Kronos - Habemus Italiam

Genre: Italodance
Label: BIT Records
Type of media: Digital Release
Bought at: Junodownload.com
Reviewed by: Daniella S.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars


The comeback of Gianluca Cellai, better known as Kronos, Habemus Italiam (= We have got Italy according to Google Translate), it is produced by Marco Skarica & Enzino which makes a lot of sense, considering 6 out of 8 of the tracks are named M.S. or M.S. and Enzino, while the vocals are the well known from Cellai and previous Kronos productions.

1. Habemus Italiam [Intro] 2:22
2. Habemus Italiam [Marco Skarica Elektrowork Extended] 6:15
3. Habemus Italiam [Marco Skarica Elektrowork Radio] 4:31
4. Habemus Italiam [Marco Skarica & Enzino Italo Extended] 4:51
5. Habemus Italiam [Marco Skarica & Enzino Italo Radio] 4:11
6. Habemus Ispaniam [Marco Skarica & Enzino Extended] 4:52
7. Habemus Galliam [Marco Skarica & Enzino Extended] 4:51
8. Habemus Italiam [Belle Epoque Mix] 2:48

The intro is unfortunately quite boring. Basically it is 2 minutes of latin medieval talk with monotonous background noises, really. A lot more time could have been spent on making it, in my opinion. A little more diversity would not have harmed it.
After getting a little disappointed at the intro, guess what I hear? An electro version! And it is not even good!

The whole "Kronos concept" of an earlier epoch does not really fit this type of music. The outcome is weird. Kronos is not the only one who have chosen to release electro remixes on his italosingles, unfortunately it has become some sort of trend among italo music producers. I became even more disappointed when I realised it was mixed by Marco Skarica, who has made some good songs in the past. Following this song is the same electro version but in radio edit.

The real fun starts when the fourth track begins! The deep WHOMP WHOMP bass is probably the best thing about it, making this my favourite song on this single. The song is like a much darker version of Magica Europa, not melody wise but in the way the song is built up. It consists of a "talking part", an incredibly amazing singing part (which is extremely awesome, the kind of singing you could start doing spontaneously to add that dramatic WTF-effect to your everyday situation), a nanananna part and of course a melody part, latin is just such an underrated language. Definitely the best song on this single. Following this track is also a radio edition of the same song.

After this great track I hear, the same once again? At this time I am a little confused and it is not until I notice that the title is Habemus Ispaniam that the ball drops. The main difference between this version and the original is that instead of saying Italiam he says Ispaniam and instead of naming Italian city names he names Spanish cities. And that's it, really. The lyrics are still the same (in latin) and the music is exactly the same as in the Italiam version. The Galliam one is more of the same, this time just with French cities.

The eight and final song is kind of like an outro (it is also relatively short). it is called the Belle Epoque mix. I have no idea which epoch it is supposed to remind of and I am not sure which genre to place it in either. It has the same BOOM CH, BOMBOM CH type of beat during the entire song. It does get a little monotonic in the long run but it is still listenable.

To round off my review, I would like to say that the single could have been better. The MS & Enzino Italo Remixes were indeed good but that does not mean they can make 74868576 versions where they just switch out a few words and then release them all on the same single. If they only would have made the Spanish & French versions a bit differently, diversity is a good thing and would be just what this single needs. Because of this it gets the rating 3.5/6 stars.