A title that speaks both of the past and of the times in which we live – “The Twenties” -, a cover that is militant in its own way, with the image of a little girl from behind and armed with a hammer who is preparing to knock down a wall. After many years of recording silence, Estra return and decide to abandon any desire for symbolism: it’s time to face reality as it is, naked and raw, ruthless.
Twenty years is also, in spades, the time distance that separates the previous album from the one just released. A period of time that would be very long for any band, but not for the quartet from Treviso (Giulio Casale, Abe Salvadori, Nicola Accio Ghedin and Eddy Bassan) who can certainly count on a formidable fan base given that, through a crowdfundinghe put together almost 33 thousand euros immediately used for recordings and mastering under the aegis – and artistic co-production – of Giovanni Ferrario.
Ten songs in all, plus the intro recited by Marco Paolini in “La Signora Jones” which well represents the key themes of the album, a far from sugar-coated portrait of the era in which we live, well painted by that champion of words which is Giulio Casale. Everything is appropriately immersed in an alternative rock context that recalls the nineties and the related roughness, as the riff to the vitriol of “Fluida Lol” which effectively pierces the veil on the living material of the album, before an excellently crafted chorus gives hope also in view of the concerts that will accompany the new record release.
Of this series of portraits that are indeed rather desolate in revealing the reality in which we live, and which for this very reason can be even more complex to decode, the epicenter can only be the song that gives the album its title, in which the Years Twenty can be both those of the twentieth century and those of today, being in some ways superimposable (“black envelops everything/ black affects everything/ black is with everything/ black is everywhere). “No one like us” touches on the theme of migrants and exile, “I leave Rome” that of attempted escape from a context in which one cannot find oneself.
Of note, among others, are the presence of Pierpaolo Capovilla – narrator of the final “Notte poi” – and of the Filarmonia Veneta Regional Orchestra which sings the “Funeral March” from Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 in D Major.
06/18/2024
