From Bob Dylan to Marracash: the records of the week
A giant of classic rock, two big names in Italian rap and a diva of contemporary pop-rock (and her band): this Friday, October 31st, will be a high, very high level New Music Friday. Bob Dylan publishes the eighteenth volume of the “Bootleg Series” saga. Marracash will seal the trilogy of “Persona”, “Us. Them. The others” and “Peace is over” with a box set and related book. Caparezza returns to the scene with a work defined as “a hybrid experience” between music and literature, “Orbit orbit”. Finally, Florence and the Machine return with “Everybody scream”. Here are our councils.
Bob Dylan – “Bootleg Series 18″
Bob Dylan’s archive opens again, revealing its treasures. The voice of “Blowin’ in the wind” is publishing volume number eighteen of the “Bootleg series” this Friday, the series of box sets containing unreleased songs and rarities inaugurated in 1991. “Bootleg series volume 18: Through the open window 1956-1963”, this is the title of the new mega-box set, will contain – as the title suggests – archive material dating back to the seven years between 1965 and 1963, those of the “training” of the future Nobel Prize winner for literature. The box set – now available for pre-order on the Sony Music website – offers a unique portrait of Dylan’s early years, as he honed his talent and transformed traditional folk songs and rough lyrics into songs destined to become immortal classics, such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are A-Changin’.” The collection includes rare outtakes from the Columbia archives, live recordings in clubs and coffeehouses, improvised sessions in friends’ apartments and jams in haunts of long-gone musicians. Many of these documents are very rare, others are published for the first time. The anthology ends with the complete and unreleased recording of the concert at Carnegie Hall on October 26, 1963: an event that marked the peak of his first rise and, at the same time, the end of the beginning of his very long career.
Marracash – “Something to believe in”
It was 2019 when Marracash released “Persona”. Arriving three years after the joint album with Guè “Santeria”, the album saw the Milanese rapper raise his very personal bar, between introspective lyrics and non-fashionable sounds. That was just the beginning of a journey that Fabio Rizzo, this is the artist’s real name, would carry forward over the next four years: a trilogy that he would develop with works such as “Noi. Loro. Gli altri” in 2021 (the album with which he would win the Targa Tenco as “Best album ever” in 2022) and “È finite la pace” in 2024. Now the three albums are collected for the first time in a single box set, “Something in to believe”, a box set that can already be pre-ordered on Universal Music Italia shop. The box contains the three albums that make up the Trilogy: “Person” (read the review here), “We, Them, The Others” (read the review here) And “Peace is over” (read the review here). The unpublished book of the same name enriches everything “Something to believe in” Of Marracashin which the musician dissects the three albums through anecdotes, reflections, visions, wounds, ideas and values that animated the genesis of the recording projects.
Caparezza – “Orbit Orbit”
“Orbit Orbit”, Caparezza’s ninth studio album, arrives on October 31st. The project is not a simple album but a hybrid experience: in addition to the unreleased songs, the Apulian artist also signs a comic conceived as an “illustrated soundtrack” of the musical work. The title recalls travel, exploration and orbit around oneself, themes consistent with his visionary narrative style. In this new chapter, Caparezza combines his passion for comics with a rap-rock attitude, going beyond pure music and proposing a graphic and sound universe. The release is accompanied by various special physical editions (vinyl, box sets, etc.), which make “Orbit Orbit” a complex and refined creative object. The message seems to be that of “returning to reinvent yourself”, returning to your roots, but looking forward with audacity.
Florence + The Machine – “Everybody Scream”
October 31st is also the date chosen for the release of “Everybody Scream”, the sixth studio album by the band led by Florence Welch. The publication in the midst of the Halloween season seems to want to play with mystical atmospheres, rituals, emotional liberation and transformative scream: the title itself suggests a cathartic moment, an explosion of voice and feeling. The album arrives three years after “Dance Fever” and, according to teasers, was conceived during a period of healing and introspection following personal challenges for the artist. The sounds promise to be intense, visual, theatrical: an invitation to “not stay silent”, to scratch beneath the surface of appearances. In short: a new chapter that seeks to redefine the band form and make it speak loudly, both musically and symbolically.
