Lucio Battisti
Anima latina

THE REVIEW

I know that much has already been written and discussed about this album, but now it's time for me to describe the feelings that listening to this enormous work by Lucio Battisti has evoked and continues to evoke in me. I know that most likely it’s not the case, but I like to think that this album was conceived, written, and played at night or in a moment more or less corresponding to dawn (what I'm doing with this review). Indeed, the entire general atmosphere of the album seems to me to be immersed in a dream or in a kind of general relaxation, but the kind that makes you think of dreams. I will not even try to explain the lyrics of this album, too complicated to do so, I will only say that for me, every line of this album is a flash, a memory, a snapshot that surfaces in the mind.

Musically, instead, you immediately dive into “Abbracciala, abbracciali, abbracciati” (probably the story of a night of sex with his “her”) where you seem to see the typical mist of the early lights of dawn, the early hour (or late, depending on your taste) is well defined by “Che ora è? È tardi ormai”. “Due mondi” is an evident homage to the musical mania of the moment, disco music; the song is performed in a vocal duet with Mara Cubeddu (who remembers her in Daniel Sentacruz Ensemble?). “Anonimo” seems to be the story of a boy's first sexual experiences, the music is one of the most complex of the album with various citations, including flamenco, and it ends with a curious quotation (which seems played by a village band) of “I giardini di marzo”. “Gli uomini celesti”, in my opinion, is one of the peaks of the album with a magnificent introduction of acoustic guitars played by Lucio himself and Massimo Luca. And here I raise a kind of quiz: who will the celestial men ever be, who bringing children to the protagonist, will say “Choose” knowing well that she, laughing, will join them? UFOs? Who can explain it? Since I also had the vinyl, I remember that at the end of “Gli uomini celesti” I would turn the disc and at the beginning of side B what could be found? The reprise of “Gli uomini celesti” with the chorus accelerated and sung in falsetto with a fast acoustic accompaniment. Then only voice and piano for one of the most poetic moments of the album, the reprise of “Due mondi”, just a small fragment.

And then here is the true, great homage to Brazil, a piece of more than six minutes where the sung part lasts no more than a minute and a half; the rest relies on a great instrumental introduction based on guitars (acoustic, of course), Eminent (the keyboard much in vogue in those years of progressive music) and on a finale with ethnic choirs and percussion. Surely the real manifesto of the album. With “Il salame” you return to that dreamy and relaxed atmosphere we talked about, but with a rather banal text (the only one of the album), while “La nuova America” is a heartfelt tribute to the music of PFM of that time, full progressive, it could be the soundtrack of a romantic thriller movie. “Macchina del tempo” for me is one of Lucio's greatest masterpieces, a song that every time I listen to it, I get flashes, “photographs”; I almost imagine the desperate guy with the winged cloak running over the mount and throwing himself down with open arms and eyes closed, then admiring the panorama of nature (the swans coming out of the water of a small lake, wheat fields, etc.). The final fragment, “Separazione naturale”, closes worthily in another atmosphere of dawn this album.

What to say? At the time, many did not understand this album, but probably those “many” hadn’t reckoned with a Lucio Battisti who said more or less:

“What else can you do when every move, every record of yours regularly goes to number 1? Make another number 1 or seek new stimuli, new sensations, new musical emotions, and here you are served, I did so”