Dragonstar

Always regarded as a very beautiful album. My favorite remains the false title track, "Pane e castagne," about trench warfare.

You’ve unearthed a real gem, Dragon. :) This one is very beautiful, lean, and dark as it should be, even though in the next one we’ll be talking about a true masterpiece.

This, for example, remains one of my Top 3 from Guccio's discography. Poetic verbosity at its highest peaks. :)

"Song of the Usual Questions." I've said it all.

Samantha, yes, but how beautiful "Canzone per Silvia" is here, the opening, if I'm not mistaken.

I really like "Farewell" as well. Very beautiful.

An infinite genius... perfect, great, too great. Even with the songwriter/philosopher Sgalambro, beautiful and fascinating lyrics. But I really couldn’t say which album I prefer in particular... Gommalacca, Il Vuoto, Fisiognomica. Recently, I discovered a b-side song, maybe from the 70s, Paranoia, a bit unusual, but I really like it a lot. Sometimes at lunch, my friend and I would sing it, "Il formaggio non lo sai tenere, te l'ho detto mille volte."

Will, Aurora, When I was young, Passacaglia beautiful pieces.... Asparagus gives a nice smell to urine, I've always thought so...

Today I listened to it along with other "experimental" works by Battiato. In my opinion, Sud Afternoon is beautiful...

Post 1999? Because I don't know it. Honestly, I don't even want to.

Yes, the album is from 2007. Look, it definitely has some nice moments worth listening to, but in my opinion, X stratagemmi from 2004 is far superior (a 5-star album) and one of the most interesting albums by Franco. I don't know if you're familiar with it, but it's a shame to miss it. It contains one of my all-time favorite songs by the singer-songwriter, called "Le aquile non volano a stormi," and it's pure philosophy set to music. The lyrics are very simple, so I won’t explain anything and I'll just post it directly below, just to give you a taste and perhaps entice you to listen, in case you haven't heard it yet...

I'm sorry, but I cannot access external content such as YouTube videos. If you can provide the text you'd like me to translate, I'd be happy to help!

But it's beautiful!

It's not exactly the right time to listen to Battiato; if I open the link and listen to it now, I risk evaluating it superficially. I'll keep that in mind and in the future I will try to give a chance at least to the album from 2004 since I know well how Battiato has always alternated beautiful albums with much less inspired works, so I don't find it hard to believe that in the mid-2000s he released a very beautiful album. It's just that I don't know, I feel like I've heard everything I needed to hear from him at the moment.

What do you think are the least inspired jobs?

In my opinion, the least inspired are X Stratagemmi and Ferro Battuto, but they still earn a solid passing grade...

Oh, there are many, I should also find a reason, I would like to find a reason. As soon as I have a moment more, I’ll write a longer comment and let you know.

I also prefer this to X stratagems.

So, to respond. Battiato has indeed produced some poorly executed albums, in my opinion. I'll get it off my chest right away with "La voce del padrone," because that's not a "poorly executed" album; on the contrary, it’s a high-class pop record that, personally, has never managed to convey anything to me. Then, the ultimate disaster for me will always be the self-titled album from 1977, the apotheosis of plastic intellectualism and false experimentation, a colossal joke with no reason to exist, a total mess. And "L'egitto" is no joke either. That’s why I love "L'era del cinghiale bianco" so much, a pop masterpiece and a breath of fresh air that his discography and music desperately needed. I would also include "Il Gladiatore" from 1975 among those I honestly didn’t like. Then comes "Orizzonti perduti" and even more so "Mondi lontanissimi," neither of which are mediocre but, according to my tastes, are hindered by synthetic and plasticky sounds that, at least in this case, irritate me, making me appreciate even some really good tracks less, which I later enjoyed a lot when reinterpreted by Alice. "Fleurs" also left me unimpressed, but I listened to it little and didn’t go further with it. There are others that didn’t particularly convince me, but they’re not albums that I literally disliked; they’re rather in a “limbo.” The ones I adore by Battiato are the first three; I've mentioned the wild boar, "Patriots" is excellent, "Fisiognomica"—why even mention it—"Café de la paix" is close to the best, "L'imboscata" is very good, as is "Gommalacca." I also like "Clic" and "L'arca di Noè," and to be honest, I also enjoy the hilariously convoluted umbrella stitched together with Sgalambro, though a bit less :-)

The apotheosis of intellectualism also pisses me off except for the first three; with horizons and worlds, they’re not bad. Gum lacquer and coffee are among his absolute masterpieces, just like physiognomy and like a camel in a gutter, they’re no joke. Anyway, I think more or less like you... even if, in the end, aside from the apotheosis, the questionable albums are few considering his vast discography.

Yes, even stuff like "Genesis" is this and that and so on :-) However, I never said he made more crap than good albums; for me, there are few flops, but there are many "meh" albums that I end up never revisiting. The ones I like, though, I really like a lot, so much.

As long as we don't talk about cinema (his cinema) :-)

Name as Fate

With Nursery Crime definitely my favorite by the band. Dancing with... is spine-tingling, great work by Hackett on the guitar.

Immense, like all of his albums from here to 1980.

To tell the truth, in Gaber's repertoire of classics, there are some that come before the teatro canzone: 'Non arrossire,' 'Barbera e champagne,' 'La ballata del cerutti,' and 'Com'è bella la città' all precede this period. Nonetheless, it's a masterpiece album, just sayin'.

The last live music show before 1984. Gaber and Luporini were keen observers of post-boom Italy. Worth studying, in the most positive sense.

This book for me is god, more or less. Actually, it is Chtulhu, well it’s one of my favorite novels. I adore AccaPì.

It is for hj as well. I really enjoyed "The Mountains of Madness" too, even though some find it excessively slow. The exploration part is something incredible; you don’t just read it, you experience it!

Of course, and yes, it's very slow, but that has never been a problem. I have strange tastes when it comes to literature.

Extraordinary, just what I needed, I've got my desire to read it back... :)

It's a fantastic piece (the whole album is a gem of sixties U.S.A. psychedelia).

Stunning, both he as a writer and the namesake musicians, both among my favorites...

Great record. I have the original vinyl. Thanks, dad XD

Surely among my favorite Italians of all time, a brief but intense career...

Honestly, I prefer "Io come io" in terms of emotional intensity.
Even though Contaminazione is from another planet.

For me, the best remains Brave; this is a good album but nothing more in my opinion. Beautiful arrangements, but I find it heavy. They played it live in its entirety in Milan a few years ago, but from the band, I prefer the quick bite and run pieces from the 80s or early 90s.

Sacrosanct hell, but as for the concert, I'm envious of you! The concert was the one held at the Filaforum in Assago, right? I would have sold a kidney to be at that concert. Seeing this album performed live would have certainly made me ejaculate! Luckily, I managed to catch them in Venice a few months later, but they only played 6 tracks from this album. I've seen them so many times that hearing the old songs has gotten a bit tiresome: lately, I've been preferring the more recent releases, even though they naturally fall short of the golden period!

Yes Fede, Assago on a cold December Sunday, they played everything and then also a good ten old historic hits. Trivium opened, and the band of that gorgeous girl, Steve Harris's daughter, so different in beauty from her father... great evening, someone in the front row poured a bottle of water over Bruce, he got furious like a hyena and grabbed him by the collar for a moment, if he could have, he would have beaten him up badly... bye!

Here I don't agree with you, this album is among my all-time favorites, beautifully bad. Maybe with fewer successful singles compared to the debut or the magnificent The Number, but it's great for me. Di Anno's swan song, I still have the t-shirt with the cover of this record and every now and then I happily bring it out...

I agree with Hellraiser. This is a wicked cool record, at least for its time, and it features gems like the title track, "Wratchild," and "Murder in the Rue Morgue." Oh, by the way, I prefer Di'Anno to Dickinson.

For many but not for all, evidently. Comparing the Maiden to the J.P. is like comparing Ferrari to Lamborghini. Uncomparable, even from the height of their magnificence. The Maiden on the Quirinale as far as I'm concerned.

I only partially agree with you here. It's definitely inferior to the previous one, but I still consider it a huge album, jam-packed with great classics from the band, The Trooper above all.

Their best.

I would have given it 5 stars... not just for the title track and Alex the Great, but for the album itself... or not? The 4 stars don’t really convince me, they suggest gaps that it obviously doesn’t have! I’d like to understand what you think is missing for that fifth star.

Well, to start with, "Sea of Madness" is anything but irresistible. "Heaven Can Wait" may sell adrenaline by the bucket load, but as effective as it is live, I find that refrain a bit nerve-wracking in this context. "Stranger in a Strange Land" is enjoyable but absolutely out of place for an album of this kind; in fact, it's no coincidence that it was written by Smith, who would then leave the band to pursue other musical projects. The rest is excellent. Rating out of ten: 9/10, just to let you know that I consider it one of the best (I think this even surpasses Piece of Mind).

I don't know, just the thought of listening to one of their albums right now gives me hives. The first two were great, but, for example, a couple of years ago I re-listened to "The Number of the Beast"... What a drag, that was the last time I touched one of their albums. But I do like them, and they have some really great tracks in their repertoire.

The album that marked my infatuation with those little keyboards that slowly killed the metalhead in me. After the first two, it's the one I listen to the most.

I don't mind "Can I Play With Madness," even though the rest is truly out of this world.