Riccardo Cocciante
Cervo A Primavera

THE REVIEW

Closed - not without heated debates - the artistic and human partnership with Lucio Battisti, in 1980 Giulio Rapetti, better known as Mogol, decides that retirement is a port still too distant to reach, and listens to the cries for help coming from a bewildered Riccardo Cocciante. The musician leaves the 70s with the awareness - I believe - of having brought a breath of fresh air, at least in the vocal setup if not precisely in the dialectic/instrumental one. But - as we know - times run fast, and the 80s demand new blood, to avoid the risk of wallowing in themselves, forgetting about everything else.

Under these premises, "Cervo a Primavera" comes to life, unequivocally a great album. You might then love or not this artist, like all Italian pop music (ahem...), but - personal opinion - this record contains at least two/three memorable tracks. Undoubtedly, the emotional component plays a big role in my judgment (ah, how carefree were the youthful years, spent rummaging through parents' tapes, and then listening to them with a mixture of eagerness and amazement...); but with equal certainty, I can state that every time I listen to "Cervo a primavera" the piano and the voice of the curly Italian-Vietnamese-French artist expand in the dreamy ecstasy of the chords, that melody that evokes distant spaces, woods contaminated only by the last drop of evening dew. "Io rinascerò", explodes in anger Cocciante, a statement of intent yes on his part, but equally shouted with force by Mogol, after a life spent at Battisti's court and eager for a new identity. For the rest, the usual Cocciante offers us gems of friendship ("Tu sei il mio amico carissimo", "Piero") or of sincerity (the late Beatlesque flavor of the splendid "Il soufflé con le banane").
The fillers are there, of course, as in every record after all, but here they pass under pure divertissement, the joke of "Gomma" and the pianistic fury (Elton John?) of the closing "Suonare suonare". Here and there, the inevitable trace of Mogol is recognized - Cervo a primavera might have worked better in an album like "Il mio canto libero" - but they are the added value of the record, which can also boast a touching moment like "Non è stato per caso".

In short, certainly the (ugh!) Italian music industry has produced better results - and also worse ones - but the album fully deserves the four stars. If only for the merciless comparison with the contemporary music of the Boot.