1. Crank Songs
Four years after the excellent Il ballo di San Vito, Vinicio returns with an extraordinary album called Canzoni a manovella. It can be said that there’s an almost reset; there’s little in common with the previous album, and especially with the first three. There’s an even more astonishing variation of genres, with the most "classic" ballad in Bardamù featuring a completely misleading chorus compared to the song, and the concluding Resto qua, the polka of Marajà, band pieces like Marcia del camposanto and Suona Rosamunda, small reminiscences from the previous albums in Solo mia and Con una rosa that blend perfectly with the rest of the album, and the grandiloquent blues of Signora luna, and so on. Vinicio matures tremendously on a lyrical level, and this evolution becomes evident when we reach I pagliacci, Bardamù, Nella pioggia, and especially Signora luna. Unlike Ovunque proteggi, Canzoni a manovella is more homogeneous and therefore more appreciated as a whole than for individual pieces. This is its great merit: to be a compact and crazy album at the same time, experimenting with new genres in an album that strangely does not manage to be ethereal like the next one. For this reason, Canzoni a manovella is Vinicio's masterpiece: his entry into the pantheon of Italian song coincides with Capossela's most successful and balanced album.
Rating: 10 with honors
The gem: Signora Luna