Antonello Venditti
Benvenuti in paradiso

01 July 1991. Three years after his last studio work, the Roman singer-songwriter Antonello Venditti presents us with his latest album of original songs: "Benvenuti in paradiso", yet another sales record (after "In questo mondo di ladri", still 1,500,000 copies!!!), the fourth piece of the sentimental phase, which started with "Cuore" in 1984. Antonello manages to place a couple of songs that quickly enter the history of Italian music.

First and foremost, the moving "Amici mai", yet another sentimental song dedicated to the songwriter's ex-wife, which follows the path traced by "Dimmelo tu cos'è" (from "Sotto la pioggia", 1982), "Ci vorrebbe un amico" (from "Cuore", 1984), "Segreti" (from "Venditti e segreti", 1986) and "Ricordati di me" (from "In questo mondo di ladri", 1988). And it will also be the last listenable one, as the subsequent ones ("Ogni volta", "Che tesoro che sei", "Dalla pelle al cuore" and so on) will be overly sweet and uninspired songs. But also "Alta marea", a cover of "Don't Dream It's Over" by Crowded House, manages to make a good impression (especially in concerts), being absolutely on par with the original. On a more than decent level, there's also the romantic "In qualche parte del mondo", an overall well-done piece (but far from being a masterpiece, like all the others, by the way!) and "Noi", about the '68 generation ("Noi che abbiamo amato e camminato / E fortemente creduto in noi [...] Noi che sognavamo ad occhi aperti / E adesso siamo i perdenti, noi").

Oh right, there are also the other four tracks... ranging from bad to terrifying.

One above all, the title track, which should be the most beautiful and important track on the album. It is a very catchy song overall, decently arranged, and that always manages to get everyone singing and dancing live. And over all of this, a truly insipid and insignificant lyric, one of the most embarrassing moments of our artist's career! And it certainly doesn’t get any better with "Raggio di luna", with an introduction that lasts an eternity and an even more banal and insignificant lyric than the previously mentioned song: "Raggio di luna nel mio cuore / Nella mia vita ci sei tu / Sei come l'acqua come il sole / Raggio di luna nascerà".. something like this I would have at most allowed for Amedeo Minghi or Jovanotti. And if in "Dimmi che credi" Antonello, trying to convince us to face our greatest difficulties with positivity, churns out a piece on the edge of mediocrity, the tribute to Berlinguer "Dolce Enrico" could have been a GREAT piece, but in the end it came out as such a syrupy song that it failed to be credible.

In conclusion... what to say? For many (including myself), it is the beginning of artistic death. For others, here Antonello was already dead and buried long ago. We haven't yet reached the worst of Venditti, and a few good tracks without infamy and without praise can still be seen... but on the whole, it remains a mediocre album. The first in a series of missteps, little inspiration.

On a scale from 1 to 10, the rating is (being generous) a 5.