Steve Winwood - Nine Lives

Artist: Steve Winwood
Title: Nine Lives
Genre: Rock, R&b, Soul
Release Year: 2008
Type: New release
Audio: CD

Testi di Steve Winwood

Caro vecchio Steve, 60'anni il 12 maggio). Eravamo tutti in trepida attesa, e aspettavano con ansia un tuo nuovo disco.
E dopo cinque anni di silenzio, ecco il regalo: Nine Lives, nove vite come i gatti, nove vite che qui corrispondono a 9 nuovi brani, realizzati in compagnia di alcuni amici come Eric Clapton, con cui Steve condivide un'amicizia vecchia 55 anni, e la convivenza in due progetti ai suoi tempi rivoluzionari: i Powerhouse negli anni 60, con cui traghettarono il blues nel futuro, e i Blind Faith, la prima grande superband della storia del rock.

Ed ora, i giorni nostri, con i due vecchi amici insieme per tre serate sold-out al Madison Square Garden, il 19, febbraio 2008, e la promessa di collaborare su questo disco. Naturalmente, si tratta di un album in totale stile Winwood. Non aspettatevi troppo, nel senso che Nine Lives non segue mode o classifiche, la sua musica va oltre, ben oltre, è un ripasso sottile, pieno di passato, un passato importante e glorioso, e di presente, perch Winwood nonostante i cinque anni di attesa è sempre stato presente. Ed echi di tutto questo li possiamo trovare in alcune tracce come Fly legata indelebilmente al mondo dei Traffic, o in Dirty City, dove la chitarra di Clapton ci riporta al tempo dei Blind Faith.

In altre parole, mentre le canzoni di questo album saranno un vero toccasana per i nostalgici del rock anni 70/80, potrebbe non esserlo per chi da un nuovo album oggi cerca la canzone mielosa o da classifica, magari con qualche feat. di colore a rapparci sopra, o la produzione di Timbaland. Mentre Nine Lives ha un deciso taglio antico, pieno di spunti che attraversano 50'anni di rock, vissuti da Steve intensamente e come protagonista, con tracce che per essere vere e complete, non sono mai al di sotto dei cinque minuti. Ben tornato Steve!!
In uscita il (5 Maggio 2008)

Track Listings

Disc: 1
1. I'm Not Drowning
2. Fly
3. Raging Sea
4. Dirty City
5. We're All Looking
6. Hungry Man
7. Secrets
8. At Times We Do Forget
9. Other Shore

Disc: 2
1. 40 minuti di performances realizzate in studio con interviste. Più il video di "Dirty City".

Review
For a guy who’s been making hit records since his teenage years, Steve Winwood has always tended to keep a curiously low profile; even while he was releasing chart-topping records like 1988’s Roll With It – emblazoned with his face and “WINWOOD” on the cover – his hits were associated more with, say, Michelob than anything to do with the man making the music. He’s always been more of a musician than a rock star, which has probably helped steer him away from the spectacular highs and lows of his peers – a person could build a strong argument for Winwood’s output, solo and otherwise, as the most consistent body of work assembled by any of the rock gods who came out of the ‘60s.

Still, he hasn’t been immune to trends – especially during the ‘80s. The swan song of corporate rock seduced even the most strong-willed of rock’s founding fathers, luring them out to sea with promises of continued relevancy and riches, only to leave them gasping for breath in the cutout bins, their names attached to horrible dreck like Bob Dylan’s Down in the Groove or Clapton’s Behind the Sun. Winwood suffered the misfortune of assembling a beautiful mid-‘80s solo record (1986’s Back in the High Life) with serious yuppie appeal; the resultant sales explosion sent him wandering off in search of more and bigger hits for over a decade, via increasingly dull solo albums such as 1990’s Refugees of the Heart and 1997’s dreadful, Narada Michael Walden-produced Junction Seven. By the turn of the century, a new Winwood record was the furthest thing from most people’s minds – which is probably just the way he likes it.

Solid as most of Winwood’s solo output has been, many longtime fans never stopped hoping for a return to the organ-heavy, jam-friendly sounds of his early sides with the Spencer Davis Group and Traffic, and those hopes finally paid off with 2003’s About Time, which found Winwood making a 180-degree turn away from the well-groomed balladry of his most recent releases and toward longer, looser, and more complex rock & roll. The move paid off – although About Time was independently released on Winwood’s own Wincraft label, the album enjoyed a higher profile than anything he’d released in years, and earned him some of the most positive reviews of his solo career – as well as expanding (and reducing the average age of) his audience.

Testi di Steve Winwood