Gimme This, Gimme That
I want more, i want ass
Give it to me in the palm of my hand
Give it to me in the palm of my hand
The 1997 class Gaia Gozzi, Italian-Brazilian born in the province of Reggio Emilia and raised in the province of Mantua, made himself known in 2016 through the tenth edition of “X Factor”, to which he ranks second. An EP, “New Dawns” (2016) follows, which has not followed much. In 2019 he also participated in “Amici di Maria De Filippi” and comes out winning, before publishing the mini-album “Genesis” (2020), strong of the Bossa Nova Electronic “Chega” (double platinum, in Portuguese), then re-edited in an expanded version (“New Genesis”): a collection of songs that decline contemporary electronic pop according to an intertwining of Anglo-American and Brazilian references. By dirtying with more dozen pop-raps (“What I Say”) but also showing elegant measure in the interpretations (“Coco Chanel”) or lively contaminations (“Bela Flor”). The mixture of electronic pop and South American echoes is its stylistic figure but gradually the songs have become less graceful, as recognized in the most crowded “Alma” (2021), a mixed pop r'n'b with numerous guests, who tries to ship it straight in the mainstream Without renouncing the most elegant and sophisticated songs, primarily “Alma”, “Ginga” and “Salina”. It will have been the fault of the success “Sex and Samba” (2024, platinum quadruple), paired with Tony Effe, but this “wind rose” seems confused and too often looking for the new life hit.
The contaminated pop of the past is now folding to texts at the height of the pop-trap, as in the agitated latinant dance “blue smoke”, attacked by electronic distortions. This was also the new Gaia, however, it could perhaps also identify the desire to change skin, transform itself. Too bad that the subsequent “addicted” points towards a liquid funk in raising complete with a hosted of the Guè parsley, not exactly inspired. On the third song, when we rediscover the Sanremese Latin-pop “call I call you”, it is clear that the album is a blaz of ideas, ideas more or less in trend in which Gaia's identity disappears. It is not necessary to rediscover itself more intense and measured in the title trackbecause it anticipates other attempts to hit easy from mainstream (“Marathon”; “You trusted” with Capo Plaza; “Twin Flames”), at most Hyperpop lacquered (“BulletProofof”). And to say that there would still be room to stand out, also a ability to dose and interpret respectable, but it is too little jam spread on too many different rusks.
You can fantasize a hook at the Rosalia Neoperreo in “RJ” (feat. Lorenzza) or that can return to reinterpret the Bossa Nova in a contemporary key as in “wind” (with an exaggeratedly filtered toquinho to singing) but there are other inconsistent signs of an album all too heterogeneous, often rowdy and decidedly confused.
If it had to be a collection of hit Heterogeneous, perhaps a half disaster is configured, because except the obsessive motivation of “call I call you” there is very little that seems to have potential to make great numbers on Spotify. To think that all this, then, comes after two albums that outlined, certainly with uncertainties and some bitterness, a singer in any case with reasons of originality in our mainstream, if you come out. To open the album four vocal messages sent by family members: it is the promise of a personal journey that, unfortunately, will not be there.
Cover from Trigger Warning.
16/07/2025
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
