Francesca Pichierri by no means lets sentimentality get in the way in which of precision. With ‘Amen’, her fifth single and a pivotal chapter in her idea album Cellule Stronze, she lays a satirical but razor-sharp lens on most cancers ghosting—the social retreat of those that disappear when sickness walks into the room. Reasonably than wallowing within the emotional wreckage, she chooses to let irony march straight to the dancefloor.
Musically, Amen firmly implants alt into pop. Retro-futurist synth strains and swathes of synthesised bass deliver the funk, summoning a sound paying homage to Depeche Mode warped by the lens of South American disco and gospel. Nevertheless it’s Pichierri’s efficiency that overrides the power of the discharge. Her vocal strains carry a seraphic sanctity, appearing as a vocal exorcism of all of the shallow well-wishers and their hole “ideas and prayers”.
You plug into Amen—not the opposite means round. It strips you of autonomy with its animatronic pull, transposing darkness into an earworm of euphoria. The lyrical sting doesn’t get misplaced within the groove. As an alternative, it’s accentuated by it. Her vocal supply pivots from soulful sincerity to smirking irony with a deftness that makes each line land more durable. It’s funk with chunk. Gospel with gall. Dance music with a grudge.
With Amen, Pichierri soundtracks the uncomfortable silence left by those that recoil from ache—and she or he units it to a beat they’ll’t ignore.
Amen is now accessible to stream on all main platforms, together with SoundCloud and Spotify.
Evaluate by Amelia Vandergast.