Enrico Ruggeri
Peter Pan

After the success of "Il Falco e il Gabbiano," Enrico Ruggeri rolls up his sleeves, and after two years of waiting, here comes "Peter Pan"; an album that will prove to be a great success (400,000 copies sold in just a few weeks) and is considered by many to be the artistic pinnacle of Ruggeri. This album's success would never be replicated by the rouge (who still only sells a few records, almost never exceeding 30,000 copies sold).

The album opens with "Tutto Subito", a song with a rhythm in full Queen style, with the least engaging lyrics of the entire album. The song opens with a quote from the next song on the album, sung by a children's choir; the song's lyrics may seem a bit predictable, but I think it's intentional. After this song ends, "Peter Pan" begins, that is, the title track; considering "Tutto subito" might have ruffled the feathers of Queen fans, this song really makes them angry: in fact, in many places, the song musically resembles "The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke" by the Queen. Putting aside this consideration, the song, speaking in terms of lyrics, stands its ground, and to many people (perhaps) with excessively mischievous minds, it seemed to have a double meaning (somewhat like the "Decibel" writing shaped like a phallus, on his first album, when he was still with the Decibel). After this song, comes the track "Trans", a very sweet song both musically and lyrically: it is a song that takes the side of trans people, narrating life seen through the eyes of a trans person, who sees people we consider "normal" as monsters; Ruggeri manages to tackle this theme without getting too specific or superficial, a song you can really reflect on for a long time; some musical and lyrical passages are really beautiful, from slower moments to more cheerful ones.

The next track, "Il Dubbio", opens with a good guitar riff and proceeds musically decently, with the riff repeating at several points in the song. The lyrics are written in a very straightforward way, starting with a "Doubt," but then flowing very decisively. With this song, begins the part of the album many consider the weakest, which then concludes with "Piove su di noi"; I say these are all technical observations because the entire album continues at an artistic level worthy of Enrico. "Scelte di tempo", the next track, is, in my opinion, the musically weakest song of the album, featuring a good solo by Schiavone, with a choir repeating in certain parts of the song the words sung by Enrico; speaking of lyrics, we remain on Ruggeri-worthy levels, who in the key moments of the song loves to repeat a single word each time (then repeated by the choir), different from the previous one, but repeating at predefined time cycles. Continuing, the song "Oggi chi sei", slightly rises musically, with a continuous cadence that develops as the song progresses. The lyrics, like all of Ruggeri's songs, are always valid and never fall into banality; here too, we find a choir starting from the second part of the song until its conclusion. The next track, "Piove su di noi", is a typically rock song, talking about a truly eccentric "third person singular".

Thus concludes the "Quadrilogia della carenza", so defined by the "Cuccioli del Rrouge"; the new part of the album opens with "La band", a song with good lyrics, including gems like "Someone tells me I am not yet grown, but great men will never be grown". The song is sung by Enrico in a duet with his guitarist (who actively helps him in composing his songs) Luigi Schiavone, and musically features cadences that recur throughout the song. The next track is "Prima del Temporale", a song I consider one of the absolute best on the album, and by Ruggeri, with excellent music, played mainly by the piano. The song also has fantastic, truly emotional lyrics, a real flagship of the "battler" Ruggeri and his trusty Schiavone. The penultimate track of the album, "Vola via", is a track many felt was unnecessary, but I consider it a gem, also favoring the piano, and the lyrics are above the average of other songs on the album.

Finally, we have "Il volo di Peter Pan", included by Ruggeri in the album for continuity with his previous one, where he concluded everything with an instrumental version of the song "Ti Avrò", which he titled "Il volo del Falco e il Gabbiano". This track is simply an instrumental version of "Peter Pan", more rock-oriented, opening like the album's opening: the children's choir loving to repeat "Ti abbandoni, liberi le mani" (truly weird!) and some lines sung by Ruggeri always taken from "Peter Pan".

One of the highest peaks reached by Ruggeri. If I were to recommend to a novice in the "Enrico Ruggeri" field, I would suggest starting with this album, or starting with his beginnings with the Decibel.

From 4 to 5 stars.