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Rating: Italy 1979, Faust'O releases this strange album, after a masterpiece of Italian music like “Suicidio” and a 45 rpm single “Anche Zimmerman/Kleenex”.
I was saying, strange album because there are some changes taking place. It starts with “Vincent Price,” a bizarre and ironic song that seems a continuation of the glam that enveloped the atmosphere of “Suicidio,” then we have “Cosa Rimane,” funky and danceable with its polemical and still ironic lyrics: “you want to steal time but only for a day/ the rest is just a vice that makes you crippled.” There is no chorus, just a sax closing the two verses. Some droplets lead us into “Attore Malinconici”, with sensual and somewhat lo-fi moves. It seems to continue on another line with “Oh oh oh,” an obnoxious catchy track that is hard to digest. Another track I find unnecessary is “Kleenex”, horrible in this version, practically a voice at times muffled over music that sounds like midi.. come on!! Much better is the version released as a single with acid guitar riffs and all the rest.
To lift the situation and the album's average are highlighted “In tua Assenza,” “Il Lungo Addio,” and “Funerale a Praga.” Practically another atmosphere, everything is icy, sad, everything is a masterpiece and it seems to emerge from late '70s Berlin. Even though “In Tua Assenza” Faust'O reprises, as many know, the lyrics of “Breaking Glass” by Bowie, the voice of our Rossi will be a source of inspiration for someone like Piero Pelù; listen to “Desaparecido” and tell me if the two voices do not resemble each other. Then as I was saying “Il Lungo Addio” and I seem to hear some dark tones: “Isn't it brilliant that there's always someone spitting in my coffee/It's not too bad if I manage to fall asleep on the floor at six/I feel nervous, something's wrong I'm not hungry anymore and I feel a little down/I'd like to go away for a while/I'd like to tell you to go away/I want to tell you to go away/I want to go away for a while, away!”.
But to finish is the absolute masterpiece of the album, one of the peaks never reached by this artist and all Italian music: “Funerale a Praga,” 7 and over minutes of darkness, of death. A violin triggers the linear beat of the percussion, it is deeply sad; then the piano, a few notes, forced and hard.. they hit you. It’s just the introduction to the electronic moments and the words that will come.. “broken behind the glass I hung your boredom under my never-stretched feet/ straight against the wall I drink my form while waiting for the cart, but late then irritated, then irritated and tired,” then, “tight in the asphalt I spit on my feet while the cart arrives, but late then irritated and tired”.. the final tail of about 4 minutes arrives with the usual linear beat, the almost apocalyptic keyboards, and the sax with its solo.
A three because as you have seen it is a strange album, balancing between goofing around and despair, it will do better later with “J’accuse.. amore mio” of '80 and absolutely with “Out Now” and “Faust’O” of '82.. After “Love Story” (another great work!!) Faust’O will take back his real name: Fausto Rossi.
Brilliant artist to absolutely get to know.
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Other reviews
By iside
Faust’O tries to break away from the verse and chorus logic and practically decides that with his ways and words, he will never be a star, much less a meteor.
The Melancholic Actors of the homonymous track are ultimately all of us who never find space or a reason to continue our existence.
By Caciucco
Between this version and the single one, I prefer this without even thinking about it.
This album suffers from a few tracks; for this reason, I believe it is his most incomplete album, and then his poetics are watered down by too many Anglophone citations.
