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Lucio Battisti - Anima Latina CD (album) cover

ANIMA LATINA

Lucio Battisti

 

Prog Related

3.86 | 56 ratings

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Tarcisio Moura
Prog Reviewer
2 stars I was quite surprised to see an artist like Lucio Battisti included on PA. I´ve always though of him as more pop singer/songwriter. A great one, by the way. He had a great knack for writing terrific melodic tunes and he had a quite prolific career both as a solo artist and as songwriter for other italian acts. The presence of his name in this prog site is largely by his work on this album, Anima Latina. His ´progressive´ LP of 1974. It is indeed different, experimental and bold. If the work was good it is another matter entirely.

Let me start by explaning that in the early 70´s with the rising of prog rock music begun to be taken seriously by the musical press in general. Now talented and respected musicians were doing critical acclaimed ´serious´ albums in the rock format. So it is no surprise that many other singers or musicians wanted that kind of respect for themselves. Pop music in particular never got that. Pop singers could and would sell records by the millions, but were then despised by critics as producers of commercial, disposable stuff, nothing that would stand the test of time. Thus, several groups or individuals decided to show they too could make something in that vein. And the market was flooded by those ´artsy´, ´progressive´ or ´psychedelic´ effords around this time. Some were good, but mostly were just releasing something forced, that were trying to pedal into something that was simply not their forte.

Anima Latina sounds a lot like those. Certainly Battisti, a talented and outstanding artist, tried his best here to sound ´modern´ or even a little´avant guard´. But it seems also that he tried to bite more than he could chew. Anima Latina has it all: soul horns, weird noises and effects, sudden tempo changes, psychedelic guitars, spanish rhythms, Santana-like percussions and so on. Sometimes his briliance shines through some very good melodies, but most of the time he loses himself in those intricated (or self indulgent) arrangements and no song lasts too long to be recognised by his fans as his ´normal´ stuff.

Anima Latina was an ambitious work that was not really succesful, as far as I can say. It also dated a lot. And I really rather hear several other of his albums to this one (Amore E Non Amore among them, where the presence of members of PFM did not only disrupted his style, but enhanced its best qualities). This one is definitly for special tastes. 2,5 stars.

Tarcisio Moura | 2/5 |

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