PIETRO GABRIELE
MEGALOMANIA

LA RECENSIONE

"Megalomania" is an album that is, in fact, a collection of tracks written by Pietro Gabriele between 2017 and 2018. Plus, we find another 5 unreleased tracks. However, the fact that the songs were written at different times in no way reveals a lack of stylistic cohesion. Sure, it ranges from slow pop ballads to rather upbeat pop rock songs. But there is still a common thread, and it is Gabriele's great ability to always be attentive to creating an accessible song form that grabs the listener's attention. Certainly, in the pop rock tracks or in the robotic funk rock of "Automa" (the last track on the album, but in our opinion one of the most successful pieces of this album/collection), Gabriele gives his best. But even in the reinterpretation of "Guarda che luna" (the classic by Fred Buscaglione) in a pop ballad version, even in front of such a "majestic" song, it doesn't falter at all. He also reinvents a classic of Ukrainian pop ("Coco Chanel") by a historic rock band from that country (Okean Elzy). A rather bizarre choice for an artist from Pantelleria, it brings him closer, with that arpeggiated electric guitar, to an indie and melancholic atmosphere, broken only by the overpoweringly pop rock opening that wipes away any indie ambitions à la Verdena. Not to be missed, then, is the beautiful title track, a sort of tribute to U2 in an Italian melodic pop rock version.