Antonello Venditti
Dalla pelle al cuore

In November 2007, after four years of silence in discography, interrupted by the live album "Campus Live" (2004) and the triple anthology "Diamanti" (2006), the singer-songwriter with RayBans presents us with a new studio work: "Dalla pelle al cuore", a work that, along with the previous one, aims to revive Our Artist's career, which had truly hit rock bottom.

The two singles released are "Dalla pelle al cuore" and "Indimenticabile", and consequently, they are also the most well-known tracks of the album for the general public. And naturally, they are the least successful: the former feels like a rehash, a pale second part of the already dreadful "Ogni volta" (from "Prendilo tu questo frutto amaro", 1995). The latter has a very pleasant musical structure but textually unsuccessful, although it remains less disastrous than the title track overall.

Naturally, the less publicized tracks turn out to be the best (as in 90% of Antonello's albums): just think of "Giuda", a description of a ‘braggart’ man now repentant, with a backdrop of a dialogue between Judas and Jesus. Undoubtedly the best track by Venditti in the last thirty years, which somewhat brings back his golden period, namely the committed years of the seventies. Another gem is "Tradimento e perdono", dedicated to Agostino Di Bartolomei, former captain of Rome who committed suicide in May 1994. There is also a memory of Luigi Tenco ("Mi ricorda Luigi pieno di amici / Solo e lasciato lì") and Marco Pantani ("Mi ricordi di Marco e di un albergo / Nudo e lasciato lì / Era San Valentino, l'ultimo arrivo / E l'hai tagliato tu"). Very moving and terribly real is the phrase "Questo mondo coglione piange il campione quando non serve più". Among the sentimental ones, the best is undoubtedly "Piove su Roma": an intense ballad of only keyboards and strings (completely absent percussion) about the end of a great love. As a grand finale, a stunning sax solo by the great Gato Barbieri. The piece closes with the sound of rain, which fades into the next "Scatole vuote": a musically 'stadium-like' track, nothing to say about that aspect. Unfortunately very weak in lyrics, but still decent. On a good level, we find "La mia religione", in which Antonello exposes his belief and the concluding "Comunisti al sole", a funny and entertaining song that mocks all the 'radical chic' phenomena. "Regali di Natale" (which can be interpreted as a continuation of "Scatole vuote") is very reminiscent of the sixteen-year-old "Amici mai": even the chord progression is the same. Anyway, leaving this similarity aside, another quite successful piece.

"Dalla pelle al cuore" is undoubtedly Venditti's best work in the last thirty years, following an insipid welcome in paradise, a "bitter fruit" (in the truest sense of the word), a disastrous farewell to the twentieth century, and the attempt to rise again, which was partially successful, in "Che fantastica storia è la vita". Even if it still cannot fully match the quality of Venditti's best period works (the committed and angry of the '70s, the nostalgic with excellent arrangements of the early '80s, and the commercial (yet inspired) of the late '80s), it remains a more than good album, despite an enormous gap between very successful tracks, decent tracks, and bland and insipid ones. Notable is the presence of Carlo Verdone on drums.

On a scale from 1 to 10, the rating is 6.5.