Dice Approach

Sometimes when reflecting upon a past project, dwelling upon its name and whether or not it was aptly chosen can be unavoidable, and perhaps doubly so if the project was short-lived. In a name like Kublai Khan comes a renowned historical figure that factors in all too well with thrash metal, namely a great Mongolian ruler whose exploits are rivaled by few, though also a complex one that was not without his personal failures and vulnerabilities…

Come in Un'Ultima Cena is the last "classic" Banco album. After an instrumental album with orchestra (Di Terra, 1978), the band would favor a more commercial approach throughout the 1980s. Also the last one to feature the classic lineup of Gianni Nocenzi, Vittorio Nocenzi, Renato d'Angelo, Rodolfo Maltese, Pierluigi Calderoni, and Francesco Di Giacomo (since the latter does not sing on Di Terra), this LP shows sings of breathlessness…

Gianna Nannini concluded her 2011 album Io e Te with a hard rock version of Domenico Modugno's "Volare," presumably intended half as a joke and half in earnest. The same track (albeit in a slightly edited version) also closes 2014's Hitalia, but it has now become a grand finale rather than a gimmick, as the full-blown cover album Hitalia is Nannini's tribute to the Great Italian Songbook. Alas, it is more a spirited than an inspired one. To begin with, Nannini's choices could not have been more obvious: every single one of these 17 songs is an Italian cultural icon and most have been covered to death by any number of artists. Moreover, there is not much chronological or stylistic range either, as 12 come from the 1960s, and roughly half of those were styled for the Sanremo Festival – a more accurate title for Hitalia could have been Gianna Nannini Sings the Monster Hits of her Adolescence.