The Spent Poets - The Spent Poets (1992)

Among the many injustices perpetrated in the golden (for some) musical world, this is undoubtedly one of the biggest and unknown. On the other hand, who has ever heard of the Spent Poets and who, therefore, has ever worried about their fate? Even the undersigned has always had to struggle with just the liner notes, contenting himself with the lush content proposed by the quintet.

The album is a dispassionate and ironic tribute to the music of the 60s, Beatles and psychedelic groups in particular. The lyrics are a bottomless pit of quotes, ranging from "walrus" (the walrus from "Magical mistery tour") to "Paul is dead", to Albert Einstein, Walt Whitman, Rasputin, Sammy Davis jr., James Dean , Syd Barrett (living with his mother…).

And the music? 14 songs of absolute beauty, perfect recoveries of atmospheres and themes linked to historical groups such as the aforementioned Beatles, the Kinks or artists such as David Bowie. Many pieces of “Spent Poets” would enter by right in the catalog of these “mammasantissima”; from the initial "Mr. Einstein" (from the fast and powerful riff) to the Beatlesian "Grassheads", "Walt Whitman's beard" and "Your existential past" (in a better world it would have been their single release, in the real world it is a single born dead), to the irresistible "Ali Ali Ackbar" (rock song like few others, despite the title of Thief of Baghdad). "The rocks in Virginia's dress" is a classic ballad that surprises with a dizzying finale imbued with high-class jazz, while the subsequent "You don't know me" and "Why are you sleeping with Mr. Brown?" reveal the gruff part of the group, with hard and psycho-rock sounds.

The voice of Adam Gates is also very pleasant, pasty and determined, an interesting compromise between the timbres of Bryan Ferry and David Sylvian, duly vitaminized.

"The Spent Poets" is a hard to find album, try to memorize at least the cover. In case you notice it in some flea market, between a Ukrainian choir and a Yanni, buy it now. They will sell it to you at a ridiculously low price, unaware that in the 90s few artists came close to such standards.