Garbo
Fotografie

THE REVIEW

I know I've already talked about Garbo in another review, but I'm happy to do it again because he is one of the Italian artists I like the most, and he is one of the few who, in his appearances at that wretched fair known as the Sanremo Festival, did not compromise his reputation at all.

Obviously, Garbo, such a cutting-edge artist, couldn't have been much appreciated by that audience of snobs and national-popular types, and so he always ended up among the last places, but it doesn't matter. What matters is that, for a while, a good part of the good music audience noticed this very talented Milanese artist who brought to Italian that slightly dark and somewhat new wave sound that was so popular in England in the early '80s. Since EMI has recently re-released his first three albums with the addition of bonus tracks, I feel compelled to highlight this album as well, which is somewhat of a primer on the early period of Garbo, the one that then gained the most enthusiasm, from 1980 to 1984. In fact, there are tracks (some in different versions) from the first two albums, "A Berlino va bene" and "Scortati," including "Generazione" (in my opinion, one of the most beautiful Italian songs ever), "A Berlino va bene," "Radioclima," "Quanti anni hai?" (emotional, present both in the original single version with Antonella Ruggiero of Matia Bazar and in a much more reflective dark version), and especially "Vorrei regnare," a great track that is highly respected even by those who may have only recently discovered it. Then, for the first time on CD, there's the beautiful track with which he presented himself at the aforementioned Festival in 1985, namely "Cose veloci" ("E passerà, fà che sia così, il tempo non ferma mai la tua età, solo un po' di più sbiadisce i colori..."). There's also what was the B-side of the single, also never appeared on CD, namely "Stagione vuota." Also, "Generazione" is present with a much darker version than the one known, originally only available on the first vinyl pressing of the album "Scortati."

Even now, listening to this record takes me back to those years, also because listening to Garbo at that time meant, besides getting emotional, also purifying oneself from all that Duran Duran-derived trash that was around then. Truly Garbo is a character who still deserves admiration, respect, and the rediscovery of which he is now the protagonist.