When Franco Battiato discovered the MAB
February 9, 2007 Franco Battiato released his twenty-fifth album entitled “The Void”. A record they collaborated on Manlio Sgalambro to the lyrics and the female rock band of MAB (“I met them at a concert”, he said) in some songs. We remember the anniversary by publishing our review.
In recent years Franco Battiato’s discography has become irregular: a couple of live performances, some collections (published by the “old” labels), the two “Fleurs” cover albums. This is because Battiato is an irregular in Italian music, and this is demonstrated by his now well-known oscillation between popular and cultured music, between music and other arts (cinema, above all, in recent times). It is inevitable, therefore, that a “regular” album, of new unreleased songs, arouses more expectations than other publications. Even more so when the album is a return, to Universal: one of the three major record companies frequented by Battiato in his long career together with Emi / Decca and Sony / Bmg.
Universal was the home of some of Battiato’s most beloved records, above all “L’imboscata”. “The void” is a record that meets expectations, for better or for worse. It is a record with a more homogeneous and less experimental sound than other unreleased albums, which “mixes” traditional melodies, electronics, rock and orchestrations. The title track, as well as the first single, is the best example of this mixture: a good rhythm, melodies, voices and languages that overlap, exactly what is expected from Battiato, philosophy (“Vuoto di senso/senso di emptiness”) and popularity. Added to this is a good sense of “scouting”, thanks to the fun and apt contribution of the female rock band MAB.
In the rest of the album, however, the game is less successful, between ballads that play more on the orchestral side (“Tepid April”) and others that recover more electronics (“Nothing is as it seems”, which is also the song from which it takes its title of the third film, the production of which has just finished). In essence, “Il emptiness” sounds a bit like a mannered album: well written, well produced, but all in all without any great flashes other than the title track or some passages, such as the beautiful central crescendo of “Io chi sono ?”. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, because Battiato, who is and remains a genius, sometimes has a tendency to be a little too dispersive. Here he has the opposite tendency: “Il emptiness” is a linear album, too much so for those who are used to the surprises that the Maestro usually reserves for us.
