IRAMA- IL GIORNO IN CUI HO SMESSO DI PENSARE REVIEW.

 Last Friday Irama released his new album, which follows up his 2020's EP, Crepe. The project comes after the incredible success of Ovunque Sarai, both commercially (the track is certified platinum in less than a month) and critically (Irama scored the 4th position in the Sanremo Festival this year). Far from his latest latin sound, in Ovunque Sarai  Irama looks at himself and his feelings. In particular, Irama portrays the feeling of missing someone relying on nature as the artistic reference point. The result is, in a chain of future tenses, a long poem, showing an almost unprecedented depth, artisitic growth and maturity. Irama's vocals on the track raise the track even more, creating an experience, where feeling is the protagonist. 

Now, almost a month after the Festival, we get the album, Il Giorno in cui ho Smesso di Pensare. The record includes featurings from his frecquent producer,Shablo (and also writer of Ovunque Sarai),  Rkomi, Sfera Ebbasta, Guè, Mace, Willy Willyam and Epoque, hinting a noticeable urban sound.

The first track, Sogno Fragile (featuring MACE) seems an interlude to the album, with strong, heartrending vocals and some existensialism (Respiro e /La terra trema /E come un fiore rinascerai // I breathe and the earth shakes, like a flower you'll be born again) . The second, Baby, explores the spirit of  the heartbroken and troubled rockstar.

Irama has said in several interviews that he is , as an artist, in 'costant metamorphosis' and experimenting with different genres and sounds. However, this makes the record a disorganised collection of songs. The shadow of Rkomi's Taxi Driver is very present (the most sold album of  2021 in Italy) and Irama gets on every trendy genre on latin pop nowadays. It goes from trap and  the rock beat that Ebbasta has been using with Rkomi and BLANCO, to the synth pop of 5 gocce (ft Rkomi).The biggest disonant piece is Cómo te llamas (ft Willy William) that seems the next Football World Cup anthem (it even says 'show your flag'), combined with trap topics about luxury brands. The track samples Willy's hit Ego, trying to recreate the succesful cut Mi Gente by J Balvin, back in 2017. It seems the perfect candidate to be the song of the summer and it wouldn't disappoint as a single released in May or June to get a summer hit, but , in the album, it breaks all the atmosphere introduced by  the previous single Ovunque Sarai. 

The album contains some other  Song Of The Summer candidates, like the latin Una Cosa Sola (ft. Shablo) , È la Luna or Iride (ft. Guè).

Another trend in which Irama gets into is  Spanish-pop, following C Tangana's footsteps on EL MADRILEÑO (The song is co-written with Víctor Martínez, who collaborated on the Spanish singer album), that , honestly, fits perfectly with Irama's voice and writing style, but  EL MADRILEÑO shadow is very long, seeming another trend to hit in the record and not a real artistic interest. 

The eight track (Colpiscimi, ft Lazza) is a proper rap track that reminds us of Irama's first projects and his participation on the Amici Contest. 

 Il Giorno in cui ho Smesso Di Pensare  gets lost  in experimenting with every pop trend. Even though it shows that Irama is paying attention to the pop trends in latin music and in Europe, the result is a very unfocused ensemble which makes Irama's feelings a little blurry and  forgets the Irama of Ovunque Sarai, only noticeable in the interlude and in Goodbye. 

FAVOURITE TRACKS: Ovunque Sarai, Baby, 5 Gocce, Goodbye.

LEAST FABOURITE TRACKS: Cómo te llamas (ft Willy William)