This album by Ivan Graziani is a great one, a guitarist and singer with remarkable abilities, who is often underestimated, even by the most alternative critics.
Songwriter with an unmistakable voice, very thin (but unfairly compared to that of Pino Daniele), in 1979 he is already at his fifth album "Agnese dolce Agnese", which sees him not only as the author of the lyrics and music but also as arranger and producer. Enhanced by a beautiful cover depicting a woman (often the center of his verses and thoughts), the album manages to combine melody with a varied and original folk-rock.
It consists of ten inspired, romantic tracks that flow pleasantly, with lightness, oscillating between melancholic airs and more energetic and ironic episodes. It starts with the lively "Taglia la testa al gallo" where the guitar is immediately the protagonist, then moves on to the eternal struggle between good and evil with "Doctor Jeckyll e Mister Hyde" and arrives at the very sweet "Agnese".
Also to be remembered are "Modena Park" (a place full of people but also of intimacy), "Il prete di Anghiari" and the wonderful "Fuoco sulla collina", perhaps the most beautiful track, where the progression of the guitar accompanies a vision beyond the hill.
"'Agnese dolce Agnese' is still today a raft that safely floats in the sea of musical mediocrity in our country."
"There’s a Hyde in each of us ("He is what you don’t want but are")."