Baustelle
I Mistici Dell'Occidente

WARNING: The following review was written after listening to the aforementioned album about ten times. So, if you are about to read it without having listened to the album yet or having only listened to it in the background a couple of times, then something might seem off. I recommend listening to it carefully before commenting/criticizing. Thank you!!

Like it or not, in their decade-long recording career, with 5 albums to their credit, Baustelle have traced a well-defined path; or at least they are tracing it. From the indie pop/rock of their debut album, to the electronic atmospheres of "La moda del lento," to the shift with "La malavita" (and the associated marriage with a major label, Warner) and the popularity of "Amen," it's clear what these Tuscan lads are doing: their music has shaped the development of Italian pop/rock over the last 10 years, from an underground birth to popularity. Because, whether the purists who cry every time they see an indie artist become famous like it or not, Baustelle have managed to shift attention (and talent) from indie pop/rock to a wider audience, leading and serving as an example for a generation of Italian bands that revitalize rock instrumentation while maintaining the catchiness of pop (some better, some worse). And fortunately, they save us from the dichotomy of singer-songwriter (which we no longer have) and unengaged pop artist (of which there are too many) that seemed to be seeping into the Italian tradition (which relegated talented artists who made rock precisely to the underground scene). God save Baustelle!!

"I mistici dell'occidente" is a work that continues the search for pop melodies (in the sense of catchy, popular ones) while also exploring stylistic search and compositional creativity (often using more or less rock sounds), which in Italy happens only on rare occasions... and certainly not in pop music: the kind that breaks the charts, that plays on MTV, that makes 12-year-old girls scream hysterically, etc. What I mean to say is that it is a precious and rare album, a unique case of music written, played, and composed in a non-standardized way, not flattened by pop standards, while still being pop. Only geniuses could synthesize pop catchiness, singer-songwriter writing, and unconventional and always working progress musicality. And they are. And where do we place "La malavita" and "Amen," you might ask? Working progress, I repeat: if "La malavita" marked a turning point and "Amen" is its successor (not necessarily better, but still a development on that track), this latest album shows a further growth of the band, and in the opinion of the writer, it is better than both.

But let's get to the details.

"I mistici dell'occidente" is a text by Elémire Zolla, a philosopher, whose title inspired Bianconi for this latest work. In it (in the album, I mean), we see a development compared to "Amen" even from a thematic point of view: if in its predecessor there was an unambiguous criticism of the world and modernity, described in many aspects, in this album Bianconi places himself further, towards the answers and solutions to these problems. These, concerning all of reality, must be found beyond it. Hence the decision to reflect on the mystics, those who have pursued this path of detachment from reality in seeking what truly matters beyond it.

The hopeful tone of the work is already expressed in the first track, "L'indaco", which opens with two minutes of musical introduction before unveiling a text of encouragement, all with almost "lullaby-like" tones, and concludes with a phrase that directly indicates the message of the album: "...there may be, beyond Gibraltar, an indigo sea". The Strait of Gibraltar was the location, in mythology, of the Pillars of Hercules, beyond which, it was thought, the world ended. Well, we can understand how Bianconi, therefore, indicates to us that we go beyond reality as it is shown to us, beyond appearances, to seek the deeper meaning of our lives. Any tips on how to do it? Track no.2, "San Francesco". Excuse me, but I am crazy about this piece: the arrangement (with that initial guitar riff), Bianconi's voice, the lyrics: it is one of the less direct songs, perhaps the least direct, of the album, but the more I listen, the more it captivates me. But let's get back to us. St. Francis is an exemplary figure, even for an atheist like Bianconi: a man who stripped himself of everything, all the corruption of his previous life, to rely on God. If in "Amen" Baudelaire had to be studied, here the text tells us that "San Francesco si diventa" (one becomes St. Francis). The text also tells us "What you learn from life, isn't true." Another clue for the active rejection of reality that this album wants to instill in us. The title track "I mistici dell'occidente" (which musically at first I didn't like at all because of those arpeggiated verses like a medieval psalm, but which then I appreciated again thanks to a chorus whose musical-textual explosiveness is even more accentuated precisely by the antithesis with the verse) reinforces the message: "We will save ourselves by despising reality", indicative of a distrust in those who rule this world, as we are "crews lost at sea. Maybe the president - strictly with a lowercase - doesn't know". Brilliant.

Well, after this engaged triptych, let's move on to episodes a little less "mystical" and more "real". I'm talking about "Le rane", a successful and ultra-pop piece that demonstrates how you can compose simple and catchy melodies without being bland, and whose text is a nostalgic photograph: Bianconi recalls with a friend the moments when they were young and naive in their humble countryside reality while catching frogs in the ponds, now instead the lure of the city, a symbol of corruption, has attracted them. The lyrics say "What happened to you, have you settled down? [...] Last time I saw you changed" then "In the meantime, I left, if you want I betrayed you [...] the swimming pool of a farmhouse has covered the frogs". The fact that this bitter portrait is exposed with such light music is the bittersweet hallmark of Baustelle. "Gli spietati", which we've heard over and over, offers two solutions to the bitterness of reality: complete immersion in it, and the consequent life without pity to face it head-on, or escape, like the two lovers who are nothing more than examples of how you can aim your gaze beyond reality, towards something greater that cancels it: just like two people who, in love, seem in another dimension. Bianconi says: "There is a love that never dies, farther than the Gods". Wise words. A somber atmosphere introduces us to "Follonica". Although the mayor of the aforementioned town didn't take it well, the lyrics aren't a critique of its beach: it is merely a metaphor justified by metrical reasons (according to Bianconi, Follonica fit better than other names) to throw mud on the transience and sadness of reality: humans seem like rubbish thrown on the world's beach. And the image of the protagonist bathing seems to want to be a "not wanting to see" or "washing away the dirt" of this reality. The criticism of superficiality and indifference is expressed with phrases like "Thrown there", "Thrown away", "defeated and motionless", etc. If the atmosphere was getting heavy, here comes "La canzone della rivoluzione", a great rock track composed of heavy, pounding verses and a refrains as exhilarating as few. The song calls for a reaction against reality, almost wanting to revolutionize it by reviving "a love lost at sea thirty years ago", to reaffirm everything that reality has corrupted: "for the assassinated christs without a truth", "for what was sacred and is no longer", "so the last become the first, for your filthy conscience washed halfway". The example of those living reality superficially is given by "Groupies" and its protagonists. "Living [...] is like eating an apple" says the text, which criticizes the attitude, typical also of Kierkegaard's Don Giovanni, aimed at "everything at once," not looking beyond the immediate and beneath the phenomenon, as this album advises us. Musically, perhaps it's the album's least happy episode... but if only there were more unhappy episodes like this! We can say it loses out compared to the other songs only because they are almost impeccable. "La bambolina" is another portrait, presented by Rachele as that of a woman who, like a doll, has no personality of her own: "she responds yes to everyone". What's surprising is the refrain, almost a prayer to God, asking Him for attention even for these figures who seem to have no hope of redemption: "may she be liberated from dreams and false needs, may she not buy, not go out, not grow, be real". Musically, it's a dragging march which, however, does not stand out among the album's top pieces, even while being worthy of being in this beautiful compilation.

Approaching the end of the album, we encounter the first true sentimental ballad: "Il sottoscritto", which with its slow progression perfectly marries the text and becomes a moving and truly heartfelt portrait by Bianconi, who, even in the autobiographical (perhaps) and sentimental, has a talent as an author matched by few. It seems to be a plea for forgiveness towards a lost lover, where the author tries to revive past moments together and all those that can still happen to regain lost trust. Such a moment is indispensable in this album, certainly one of the best episodes. For those starting to feel overly sentimental again, here comes a breath of fresh air: "L'Estate enigmistica". It's a track close to the carefree atmospheres of the first album, a reminder that Baustelle do not renounce anything they have done and remember well who they were. And to remind us that, thinking it over, they, and only they, are capable of presenting a certain musical reality to a broad audience, and their journey has not been a compromise for popularity, spitting into the dish where they ate in the beginning. A summer piece, no doubt, candidate, like "Le rane", as the next single. "And where's the album's message?" you might ask. Well, Bianconi manages to insert it even in this piece: "girl, I want to drink an orangeade because a bitter sphinx is reality, and I'm no longer at the age to delude myself". The album concludes with "L'ultima notte felice del mondo", another splendid ballad where the voice of Rachele ferries us into a dimension like "Gli spietati", in which the protagonist describes how love can exclude us from reality, can be the answer to life's negativity, and the only way "to forget being alone, being alone forever". If reality is negative, it must be nullified. To nullify it, either you are a mystic (ergo, you focus on something beyond it) or you are in love (ergo, you focus on a single person, real, but who still has the merit of diverting attention from the world's transience). The album couldn't have ended better.

I'm sorry for being too long-winded, but this album was worth it. It's not perfect, but it deserves 9/10. Since we're going by stars, and we're always too generous here, I give it 5.

Enjoy your reading and listening to this masterpiece.