tom traubert

It’s a fact that MJ hasn’t hit a single mark since Bad (and even here, Weird Al Jankovich's version was better). Now the poor guy, aside from his musical flops, is clearly a tragic case (the patron saint of tragic cases, I would say), he looks like Nosferatu, and what more can be said? Long live the blessed naiveté of those who believe in the joke about the skin disease, but then again, there are also those who delve into dianetics… it's the world.

Excellent re-proposal this. A record made up of authentic gems (Il mare d'inverno, Nuovo swing, Polvere, Contessa, Vivo da re and some minor but very enjoyable pieces (Qualcosa, Il rock'n'roll). Ruggeri is young but already an author of great ability. The review is a bit too brief.

@primiballi: I hope you haven't misunderstood me either; I could never deny that a piece of art can also be a single—there's the entire history of pop music to prove me wrong! I'm stating something much simpler, which is that there are wonderful songs that lack the characteristics to travel as a single because they require repeated listens, a lot of calm, time, and dedication. Our best singer-songwriters' albums are full of them. Outside of that context, they wouldn't have any luck and very little chance of success.

...No offense to the hayseeds, of course.

Beautiful review and a necessary mention. Let’s never tire of highlighting the shameful situation of the Italian music industry, sadly in the hands of four ignorant clods.

"At 30, he was doing concerts lasting 4 or 5 hours." Damn, were they giving IV drips to the audience???

Ajeje tries to understand, we’re not talking about classical music or a progressive piece lasting fifteen minutes. The conversation, by necessity due to the premises from which it starts, focuses on the radio single of 3 minutes. That said, I certainly don’t want to claim that a three-minute song can't have its own dignity, importance, and so on; that would be absurd. However, we need to contextualize and not forget that we’re talking about songs 1) designed for radio 2) meant to be immediate 3) short. All of this is inevitably limiting from the outset for an artist, you have to admit it. It's a purely commercial logic, which doesn’t necessarily prevent the creation of something valuable but puts many constraints on creative freedom. To adequately showcase a certain type of songs that don’t conform to this format, you need the album format; I believe this is difficult to contest. And I repeat, my criticism primarily stems from the fact that the discussion comes from Vasco Rossi and regarding this little masterpiece.

And then it is in the nature of the single to be easily and quickly consumed. Only the album gives you the time to develop thoughts, but also just an atmosphere... we're not asking for a concept, for goodness' sake, but a market solely based on singles is certainly not one that aims for quality. Do you think that a De André could fit into such a system? Just to make an example... primiballi has done others, but then I wonder, to whom does Vasco's production draw closer, the great Masters he constantly praises or to Christina Aguilera?

@ ajeje: the argument is based on the fact that around a single valid track there are 9 filler pieces, but it's not even the case because the single in question is 99% fluff in general and even more specifically considering the Vasco song in question. Which, as primiballi points out, preaches well and proverbially gathers badly.

The reasoning might hold if this were a valid piece. Instead, the result is a series of little songs created to be ringtones, and that's exactly what they are.