Piero Pelù, without frills and without electronics

“It's not like there are any great signs of involvement from politics at the moment. It may be that this also influenced a more intimate choice for this album. But I am convinced that we as social animals have a task: to know ourselves better in order to better accept others.” As Piero Pelù presented us with his third solo album “Subjects lost”, which turns 20 today. And this below is our review of the album.

At the risk of repeating ourselves, let's start this review in exactly the same way as that of the previous album, “U.

DS”: You either love Piero Pelù or you hate him. Trivial, but true, and if you are of the party of those who can't stand it, there is no record that will make you change your mind. Viewed in hindsight, “UDS” had several elements to strengthen the factions. On the one hand, an attempt to return to rock, dampened however by the use of electronics which resulted in overproduction. On the other hand, overtly political songs, with attitudes that could seem a little populist. Well, the first thing to say about this “Lost Subjects” is that it won't change your mind, but these two directions are substantially corrected. It's a rock record, this one, but without frills and without electronics. A simpler album if we want, but with that simplicity that you can expect from someone like Piero Pelù: great electric guitar riffs, great melodic openings even deliberately a bit rhetorical, as in “Dea musica” or in the single “Prendimi Cosi ”. But this has always been his signature, both in Litfiba and alone. You can strip the music of him, but the base will always remain the same.

“Lost Subjects” is also an intimate album. “Intimate”, in quotes, as a rock record can be. The songs speak of the “subjects” as individuals, rather than as a collective, as happened in several moments of “UDS”, whose title – “Man of the Street” already foreshadowed political attention. Sign of the times? Maybe it's because, as Piero himself told us in our interview, politics offers very little reason for interest today. Will be. But it is certain that these “personal” themes adapt better to the songs, even when they lead to a bit of (deliberate) rhetoric, as in the aforementioned “Music Goddess”.

Two things remain to be said: some Litfiba fans will perhaps turn up their noses at hearing this new version of “Re del silence”, one of the central pieces of “17 re” by Litifiba, an album dated 1986 and the group's best performance, as well as one of the central records of the rebirth of Italian rock of that period. The piece loses speed (and Gianni Maroccolo's beautiful bass line, transformed into a guitar arpeggio) to become a ballad, but still does not lose its charm. A good opportunity, moreover, to go and rediscover the original.

Second thing: Gianni Maroccolo reappears in “Even on foot”, the final song that closes the album, and is its highest point. Beautiful ballad, originally written together for Gianni's solo album, “ACAU”, but which Piero then preferred to keep for himself, while “Fugge l'ombra” ended up on Gianni's album. In conclusion: if “UDS” was a step forward (for the recovery of rock) and a step backwards (due to overproduction and overly political themes), “Soggetto stravati” is a step forward and that's it: a more direct album, which puts bare the soul of a controversial rocker, to whom it is nevertheless difficult to remain indifferent