One of my favorite "Pop" albums, a miracle of light music among the most beautiful ever conceived in Italy and beyond. Among the Battiato brand records of that decade, this is the most beautiful of all (including those by Battiato "in person," mind you) with the Battiato-Russo pairing (and broadening the scope, the quartet Battiato-Pio-Russo-Sisini) overflowing with inventiveness and inspiration. And then, above all and beyond everything, there is Giuni Russo. There is the Voice of Giuni Russo, unattainable for anyone. Free, in "Energie," as few other times will she be allowed to be in her career, free to express herself without restraints and to shape Battiato's pop into something unique. There’s the baroque desire to amaze and move, there’s the virtuosic beauty for the pure pleasure of art for art’s sake, but also an expressive universality that reaches everyone, soaring with songs that have extraordinarily successful melodies and rhythms; a voice of a classical soprano that transfigures the material of pop and new-wave music ("Crisi metropolitana," "Una vipera sarò," "Lettera al governatore della Libia") with unreachable inventions, colors, and virtuosity. There are 8 songs and 8 splendors (think of "Atmosfera" or the intense and surprisingly measured interpretation in "L'attesa") but it is "Il sole di Austerlitz" and "L'Addio" that stand out as two of the greatest wonders of all Italian light music. "Energie" is a Masterpiece. Unrepeatable.
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