Diaframma
Difficile da trovare

Two years after the not-so-convincing "Walking on the Wild Side," the Diaframma of Federico Fiumani return, joined on this album by Lorenzo Alderighi (bass) and Lorenzo Moretto (drums). The result is certainly better than its predecessor, but there's still some room for improvement often due to Fiumani's lyrics, which in recent albums have alternated between genuine lyrical gems and some lyrics not quite up to his name.

The CD begins with an instrumental introduction where the ghosts of Joy Division can be seen when they were still called Warsaw and the simple punk fury that set the standard in the distant 1977.

"Coda di paglia" unfolds over a mournful singing where Fiumani narrates a dull and dehumanizing daily life, the perfect backdrop for a love that's ended. With "Dolce Insonnia", we reach one of the highest moments of the work. Sharp, punk riff, distinctly Wire-influenced; simple, direct, resigned but lived lyrics; then an instrumental interlude and finally the searing attack of the riff returns.

In "Dura Madre" the punk echoes continue (which, for better or worse, will accompany almost all of "Difficile da trovare") and musically the track is impeccable, although from a lyrical standpoint, aside from a few interesting phrases ("...Milan metro early in the morning, I look at the girls' faces to see if they've made love... there's one looking at me and she seems to have the right face... at the next stop, I get off, looks like it will end like this"), there's a lot of banality.

With "Giovinezza", Diaframma dive back into the rock songwriting of albums like "Il Ritorno dei Desideri," but unlike other tracks, this one slips away without particularly thrilling. "Il Sogno di te", track number six, follows the same vein as "Giovinezza" but here the track manages to strike the right chords, staying with you from the very first listen. The central part of the song is, as in "Dolce Insonnia", occupied by a well-constructed long instrumental interlude where the golden years of post-punk (1979-1984) seem to play in slow motion. Undoubtedly the jewel of the CD.

"La Bella e la Bestia", with its sparse and hammering riff, recalls "Gennaio", and the subtly perverse text fits perfectly into Fiumani's Velvet Underground emulation poetic (with due proportions, of course) that he has undertaken in recent albums. In "Io sto con te (ma amo un'altra)", a "topos" dear to Fiumani, such as the all-consuming and unhappy love, is revisited, but undoubtedly this "topos" has seen better words and melodies, even within Diaframma's own production.

Track number nine, "Mi piace perdere", a song with a cryptic meaning and vaguely soothing music, slips away without leaving a trace, as does the next one, "Perché piangi?". Undoubtedly, Fiumani's creative verve has seen better days.

But at the end, here is "La Vita Grigia", an introduction like we haven't heard since "Siberia" and a deliberately non-poetic text ("...fill tubs, behave well, now the entire human colony depends on you... friend, are you ready for the gray life?...") to underline the banality of everyday life that in its suffocating mechanisms often imprisons feelings, leading to alienation.

With the "Outro" instrumental, we say goodbye to an honest CD, better than "Walking on the Wild Side" but slightly inferior to "Volume 13", a true and sincere CD, where the quintessential independent rock singer-songwriter, Federico Fiumani, once again laid bare his emotions and feelings, accompanying them with the rhythm of music.