Luciano Ligabue
Mondovisione

More than twenty years after my first encounters with Luciano Ligabue, it remains an absolute mystery to me why this modest and cumbersome singer-songwriter has achieved such success with the public. With a level of admiration bordering on worship, since Liga's fans adore him and consider him a sort of philosopher dispensing wisdom and acute visions of the world.

Ligabue has continued for over two decades by exploiting a basic formula, consisting of two song modes (the ballad and the upbeat rock) modulated with disarmingly simple patterns, to the point that almost his entire repertoire sounds identical. Satire has indeed thrived on making fun of the photocopy compositions of the "Correggio throat." Added to this is a body of lyrics filled with clichés and barroom aphorisms in every song, dividing the audience into those who believe they have before them an enlightened prophet and those who miss the love notes inside Baci Perugina chocolates.

"Mondovisione", a 2013 album that has carried on to the present with a series of high-selling singles and concerts, is yet another proof that Ligabue manages to attract followers and keep attention high while continuing to offer little substance. A tracklist that in its titles alone encapsulates the emphasized Liga-thought, offering no new surprises upon listening. Sometimes disarming enough that one hesitates to even want to hear the song itself.

"Tu sei lei", "Sono sempre i sogni a dar forma al mondo", "La neve se ne frega", "Siamo nati per vivere".... a festival of platitudes and pseudo-poetry with high pretensions, which instead leaves those lucid enough to not get thrilled at the thought that we are indeed born to live, feeling bewildered.

The alternation of aggressive riffs, starting from the introduction of "Il muro del suono" - the usual hodgepodge of stock phrases about the injustices of lobbyists, rulers, and parasites - and indistinguishable strumming ballads unfold over almost an hour following the monotonous thread of a crooner with a hoarse voice, Ligabue’s stylistic trademark. The voice, in fact, is the only identifiable and ultimately original trademark that distinguishes him from a massive crowd of singers and songwriters that Italy has nurtured in garages and homes. Because it's undeniable that the peninsula is teeming with strummers, more or less talented, capable of writing what Ligabue writes. In my lifetime, I must have listened to hundreds of demos and mini-concerts where the young lad of the moment was offering his ballad with a self-effacing yet focused manner, trying to enchant with tones of a cleaned-up Tom Waits or a sedated Springsteen, unraveling lyrics of lived life and pearls of schoolboy wisdom.

"Mondovisione", however, sold well and re-consecrated its author in the pantheon of Italian pop music. An unfading phenomenon, he fills stadiums and sells records by the tens of thousands. Therefore, a persistent mystery that also speaks volumes about the current state of musical culture in our country.