Gala
Come Into My Life

THE REVIEW

The cultural impact of dance music is an element not to be underestimated.

While Hard Rock, R&B, Rap, and Anglo-Saxon Pop Rock were gaining ground and changing the musical perception of the '90s, House/Dance was raging madly on the radio and in dance halls.

Now, many (including myself, in certain cases) might categorize the dance episodes from two decades ago as a mass trash phenomenon. But be careful to define this phenomenon by lumping together diverse artists and assigning merits and faults.

European rather than Italian musical period, in the vast majority of cases, Eurodance brought certain sounds derived from Acid House and Techno into the public domain, mixing and twisting the cards to create tracks that make it impossible to stay still.

Sometimes, here and there, artists would emerge whose names were imprinted in the charts and whose verses and rhythms entered the collective imagination, just think of the usual Haddaway and Corona.

With this review I want to analyze an album quite famous in the European field, namely Come Into My Life by the then twenty-year-old Milanese Gala Rizzato. The album was essentially created by the famous DJ Maurizio Molella regarding the mixes and melody and by Gala regarding the lyrics.

I don't think it's correct to attribute only one genre to the work, given the circumstances. Ultimately it's the girl who is the undisputed protagonist and the face of the entire project, bringing her songs around.

That the landscape drawn is Dance-themed is obvious, but at a certain point during the listening, here comes Freed From Desire (Slow Version) with the bass and percussion accompanying the lady that surprises you, while you were expecting just a predictable album, and then Summer Eclipse with an acoustic guitar.

Tracks like the aforementioned Freed From Desire (but the remix version) and the title track made people dance and sweat in those years and Gala's nasal and low timbre was her trademark.

In the end, she was indeed the first Italian artist to come into contact with House and its delightful company. It's a shame she wasn't able to continue experimenting and adding (or removing) something to her sound, it would have been interesting to see a career continue with different insights.

But after all, this isn't exactly Patti Smith, and although I appreciate something from the album, my tastes lie elsewhere (hence the three stars).

I believe that categorizing and turning up one’s nose is not a good thing, something good can be found even in the less appreciated genres.