Massaroni Pianoforti
Rolling Pop

We are all, above all, nostalgic, deep down, at least I am.

I have difficult, non-trivial tastes, I think, in music, but if someone, any guy, perhaps Italian, with his songs touches the right chords, those of nostalgia, I'm willing to put aside the abstract and Dadaist blues of Captain Beefheart (after all, forty years ago I didn't even know who he was) to throw myself again into the arms of the early Claudio Baglioni and Drupi...

Or, in the best case, of the early Ivano Fossati, the one he himself renounced, from "La mia banda suona il rock" and his first romantic ballads.

This guy Gianluca Massaroni, on his third album, who works as a piano mover and tuner for the family business, Massaroni pianos indeed, has done just that.

And I fell for it like a chicken, and I swear, listening to these "old songs" thrills me like few things I've heard recently, I'm a simple person at heart, even if I have such a strange nickname.

I'm not mentioning tracks, except two, to spark curiosity, for those who have a bit of it: "In erba", which to me in certain parts ("but how beautiful you are...") sounds as if Fossati is singing one of the ballads by Edoardo Bennato contained in "I Buoni e i Cattivi".

And "Rollingstone", the most nostalgic of all, with a final choir, so much Battisti, when talking about nostalgia it certainly cannot be missing.

Actually, three, let's add "Mattomondo", which talks about current events, and whose initial bass riff reminds me of one of the most famous songs by Lucio Battisti's most talented friend, Enzo Carella.

Recommended, for the nostalgics of my age and for those who don't seek originality at all costs.