Carmen Consoli
Mediamente Isterica

THE REVIEW

Carmen in this album is furious and the album exudes this anger, as the title indeed evokes the woman's hormonal imbalances... I often listen to it when I'm in a bad mood. The cover portrays Carmen as a frozen mermaid, and the internal photos are set in a deserted and spectral fish market but full of charm.

The album talks about betrayal and abandonment, but beneath the despair lies anger, revenge, and the desire to break everything. It presents portraits of characters betrayed not only by love but also by power, by humanity.

In "Mediamente Isterica," Carmen leaves blues at home and makes way for rock, an almost grunge rock: in "Besame Mucho", a piece reminiscent of Patty Smith, Carmen sings of the anger provoked by feeling betrayed, humiliated by someone who "crawled between my sheets" (who hasn't felt that...?) mixed with a sense of retaliation and revenge that makes her become "a woman with everything in order" and makes her scream "kiss me again until you have breath and life... besame", followed by a mini-cover of "Besame Mucho" with an alienating background. Next is "Puramente Casuale", a ballad about social betrayal "of those who act wrongly and enchant" the masses, a hypocritical betrayal with "languid and sickly convenience-driven altruism" from the people around us at work, at home; musically, this piece, apart from the lyrics, is the one I like least on the album as it's a bit repetitive.

"Sentivo l'Odore": revenge is a dish best served cold. Have you ever, upon discovering you've been betrayed while "you sank between her lips hoping it wouldn't be brief", thought with extreme coldness, about doing things you'd be ashamed even to think of, but also realizing that "the conflict between sacred and evil exhausts me, that relentless pulsating of insane pleasure" to inflict a dignified punishment; the music here rises, emphasizing these outbursts of anger and joyful malignancy, continues with "Autunno Dolciastro" which evokes those foggy days that are always the same, immobile, static, and sad, shut in a room listening to music, looking out the window waiting for something... musically, I love this piece where the ballad alternates with rock segments that shoot light into the fog and smoke.

"Ennesima Eclisse": a journey to hell, when wandering at night after smoking too many cigarettes, eyes burning and the cold air against the forehead searching for someone, an emotion "between one circle and another I sought your blue methylene eyes": this is what this song evokes for me, experiences of loneliness and sadness which, thanks to the pounding music, do not shift towards a depressive mood but a loss of self (Carmen sings the text backwards in the end). What I love about this album and consider one of Carmen's best is the fact that the moodiness of the text contrasts with the furious music.

"In Funzione Di Nessuna Logica": a praise of fragility and immaturity in love, the first line is wonderful and explains everything: "I confess I did it on purpose to hurt you..." but the girl pretending to be stupid becomes a real "Geisha": "make me your geisha, make me your humble servant" for the bank account: an amazing piece oozing with perversion, sweat, and commodification.

"Eco Di Sirene": grunge piece in the style of Courtney Love, a song against war, on how we are enslaved to power and ready to "toast happily over our ruins" where the music accompanies Carmen's disdain and disgust (in live performances, her interpretation of this song is stunning when she makes the guitar crackle by sliding the pick over it).

"14 Luglio" : the sweet moment of the album, a breath of sweetness and purity after many scratches, more than a traditional love song it evokes those situations of deep connection with someone newly met that surpasses categories like age and gender "although similar to so many many others was special", something so small and precious you can't get it out of your mind... the music is an embrace, a long and sweet kiss followed by "Anello Mancante" a piece I don't personally love much but perhaps where Carmen reveals her weakest side, more likeable with the little insecurities of a woman.

The geisha has aged becoming a "Contessa Miseria": I love this song's opening, never heard anything like it in Italy, it speaks of an old femme fatale "alone at the gates of sixty among showy ostrich feathers and vulgar jewelry" who plunges into cosmetic surgery, not realizing that finally, after so many tantrums and beatdowns "life sooner or later settles its debt and strikes by surprise" even others. After intricately and meticulously sketching these portraits, almost like impressionist paintings defaced by rock music, the hysterical singing witch burns in "Ultima Preghiera" Carmen condemns herself, is outlawed by society "burn heretical witch anatasidavres (servant of Satan backward)" and while recounting the preparation for this burning, seems almost pleased with the rite about to be performed.

Again: listen to it in moments of anger or with perverse thoughts.