Caparezza - Esecuzione Pubblica (2012)

Riding on the platinum success of his excellent 2011 album, Il Sogno Eretico, Caparezza spent the year touring Italy with his customary frantic zeal. The Eretico Tour lasted for 100 concerts, and included all of the theatrical elements the madcap -loving Caparezza is so fond of: extravagant costumes, comic sketches, monologues, video projections, props, and a cast of extras. In this light, it should not be surprising to realize that a performer of such inclinations had already released two live DVDs before Esecuzione Pubblica. For his first CD+DVD set, expressly recorded in Florence on the anniversary of Galileo's condemnation, April 11, 2012, Caparezza allegedly omitted the more visually charged selections for the audio CD, but still retained an explosive 16-track list (the DVD has 21, plus all the nine official video clips from Il Sogno Eretico). Another 2012 live album by a major Italian hip-hop artist, J-Ax's Meglio Live, makes clear that there is a reason why live rap albums are so scarce: simply put: they don't work. Now, whereas both J-Ax and Caparezza's live albums sorely lack the sheen of their studio counterparts, Meglio Live sounds amateurish and muddled, while Esecuzione Pubblica sounds on fire. This probably has to do with the fact that Caparezza employs a full rock band, rather than DJs, and that his musical roots are much closer to Zappa or Black Sabbath than TuPac. Furthermore, Esecuzione Pubblica is one of those live albums where the audience is mixed just as loud as any instrument, and seems to be in the same frenzied state as the singer for the entire length of the concert. Caparezza's voice is purposefully grating, so the idea of listening to rougher, faster versions of his material does not sound too inviting -- and yet, not only does this album rock, but it also manages to sustain its momentum longer than some of his studio albums. Esecuzione Pubblica may have as many tracks as all Caparezza's releases, but filler or failed experiments are conspicuously absent. Verità Supposte, Habemus Capa, and Le Dimensioni del Mio Caos were all uneven albums, but the selections here are so strong (special kudos to the uproarious version of "Inno Verdano") that one does not even notice that Caparezza is perversely refusing to play his biggest hit, 2003's Fuori dal Tunnel. Granted, Caparezza's manic delivery may not be to everybody's tastes, but these songs are among the finest, most intelligent, and certainly most hilarious, observations on the state of affairs in Italy written over the course of the 2000s, and on Esecuzione Pubblica, these are executed in blasts of wicked, righteous fury. For those accusing Caparezza of trying to make a quick buck with yet another live release, it should be noted that this CD+DVD set was being offered for a cut price of 10 Euros (6 Euro for the audio-only digital version).