Mariano Apicella
Meglio 'na canzone

Mariano Apicella, the court minstrel, debuted in the Italian music market with "Meglio 'na canzone", an album that later proved to be a flop even in Apicella's homeland. As everyone knows by now, the lyrics were written in collaboration with the Knight Silvio Berlusconi and talk about love in the most mushy and pathetic way possible, using an outdated and trite stylistic register.

Particularly representative is a verse of "Ammore senza ammore" which goes like this: "St'ammore senza ammore/ st'ammore comm'è amaro..." where it can be seen that the word "amore" is mentioned pointlessly three times. In short, these Apicella/Berlusconi songs are so sugary that the listener risks becoming diabetic (besides having constant nausea with accompanying vomiting for the entire listening). The lyrics appear, therefore, monotonous, banal, one-dimensional, flat, decidedly unsettling. Meanwhile, the music, in its simplicity, recalls the '60s Capri atmosphere but, unfortunately, every song blatantly resembles the next and the previous one, and this cannot be hidden even from the most inattentive listener.

But, plot twist, in an album of 14 tracks, which vaguely refers to the music of past chansonniers, based on a cliché, piano-bar melodic register, two tracks emerge that undoubtedly reach mediocrity, namely "Meglio 'na canzone" and "Senza te". "Meglio 'na canzone", despite being predictable in its musical course, is catchy and singable due to its fast, fresh, light melody that could very well be used in one of those third-rate theater shows for over 50s. A small curiosity: the title of this song, which gives the entire album its title, was given by Ignazio La Russa during one of Apicella's first performances at court. While "Senza te" is the "least bad" song of the entire album where the succession of trite words that are now no longer even used in modern love letters is supported with style by a heartfelt and well-played violin that saves, in a dignified way, an album poor both textually and musically.

So, doing a mere arithmetic calculation and assuming as a hypothesis that 12 songs are worth 1 while the two mentioned above are worth 5, it can be deduced that this work by Apicella/Berlusconi is worth 1.5714 which, rounded down (since, among other things, this CD was put up for sale at the modest price of €20.90), means 1.