Cesare Cremonini
1999-2010 The Greatest Hits

THE REVIEW

Ready to be insulted.

I have no intention of glorifying this artist. Nor do I intend to hide my certain tendency to understand/appreciate Cremonini.

Firstly, when I listen to music, I don't care about anything other than what I put in the CD player. I'm not interested in "how commercial something is," "that it's for kids," "that it's easy," "it's certainly not music to understand," etc., etc. As I've said in other reviews, if something is beautiful, it's BEAUTIFUL, period. This doesn't mean that appreciating Cremonini means you'll hear "listen to the Pink Floyd."

1) It has nothing to do with it.

2) You can like both in different measures.

3) No one would ever compare Cremonini with the sacred monsters of rock, so why make certain comparisons?

That said, I take into consideration the collection "1999-2010 The Greatest Hits" because I think an artist like Cremonini can be analyzed just through his most famous songs; the albums, however appreciable, never keep pace overall with their leading singles.

But the beauty of some of his songs is undeniable for the arrangements, the melodies, and their intent; namely, being POP. I would like to mention the track "Maggese," which, in my opinion, shows us how talented and misunderstood Cremonini is. In recent years, amid all this chaos of Italian artists making huge international references, if I've heard a Beatles-like song in Italy, this is definitely one of the most successful ones. Well, now insult me, but after listening to it without unnecessary prejudices, tell me if it doesn't remind you of certain Beatles atmospheres (I mention the Beatles only because he references them too and because they are the most famous) with brass like in "Penny Lane," a constantly echoing singing, three different melodic forms, and a visionary text (as visionary as it may be). This is solely and exclusively a beautiful song, just like "Vieni A Vedere Perché," "Le Sei E Ventisei," "Padre Madre," "Il Pagliaccio," and "Dicono Di Me." It would be blasphemy to elevate them to masterpieces (then it would indeed be necessary to say "listen to something else to hear masterpieces"), but what's wrong with seeing them just as beautiful songs written undoubtedly by a talented and tasteful guy? There is certainly no shortage of annoying tracks like "Marmellata 25," "Le tue parole fanno male," and "Gongy Boy," but all artists have written bad songs (if not even worse ones) and especially artists much more talented, famous, historical, and recognized than him (THIS TOWN BY ELTON JOHN TO BELIEVE IT). The Lunapop parenthesis is ambiguous since it always seemed to me like a great commercial operation studied at the table (In reality, nothing was studied at the table, from what I discovered). But within that, there are songs like "Vorrei" and "Un Giorno Migliore," which, besides being famous, are still beautiful songs even today if you listen to them; and Cremonini, just 20 years old, sold a million copies with "Squerez" without being half-naked or making videos like the boy bands from holy England but merely singing some beautiful songs. That's all this is about, just beautiful songs without the claim of seeing art or masterpieces in them.

As for the lyrics, I use my theory about translating half of the great foreign classics that we sing in masses or praise as works of art, and then tell me what the difference is with "DA QUANDO BAGGIO NON GIOCA PIU'."