Eugenio Finardi
Diesel

THE REVIEW

Prototype of the Italian "angry" singer-songwriter-rocker, Eugenio Finardi, after some experiences in the Milanese underground music circuit, where he also plays with Alberto Camerini, signs with Cramps and debuts on the market in 1975 with "Non gettate alcun oggetto dal finestrino," achieving success, but without ever falling into the "commercial," with the subsequent "Sugo" (which contains the famous "Musica ribelle" and "La radio"), perhaps his best-selling album.
However, Finardi reaches his moment of maximum inspiration in 1977 (during a particularly tense and difficult period of Italian society) with "Diesel", an album made with some of the musicians from Area (to whom are credited the prog-jazz influences of the record) and produced by Paolo Tofani.

Finardi is an atypical singer-songwriter in those years, distant from the other Italian singer-songwriters of the time, endowed with one of the most passionate and characteristic voices in the Italian scene, producing excellent rock albums that are hard to categorize. Finardi is a complex artist, influenced by alternative and avant-garde rock but also by author songs, who soon finds himself, due to his committed lyrics and his combative spirit, becoming (in the Years of Lead) the most beloved singer-songwriter of the left-wing movements and the student protest.
Finardi, with his usual grit, tackles social, public and private themes, rarely falling into the banality of morality, moving from very imaginative rock tracks to delicate melodies.

The album immediately starts with an electric introductory rock, which speaks to us of the frantic pace of modern society that leaves no personal space, of consumerism and contemporary materialism ("Tutto Subito"). "Scuola" is a critique of the institutionalization of knowledge, accompanied by the piano and bass. "Zucchero" and "Non è nel cuore" are love songs, hymns to love; "Giai Phong" is a political manifesto against American imperialism.
The frenetic title track ("Diesel") highlights the jazz soul of the musicians; "Si può vivere anche a Milano" revisits the theme of the frenetic nature of life, this time particularly in Milan. Very interesting is "Non diventare grande mai", an invitation not to passively endure adult rules and not to be influenced by the powerful: a very original piece, which features the inclusion of the xylophone.
One of the album’s high points is finally the concluding "Scimmia", one of the most dramatic pieces about drugs composed in Italy.

After the subsequent album "Bliz" (the one with "Extraterrestre"), Finardi distances himself from the more rock sounds, in favor of refined and elegant pop: we are at the beginning of the '80s...