L'IMBOSCATA

"L'imboscata" marks a new turning point in Franco Battiato's career. The mood is more cheerful if compared to the previous album "L'ombrello e la macchina da cucire" and the art cover, reproducing a wonderful painting of Antoine Jean Gros, "Bonaparte haranguant l'armée avant la bataille des Pyramides, 21 juillet 1798" contributes to suggest a sense of impending change...

The opener "Di passaggio" (Passing by) is about the never ending changes of life. It is introduced by recitative vocals in ancient Greek (the parts in Greek are taken from "The Fragments" of Heraclitus and from "The Epigrams" of Callimachus) and is a nice and almost ironic pop-rock track featuring an interesting electric guitar work. The following track "Strani giorni" (Strange Days) is more or less in the same mood with lyrics in English and Italian. You can find here guitars and electronic sounds but also Battiato's love for classical music and avant-garde. The third track "La cura" (The care) is a wonderful song of absolute love, my favourite one on this work.

The rest of the album streams fluently, the music is never banal and "experimental electronic pop moments" like "...Ein Tag aus dem Leben des Kleines Johannes" (sung in Italian and in German and featuring lyrics taken from Thomas Mann's novel "The Buddenbrooks: the Decline Of A Family") or "Splendide previsioni" alternates with bittersweet ballads featuring strings and a more "classical" atmosphere like "Amata solitudine" (with lyrics about a waning love and the new freedom that comes along with loneliness), "Ecco com'è che va il mondo", "Segunda-feira" (with lyrics in Italian and Portuguese and a peculiar "ethnical" atmosphere) or "Memorie di Giulia". The final "Serial Killer" (where the "serial killer" is a soldier, just "a man like you") concludes a good album with a strange and exotic touch...

The collaboration between Franco Battiato and the lyricist Manlio Sgalambro here seems perfectly work, while music and arrangements are a good synthesis of the "different faces" of the musician... In the whole a very good and original pop-rock album without real weak moments...