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HEAD HEART MIND BODY SOUL THINK TALK
SPEED OF LIFE (part 2)

Uglyman Records 2002

The legendary and, some might say, mythic

and much delayed 'first' album. Hyperbole

does not suffice....

CTRL ALT DEL

"It's only momentum keeps me alive"

It shuffles and crawls and turns it's head to look back and shuffles on some more, into the future it only half wants. An anatomy of love and the nearest I've come to dislodging 'Ashtray Heart' from the top of my favourites list. If you're new to Silverman you might recall being wrong footed into thinking the band was male-fronted. Have to say, initially I thought 'what the hell is this?' Then it grew on me. it grew on me like a climbing rosebush, entwining me in thorns, scratching and comforting, smiling and screaming at the same time. They say there's three sides to every story- his, hers and the truth. All three are here.

Listen

SECRET BABY

"There are parts of me that will never be"

Picks up where 'Ctrl Alt Del' leaves off both lyrically and musically. The changes, distortions in vocals really give it an edge. Much more than a meditation on the obvious 'secret' baby, whatever its nature.

Sneak (live) acoustic preview at now.com

DON'T LEAVE THIS WORLD WITHOUT ME

"You said life's a bitch, well baby, so am I"

Shimmering, throbbing, swelling, ready to explode. Silverman on the up again, back into big love territory and I mean big, mythic love, the sort of stuff they make movies about, write books about, that poets swan around old ruins in billowing shirts to. Love that changes the world. Big sweeping vistas of mountains and endless skies, metaphores for that feeling of centered omnipotence. Selfish and giving with a sudden end, a little death, if you please.

11:11(FORMERLY FCUK U FCUK ME)

"Fcuk every- fcuking- body"

A responce to 'Secret Baby' I tell myself when in danger of over-identifying with this Zen missive. It's not defeatist to admit you have no control over events, though we live in a world where to admit this is tantamount to social and professional suicide. It is arrogant to believe otherwise- cases in point- the Titanic, the British weather and September 11, 2001. In the darkness of the soul, after the sweeping vistas, when everything is black, twisting and pernicious, this is the soundtrack. In the Western world self pity and self reasoning leads only to frustration and rage against all we cannot control. It's a kind of madness. We 'go postal' with clanging, slo-mo shots of confusion. If it was about me I'd be spooked right back into my corner.

CAN I HAVE MY HEART BACK PLEASE?

"I told you everything you ever wanted to know about love"

The pressure is raising. Mark is making himself heard, unmistakeably if you're familiar with his work. It's a plea, with balls. A final settlement. Pay careful attention to the grinding dreamscape- you'll be reminded of it in a couple of tracks time...

BE BEAUTIFUL

"Baby, I do my best, it's no big deal"

Nearest you'll get to 'filler' on SOL. That's the criticism out of the way, it's been stuck on the turntable- sorry mp3 player- in my head all day. File under 'upper' if you must. 'Be Beautiful' walks that happy/tragic line we've come to know. Is it a song of hopeless dreaming as the 'aahhhoohhh' suggests, or is it a negotiation to attain perfection? The answer's coming right up...

NOTHING I DO, NOTHING I SAY

"Nothing you do will ever make me change my mind"

There have been three big musical revelations in my life so far. The first was Father Abraham and the Smurfs, the third was 'I Get Nervous'. The second was in 1988 when a friend leant me a tape called 'It'll End In Tears' by This Mortal Coil, house band of the 4AD label. I'd never heard anything like it in my life and it showed me there was life outside the bloody Top 40. By extension it lead me here- to a track that really should have been on that album. It's fifteen years late and could hug it to death. Sure, it sounds like the Cocteau Twins, but that's the intention. The words make sense though- Anna is no Liz Fraser (we only need one). 'Can I Have My Heart Back Please' was an early warning for this and segways perfectly. It's like the dawn of Silverman's future and the sunset on the SOL album. The previous albums are collections of songs, but 'Speed Of Life' is a whole, single vision resulting in this and I can't help but dissolve into it. There are extremely few records like that. Thank Goddess.

Buy SOL from Opal Music from March 18

 
 

HEAD HEART MIND BODY SOUL THINK TALK