Marlene Kuntz
Il Vile

"Il Vile," a perfect album within which it is impossible to recognize one song as more important or significant than the others, because all of its content is functional, meaningful, and essential. A work that, had it been the product of an English or American band, would have forcefully entered the annals of world rock history, creating a precedent difficult to imitate. "Il Vile" is so perfect that I believe it created problems for Marlene Kuntz themselves, unjustly obliged, according to some fans, to repeat the unrepeatable. "Il Vile" is, according to the writer, not only the best Italian album of recent decades, but absolutely one of the greatest masterpieces in the history of music.

3 of 3, "La mischia gaia di vipere". It took courage to open a record with such a song, as admitted by Cristiano Godano himself. It's a dazzling, perverse start; an arrow to the heart accompanied by piercing guitars, it's a delirium of instruments hitting hard, beginning exactly as it ends, Italian noise as never heard before, and as never shall be heard again.
"Retrattile" continues on the same painful groove carved by the first track. A bass line opens the dance, then Godano sings "Probabilmente io meritavo di più". The finale fades in an unsettling, violent, and subdued gasp at the same time, encapsulating the soul of the entire album. A record narrated and explained in the very lyrics of the songs composing it, within which we find pieces explaining the raw why of this work. A work fatally destined for a few, albeit reluctantly ("Vorrei colpire al cuore, e conquistare il tuo stupore. Ma è così dura, credi...").
With the third track, "L'agguato", the unique sound that distinguishes this album takes more shape, so much so that one could speak of a musical genre and an atmosphere dark and despairing belonging solely to "Il Vile," a sound that would be a crime to imprison in any category (e.g., the noise I mentioned earlier). "L'agguato" is a lucid and terrible description of a car accident, starts softly and ends in an orgasm of distorted guitars while "Il sole scaglia/la sua gloria/e se la ghigna".
The dark atmosphere of physical and mental deterioration finds its culmination in "Cenere", again a killer bass and lyrics dripping with morbidity and sick sexuality in every verse ("Tricorno sfonda Donna Piera/La cameriera tuba con la vagina..").
A sublime moment of pause arrives, albeit with the reservation of an inescapable existential defeat, with the vain hope of someone who has lost everything. It's time, indeed, for "Come stavamo ieri", an apparently slow piece that culminates in the final in a sonic delirium, and how we were yesterday will never be tomorrow. The track will be the album’s only single, and indeed in some ways it can be considered the most "catchy."
"Overflash", then, a piece closer to metal sounds (after all, this is the first album with Dan Solo's participation), again here sexual repressions find expression in the lyrics ("Voglio una figa blu!") and clear references to heroin, from the very title of the song.
"Ape Regina”, a piece that Marlene Kuntz proposed from their early live concerts, finds its ideal placement here. It is the summary and essence of the group’s poetry and lyrics in this (splendid) period. Conceptually and musically, situated in the middle of the album, this song could represent a perfect summary of "Il Vile". Rarefied atmospheres, sudden sonic erections, a sharp and sick voice, the divine and golden queen bee...
At this point, there is a physiological pause, an oasis of (apparent) tranquility represented by "L'esangue Deborah" and "Ti giro intorno", the latter in my opinion the weakest part of the album. The finale is entrusted to two almost punk tracks, "E non cessa di girare la mia testa in mezzo al mare,” with ruthlessly autobiographical lyrics, and the final "Il Vile", title-track that opens with a question: "Do a hundred thousand lousy ways of weaving matter more? And do they matter more, even if the range of ways is a quarter of three..." And the finale is a declaration, almost a manifesto of the group's musical conception. They would like to "strike at the heart," to capture our amazement.

It's hard, we believe it, but with the humility that only those not knowing Marlene more deeply reproach them for lacking, I believe they have done it sublimely. A historic record, my grandchildren will listen to it in 20 years, were it the last nonsense I do in my life.