ELISA ERIN BONOMO - Antifragile

Antifragility goes beyond the concept of 'elastic resilience' and robustness. A resilient thing withstands shocks but remains the same as before: the antifragile gives rise to something better.

"Antifragility loves randomness and uncertainty, which also means loving mistakes, or rather a particular class of mistakes. It possesses a unique property, one that allows us to deal with the unknown, to do things without understanding them, and to do them well." So says Lebanese philosopher and mathematician Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his 2012 book "Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder": if a fragile system shatters, and a sturdy one withstands outside pressure, the antifragile evolves and improves. It's change that makes us stronger - the concept, as well as the debut full-length, of Elisa "Erin" Bonomo: twelve "stories set to music" conceived during an intense period of life, built from moods, themes and characters that the artist uses to tell her own story and that of the world around her.

Although she's only now arrived at her first full length, Elisa is a singer-songwriter with considerable experience behind her: a singing teacher, after her early songs written in English she had a stint with La Cantina dei Bardi, and now she's finally taking the plunge and finding the courage to open up, blending anger and (plenty of) irony, references both highbrow and mainstream, in an album that's the result of a successful crowdfunding campaign. Contact with fans, old and new - thanked at the back of the booklet - who believed in the project and in the Venetian artist's abilities was constant, and it allowed for a measured production, with the full collaboration of multi-instrumentalist Stefano Pivato, who co-writes eleven of the twelve tracks with Erin. The biting side of Elisa's personality gives way, at the right moments, to more intimate and reflective episodes. Much of the material was written between 2013 and 2014, and is sung today with a new awareness: the common thread is the desire to "rebuild oneself," to reclaim one's own life. There's no room for self-pity à la Morrissey, not even when facing failed relationships or friendships gone sour into which we poured life, affection and energy: it all turns into strength, into mockery, into lines ready-made for motivational t-shirts.

The lyrics are the strong suit of Elisa and her "Antifragile". It kicks off right away with a slap in the face courtesy of the opening track, "Scampo", selected for the Premio Amnesty International Italy Emergenti and dedicated to domestic violence: “Le buone maniere non eran di serie/ Magnifico il giorno che ti hanno prodotto, maiale. La faccia accartocciata in un angolo del letto/ e il mio dolore sempre più lieve/ Tu che fai fette di me e pretendi tutto il bene/ Se mi farai a pezzi, resteranno i miei versi”. Musically we're in punk-pop territory, a sound that found an outlet in Italy with Prozac+ in the late Nineties, but among Erin's influences are also Tori Amos, Juliette and the Licks and Alanis Morissette - as well as Italian singer-songwriters such as Ivano Fossati, Cesare Cremonini and Carmen Consoli. "Le coppie" references "Bellamore" by Francesco De Gregori and "Pensiero stupendo" by Patty Pravo in a story made of WhatsApp messages read at 11pm ("ti ha lasciato così/ come un torso di broccolo") and venomous retorts (“Dimmi, come sta la mia controfigura?/ Scrive riff scontati alla Avril Lavigne/ Ha confuso l’amore con il senso di colpa?”). The movie we all made up for ourselves at twenty has a different ending compared to the reckoning we face at thirty, and above all we turn out different from what everyone around us expected: "Non mi somiglio per niente" is a generational manifesto of rare effectiveness, raw yet sharp-witted at the same time.

There's also room for the melancholy sweetness of "Meteora", followed by the caustic "Puttana" (though it's actually addressed to a man): “Penso a te che sei una delusione/ un muro di cartone/ un uomo da bruciare”, over a backing track where Anouk meets the Blur of "Country House". To lighten the mood, a nod to the trio Solenghi-Marchesini-Lopez slips into "Renzo e Lucia", who today would be a cashier at a pizzeria (“Renzo, profilo greco un po’ deluso/ jazzista di un certo livello/ e modesto impiego”) and a shop assistant at a perfume store, living in a tiny cramped apartment; after so much cynicism, "Domani invento" is a shot of will to live and start over ("Non piangero al pensiero che mi sto perdendo tutto/ oh no, non sono di passaggio!"). The introspective "Anima nera" is a collaboration with Licia Missori, who besides co-writing the song also plays piano (she turns up again on the following track, "Parole al vento"). By the end of the record, the therapy has worked: “Tu sei prigione e limite/ una ferita inutile/ sei solo acqua passata/ lavata, già seccata”.

"Antifragile" is an honest record, with an undeniable sense of urgency, showcasing a voice and a songwriting style that are on the right track. There's still work to do on the music, and we're confident that, come the next record, Elisa will manage to move away not only from her own demons but also from certain nineties fetishes, in order to fully express an artistic personality that's clearly there, but has yet to show its full potential. Anyone looking for Italian rock that actually has something to say, and says it differently from all the other competitors, has come to the right place. Buckle up.

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01/04/2017