Edoardo Bennato
Sbandato

"Sbandato" by Edoardo Bennato was released in 1998, after the successful "Le ragazze fanno grandi sogni" which, driven by the title track single, had previously climbed the Italian charts. This album continues the previous discourse, showing us a B. still riding the 90s rock trend, which at that time was seeing the rise of Luciano Ligabue's "star." But let's move on to analyze the album in question.

It starts with the title track "Sbandato," a good fast and rhythmic rock piece that opens the album well, with a good chorus: personally, it reminds me of the good national Lucianone, characterized as it is by a catchy melody and a powerful arrangement that is just enough.

"Credo solo a te" is a piece that opens slowly and talks about the singer's loving feelings towards his beloved woman. The piece then becomes much faster but doesn't seem to be very interesting, neither musically nor textually. We could define it as a "skip track," even though given its position, it can also be listened to (it's only the second track, after all...)

"Roma" is instead a ballad about the city of the same name, a city where the musician evidently had to move for work. The song describes the viewpoint of those who see the city as tourists and those who see it as residents and workers, and it puts them in contrast, giving us a melancholic and somewhat bittersweet vision of this city. The music is catchy, as is its chorus, allowing it to be listened to repeatedly with pleasure (a potential single from the album, ultimately, indeed I think it was chosen as such at the time).

"T'amo" is a fast ballad about love that contrasts the protagonist's love story with his beloved with those of great figures of the past (Dante and Beatrice, Orpheus and Eurydice). In the arrangements, very lively and clean, it vaguely reminds me of "Friday I'm in Love" by the Cure or other songs of the same genre.

"E' notte" is a slow ballad (in the verse) and fast (in the chorus) that describes the artist's sensations while traveling at night on a plane, probably heading to the next concert to be held in some Italian city... There's also room for social criticism, towards those same planes that were bringing war to Iraq in those years, a war that "like every war\n will serve Nothing". Good also here are the arrangements of guitars, keyboards, and female background vocals.

"Sempre in viaggio sul mare" instead is a piece that really resembles early Ligabue, in the arrangements and the music in general, and it describes the story of the pianist Novecento, who was said never to have gotten off the ship where he played, shuttling between America and Europe. It's a somewhat nostalgic piece filled with a certain amount of affection for that figure of an artist too sensitive to face the outside world (a fate common to many, too many artists...). You can feel something of early R.E.M. in the arrangements and the bridges...

"Fantasia" instead is a ballad dedicated to B.'s favorite theme, one could say: the gift of imagination. And among the figures never too loved, like Peter Pan, and the sound of a harmonica reminiscent of Dylan, B. takes us to a place that is halfway between the old west and the never-never land. The arrangements of the acoustic guitars, keyboards, and background orchestration are perfect here as well. The piece concludes with a speaking in French, read by a woman.

"Povero amore" is a really strong and fast rock piece that describes B.'s feelings of mistrust towards the possibility of finding "true love" in one's life: a strange feeling for a songwriter who had always believed in the power of this sentiment... Here, instead, one senses a feeling of dark anguish and "shouted" sadness: in particular, the words "in that white that suits\ anything at all" warn us of the singer's mistrust towards the institution of marriage...

"Galileo" instead is a rock piece, quite banal indeed, centered on the figure of this great intellectual of the past, and which continues the gallery of heretical characters already started with "Erasmo da Rotterdam": even though the piece is not interesting musically, the attempt to reevaluate the figure of this never too appreciated intellectual, at least when he was alive, is commendable... "Io Galilei\ to save myself\ I am forced\ to recant" B. recites and we should keep these words as a warning against all the "strong powers" around us always...

"I gemelli della verità" instead is a rock blues piece that tells of the world of mass media and how they can distort the reality of facts in the eyes of viewers\readers\listeners: the two truths are, in fact, the reality of facts and the way of narrating it used by the mass media, accused by B. of exploiting others' deaths for spectacle and selling themselves to the highest bidder, telling only the things they want.

"Angeli no" is a slow rock song that reflects on the Christian figure of the angel; for B. even these characters have grown tired of fighting against the injustices of the world and have gathered their wings, angrily surrendering to "the stars that can't be understood." The distorted guitar produces various solos, but the piece never really takes off, honestly... This piece can be skipped as well.

"Falsa libertà" is a slow ballad for acoustic guitar and harmonica that makes us reflect once more on the power of great institutions and once again proposes the artist's message of revolt, who prefers his isolation to the promise of a flight conducted with the wings of false freedom.

The album closes with the ghost track "colpa dell'America" a strong rocking piece, introduced by the "danza delle spade," that vents B.'s anger towards a country he loved so much in his youth: B., however, as an artist and intellectual, cannot share at all the globalizing and imperialistic messages that were and are coming from this power...

In conclusion, "Sbandato" is a good album, well written and well played, nothing to say on this point: but in my opinion, it falls into the category of those albums that if they were released under another artist's name, would have gone unnoticed, or almost. And such an album, all in all, after almost thirty years of honorable career, we can also grant it to the singer from Bagnoli.