COME UN CAMMELLO IN UNA GRONDAIA

There's no trace of rock in this album... Battiato's interest in classical music here is almost overwhelming: no drums nor guitars in the line up, just piano, strings and orchestra... The result is not completely convincing and at length this work could seem a little bit pretentious...

The opener "Povera patria" (Poor Fatherland) begins with a delicate arpeggio of piano and the soaring voice of Franco Battiato... "Poor Fatherland! Crushed by the abuses of power of some infamous people / Who don't know what decency is..." Lyrics deal with the difficult social and political situation of Italy in that period and draw almost a kind laic prayer... A great track, but in my opinion the rest of the album is not at the same level...

The following three tracks are not bad... "Le sacre sinfonie del tempo" (The sacred symphonies of the Time), "Come un cammello in una grondaia" (Like a camel in a gutter pipe) and "L'ombra della luce" (The shadow of the Light) are quiet and mystical although rather sad... "I know that behind every violence there's the Evil / If I were a little bit shrewder I would avoid temptations / The sky weighs like lead tonight / How many pains and useless sufferance..."

The last four tracks are classical lieder interpreted by Battiato... "Schmerzen" (Richard Wagner), "Plaisir d'amour" (Johann Paul Aegidius Martin), "Gestillte Sehnsucht" (Johannes Brahms) and "Oh sweet were the hours" (Ludwig Van Beethoven) in my opinion are frankly boring: when Battiato sings in German, French and English his pronunciation is not perfect (just to use an euphemism)... Probably his interpretation was intended to be an "hommage" to the classical composer, but here it risks to seem a kind of "profanation"...

In the whole an album recommended only for Battiato's die hard fans...