sábado, 29 de novembro de 2008

Benji Hughes




Though it is a risky venture to release a double album even if you are a considerably prestigious artist, the bulk of such releases usually derive from artists who have already made a reputable name for themselves at a time when they can afford to take risks. I can use two classic albums from 1996 as an example; Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collies and the Infinite Sadness and 2Pac’s All Eyez on Me were released by both artists at their commercial and artistic peaks. 2Pac already had a platinum album to his name, with his previous Me Against the World reaching #1 on the Billboard 200 upon its release. The Smashing Pumpkins’ prior album, Siamese Dream, also saw a similar range of success as it reached #10. The Pumpkins were the kings of alternative-rock at the time and 2Pac was the king of hip-hop during the same era; they had substantial room to take risks and both artists vastly benefitted from their decisions. Both double albums are now considered classics of their respective genres, but that is not often the case for other attempts when applied to a format that some find overwhelming due to aspects like length, stylistic repetition, and even price. It does not help that most of today’s listeners tend to be an impatient group, with it being a feat if many of them could even sit down and listen to an album in its entirety.
For an artist who opts to produce a double album, it is arguably vital to have a sense of confidence in regard to their own stylistic ability. Unless the songwriting can be widely classified as ingenious, few artists can release such a lengthy album without their style becoming tiresome by the last few tracks at best. This is one of the primary reasons why most double albums we see are from artists who have already had their successes and bumps in the road, as experience is the most imperative tool in crafting something successful of a lengthy duration. Pink Floyd had delicately constructed the epic release of The Wall in 1979 after already writing a slew of legendary albums like The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here, releasing the renowned double album in ‘79 after 10 albums and 12 years of working together. Such a practice is most common amongst artists, with experience and success contributing to a high degree of confidence that consequently results in aspirations for a release of epic proportions. Keeping that in mind, for an artist to debut with a double album showcases a form of confidence that is rare even among the most experienced artists. Whether they can live up their own lofty impressions is often a flawed cause, but Benji Hughes’s debut, A Love Extreme, has pulled it off so seamlessly that it is not even slightly pretentious or overbearing. Instead, the native of North Carolina has produced one of the best debuts of 2008.

Within the 25 tracks that encompass A Love Extreme, Hughes’ topical tendencies stray anywhere from taking mushrooms before a Flaming Lips concert to being stood up at a Dairy Queen. “I’m more alternative than Suicide Girls,” he goes on to say during “The Mummy”, a rather apt indication of his cultural awareness. An awareness of so-called “hipster culture” is something that he does quite humorously, with the majority of it being in satirical form like the bouncy, topically self-explanatory “I Went with Some Friends to See the Flaming Lips”, the synthesized dance-pop of “Why Do These Parties Always End the Same Way?”, and the infectious electro-funk of “Neighbor Down the Hall”, a tale of the effect of loud music on an irritated landlord. His outlook on youth culture is amusing because he manages to make a mockery of it while not disbanding and dismissing it entirely, using realistically humorous anecdotes to often emit a central focus. Since it is a double album after all, this is wisely not the only prevalent topical focus. Hughes also has an extreme capability to craft resoundingly successful love songs, whether they are in the form of a ballad or an infectious interpretation of electronic pop. Tracks like “All You’ve Got to Do Is Fall in Love”, “Waiting for an Invitation”, and “So Much Better” variously employ gentle acoustic and key progressions, while a brisker effort like “Even If” showcases a suave mixture of key-led pop and jazz. All of the aforementioned provide excellent results though in a romanticized atmosphere, particularly the brilliant “Even If”, which finds Hughes treading successfully somewhere between The Walkmen and The Divine Comedy.
Though Hughes’ diversity causes comparisons to The Walkmen on “Even If” and even Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy on “So Well” to arise, his multifarious topical ability is more reminiscent of Stephin Merritt, the leader of the Magnetic Fields. Like Merritt, Hughes is able to simultaneously generate ironic, satirical, and witty remarks over a ceaselessly expanding array of musical styles. It also helps that his voice is similarly low, musky, and also highly melodic. One of the album’s catchiest tracks, “You Stood Me Up”, fuses power-pop in the verses with an utterly irresistible chorus that is largely dependent on electro-rock. Its humorous lyrical content is subtly accompanied with rejection and somberness though, as is more evidenced by a track like “All You’ve Got to Do Is Fall in Love” where he begins by asking (or pleading), “Wouldn’t it be sweet if you could be in love with me the way I am in love with you?” For a more direct relation to the Magnetic Fields, “Love is a Razor” reminds me of Merritt’s “Love is Like Jazz” for its witty metaphorical stance. “Love is like a razor, it’s cold and it’s sharp,” Hughes delicately croons over the gentle strum of an acoustic guitar, adding another one to a sprawling list of concurrently humorous and ironically tragic songs.
How so many songs can be simultaneously humorous and tragic is part of what makes Hughes’ album so impressive. The very same thing can be said for Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs, another comparable epic that incorporated a massive array of styles, unpredictable topical frequencies, and amusing references to pop (and independent) culture. Many of us consider that album to be a classic As usual, you can find three recommended samples from the album below, but buying the other 22 tracks for less than $14 should be a no-brainer. It is quite impressive that Hughes has crafted 25 tracks for the album and none of them are lacking in either effort or quality. “When it was time to put it all together, we didn’t want to leave out too much,” Hughes replied when asked about his choice of releasing his debut as a double album. “It just didn’t seem right to leave out too much because it represented where we were when we began all the way through until now.” For the sake of his listeners, it was certainly a wise decision, as each and every track is clearly a great effort that most often results in a unique success.

Benji Hughes "Girl in the Tower"



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sexta-feira, 28 de novembro de 2008

Mogwai News

Os Mogwai actuam em Portugal no início do próximo ano. A actuação acontece na Aula Magna, em Lisboa, a 5 de Fevereiro, e serve de apresentação ao recém-lançado novo álbum da banda escocesa, intitulado "The Hawk is Howling", que sucede a "Mr. Beast", de 2006.Os bilhetes já estão à venda, nos locais habituais, pelos preços de 22 euros (para o anfiteatro) e 30 euros (para as doutorais).Vêm de Glasgow e vêem no post-rock a sua forma de expressão. A história dos escoceses Mogwai começa a delinear-se em 1996, quando Stuart Braithwaite (guitarra e voz) e Dominic Aitchison (baixo) recrutam o baterista Martin Bulloch para formarem uma banda rock. Com o propósito de criar "música de guitarra séria", o trio convida mais um guitarrista para a formação do grupo, de seu nome John Cummings.O primeiro single dos Mogwai, "Tuner", foi sucedido por "Angels vs. Aliens", que alcançou de imediato um lugar ao sol na tabela indie britânica, em 1996. Depois de participarem em várias compilações, os Mogwai lançam "Summer", seguido de "New Paths to Helicon" e de uma colecção com algum material mais antigo, intitulada "Ten Rapid". Numa altura em que se preparavam para gravar o EP "4 Satin", o ex-membro dos Teenage Fanclub e dos Telstar Ponies, Brendan O'Hare, junta-se ao alinhamento dos Mogwai, mesmo a tempo de participar no seu álbum de estreia "Mogwai Young Team".Pouco tempo depois, O'Hare deixa a banda para regressar aos seus projectos Macrocosmica e Fiend 1.Novamente enquanto quarteto, os Mogwai editam "Kicking a Dead Pig", um duplo CD de remixes, seguido do novo EP "No Education No Future (Fuck The Curfew)", ambos em 1998. No ano seguinte, a banda lança o seu segundo álbum, "Come On Die Young", e em 2001 chega às lojas um novo trabalho de originais, "Rock Action". Já no final desse ano, os Mogwai editam o EP "My Father, My King". Em 2003, "Happy Music for Happy People" assinala o quarto álbum de originais da banda. Três anos depois, o longa-duração "Mr Beast" vê a luz do dia.
MOGWAI - Travel Is Dangerous

Thom Yorke

Thom Yorke completou este ano 40 anos. O vocalista dos Radiohead nasceu a 7 de Outubro de 1968 em Inglaterra. Toca guitarra, piano e laptop. Actualmente, vive em Oxford com a sua companheira de longa data, a artista plástica com doutoramento em história da arte Rachel Owen, da qual teve já dois filhos: Noah e Agnes.Nascido com o olho esquerdo paralisado, Thom Yorke submeteu-se a um total de cinco operações de correcção nos seus primeiros cinco anos de vida. A última foi mal-sucedida e quase lhe tirou toda a visão do olho esquerdo. Yorke teve a sua primeira guitarra aos sete anos, ao ver a performance do guitarrista dos Queen, Brian May, na televisão. A primeira canção que escreveu chamava-se Mushroom Cloud e fala sobre a formação de uma nuvem seguindo-se uma explosão nuclear. Thom Yorke formou a primeira banda aos 11 anos, quando frequentava a escola privada para rapazes Abingdon School, onde conheceu os seus futuros companheiros Ed O'Brien, Colin Greenwood, o baterista Phil Selway e o irmão mais novo de Colin, Jonny Greenwood. Inicialmente chamavam-se On a Friday, pois a sexta era o único dia em que podiam ensaiar. Mais tarde, quando passou pela Universidade de Exeter, Yorke foi membro dos Headless Chickens, e trabalhou num hospital psiquiátrico como assistente. Em Exeter, conheceu Stanley Donwood, que mais tarde trabalharia na arte-final da banda de 1994 até hoje. O nome Radiohead foi inspirado numa música do álbum True Stories, dos Talking Heads.Depois do grande sucesso chamado 'Creep', uma sucessão de álbuns cada vez mais complexos fez dos Radiohead uma das bandas mais respeitadas do mundo, em parte devido aos temas de existencialismo urbano, maldade, e amor nas letras de Yorke. Algumas das suas músicas têm mensagens políticas, a mais proeminente no álbum Hail to the Thief (saudações ao ladrão, em português). O título é visto como uma referência directa à eleição para presidente dos Estados Unidos de George W. Bush.Thom Yorke e o vocalista do R.E.M., Michael Stipe, são amigos íntimos e frequentemente participam nos shows um do outro. A música 'How to Disappear Completely', foi inspirada por Stipe, que aconselhou Yorke a falar para si mesmo.Yorke já explicou em várias entrevistas que não gosta da 'mitologia' que sente ser endémica com o género rock, e odeia a obsessão dos mídia com celebridades.Yorke é conhecido pelo seu falseto distintivo e pela habilidade em encontrar e sustentar notas elevadas. A sua voz já foi comparada à de Jeff Buckley e de Matthew Bellamy. Yorke já disse que prefere computadores às guitarras, e pensa que programas como o Pro Tools dão ao músico maior poder na direcção de uma música do que instrumentos tradicionais.

John Lennon



Se fosse vivo, completaria este ano 68 anos. Nasceu em Liverpool no dia 9 de Outubro de 1940. John Lennon está para a música como Picasso para a arte. Como Bill Gates para a informática. Como Pelé para o futebol. Exagero? Talvez não. Não erramos muito se dissermos que se John não chegou à perfeição, então, esteve lá perto. Em 40 anos de existência, tornou-se numa lenda viva e eterna no mundo da música. Desde cedo começou a mostrar a sua veia musical, apesar dos muitos problemas familiares vividos na infância.
Não terá tido um início de vida propriamente feliz, pois aos quatro anos assistiu à separação dos seus pais. Coube-lhe a responsabilidade de escolher: ir com o pai para a Nova Zelândia ou ficar com a mãe, uma doméstica sem grandes posses. Apesar das dúvidas e incertezas até final, o calor maternal falou mais alto. Ainda assim, foi com a tia Mimi que John foi criado. Seguiu-se a escola, onde começou a dar nas vistas pelo seu arrojado gosto musical.

Como criança, John Lennon viveu sem grandes percalços. Nunca desesperadamente infeliz nem extremamente contente. Ficou conhecido como o rapaz que gostava de música.
Os anos foram passando até que algo súbito interrompeu a sua aparente acalmia: a sua mãe, que entretanto casara novamente, morreu antes dele completar 18 anos. Foi um período complicado para John, que se tornou numa pessoa amarga e anti-social.
Coincidência ou talvez não, aparece na sua vida o seu primeiro grande amor: Cynthia Powell, que seria a sua primeira mulher.
Aos 20 anos, e depois de fundar com o amigo Paul McCartney os Quarrymen, começa a ganhar prestígio. A estes dois juntam-se a George Harrison e Stu Stcliffe. O nome da banda foi mudado para The Silver Beatles. Peter Best junta-se à banda.
Segue-se a prova de fogo. Apesar de se conhecerem há algum tempo, agora tinham pela frente uma extensa digressão na Alemanha. Tocaram, empolgaram multidões, chegaram rapidamente ao estrelato. O regresso a casa não podia ter sido melhor - eram a banda do momento em Inglaterra.
"Love Me Do" foi o primeiro single, em 1962, o mesmo ano em que John casou com Cynthia Powell, que entretanto tinha engravidado. Stu Stcliffe morre e Peter Best é substituído na bateria por Ringo Starr.

É tempo de chegar o primeiro álbum, "Please Please Me". Em tempo de conflitos políticos e mudanças ideológicas, o disco atinge o top britânico, onde se mantém teimosamente por 30 semanas. O estilo moderno e livre da música dos Beatles é uma lufada de ar fresco em Inglaterra.
Ainda em 1962, John torna-se pai pela primeira vez, de um rapaz chamado Julian.
Nos anos seguintes, dedica-se também à escrita. "In His Own Write" foi o título do seu primeiro livro. É já em Londres que o músico conhece pela primeira vez as drogas. Depois de voltar a ver o pai, John mete a colher na controversa área da religião. A afirmação polémica de que os Beatles são mais conhecidos que Jesus Cristo não caiu bem entre muita gente, não só no Reino Unido, mas um pouco em todo o mundo.
Antes de Paul McCartney anunciar a sua saída da banda, em 1970, John envolve-se com Yoko Ono, que conheceu numa exposição, em 1966, provocando o divórcio com Cynthia Powell.
É já ao lado de Yoko que John lança a sua carreira a solo. Para trás tinham ficado os Beatles. Yoko Ono andava com John para todo o lado. Ambos começaram a fazer música, sob a designação de Plastic Ono Band. Concertos e festivais foi coisa que não faltou durante os primeiros anos da década de 70. O casal separa-se, alegadamente por motivos de pressão, e John volta ao álcool. 14 meses durou a separação.

Em 1975, e depois de já ter abortado espontaneamente, Yoko Ono dá finalmente à luz o primeiro filho do casal, Sean. John passa então a viver uma vida mais calma. Os últimos cinco anos da sua vida foram dedicados à família. Cuidar do filho e dar atenção aos interesses familiares estavam no topo das suas preferências. Pelo meio foi escrevendo e compondo alguns temas, que viriam a ser editados em forma de álbum, em 1980.
Quando começaram a surgir rumores sobre uma eventual reunião dos quatro elementos dos Beatles, John foi brutalmente assassinado, mesmo em frente ao seu apartamento, em Nova Iorque. Morreu horas depois num hospital da cidade, aos 40 anos.

domingo, 2 de novembro de 2008

Blues Vs rock

To me this is the most perfect song which combines a excellent blues lyric and a perfect rock music. First time I listened to this song I was in a Animatógrafo bar. There was a band playing covers and they started with this song.When i heard since the first song lines I become hipnotised. When I found that this song was a traditional american song everything was illuminated. It was really a Blues song. When Jimmy Hendrix decided to play it the song became immortalized. Thank you Jimmy.

Jimmy Hendrix ~ Hey Joe


this is oral sex...be carefull


Red House Painters ~ Favourite songs

Red House Painters are another excellent low profile band. Their lider Mark Kozelek has a great sensibility to write masterpieces. He is also the front man of Sun Kil Moon, another band that I enjoy.

Here are some favourites songs of Red House Painters

Have You Forgotten


Summer Dress
On Wiki:
"Red House Painters were an alternative rock group formed in 1989 in San Francisco by singer/songwriter Mark Kozelek. They are described, along with American Music Club, as one of the linchpins of the slowcore movement in alternative rock. Kozelek used this group primarily as a vehicle for his very personal and emotional songs of despair, pain and suffering.
While in Atlanta, Georgia, Kozelek became friends with Anthony Koutsos, a drummer. He then moved to San Francisco, California, adding guitarist Gorden Mack and bassist Jerry Vessel to complete the line-up for Red House Painters.
After forming, the group played the San Francisco scene extensively, and recorded demos from 1989 to 1992, building up an impressive amount of material. The band were signed to
4AD Records in 1992, on the strength of a demo tape passed to 4AD boss Ivo Watts-Russell by American Music Club frontman Mark Eitzel. Between September 1992 and March 1995, the band was prolific, releasing three LPs, one double LP, and one EP.
Their first 4AD release was an
album made up of demos entitled Down Colorful Hill. It was a compilation of haunting melodies complemented by Kozelek's eerie vocals. In 1993, the group came out with two self-titled records (now commonly referred to as Rollercoaster and Bridge because of their cover artwork), solidifying Kozelek's reputation as a talented songwriter with their harrowing autobiographical tales of his troubled life and errant living. The music, which ran the gamut from acoustic folk-rock to intense, dissonant, lengthy soundscapes conveyed the sadness of the lyrics.
In early
1994, they released an EP entitled Shock Me, featuring two cover versions of an Ace Frehley-written KISS song. The introspective Ocean Beach followed in spring 1995, which saw Kozelek's songs becoming more acoustic-based and folk influenced, and featured far less of the lengthy epics of the group's first two albums. His lyrics also showed a shift in tone, as he increasingly began to write about the power of memory and the significance of geography, subjects that would become an obsession in his subsequent recordings.
While Kozelek was beginning work on a solo project, he parted ways with 4AD Records after a tumultuous relationship, so
Songs for a Blue Guitar was eventually released on Island Records subsidiary Supreme Recordings in mid 1996. It was a less atmospheric, more guitar-driven rock album than their previous records, but it was nonetheless issued under the Red House Painters, rather than Kozelek's, name. By early 1998, their sixth album was completed. However, major label mergers during the late 90's would leave the record in limbo, and it wasn't until 2001 that Old Ramon, was finally issued on the Sub Pop label.
Prior to the release of
Old Ramon, Kozelek released a solo seven-song EP entitled Rock 'n' Roll Singer in 2000. The record consisted of three original acoustic compositions with minor full-band arrangements and four covers (three from Bon Scott-era AC/DC, and John Denver's "Around and Around") that further revealed Kozelek's fascination with 1970s classic rock. Six months later, Kozelek released his first solo album, What's Next to the Moon, which was comprised entirely of acoustic covers of yet more Bon Scott-era AC/DC songs, including re-recorded versions of the tracks that had appeared on the previous EP. The record was uncharacteristic of Kozelek (though he was prone to covering songs by his favorite artists) in that it is the shortest full length to date clocking in at just over thirty minutes. Both the EP and album were released by Badman Recordings.
4AD would release the best-of package,
Retrospective, in July 1999. Kozelek subsequently contributed to the AIDS benefit album The Shanti Project Collection, and organized and appeared on Take Me Home: A Tribute to John Denver, a John Denver tribute album (along with like-minded artists like Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Low and The Innocence Mission). He also dabbled in acting, playing small parts in the Cameron Crowe films Almost Famous and Vanilla Sky, as well as appearing more prominently as a rock musician alongside Jason Schwartzman in the Steve Martin vehicle Shopgirl.
In 2003, Kozelek and Koutsos, along with Geoff Stanfield and Tim Mooney, reformed as
Sun Kil Moon, releasing the acclaimed album Ghosts of the Great Highway on Jetset Records. In a 2005 interview with The Onion's AV Club, Kozelek confirmed that he considers Sun Kil Moon essentially the Red House Painters, but that he changed the band name to grab the interest of critics who had gotten bored with, or stopped paying attention to, the Painters. The move was successful, as Ghosts of the Great Highway would be his best-selling album yet while garnering positive reviews."

Lou Reed ~ Berlin



1. Sad Song/Intro
2. Berlin
3. Lady Day
4. Men Of Good Fortune
5. Caroline Says I
6. How Do You Think It Feels
7. Oh Jim
8. Caroline Says II
9. Kids
10. The Bed
11. Sad Song
12. Candy Says
13. Rock Minuet
14. Sweet Jane
Review
A critical and commercial flop on its release in 1973, Berlin is now regarded as one of Lou Reed's finest achievements. Fans who had expected an upbeat, radio-friendly companion piece to Transformer had clearly underestimated Reed's indifference to his audience, and were rewarded instead with what Lester Bangs memorably called a "gargantuan slab of maggoty rancour that may well be the most depressed album ever." And that was one of the more positive reviews.
Yet, the uncompromising bleakness masks some of Reed's best and most versatile songwriting. For the uninitiated, it's a coherent song cycle with a linear narrative (boy meets girl; boy and girl do lots of drugs; boy beats up girl; girl kills self) infused with a palpable sense of drama as Jim and Caroline's story unfolds. And it's these elements of oral storytelling and dramatic tension which give real purpose to the idea of staging Berlin in its entirety. Reed toured the album for the first time in 2006; this is the aural record to accompany the DVD of the New York shows.
Reed always reinvents his material when performing live, though all too often this consists purely of spitting out individual words a fraction of a beat earlier or later than on the recorded versions, as if tinkering with the songs for the sake of it.
Here, however, he pulls his voice in many directions to track the dramatic arc of the story, which improves on the consistently flat, dispassionate croak which often made the original album sound so desolate. Here and there, we get the sardonic observational tone of his pre-Berlin solo work; the fruity 'proper' singing of his 80s albums, and the spoken-word blues of New York and Magic And Loss. Extra depth and emotion are added by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus and the crooning of guest star Anthony Hegarty.
Musically, too, this live staging is more accessible and varied than its studio template. Lady Day becomes a muscular rock-out, with a full orchestra adding the mood of Weimar decadence which the original album could communicate only via taped archive recordings. How Do You Think It Feels veers between 50s rock and honky-tonk to create an exuberant, stagey atmosphere well-suited to the finger-poking aggression of the lyrics. Oh Jim, the liveliest tune on the original album, is drawn out to over eight minutes with the kind of fluid, bluesy guitar heroics not seen since Reed's excellent 1975 live outing Rock & Roll Animal.
Most effective of all is how this version interprets the closing triptych of The Kids / The Bed / Sad Song, which charts the removal into care of the drug-addled Caroline's children and her resulting suicide. The original album flatlines at this point, becoming almost unlistenably miserable. Here, though, the full orchestra and Reed's tender delivery create an elegiac rather than funereal tone; bringing the tragic beauty of the story to the fore by evoking sympathy rather than horror.
Is this, then, an improvement on one of rock music's true originals? (Ignore for a minute the three listenable but pointless bonus tracks). Perhaps for purists, it's the very harshness and austerity of Berlin which make it a great album: a perfect narration of two lives in freefall, with no attempt to shy away either from the misery of the closing chapters or from the sense of dread as the inevitable conclusion approaches. For others (myself included), maybe the original strays a little too far into minimalist gloom, for all its brilliance and integrity.
This mature, nuanced performance of Berlin communicates the human tragedy of the story, leaving behind the chilliness of the studio and using the medium of the stage to its full dramatic advantage. - Darren Harvey
Resumindo e concluíndo... uma obra de arte.
Fiquem com uma favorita minha: Candy Says... com a participação especial de Anthony. Genial.

sábado, 1 de novembro de 2008

New Dawn Fades ~ becoming adult


I've become an adult man when I listened to this song, on an apartment in Faro, with some friends, in the earlies nineties. I was hoping for something more, becoming to change. Even today when I listen to this song I feel the same heart beat, same chill in my neck. On those days "I've walked on water, run through fire"



New Dawn Fades
A change of speed, a change of style
A change of scene, with no regrets
A chance to watch, admire the distance
Still occupied, though you forget
Different colours, different shades
Over each mistakes were made
I took the blame
Directionless so plain to see
A loaded gun won't set you free
So you say
We'll share a drink and step outside
An angry voice and one who cried
" We'll give you everything and more,
the strain's too much, can take much more".
Oh, I've walked on water, run through fire
Can't seem to feel it anymore
It was me, waiting for me
Hoping for something more
Me, seeing me this time, hoping for something else.

centésima mensagem - A atmosfera redutora do blog




Walk in silence

Don't walk away, in silence

See the danger

Always danger

Endless talking

Life rebuilding

Don't walk away

Walk in silence

Don't turn away, in silence

Your confusion

My illusion

Worn like a mask of self-hate

Confronts and then dies

Don't walk away

People like you find it easy

Naked to see

Walking on air

Hunting by the rivers

Through the streets

Every corner abandoned too soon

Set down with due care

Don't walk away in silence

Don't walk away