Review of On

That kitten on the cover, is not there for so long. Have you ever tried to tease a kitten to play with? The cat is a sweet animal, but when he wants to know, becoming a small tiger: "It 'a creature simply alive, strong in his weakness, able to arouse emotion in all of us pure, direct, authentic," said Elisa commenting the cover of her new album. The songs on "ON", the ninth studio album by the singer of Monfalcone, are like this: apparently docile and tame, but within a few seconds will reveal impetuous and engaging.

The disc arrives in about two and a half years after the previous "The soul flies", an album that had seen Elisa try for the first time in almost twenty years of career with a repertoire all Italian; with "ON", the singer returns to sing in English: only two of the 13 tracks on this record are indeed sung in Italian. All songs were written by the same Elisa, who sometimes availed of the collaboration of some international authors such as Keely Bumford, D. Allan Rich and Jud Friedman, creators for Whitney Houston, Ray Charles, Barbra Streisand and Giorgia. The only exception is "Waste your time on me", written by Jack Savoretti along with Pedro Vito Sebastian and Sternberg. The album was produced by Curt Schneider, in 2014 in the band as bassist and songwriter for the first time in the control room for a hard Elisa: the processes were held, on several occasions, between autumn 2014, the summer of 2015 and the autumn of 2015, including Slovenia, Povegliano Veronese, Los Angeles, Gorizia and New York. A small team of musicians has joined Elisa during the recording: the keyboards are Christian Rigano, to Andrea Rigonat guitars, bass and programming the same Curt Schneider, with drum machines and percussion Victor Indrizzo.

A sound level, the disc marks a break with previous productions of the songwriter: less guitar and drums, more keyboards, programming, synthesizers and drum machines. What characterizes a good part of these new songs is a taste for electronic music, declined in different forms: there are the power ballad style Both ( "Bad habits" and in part "No Hero"), in which pieces 'electronic lives with more acoustic sounds ( "Wast your time on me", with a cameo author Jack Savoretti; and "I smile now," engraved on the other hand with friends Giuliano Sangiorgi and Emma), hints of trip hop and drum' n ' 'bass ( "With the hurt", "Burn for you" - between the influences of the disc, as explained by Elisa in our interview, there are Diplo and Skrillex) and a couple of episodes dance pop reminiscent of the hit American pop star of 2000s ( "Ready Now" and "Rain over my head"). Alongside these we find a piece chain in electronics raids in Motown style as "Love me forever" (with a rhythm borrowed from "Footloose" by Kenny Loggins: Elisa had written this song at age fourteen, twenty five years ago), a song from the arrangement most piano like "Love is kinda war", a song dressed in soul sauce as "Hold on for a minute" (a hollow introduction that recalls Adele and more solar chorus) and a hyper-funky as "Peter pan "(a legacy of collaboration with Kolors last year). The Elisa of the very first album "Pipes & flowers", "Asile's World" and "Then Comes the Sun" peeps "Catch the light", with a thin, dry arrangement, all electric guitar and drums.

"ON" is an album that you listen willingly, without tiring. They are energetic songs and dancing, as the same title suggests, playing on the surprise: they start in a certain way and then come to take unexpected directions. Not only at the level of sound, but also to the musical structure level, thanks to a series of expedients, of all sudden jumps of octaves. The more athletic piece of the album is "Burning for You", written while participating in Friends of last year: a blast playing and stunning implosion, which leaves not indifferent listener.

To speak of a real artistic turning point is early: it would be more correct to say that "ON" could mark the starting point for a new and interesting phase of Elisa's career, that with these songs appears more extroverted version and "popular "than in the past, as she herself admitted. And 'an impetuous and physical disk that, for breaking offering, could turn up their nose to fans of the first hour of Elisa: it's an album far cry from the first productions of the singer. And 'pop, true, but it is in the best sense of the term: a nice mix in which all live together (best) facets of the music of the last fifty years, from Motown to electronics of 2000 through funk 70s , the dance pop of the 80s and 90s.