Gianna Nannini
Perle

THE REVIEW

An eclectic artist in the female singer-songwriter scene in Italy (one of the few valuable representatives), with a thirty-year career behind her, author of famous hits (how can we forget "Bello e impossibile", "Fotoromanza", and also "Notti magiche", "I maschi" and many others) always full of energy and passion, endowed with a rock soul and in full grace state with her latest release, "Grazie" (2006). We are talking about Gianna Nannini: a woman who is increasingly liked, even by a mostly young audience (and not just by nostalgics), and who has often raised eyebrows for her vocal (and compositional) versatility, which many purists of Italian song find hard to digest but which over the years has matured to gift us one of the most beautiful songs of her career: the profound "Sei nell'anima". So much energy, which despite her age seems not to have extinguished yet (defying many alleged singers who debut very young only thanks to record companies that, as we know, prefer to focus more on image than on quality).

But in 2004, leaving behind guitars for the occasion, the national Gianna proposes a reinterpretation of some songs, picked here and there from the various albums of her glorious career, in a minimal and purely acoustic key. A delicate and exquisite work, where strings and piano weave the sound textures of songs that thus live with a new soul, cloaked by that aggressive yet always melodic timbre that only Nannini possesses and that does not spare us ironic and, if I may say, a bit crazy moments, as in the recent "Notti senza cuore", where it feels like dealing with a female Vasco Rossi. But here comes the second track. And here is the first masterpiece of the album: "Ragazzo dell'Europa", perhaps one of the most well-known among the thirteen songs. To call it exciting is not enough; here the piano gives the piece an indescribable climax, and the artist's voice makes us participate in her deepest emotions in a disarming manner. "Contaminata" is even hypnotic and unsettling with its slow piano pace countered by martial percussions and a chorus offering an operatic version (thanks to those background choirs), almost like a musical in rock sauce by the singer. And, going through the retro-flavored light-heartedness of "Amandoti", we move to the sensual charge of "Profumo" and the sonic triumph of the strings in "I maschi", also reinterpreted in a decisively more retro version than the original, which was, however, more intense. However, the reinterpretation is pleasant. Glimmers of romanticism and velvety sound arabesques peak through in "Aria" and the album soars high, reaching another peak of maximum value. "Una luce" begins, and I can't believe my ears, there's a delicate piano sketching a melancholic and nocturnal vein, to which is added the umpteenth superb vocal performance; and it is again a masterpiece of elegance. Jazz influences contaminate the rendering of "California", brief and subdued in the first half and in the closing, emphatic and aggressive in the central part, yet always refined as one might expect. "Latin lover" is another musical parenthesis in rock and metropolitan sauce and "Meravigliosa creatura" is one of the most intense love songs written by Nannini, as well as another emotional peak of the album, which even risks disappearing in the face of the solemnity of "Amore cannibale". Here, for text and music, the singer's music can become appealing to gothic souls passionate about requiem masses, operatic choirs, enchanted pianos, melancholic cellos, and metaphorical texts imbued with decadent images. The song alone is worth buying the album blindly. "Oh marinaio" is pure poetry with a Mediterranean flavor; it's just a shame to note that it is the last of the album. Beyond the superb arrangement work, the lyrics also deserve a special mention, poetic and passionate when needed, schizophrenic and ironic in the less canonical episodes, but still deep and personal.

Elegant and refined, but also ironic and enhanced by an enviable artistic maturity, "Perle" is a true masterpiece, an emotional storm that unexpectedly involved even myself, usually devoted to other musical scenes, with which, however, the album in question finds more than one connection. No one should deprive themselves of such beauty, of this sound casket where intense emotions reside, in which different types of listeners can find solace.