Eugenio Finardi
Accadueo

Eugenio Finardi's "millennium" concludes with an album dedicated to water, which interestingly was supposed to be the title of a project by Celentano, Mina, and Battisti, which changed due to Lucio's withdrawal and, sadly, his passing that same year.
Eugenio's album consists of 12 tracks, like the previous Occhi, with the addition in the repack of the Sanremo song "Amami Lara," inspired by Croft, protagonist of Tomb Raider, the cult video game from the late '90s.
It opens with the beautiful "Costantinopoli": the melody is very fitting with lyrics drawing a parallel between the Byzantine Empire and the present. They are followed by two tracks that aren't irresistible, "E sto pensando a te" and "Parlami dal rock al soul," which often repeat the title. Then comes the title track, very beautiful in both lyrics and music, complete with a naturally "wet" video! It will be fortunate and will be frequently played on the radio and music TV. Also "Paura di amare," for different reasons, is a great song, where not wanting to show one's vulnerabilities is sung.
At this point, beautiful and less inspired songs alternate regularly, or those that don't immediately captivate. In the first category, we have "Sogno la strada," which echoes "Sulla strada" from 22 years before on Sugo; the romantic "Ti vedo," whose connecting melody between verses recalls the much more famous "Patrizia"; "Il negozio dei giorni usati," where there's an effective metaphor about selling time, also musically sound; and "0 figure indiane," sentimental in nature, pleasing yet cryptic. In the less inspired batch are "Sabbia mobile," "Se ce n'è," and "Lei non ti ama più," which frankly slide by without leaving much behind. A little more valuable, but far from being a great song, is "Amami Lara," which begins with an energetic riff reminiscent of "Quello che fu" by Franco Battiato on Gommalacca, and has an ironic text aiming to describe reality through an animated character, but the comparison with "Wile E. Coyote" appears ruthless and losing. Eugenio will place eleventh out of fourteen participants. He went there by contract and will return even more by contract in 2012, singing a song not even written by him. In recent times, he would define Sanremo as a "stupid contest by ignorant little Italy": well, who can blame him!
To Accadueo, on which "Stadio" Roberto Drovandi on bass and the great American drummer Vinnie Colaiuta played, we give 3.5 stars, as it's less convincing than all its predecessors starting from Dolce Italia, but certainly not reaching the embarrassing levels of a Come un gelato all'equatore or a Ciao, released in the same period.

Eugenio, similarly to Fabio Concato, will begin to grow impatient with certain industry mechanisms, dedicating the next four albums to experimental and niche repertoires, always changing his team of collaborators and constantly challenging himself.