"Robot" - Antònia Font

Antònia Font have split following three farewell concerts in Palma at the end of December. I was fortunate enough to see them live six times during their last two tours. This song, off their 2004 album, is one of my favourites and was played at most of those concerts.

Song: Robot
Written by: Joan Miquel Oliver
Artist: Antònia Font
Album: Taxi (2004)

"Robot"

Tell me what you think in the evenings

when the mechanic switches you off

when you make a software change,

whenever they reprogram you.

You'd remember a dream:

Illuminated space shuttles,

an astronaut, a satellite
horribly finished.

The oceans and the moon,

your nature is heremetic,

your gaze lost

in a desert(ed) planet.

Efficient robot, more intelligent

than people, and by a lot,

its computer, in one second, will add up

all of the stars in this world.

Innocent robot,

the dehumidifier doesn't hear you,

the electrical appliance is a plugged-in bastard

and will never know what friendship is.

Tell me what you think in the evenings

when the mechanic switches you off

when you make a software change,

whenever they reprogram you.

All the secrets of a science

in your iron chassis,

do you think it was necessary

to give you such an ugly form.

Efficient robot, more intelligent

than people, and by a lot,

its computer, in one second, will add up

all of the stars in this world.

Innocent robot,

the dehumidifier doesn't hear you,

the electrical appliance is a plugged-in bastard

and will never know what friendship is...

"Calgary 88" - Antònia Font

Voting for the annual Enderrock prizes is open until February 10. I haven't voted yet, because I still need to listen to some of the songs in the folk and singer-songwriter categories, but I know what I'm voting for best pop-rock song. This is easily my favorite song of 2011, ridiculously cute and absurd. I've even forgiven Antònia Font for introducing me to one of the most horrendous dance songs of the 1980s. Ah, and the picture on the left is my own work; please don't use it without permission.

Song: Calgary 88
Written by: Joan Miquel Oliver
Artist: Antònia Font
Album: Lamparetes (2011)

Qualified for the figure skating final,
it wasn't all physical or mental, it was emotional, too,
you and I were dating and we represented Spain
in the Winter Olympics in Canada.
Before we went out you said:
"Would you marry me?" and I replied:
"Today we'll be married, if we win the gold."
In synchrony and with maximum speed,
you go up in the air with incredible force
and, about to fall, I catch you.
you do a death spiral and I move carefully, we do an open curve,
I gather energy and lift you with just one hand.
You move gracefully like a ballerina on the point of the skates,
A double drumbeat sounds and we pretend to argue,
the jury exchange glances, I think they liked it,
we strike a final statuesque pose looking at the foundation laughing and breathing.
We dance this modern melody on an skating rink at Calgary '88,
the song is already playing over the loudspeaker: Atlantis is Calling (SOS for Love).
The announcers review that Russian received a 9.5
The favorites were Swedish and had just a 9.75
They raise the tables and all of them give us a 10,
You come towards me, embrace me, and step on my foot,
we ask a rink judge if he wants to marry us,
it's live and televised on all five continents,
on the podium with the medal we take each other's hand,
all can be heard though the microphones as we are married
and on TV you and I kiss.
We dance this modern melody on an skating rink at Calgary '88,
the song is already playing over the loudspeaker: Atlantis is Calling (SOS for Love).

"Tots es motors" - Antònia Font

Song: Tots es motors
Written by: Joan Miquel Oliver
Artist: Antònia Font
Album: A Rússia (2001)

"All of the Motors"

I still don't believe it
and already I am becoming, once again,
a satellite that circles in a straight line.

You've made yourself disappear
and I have lost the curve
and the anesthesia, and I have cried.

I need a centre of gravity,
I need an atlas of spirals
That leads me to know and to close
an audio library of headphones.

And may all of the motors of impossible aviators sound,
may they lead you to confirm
that your dreams are African.

We loved each other,
we mutually destroyed each other's lives,
we finished each another, we kept each other company,
we almost always dedicated our days to one another,
we "sexuized" each other, we "gastronomied" each other.

May the sprinklers turn on,
may they water all the quinces for us,
I don't know if they need to be watered,
because I am more of the sea.

We loved each other,
we mutually destroyed each other's lives,
we finished each another, we kept each other company,
we almost always dedicated our days to one another,
we "sexuized" each other, we "gastronomied" each other.

"Icebergs i guèisers" - Antònia Font

Song: Icebergs i guèisers
Written by: Joan Miquel Oliver
Artist: Antònia Font
Album: Lamparetes (2011)

Note: This song presents some translation ambiguities. I have translated "jo l'enyor" as "I miss her" on the basis of an interview in the July 2011 Enderrock in which the songwriter states that he imagines the character in the song as having a woman waiting for him in another country.

"Icebergs and geysers"

I miss her like centuries of solitary glaciers
sinking millimeters into the ocean (icebergs),
long before human beings inhabited the earth,
there was no one to look at them, just crustaceans and seaweed (icebergs).
I miss her like the Titanic, as if they'd cut off my balls,
a thousand stampeding elephants that take away my life.
I'm before the gates of hell,
I don't care about the infinite sea navigating in the dark,
I'm at the gates of hell for you and I have plans for the future.
I miss her like centuries of solitary glaciers
sinking millimeters into the ocean (geysers),
a piano falling from the Empire State (Building),
it was dumb and blonde, according to the boy, the toy.
I'm before the gates of hell,
petroleum platforms with enormous diameters,
I'm at the gates of hell for you and I have plans for the future.
I'm before the gates of hell,
surrounded by flames rising high in the shadows,
I'm at the gates of hell for you and I have plans for the future.

"Wa yeah!" - Antònia Font

Song: Wa yeah!
Written by: Joan Miquel Oliver
Artist: Antònia Font
Album: Batiscafo Katiuscas (2006)

I sing the the moon and the star
the jungle and the lively forest
the train, the boat, the small plane
and your submarine parked here
I sing the coffee and the biscuit when you say "you could be mine"
how sexy, how sweet, and how cold, oh yeah!
the zebra that goes through a stoplight
and how to dismantle a bidet
cosmetics and Margaret Astor
I already know how to spell "Juliette"!
I sing the rose and the cactus
and many more things, too
a pencil from IKEA, a pistachio, oh yeah!

How amusing,
the things I write when I'm bored,
for example your body,
the faded sweater,
the street white with sun,
my body on top of,
for example, your bed
of semidarkness and sheets
with the thermos broken,
for example, asleep.

I sing the the moon and the star
the jungle and the lively forest
the train, the boat, the small plane
and your submarine parked here
I sing the red fruit
and when I finish I'll laugh
toads, lilypads, princesses, oh yeah!