Released on November 18, 2005, "Il dono" sold half a million copies in less than a month and a half, making it the fourth best-selling CD of the year.
The reason for this success is hard to pinpoint. The album, like all of Renato Zero's albums, has no radio play on major networks, no video is made, and it is not supported by a tour. The (few) reviews are anything but kind. In short, all the conditions for a disaster are there, yet, as always happens when Renato Zero is involved, the audience responds to the media disinterest by flocking to buy the album.
But what is this "dono" like? An average quality album, definitely inferior to the album of unreleased tracks that preceded it two years earlier ("Cattura"). An album made, by his own admission, in just forty days (from writing, to recording, to mixing) and that does not shine for originality. Musically, it is indefensible: the r&b (!) of "Stai bene lì" is salvaged, a patriotic anti-American invective and the band arrangement of "Una vita fa", which Renato keeps in line with a chill-inducing voice.
The nostalgic "Una vita fa" is the most successful track of the album, on par with "D'aria e di musica" (a beautiful text describing the artist's soul soaring into the sky to disincarnate). The general public especially appreciated "Mentre aspetto che ritorni," a classic love song that, however, is two steps below other romantic pieces written by Renato, such as the old "Motel" or the recent "Magari".
A note of demerit for "La vita è un dono," a ghastly track opened by a tympanum-splitting intro that seems performed by the Red Army choir, and that continues in a crescendo of banalities culminating in the phrase: "Tutto ciò che sia ama veramente, che toglie il sonno e dà felicità, si impara presto che non costa niente, non si può vendere né mai si comprerà". Responsible for this atrocity is a certain Guido Morra, who, with Maurizio Fabrizio, has signed some of the ugliest songs in Zero's entire repertoire (who, on the other hand, is an excellent writer, and it really is unclear why he outsources one song per album to these murderers of the staff).
The positive note is the beautiful voice, which raises the average a bit. The fact remains that Renato only needs two songs ("Una vita fa" and "D'aria e di musica") to outshine puppets like Ligabue, Ramazzotti, Dj Francesco, or Vasco Rossi.
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