(12) Treize Cigarettes (2004)

Gente / Mi Fai Stare Bene / Cadillac / I Need You / (Piano…) Viola / Quello Che Ha Unito la Musica / Vivo / Mistico / Una Storia / Innaturale / Cocona / Con Me

Noordkaap, Monza (with Noordkaap's Stijn Meuris) and Gorki. Those are about the only Belgian rock bands I can think of that sing in their own language and get away with it. For some reason, I've always been under the impression that bands who swear by their own language didn't actually do it because it would allow them to better express themselves with a bigger vocabulary, but for some other, conservative reason, like "our cultural identity is under attack" or (insert nagging tone) "there's nothing wrong with our language. Anyway, what I'm getting' at… Mastica is an Italian band that's deeply rooted in the Anglo-Saxon rock tradition, yet their songs are (with the exception of "I Need You," which has the title words recurring in the chorus) entirely in Italian. Unfortunately, that immediately ensures a certain scepticism from my part, which they luckily managed to make disappear, or at least to a certain degree. Like 7 zillion other bands, Mastica play a kind or retro-rock (even though they call it "acid rock" themselves) that's indebted to swirling fuzz-driven garage rock, British Invasion and Nuggets-psychedelica, but it's probably their unmistakeable Italian identity that sets them apart and may save them from becoming the next boring genre act. When they crank up the volume and promise they'll tear the place apart, the results are the most impressive: opener "Gente" is excellent retro-rock with ruffling drum fills, fuzz-drenched riffs and passionate vocals, exploring the wasteland between the Flaming Sideburns, The Hellacopters and Baby Woodrose. Nothing new, nothing spectacular, but it's good rock 'n' roll. The propulsive "I Need You," with its ringing guitar sound and the anthemic "Vivo," which comes straight out of "Hush"-era Deep Purple, are almost as successful. Sometimes the band tries to avoid the more predictable paths by incorporating unexpected twists and turns. Some of those work nicely (the Doors-esque, percussion-heavy ending of "Cadillac," the chorus of "Mistico" that sounds like a tribute to The Beatles' "Taxman"), but during other instances, they fall flat: in typically Italian fashion (at least, that seems to be their reputation over here), the ballad "(Piano…) Viola" contains way too much pathos, turning into an overly dramatic piece of heart on my sleeve-rock, even though he might be singing about insurance policies, for all I know; and the funky jam-rock of "Quello Che ha Unito la Musica" seems to take much longer than 4 minutes and a half. But basically, those are minor quibbles, as the plusses easily make up for the minuses, while the album's best song is kept until almost the end of the album, when "Una Storia" turns out to be one of those anthemic songs with a big-ass chorus that doesn't disappoint. It's the song I'll remember the band by. So, it's definitely not a contender for Best Album of 2004, but it doesn't need that much of a trimming either and that's already more than enough to satisfy me.

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