sylvian1982

Errata corrige...FRANCESCO GUCCINI/via Paolo Fabbri 43..........but damn it, I really can’t remember the other three.

The issue of Mucchio Extra in question is from December 2002 and is still available on the Mucchio website (www.ilmucchio.it) for the price of €10. However, to partially satisfy even Iside, I will try to recall the first twenty of this list with the caveat that it’s a list to take with a grain of salt, as everyone will have their own opinion. I also believe that any other industry publication compiling this hypothetical ranking would do it differently. Therefore, more than ever in this case, de gustibus non disputandum est: AFTERHOURS/Hai paura del buio? - ALMAMEGRETTA/Sanacore 1.9.9.5. - BANCO DEL MUTUO SOCCORSO/Darwin - FRANCO BATTIATO/La voce del padrone - LUCIO BATTISTI/Emozioni - FRANCESCO DE GREGORI/Francesco De Gregori (the one with the lamb on the cover) - FRANCESCO GUCCINI/Radici - PIERO CIAMPI/Andare camminare lavorare - I NOMADI/Studio collection (2cd) - PREMIATA FORNERIA MARCONI/Storia di un minuto - LUIGI TENCO/Luigi Tenco (2cd-collection from 2002) - IVANO FOSSATI/Discanto - LITFIBA/17 re - FABRIZIO DE ANDRE'/Creuza de mà - AREA/Arbeit macht frei - LIGABUE/Buon compleanno Elvis - SKIANTOS/Monotono............maybe I'm asking too much of my memory. Three titles escape me. I don't even remember where I put the newspaper. Does anyone remember them?

X iside. I mean, how should I send you the list of the best 100? It will be about thirty pages of the magazine!!!

For your information, I also want to tell you that, still regarding the overview of the 100 essential Italian music albums, there were also Almamegretta, Afterhours, PFM, and Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, all among the top twenty. Just to name the most important ones. If we want to look at the runner-up positions, there are many other groups that have proposed something new and different. In short, what I want to say is, okay, I agree with the singer-songwriters, and indeed they are there, but no less important are the bands that in their time tried to do something different. And 17 RE was an album that at the time marked a true watershed, if only to indicate the way for the chosen language for singing. In fact, there was a lot of uncertainty about whether to sing in English or in Italian. From then on, Italian was chosen and they deserve credit for that too.

So even those from Mucchio Extra have damned it since it’s included among the twenty essential albums of Italian music of all time. Also, those you mentioned all belong to the usual genre (singer-songwriters), while Litfiba offered something different from the typical singer-songwriter style. We need to broaden our horizons. And anyway, you forgot Luigi Tenco, the father of all those you mentioned.

The magazine was Mucchio Extra. In my opinion, it’s one of the most beautiful Italian albums of all time. Fresh, innovative, and sung extraordinarily (at least for those times). Then Pelù sold himself out to the unbelievable, and his once-original way of singing gradually became more and more grotesque and caricatural. Still, at least here, Litfiba represented something truly new and different in the suffocating Italian music scene.

Reading and seeing the comments on the other two reviews present for this album, I knew I would be going against the tide. But it came naturally to me, while listening to the CD, to think of the things I later put on paper. I don’t hear any beautiful songs, and since I liked You Are The Quarry quite a bit, I was left pretty disappointed. You get let down by those you love, not by those you ignore. I loved Moz, but he betrayed me quite a few times on his own. Guys, "Southpaw Grammar" is almost unlistenable, let’s be honest!

I had a friend in the seventies (that is, live and direct) who went crazy for Gentle Giant. I remember he had to do acrobatics to get their vinyls. Honestly, they have never really impressed me. I've only heard their debut and Octopus, but I've never felt the urge to continue. However, I see that here on Debaser they receive a lot of acclaim. In my modest opinion, Gentle Giant are a step back compared to the cream of the progressive scene of that time. One note on the reviews: I don’t think the comparison of Wire to Clash and Sex Pistols is all that spot on. But it’s just a minor detail.

Of course, for someone named Enciclopedia Poletti and having reviewed a Fiorella Mannoia album, not knowing about this record is like being a football fan and not knowing that Juventus is in Serie B, more or less. Anyway, it's a live album but at the same time also a compilation that can excellently summarize Mannoia's career, as long as you don't want to follow her encyclopedically step by step.

This time I’m the ignorant one. I don't know them. However, Grant Lee Buffalo has never excited me.