star 9.5 and I realize that I can't really (though I think now DMS should get a 10 - it sits well beside Loveless, Souvlaki, Morning Glory, and 100 Broken Windows in that category). Further, the same score as Urban Hymns is hardly a slight. Still, I really highly recommend it, and it's a marvelous step forward from Verdena's already very good eponymous debut. The best moments in Verdena were the moments of doubt and darkness, the indomitable, angsty energy of "Valvonauta" and "L'Infinita gioia di Henry Bahus" and the morose humility of "Vera" and "Bambina in Nero". While there were many brilliant moments throughout the rest of the album, Verdena's strength lay not in their forthright punk exoskeleton, but the darker soul that lay under it. In Solo un grande sasso, it's just this that comes to the forefront. The whole album is flanked by the extreme end of Verdena's introversion, with songs even more timid ("La tua fretta" and "Medusa e tappeti") and sensitive than had been "Vera". It then continues with a second song in "Spaceman" with all the energy of Verdena second track "Valvonauta" that also introduces the mysterious themes that run through the album, from the strange jellyfish and sand dollars that grace the album art to the surprising contrasts from song titles to the songs themselves - "Onan" is not at all a common name in Italy, and "Cara prudenza" is filled with a dread that is found nowhere in "Dear Prudence", the Beatles' song whose title is a direct translation. Who this "Spaceman" is, what he represents, and why the title is in English is hard to decipher, especially for someone with Italian as a second language like myself, and the more layered sound of this album casts a pallid shadow of mystery over everything. One other advance made by Solo un grande sasso is how unbelievably smoothly the songs all mesh together. This album sounds like it was made to be one entity, perhaps most noticeable in the flawless transition from "Nova" to "Cara prudenza", and is thus really hard to stop listening to. Verdena had been a very good collection of songs, but lacked that cohesion, in much the same way that I feel that (What's the Story) Morning Glory? is a superior album to its contemporary The Great Escape in its natural cohesion. Finally, I feel I'm more able to appreciate the significance of the lyrics in this album due to my time in Italy and resulting comfort with the Italian language. The lyrics are filled with changes in physical and metaphysical forms. "In every crime that you are, in every crime that you commit", sings Alberto Ferrari with an intonation that wills meaning upon the words, just as he repeats "In every me that you are" in "Spaceman". Other lines are uttered with a moving clarity, such as "It's never been easy for me" and "You squeeze me and create clouds", in "Onan". Solo un grande sasso is a compelling listen throughout, even more comparable to Sunny Day Real Estate's Diary than had been their debut. While I've tried to find similar Italian bands, there seem to very few - even other alternative groups like CCCP Fedeli alla Linea, Afterhours, and Marlene Kuntz lack the sensitivity and subtlety of Verdena's work, so perfect here. Highlights include "Onan", "Nel mio letto", "1.000 anni con Elide".
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Veramente vorrei dare a quest'album un voto di 9,5, ma ho appena visto che ho dato questo voto a Dog Man Star di Suede, e realizzo che non posso (sebbene io pensi di aver dovuto dare a Dms un 10 - è uguale in qualità a Loveless, Soulaki, e 100 Broken Windows). Inoltre, lo stesso voto come Urban Hymns non è un affronto. Lo raccomando comunque, ed è un miglioramento anche sul record debutto bellissimo di Verdena che prende il nome del gruppo. I momenti migliori dal debutto erano i momenti di dubito e tenebre: l'energia angosciante di "L'Infinita gioia d'Henry Bahus" e "Valvonauta", e l'umiltà malinconica di "Vera" e "Bambina in Nero". Nonostante i momenti di bellezza nel resto del record, la fortezza di Verdena non era nell'esoscheletro evidente di punk rock, ma l'anima più fosco che restava dentro. Con Solo un grande sasso, questo diventa il foco. L'album intero è affiancato da un'introversione anche più estrema di quella di "Vera" e "Bambina in Nero", col bisbiglio di "La tua fretta" e "Medusa e tappeti". Continua con la seconda canzone, "Spaceman", che ha tutta l'energia di "Valvonauta", e anche un senso di mistero che unifica il record, dalle meduse e dollari di sabbia che ornano la coperta a titoli come "Onan" (non un nome molto comune, mi sembra) e "Cara prudenza", che non potrebbe essere più diversa da "Dear Prudence", la canzone dei Beatles che è la traduzione diretta all'inglese. Anche in "Spaceman" è presente - chi è, e perché prende il titolo inglese? Il suono più profondo e stratificato aggiunge a quest'effetto. Un altro elemento di questo record è la sua fluidità. Ogni canzone è legato in un modo naturale e quasi necessario che rende Solo un grande sasso un'entità unica. Questo è più evidente nella transizione fra "Nova" e "Cara prudenza". Verdena era stato una collezione di belle canzoni, ma Solo un grande sasso sembra una cosa anche più perfetta, un po' nello stesso modo in cui penso alla superiorità di (What's the Story) Morning Glory? sopra The Great Escape dello stesso anno. Finalmente, adesso ho una familiarità con la lingua italiana che mi permette a capire più completamente la significata di quello che canta Alberto Ferrari su questo record. I brani sono pieni di cambiamenti di formi fisiche e metafisiche, come nelle linee "In ogni crimine che sei" in "Cara prudenza" e "In ogni io che sei" in "Spaceman". Altre linee hanno una sensitività commovente, come "Mi spremi e inventi nuvole" e "Non è stato semplice per me" da "Onan". Solo un grande sasso è avvincente nell'intero. È più simile a Diary di Sunny Day Real Estate che era stato Verdena (una cosa buono secondo me), e sembra unica nella musica italiana - anche gruppi alternativi italiani come CCCP Fedeli alla Linea e Afterhours non sono molto simili a Verdena. Non hanno la sottigliezza e sensitività che mostra Verdena qui. Canzoni più belli includono "Onan", "Nel mio letto", e "1.000 anni con Elide".
