Ivan Cattaneo
Ivan il terribile

THE REVIEW

This sixth album by Ivan Cattaneo, "Ivan the Terrible", dated 1982, is an album full of ideas, sounds, and influences, where our artist gives free rein to all his ideas and passions, taking international sounds and experimenting with them in Italy and with the Italian language (but not only). The work is also a sort of summary of all his past experiences and shows us both his more melodic and sweet side, as well as the more rhythmic, intense, tough, and difficult one, indeed "terrible". It is a consumer album, impactful, very pleasant and fun, with a thousand facets...

Arranged and realized by Arthur Zitelli (who, during that period, also collaborated on Enrico Ruggeri's albums), the album is full of New-Wave/Synth-Pop sounds and atmospheres and sees the use of keyboards and synths, sax, and electronic drums, alongside bass and guitars, but overall it can be defined as an excellent, refined pop work.

The album opens with three strong, fast-paced tracks, "Toro torero!", "Bassa quota", and "Italian Slip", which are immediately contradicted by the very tender "Odio e Amore", sung romantically and ironically, mixing two opposite feelings (hate and love), according to a typical feature of Cattaneo, who in this work also talks about kisses and tears ("Baci & lacrime"), joy and boredom ("Paradiso-noia"), prehistory and future ("Totem & Tabù")... "Fly pianeta Fly" and "Shanghai Express" are instead nonsense experiments, with words linked almost randomly and a modulated and effected voice. However, the intense "Paradiso-noia" and "Narciso (Ivan il terribile)", anthology pieces, stand out the most.

Cattaneo creates a sunny, bubbly, summery, sweet, sarcastic, and courageous album which, at the time (and perhaps even today), was ahead of its time...
...truly BEAUTIFUL!  

P.S.: listen to it without prejudice.