Gianna Nannini
Latin Lover

THE REVIEW

Post-atomic caresses infused with a genuinely Tuscan rage. European impulses without ever denying the roots. A piercing need for expression to demonstrate that rock is an attitude before it's music. The good family that stifles a restless, thoroughbred character as in the best Palio tradition. Siena, a suit too tight, hence the escape; first to Milan, immediately a second skin; the grind with the first important encounters in the off-circuit; then the disappointment of that dreamed and idealized America; finally Berlin, the city where anything can happen - and at the time it truly happened - for the final consecration.

La Gianna (strictly with the article before the name) arrives in the German capital in 1982 and immediately enters the circle of artists of the Berlin avant-garde; for a while, she shares an apartment with a young and eccentric London musician named Ann Lennox, who shortly will become the lady of Eurythmics; however, it’s the encounter with Conny Plank, a highly acclaimed producer and inventor of krautrock (responsible for the sounds of Kraftwerk’s production up to "Autobahn") that changes her life and consequently her career. 5 years of collaboration and 5 years of successive successes; until 1987, when Plank will die of cancer at just 47 years old. The international imprint of the German producer perfectly blends with the Italian melodic sensitivity of the Sienese artist, and "Latin Lover" is the (first) clear proof of it. The track that gives the album its title, now a classic of Italian music, is an energetic rock, characterized by a straight beat and lyrics that ironically play on the stereotypes of the Latin male, on which Gianna's husky and scratchy voice emerges with power and assertiveness. Another memorable episode is represented by “Carillon”, an intense and poignant memory of a love, highlighted by poetic lyrics, among “scents of incense, cigarettes, and chocolates”; the piece starts quietly and then explodes in all its pathos. Then there are the very fast-paced and angry “Primadonna” and “Amore amore”, in which irony – always one of the trademarks of the Sienese artist – reigns supreme; “Wagon-lits” is the story of a clandestine adventure on a train, while the hypnotic and anxiety-inducing “Fumetto” seems like a Sin City ahead of its time. There is, therefore, the opening to the new millennium with the futuristic “Volo5/4”, among “Gods via radio and Gods of the future”, leading up to the “total” piece, one of the points of no return in Italian song; “Ragazzo dell’Europa”. On a musical carpet that truly speaks of Europe, of travels, of fights and alcohol, Gianna, in this quasi-self-portrait, narrates the restlessness and the continual need for new challenges. The song is a small great miracle; simply tear-jerking.

The album achieves great success, also thanks to first-rate musicians, including Mauro Pagani and Annie Lennox on keyboards. For the definitive international consecration, we have to wait another 2 years, when the melancholy of “Fotoromanza” will invade all of Europe; what is already evident, however, is that when talking about Italian female rock, one cannot disregard - even now - Gianna Nannini, an artist who in 33 years of honorable and glorious career has given and continues to give shining examples of great music.