Enrico Ruggeri
Le canzoni ai testimoni

At Easter, one typically receives a nice chocolate egg, perhaps with a surprise inside, not a surprise without an Easter egg, but so it is: a gift is still a gift and unwrapping it should please you regardless, at least out of gratitude.

Let’s move to the content of the wrapping: Enrico Ruggeri's latest CD "Le canzoni ai testimoni"... necessary premise: I am not a fan of the Milanese singer-songwriter, although I know many of his songs.

Thanking more out of politeness than conviction, I mentally prepared myself for an unrequested, unwanted, and not strictly aligned with my musical taste listening, essentially a free climbing or, if you prefer, a bungee jumping and not in absolute safety.

The listening was often interrupted and then resumed multiple times because I didn’t understand: I didn't understand an operation with great potential, capable of making younger fans exclaim "At the Miracle", an operation that, however, in reality tends to get lost in chaos of highly arranged and transformed tracks to the point of regretting the original versions.

In the sonic tsunami of some tracks, among which a [Tenax] stands out, originally written for Diana Est and today transformed by I Serpenti into a dance track,  there are a few things to save: Punk (Prima di te), which Vanilla Sky transformed into a piece by Vanilla Sky, without distorting the original and, perhaps, a [Pernod] made more listenable by the new arrangement by Dente.

Unlistenable, at least for me, [Contessa] by Marta sui tubi, a [Mistero] by Rezophonic and a beautiful original [Il mare d'inverno] became a "Subsonicata".

A separate discussion for [Quello che le donne non dicono], L'Aura looks really good in the video!

The final feeling is that Ruggeri wants to pay tribute to himself, almost a tribute: I'd like to remind that of many songs he is only the lyricist, do we know what the composer thinks?

Having said this, "Le canzoni ai testimoni" deserves credit for giving space and visibility to that part of Italian music that is less known, but not for this less capable or creative:

1.Polvere (feat. Fluon)
2.Pernod (feat. Dente)     
3.Tenax (feat. Serpenti)  
4.Eroi solitari (feat. Africa Unite)
5.Quello che le donne non dicono (feat. L'Aura)
6.Il mare d'inverno (feat. Boosta) 
7.Tanti auguri (feat. Linea 77)
8.Quando sogno non ho età (feat. Andrea Mirò)
9.Contessa (feat. Marta sui Tubi)     
10.Prima del temporale (feat. The Fire)
11.Punk (prima di te) (feat. Vanilla Sky)
12.Rien ne va plus (feat. Diego Mancino)
13.Mistero (feat. Rezophonic)
14.Il lavaggio del cervello (feat di Bugo)

PS: I hope all the links work and I want to clarify that the little balls of the rating are for the original Ruggeri.