Praise be to God, greater than the rain falling on the dashboard
And windshield wipers that will sweep it away
Praise be to a god without a definitive name or apt image
A god I would love if he loved me
After ten albums and a quarter of a century, Tommaso Zanello alias Piotta is still a victim of his “Supercafone” mask, to be understood as the hits but also as the character that the song told about. Since then he has grown and changed many times. Already in “Tommaso” (2004), which used rap as a pretext, he was unrecognizable for those who stopped at the biggest hits mainstream. A long and complex career, at times even a little confused and incoherent, yet still lively, which does not exactly make him our Nas but not the last of the remnants of the kitsch. Also a writer, Tommaso Zanello perhaps needed a great story to tell to find the right inspiration for what is the only album in his discography which, despite its total diversity, can stand alongside his underrated debut. “‘na notte infame” is, moreover, his most personal and painful album, innervated with thoughtful songwriting images and cloaked in a melancholy that is intertwined with nostalgia and with the mourning for the passing of his brother Fabio , known as “The Professor” and a prolific writer of texts related to mysticism and spirituality.
A text by Fabio Zanello opens the setlist, a “Praise to God” that unites Rome and the Immensity on an emotional rap for soft piano. It is not only one of the most touching songs that the Italian scene has managed to offer in recent years but also an ideal calling card of a project which, when it remains centered on its emotional fulcrum, amazes and enchants. Even when the story becomes social, even political, in “Serpico”, on a textbook boom bap and a stornello chorus sung by Zampaglione, and in the title track, with the veterans Asslati Frontali, a bitterness prevails in the soul.
When Serpico died, I was there outside of school
Seven gunshots
We had lead and mud and everything
What we dreamed of was another world, not the other world
It seems that we are returning to potential hits with “I’m not afraid”, actually a danceable song about malaise, but when he attacks the auto-tune in “Professore” the focus he seems a little lost and we need to find him again with the recitation of the “Roman Ode”, on a piano that is a little too telephoned.
In fact, the album struggles to return to the level of the first songs, despite the melancholic diary of “Figli di un Tempo” and the final tragedy of “Lella… e poi”, a review of a classic Roman song transformed into a song about a femicide: once the initial surprise has dissipated, the atmosphere has been spoiled by some out of place and ineffective refrains, “‘na notte infame” loses the opportunity to give the listener a single emotional flow.
In a world of rappers who too often tell a world of criminal fairy tales for social use, however, this tenth studio album by Piotta sounds like a happy exception. The essential cover with also the first name, under the usual nickname, is there to underline the duality of a musician who is much more than an old summer single from the end of the millennium.
I never knew who I am
I’ve always wondered who I am
“Who am I?” is the question I forget to ask myself every time
And what I said sometimes to this one and that one
Who I am is perhaps a game of mirrors
Where who you see is never you but only the reflection
04/17/2024
Tags: infamous night OndaRocks Reviews
