GOMMALACCA

Franco Battiato is a legendary composer, multi-instrumentalist and singer out of Italy who has released over 40 studio albums alone let alone other recordings. So I really am not "up" to how his career has changed musically since the early seventies but I do consider his 1973 release "Sulle Corde Di Aries" to be a masterpiece. "Gommalacca" is from 1998 and I sought it out based on a lot of very complimentary reviews. My first couple of spins had me scratching my head as to why people considered it so highly but after a few more man I am 100% sold on this.

It reminds me of THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS with the experimental and artsy songs. Vocals of course are very different and it's almost all in Italian here but for some English bits. The other difference is that this record is very uniform in sound which I like plus Franco is the king of contrasting styles here on all but one track. Whatever Battiato did here it all works so well. He adds electronics, drums, keys, bass, vocals and guitar plus he arranged, composed and produced this record. And hold the presses! Gavin Harrison is his drummer here! What!? This is 1998 which had me searching as to when Gavin started playing on records and saw that he released his first solo album in 1997 with Mick Karn, Richard Barbieri and the legendary Dave Stewart. Man I'm learning stuff.

Back to "Gommalacca" and we get several vocalists helping out plus some extra guitar and piano. Oh and synths on three tracks as well besides Franco's input on all of the above. There's not a lot of English on here but that opener "Shock In My Town" is an exception with the title being repeated often. There's more Italian on here though as far as lyrics go. There's a surprising section where he kicks into a "Rock" mode out of the blue and that section becomes a contrast. My first top five. The other top four tracks are songs five to eight where we get this awesome section of music right in the middle. Now that closer also needs to be mentioned at 8 1/2 minutes the longest by far and a little different from the rest.

Easily 4 stars and I have such an appreciation for this man's talents.