Italian music icon who is now pushing 70 and still releasing albums on annual basis - you might either admire her determination or write her off as somebody who don't know when to stop.
Long ago,back in early 1960s Mina was symbol of happy and high spirited italian music - later,in 1970s she perfected another kind of image and since than is basically operating from her ice-queen throne as regal survivor and has immensely rich and mind-boggling back catalogue - visit any italian music shop and you would not know where to start exploring her discography.
Alas,since lady is not writing songs herself,she depends on "kindness of strangers",in other words new songwriters,arrangers and musicians - for decades she was something of a talent-scout and had uncanny ear to spot interesting new upcoming names. This also makes her albums hit and miss affairs - sometimes she would be inspired,other times simply not.
This new studio album titled "Caramella" unfortunately belongs to "not-so-hot" category for various reasons,main probably being that at this point Mina is simply not interested in pop music - musicianship and arrangements are brilliant and my guess this album will be more admired by musicians than audience. Everything sounds very slow,melancholic and a bit depressing - there are three duets here but as we know,today people don't even stand next to each other in the recording studio,what is the difference in having Seal or Dalai Lama as duet partner? There is a bit of lounge-jazz here and some aggressive rock guitars there,unexpected piece of dark & creepy music called "La Clessidra" that is actually quite good - at least shows that Mina is still ready to experiment and stretch wings instead of repeating herself - but ultimately the overall impression is of a tired and worn out singer who fights with the Windmills.
For hard-core collectors who need to buy everything she ever recorded.
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