PATRIOTS

In "Patriots" Franco Battiato develops some ideas already present in "L'era del cinghiale bianco" but in my opinion the result is not so good and convincing. Here the "pop influences" of the eighties are more evident and the lyrics sometimes seem to be pure nonsense.

The opener "Up Patriots To Arms", introduced by orchestral sounds and Arabic murmurs, is a good pop-rock track, with the keyboards in the forefront and a good line of bass. The lyrics are ironic and almost "intelligible" in their caustic criticism against the contemporary society and against the music business. It's a pity that the rest of the album is not at the same level.

"Venezia-Istambul" is a musical journey into the time and into the space with weird lyrics jumping from one thing to another and a music swinging from classical influences to pop. The following "Le aquile" (The eagles) is more or less in the same mood, with lyrics written by the writer Fleur Jaeggy and the "classical flavour" of the violin of Giusto Pio interacting with keyboards in "eighties" style (Ultravox, OMD). "Prospettiva Nevsky" is a slow piano ballad with a good melody but nothing special.

With "Arabian Song" the rhythm goes up again but the blending of Middle-Eastern influences and pop here is perhaps too much inclined towards easy pop and it's not completely convincing. "Frammenti" and the final "Passaggi a livello" flow away in the same way without praise or blame and with lyrics that seem just a multilingual patchwork of sounds.

This album is very short (less than 30 minutes) and in my opinion it's very far from essential in a prog collection. Recommended only for the fans of this artist!