883
1 in +

THE REVIEW

Two days after the release of "Qualcosa di nuovo," I realize that on Debasio, the sixth and last album by 883, "Uno in più," also written as "1 in +," released in 2001, is missing. Since it's an album I've experienced more than others, and which I even own on original CD, later autographed by Max in 2016(!), I want to share how I experienced this album in the years 2002 and 2003, that is, the years following its release. I won’t do a track by track, but I will point out the songs that have meant something to me and have stayed in my heart and mind over the years. But first, a few notes on Max's collaborations in this album. They range from Jovanotti in "Cloro," to Syria and Alex Britti's guitar in "Essere in te," up to J-Ax and Articolo 31 in the song "Noi parte 2." As soon as I opened the CD, I loved the graphics of the lyrics, and my eye immediately caught that "scarico l’email" of the first song, "Punto & a capo." But obviously also on the beautiful women who then appear in the video of "Bella vera." Up to the photo where everyone is together in the car where there’s the text of "Honolulu Baby." The best songs, which anyway have stuck in my mind, are "Bella vera," also because it was released as a single. But here we’re on lighter ground, like a hypothetical song to dedicate to a girl. The songs that, instead, moved me from an existential and introspective point of view are "La lunga estate caldissima" and the "masterpiece" that goes by the name of "Come deve andare." In those years, I was in my second year of high school, and Max perfectly described the era I was going through. But another track that I also count among those to remember from this album is "Cloro," a social song. In early 2003, I composed a social album (I’m a singer-songwriter), and the social component of "Cloro" partly influenced the composition of my songs. Moreover, one of them echoes, but with substantial changes, the melody line of "Bella vera." Lastly, a note for "Noi parte 2," named so not because a song by Max and 883 called "Noi" exists, but because symbolically it is a second part of a series of songs that narrated provincial adolescence and growth that together go by the name of "Noi." Usually, I would stop listening at the seventh track, while the last three, "Honolulu Baby," "So che tu sai," and the title track, I would skip or listen to distractedly. Moral of the story: from a personal perspective, it's an album that has given me a lot, but in the evaluation of 883's discography, I think it doesn't go beyond 2 stars. Personally, I believe the first deserves 4 stars, the second and third 3 and a half stars, the one from '97 three stars, and then begins a downturn from 1999 to today.