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!

In between the first great pop album from which the phoenix Battiato resurrected in a new form (La Voce Del Padrone) and the huge popular success of the following (L'Era Del Cinghiale Bianco) this album represents a step back. The nonsense lyrics of La Voce Del Padrone are determining a trademark and Battiato, likely short on ideas fills the songs of this short album, almost an EP, with a lot of uncomprehensible words. The only exception is the opener and title track. "Up Patriots to Arms" is a good electro-pop song with sounds which Edgar Froese may like and some political and social connotations with the mentions to the Allatollah Khomeini and the opening in Arabic.

"Venezia-Istanbul" is a collection of apparent nonsenses on which he shows his cultural background by mentioning Socrates and the Italian fascist poet D'Annunzio. The music is quite pleasant, light electronic. Taken alone each sentence has its sense, but the formula is abused. I see anyway a link between this song and the excellent old suite "Sequenze e Frequenze", at least in what seems to be the subject.

"Le Aquile" is one of the worst things of the album. A very trivial song with a disco rhythm accentuated by the bass and a baroque chorus on which the violin of Giusto Pio puts a bit of effort. It was the year of "Rondo Veneziano", a band which had a moment of fame and celebrity with the mainstream public with disco arrangement of baroque themes. Unfortunately it seems to have influenced Battiato and Pio, at least in this song.

"Prospettiva Nevski" Had the potential to be a great song but it didn't meet the target. As the title says it's about Russia, Moscow, ballets and omosexuality, probably with a reference to the famous dancer Rudolf Nureyev. Too melodic and without musical highlights. It's a pity that a good idea like this has been wasted.

"Arabian Song" is Arabian in the chorus lyrics but musically it's just another electropop song. It has the elements which will be better exploited later in L'Era Del Cinghiale Bianco, but unfortunately it's nothing more than a pop song.

"Frammenti"(Fragments) speaks for itself. Few seconds are enough to understand what you are listening to. A typical pop song of the 80s that the mentions of famous Italian poetries, those that are studied by young scholars even today, sound like an attempt to make it "intellectual". Nothing more than a joke. Fragments of poetries, nothing else.

"Passaggi a Livello" (Rail Crossing) closes the album. It's not bad but the baroque violin of giusto Pio sounds a bit too invasive and too mimic of Rondo Veneziano.

Well, if you are really fans of Battiato, specially of his most commercial period at the beginning of the 80s you can't miss this short album. For all the others this is a just a two stars collection of pop songs.