Marco Salzano

The second album by Family is less imaginative than the debut but much more cohesive, helping to define the new progressive song in that crucial year of 1969 with masterpiece tracks such as, for example, The Weaver's Answer and Observation From A Hill.

One of the most brilliant and eclectic albums in rock. Underrated like all the works of Family.

The best of the last phase characterized by the addition of John Wetton, who brings to the group his aggressive approach to bass and also, from my point of view, his beautiful voice, a pleasant alternative to Chappo's powerful goat-like vibrato. Best track: Spanish tide.

The single that replicated the success of "Albatross" is a simple and heartfelt ballad (in the best blues tradition), with just a bit of rhythm in the very short bridge. And then the sweet tone of Peter Green's Les Paul can evoke any emotion with a simple phrase. Add an extraordinarily expressive and soulful voice, and what do you get? Wonderful music.

Battiato avant-garde with the iconoclastic dadaist zapping of Ethika fon ethica (later widely abused in subsequent albums) and the relentless sequencer of Propiedad Prohibida (the legendary theme of TG2 Dossier) softened only by the genius insert of strings and oboe giving it the ethnic touch of Aries. In the gates of memory, distant pianos resurface, liquid keyboards, furious saxophones, cutting guitars, and disconnected percussion. The spiritual quest is not missing in No U Turn: "To know myself and…”

After Fisiognomica, it was inevitable to turn to orchestral music, abandoning all pop embellishments. And while the B-side is a rather dispensable collection of lieder, the A-side, with tracks like L'ombra della Luce (an extraordinary prayer in music) and Le sacre sinfonie del tempo, inaugurates his most mystical period, culminating in the extraordinary Concerto di Baghdad. Much more “earthly,” Povera Patria is a bitter invective against the moral decay of Italy (and it won't be the only one).

Borrowing some samples from Stereolab and surrounded by talented youth (Morgan, Ginevra di Marco,...), Battiato synthesizes electronic sounds for the new millennium, amidst additional shocks, mechanical ballets, chaste divas, and Antarctic expeditions. Indeed, Shackleton, along with the instrumentals from "Campi magnetici" two years later, represents a return to the more experimental profile of the early '70s, and the old fans were exactly waiting for this...

A sell-out but conscious. By further synthesizing pop arrangements (while also including a choir of madrigalists), Battiato constructs perfect hit singles. Like Brian Eno ten years earlier, he acts homeopathically with cut and paste, creating "intelligent" pop tracks as antidotes to the prevailing stupidity. The meditative aspect is preserved with Gli Uccelli and Segnali di Vita.

Excellent Zappa “easy-listening,” split between dark and gloomy slow blues (the orgasmic The Torture Never Stops, Find Her Finer -with Beefheart’s harmonica-, the title track, and Black Napkins -one of his purest solos-) and heavier pieces like Wind up Workin’…(which kicks off with an “ignorant” riff like the Ramones), Wonderful Wino (another heavy riff by Jeff Simmons), Disco Boy (“It’s Disco Love Tonight!”), and Miss Pinky (a tribute to $69.95 inflatable dolls).

The We're Only In It for The Money of the rampant Reagan-era eighties. Flavorful freaky songs in a continuous flow in a carousel of genres (country, reggae, ska, gospel, blues…) plus a remarkable instrumental (Sinister Footwear) featuring Steve Vai and Ed Mann. The targets: little yuppies grown free as the wind, aerobics Beautiful Guys, stupid groupies, devotees of plastic surgery, high cocaine addicts, pathetic whites posing as badass blacks, tele-prophets with heavenly bank accounts…