Francesco Tricarico
Frescobaldo nel recinto

BITCH, BITCH, BITCH THE TEACHER!

Francesco Tricarico is not a fool.
Francesco Tricarico is just Francesco Tricarico.
Francesco Tricarico, yes, him, the one who in 2000 made us joyfully sing "...bitch, bitch, bitch the teacher...", the one we learned to know as a big child with a fixation for music, the one who lost his aviator father at only three years old, the one graduated in recorder at the Conservatory of Milan, the one who opened Jovanotti's concerts for his "Quinto Mondo Tour", the one who etc. etc. etc. ...yes, it’s indeed him I am referring to, the storyteller of our times, the one who in 2004, after exhausting the cheerful hits, came out with "Frescobaldo nel recinto", an album I am now going to review.

"Frescobaldo nel recinto" is not an album truly of Francesco Tricarico; first of all, I must say that the album was born thanks to Francesco's meeting with Patrick Benifei (Casino Royale, Soul Kingdom) and Fabio Merigo (Reggae National Tickets), two highly respected musicians who managed to give a great sound shift to our "dreaming hero"; I don't know if this was a good or a bad thing, but the fact is that the dreamlike atmospheres of the first songs have disappeared, the toy keyboard sounds of the '80s style have been modernized, and songs that stick in the mind at first listen are no longer present, all of this because Tricarico has grown, has changed, has been trained to no longer be himself but to give himself more of a serious singer-songwriter tone. This time the trick didn’t work, and the album didn’t make it to climb the charts; it reminds me of Piotta: when he made silly songs, he sold, but when he started doing slightly more introspective pieces, he was abandoned because people no longer recognized him and therefore did not accept him in his new guise.

The genre is not exactly classifiable, we can say it's a sort of pseudoelectronic pop combined with some simple R'n'B with the addition of some sprinkles of piano and acoustic guitar to give it that air of a cantautore album (oh, I almost forgot... there are also electric guitar solos). The lyrics are a bit less (but just a bit less) childish, autobiography remains present as do the lyrics dedicated to the hope of being able to be at peace with himself and the world, the element of dreams persists and Tricarico even finds time to talk about love in a more conscious and personal way as he does in the beautiful "Cielo rosa", a simple yet impactful ballad, imagine a child from Zecchino d'Oro singing a Baglioni song with pathos in the studio of Albero Azzurro. In "Formiche" returns the way this great big child lives things in a surreal way: our protagonist no longer wants to return home because it's invaded by ants that reign over it, the protagonist (Francesco) disguises himself as an ant, but the plan fails, and he decides never to go back and flee far away; behind this song, once we surpass the allegorical side, there’s certainly a personal discourse that deeply touches Francesco's life... let us not stop at the appearance of things and be careful not to confuse Tricarico with a nonsensical artist because he is not.

Among the other songs that truly struck me, and there are not so many, there are two in particular: "Ragazza little" (horrible title) and "Mamma no". The first, with an Italianized R'n'B rhythm, tells the story of a modern Cinderella, and the second is a very minimal piece, quite reminiscent of Tricarico in older times, with lyrics based on a series of questions and answers ("do you want a girlfriend? no! do you want a birthday? no!"). It should be noted how everything, including the album title, touches in some way the fairy tale world, primarily the lyrics followed by the instruments like a magical piper. "Frescobaldo nel recinto" is not a bad album at all, but Tricarico has lost something very natural in the way of telling stories, which came naturally to him in his early works; for this reason, I decided to give only three stars to this work, hoping for a new album from Francesco characterized by evolution, but also by naturalness. A great poet, this Tricarico!

p.s.
Listen to the beautiful "Solo per te", a song not present in this album but part of the soundtrack of the movie "Ti amo in tutte le lingue del mondo" by Leonardo Pieraccioni; a film in which Francesco makes a small cameo halfway through.

p.p.s.
The cover is insane!

Tracklist:

1) Animali
2) Sposa laser
3) Ragazza little
4) Mamma no
5) Acquedotto fosforescente
6) Cavallino
7) Formiche
8) Cielo rosa
9) Ogni giorno
10) Sommergibile blu