ajejebrazorf

I'm only here for a quick visit, I'm super busy like a top manager: worse than Perigeo and Picchio dal Pozzo: have you heard them? Imagine Soft Machine (I'm not exaggerating, they're really good), with incredibly silly lyrics that would make Elio and Skiantos pale in comparison...great, if you don't have them, get them, that's an order.

silverblasco, maybe he's not around right now, but before '78 there were many great rock bands in Italy. He might tell you in a slightly more colorful way, but I bet you’ve never heard of bands like Area, Picchio dal pozzo, Perigeo, huh? You can keep Baglioni, Ligabue, Blue, and Gemelli Diversi, but the Italian rock scene of the '70s had several valid groups, and dozens and dozens of bands that were far more significant than Vasco and Ligabue. Filling stadiums...Jennifer Lopez and Britney Spears fill them too, right? Is value determined by that? No, exactly. Get yourself this little record, from 1973: Area, Arbeit macht frei, and maybe you’ll change your mind about the nonexistent Italian rock until '78.

Caz, love, check the mail.

For now I've written few reviews because I follow certain criteria:
1) I only do it if I can add something of my own that seems interesting and that can contribute, otherwise I stay silent; I’m not interested in clogging the web with useless repetitions, and there are people who are much more competent than I am. I’ve followed this reasoning for those I've already done; my contribution may be small, but I believe there's value in it. I really love Trout Mask Replica, but I don’t know if I could add anything that hasn't been said already; it’s an album that has hundreds of reviews. I see deB as something to gather information from and discuss music (and maybe meet people), not a showcase for exhibitions, but that’s just my perspective. However, I’m pondering one on Sun Ra, if you’re interested, because there’s practically nothing out there.
2) I’ve formed an opinion about Cremonini, and it’s not based on the person but on the music, and given the single, I strongly doubt he has transformed into Robert Wyatt. Since I have many backlogged records, and besides music, I also have a life, I really don’t see why I should waste time on this album. It’s a prejudice for sure; maybe the other songs on the album, aside from "Marmellata," which I’ve already discussed, will be great things, but I live perfectly well without it, and if I miss something, oh well, I’ll surely regain it with other records.
3) I want to clarify that I have nothing against pop, which I listen to and I can give examples if you want. I really enjoy lightness (as I think anyone who has had the misfortune of encountering me here on deB has understood), but I found Cremonini’s first album (which unfortunately I’ve listened to entirely) to be a superhuman disgrace, just like Le Vibrazioni and Meneguzzo and Povia and Ferro and all the others, an impression completely confirmed by "Marmellata."
4) It frustrates me that quality music is systematically overlooked, not because I consider myself a champion of some cause, but simply because every time I have to search and scramble to discover the things that interest me, especially today when the most blatant commercial music prevails.
5) It also annoys me that music today is about image, that only the pretty face matters (but is Cremonini good-looking?), and that those who have something to say are always ignored unless they have something extra that makes them stand out. A small example: Dylan was a great songwriter, but for me, he’s famous for the following reasons: he embodied the myth of the rebellious wanderer, he was undeniably cool, he arrived at the right moment, he had the sarcastic and poetic tone of someone who knows the ropes and it’s always nice to identify with that. After that come the songs. If Dylan had the physique of Alvaro Vitali, where would he have gone? This is what I don’t like.
6) But why do we have to be the ones in Italy with the worst music... damn, in Germany, France, England, New Zealand, Sweden, they all have bands light years ahead of ours... who did we send to live8?

Look, between rock and singer-songwriters, I think I could name THOUSANDS of songs with better lyrics than this, without even going underground. Besides the lyrics, I find it musically awful as well, way below even the most mainstream international Pop; at least Britney Spears, J.Lo, and their crew work with people who really know what they're doing. Cremonini might be a nice guy (to me he seems a bit of a fool, whatever), whether he does drugs or not doesn't bother me at all. Lou Reed did drugs, so what? Tim Buckley died from it. But he doesn’t annoy me; it’s the mechanism of commercial music that bothers me, but that’s a long discussion and I don’t feel like going on a rant. If someone appreciates the Panda, that's their business, but praising it as if it's the best car is either a scam, or that person just doesn’t know about other cars, without always bringing up Ferrari...

Ah, the text of jam, let’s not leave anything out:
Your shoes are still here,
But you have already gone away,
There’s still your share of money in the bank,
But you’re no longer here!
There’s still your crumpled pink ID,
And in your drawer, a read book and a blue Winston...
...I smoked it!
There are your torn socks from the night you got drunk,
There’s still a blue scarf over there on the piano,
Your papers are here, your perfume still lingers in this house
And right there, where I imagined you...
...there you were!
Ah! Since Senna is no longer racing...
Ah! Since Baggio no longer plays...
Oh no, no! Since you left me too...
...it’s no longer Sunday!
And it can't be forgotten, it can't be thought of, it can't be thought of anymore!
Your shoes are still here
But you didn’t stop by
I explained to the neighbors, laughing, that you’re no longer here
A boy in the courtyard hugs and kisses his girlfriend
Right there where I met you...
...you’re no longer here!
Ah! Since Senna is no longer racing...
Ah! Since Baggio no longer plays...
Oh no, no! Since you left me too...
...it’s no longer Sunday!
And it can't be forgotten...
Now I live alone in this dark and desolate house
The time that love gave me I keep just for myself
Every time I think of you, I eat kilos of jam...
The one you used to hide from me...
...I found it!!

In my opinion, rather than comparing Cremonini to a Golf, I would compare him to an old Panda, the kind with the metal tube of the seat that crushes your tailbone.

It's terrible Caz (oh God, I don't know if it's the single, I meant the song that's playing on TV, "Marmellata," I think it's called. If you have to go out and hit someone, I recommend it; it will give you the right boost. The video starts off as an original silly thing, with him making faces about how sad he is because she's no longer there, then it turns into a copied silliness from a video by a group (the Chemical? Who knows...), with a big spider chasing him down the street (and unfortunately, it never catches him).

Never Giubbo, you will have to pass over my dead body, I saw her first.

To me, it seems like a classic case of reverse snobbery, giving 2 to the Mercury Rev album (definitely the worst, of course) and 4 to Cremonini? I heard the single on TV; from what you say, the rest of the album must be out of this world because that song makes me gag. Reassessing Cremonini and his one-track mind? With his idiot lyrics, he should be valued alongside the best Italian musicians? Are you kidding me, I hope?