Antonello Venditti
Sotto la pioggia

 "Oh! Italia 
 Tierra de segredos militares 
 Tierra de cançion d'audores e des los intellectuales"

from "Italia"

The Italy of the reflux, where ideologies make space for a reality that is a bit less intellectual and much more superficial. The early '80s have a very particular characteristic; they are indeed years in which both music and cinema are dominated by a sense of disorientation with small hints of nostalgia toward the recent past. These are not yet the years of rampant materialism and extreme synth-pop, and perhaps this is why they can be seen as an isolated period depicted in films like "The Big Chill" and musically by artists searching for a new artistic phase. Thus, "Sotto La Pioggia" by Antonello Venditti, released in '82, serves well as an example of this transitory state.

Venditti in "Sotto La Pioggia" is still far from the polished and then overly inflated "Cuore"; he's a singer-songwriter perhaps in decline, needing different stimuli, a somewhat more commercial sound and more direct lyrics, but who still hasn’t completely exhausted his creative vein. The musical aspect of the album is very carefully crafted, often featuring a rich sound that also allows room for simpler motifs, effectively continuing the work done with the previous two LPs. Often the lyrics recount small life moments, as in "Le Ragazze Di Monaco" with its beautiful opening lines "Le ragazze di Monaco lucciole spente con il naso all'insù/Cercano il sole tra le nuvole opache senza colore". The title track talks about hope and overcoming political ideologies, "Sotto la pioggia batte forte il cuore/e due ragazzi con il loro amore /stan cercando una speranza/stanno scaldando/quella colomba", but almost immediately returns to a more personal dimension with "Dimmelo Tu Cos'è" and "Torino". "Italia" is instead a satirical song from '77 sung in broken Spanish, among many sharp lines one stands out "Tierra de radio libere ma libere veramente", which is a direct reference to Finardi’s "La Radio". Venditti also mimics his colleague’s pronunciation, and it’s unclear whether this is a critique or not.

"Sotto La Pioggia" is considered by many to be Venditti's last interesting work; I consider it a decent album, musically valid (with collaborations from Ron and Lucio Fabbri) that is pleasant to listen to. Already from the live "Circo Massimo" I start to distance myself and prefer other authors, the Finardi of "Dal Blu" or "Strade" has much more substance and is decidedly more interesting.