francis

The point is not so much about influences, but about the fact that these groups don't seem to understand what game they are playing after so many years: do they want to be tough and pure? Do they want to hint at a broader audience?
In short, what "face" do Marlene Kuntz have?
And the Afterhours?
In my opinion, their limit is precisely this self-satisfaction and self-pity... if I were a record executive, I would go to them and say, "Listen, it's fine to maintain artistic purity, but this is going nowhere... either you come up with a damn hit like 'Smell Like Teen Spirit', 'Song 2' or 'Losing My Religion', or get the hell out because there are thousands of bands like yours in Italy that can't get a record deal precisely because you keep releasing pseudo-intellectual albums that no one cares about... so now get to work in the studio!".
Damn, I should write one of those essays on "corporate motivation" :)

As for the Afterhours, I believe they should have released an anthology of their most famous (or infamous) tracks like "Male di miele," etc., along with "Non è per sempre," and perhaps the mass audience would have bought the album, and maybe they would have become the benchmark for Italian rock, dethroning that damn Ligabue, right?
In countries like ours, or like England, selling records is important... in the USA, Sonic Youth could do their own thing until 1992, but here that's not possible because the music industry is starving, aside from those 5-6 names.
It’s no coincidence that Franco Battiato agreed with me when he started making accessible albums like "L'era del cinghiale bianco" and "La voce del padrone" without compromising his artistic credibility, quite the opposite.
I think it's precisely because of those two albums that he is "a name" in Italian music. The Verdena, on the other hand, by continuing to make albums that just applaud themselves, won't get anywhere... they want to be the Italian Smashing Pumpkins, but the Smashing Pumpkins became THE Smashing Pumpkins thanks to "Today," "Disarm," "1979." I hope I've made myself clear...

The Residents are a case apart... anyway, in my opinion, the trick is this: write one or two catchy and pop songs (but not for that reason bad, quite the opposite) and then leave the rest of the album for more radical pieces. The Blur did this with "13," for example, which had "Tender" and "Coffee and TV" but the rest of the album was light-years away from that kind of sound, and even the Gorillaz, when you listen to their albums, are far from being an MTV group.
So if I were a producer, I would go to Marlene or Afterhours and say to them, "give me two cool singles and then for the rest of the album do whatever the hell you want" and you would already see changes starting to happen... I mean, for instance, Subsonica and Caparezza do just that, and whether good or bad, they are a name, they are setting a trend (even though they are two "artists" I don't like at all).
In short, compromises need to be made: Pink Floyd started by releasing catchy singles, the Pixies made "Where Is My Mind" and "Debaser," etc. sometimes you need those little shiny things to attract attention.

Anyway, the problem is always the same: hits are absolutely necessary, especially for an audience generally dull like the Italian one. I’m not saying that cult rock bands should make dance singles or make ignoble turnarounds like Litfiba, but in my opinion, you can’t make music just for yourself, closed off in a sort of isolation that is, in fact, not leading to any evolution. Marlene Kuntz and Afterhours are essentially just different albums that are getting stuck in themselves, without shame and without praise, without losing their style but certainly without any creative peaks, any jolts, and they seem to be a sort of self-imitating: at this point, it was much better when, towards the end of the '90s, they attempted to reach mass success, which didn’t arrive but wasn’t such a disastrous experiment either. This is to say that if the mountain doesn't go to Muhammad, etc. etc.... Italian rock "anti-Ligabue and anti-Negrita" is destined to remain a hobby for enthusiasts and nothing more.

The problem with Marlene and most of the Italian "alternative" rock bands (if I may say so) is that they all consider themselves intellectual and philosophical, seeing themselves as an alternative to an Italian rock scene that doesn’t exist.
And then they need hits, damn it. Even Joy Division had to release "Love Will Tear Us Apart" to enter history: what bothers me about Marlene Kuntz, Afterhours, and even Verdena is that they think they can be considered solely on the basis of being explicitly "album bands," without realizing that often you also need to write some memorable songs to make a mark... otherwise, they'll just continue to rightly remain in the limbo of an Italian rock that, in its "daring," hardly dares at all.

Thank you : )

The review is mine; I forgot to write my nickname... let's say it's a failed review, written in a rush, and I'm not very satisfied with it... conceptually, I think I've described the album quite well, which is beautiful anyway, but maybe compared to my other reviews, this one is a bit too ordinary, too calm. Of course, the album called for a similar approach; I acknowledged that... I did the best I could.

The problem with Verdena and most Italian "alternative" rock bands (if I may use the term) is that they all consider themselves intellectual and philosophical; they view themselves as alternatives to an Italian rock scene that doesn’t exist. And they need hits, damn it. Even Joy Division had to release "Love Will Tear Us Apart" to enter the history books: what bothers me about Marlene Kuntz, Afterhours, and even Verdena is that they think they can be considered significant just because they are explicitly "album bands" without realizing that often you also have to write some memorable songs to make your mark... otherwise, they will rightly remain in the limbo of an Italian rock that, in its "daring," hardly dares at all.

He committed suicide in 1997.

It's not me who needs to adjust: if the album I'm talking about is disappointing, it must be described for what it is. In the end, I reiterate, there are at least 4-5 tracks worth saving, but the standards to which Idlewild had accustomed me were much higher.