COME UN CAMMELLO IN UNA GRONDAIA

Sometimes what you feel about the album and the rating may be different, i remember an old thread where people said how come a reviewer state an album is good while the rating was 2 stars, the answer is simple, because 2 stars means collectors and only fans, it doesn`t say "bad nor terrible". I am saying that because this time i am experiencing that, this album is very enjoyable for me, i could listen to itseveral times and its nice, but i would only recommend it for fans of Battiato career.

I am far from being an expert of Franco Battiato history or career, so i am not the right person to talk about him as a reference point, anyway, i could warn you that this artist has passed through different phases, if you are new into his music, you will notice that "Fetus", "Clic", "Battiato" and this album (just making a bad comparision, for instance) are all of them very different from each other, some of them showing a clear rock element, making some progressive moments, and others like this (and as Andrea Parentin pointed out in his review) have no rock element within the music; in some cases you can enjoy all the artist`s phases, no matter the commercial success or the lack of your favorite element on it, you just enjoy them, that`s it. Right now, i find myself to be involved in that case, though i am sure there might be an album by him that i wont like, so far i DO enjoy all of his albums i`ve listened, some more than others, naturally, but that is what makes better an artist, you can like it no matter the difference between one album to other.

Well let`s talk about the album itself, this one i got it in a local store but i wasn`t meaning to buy it, actually i had never heard this title before, but when i saw it and also the price was nice, i decided to buy it and i dont regret of that. This album features 8 sweet ballads which actually may be pretty similar to each other, all of them are short songs and the album`s lenght reaches only 32 minutes.

There are no guitars, nor bombastic keyboards, not even drums so you can imagine this album is really soft and with no prog rock element at all, however, you will find some pleasant moments led by Franco`s melancholic vocals which in some moments causes the feeling of either sadness or depression, i wish i could learn Italian faster in order to understand the whole lyrics, i am sure that would make a better listen, though.

There also are no outstanding moments, as i said above, the songs are pretty alike, so is the atmosphere and instrumentation, worht mentioning is the fact that this album features an orchestra, which can be noticeable in track 5 "Schmerzen" which i believe is sung in German, this is one of my favorite moments along with the first song "Povera Patria" which to my ears is beautiful. I am used to review song by song, but in some albums i think it is not necessary, i could say that this album is divided in 2 parts, the first 4 songs which are sung in Italian and which are very alike, and the last 4 songs which are tracks inspred by classical composers and sung in different languages.

As the lenght of this album is short, sometimes i have listened to it 2 or 3 times in a row, i enjoy it, but i am sure the majority of you may find it completely boring and with no sign of enjoyment, that is why i will give it 2 stars, because its only for fans and collectors, if you are one of them, then try it and enjoy it, or not.