Roberto Vecchioni
El bandolero stanco

Album released in the biennial cadence that Vecchioni adhered to from 1989 to 1999, "El bandolero stanco" represents a less successful episode than the previous "Il cielo capovolto" and ranks on the same level as the subsequent "Sogna ragazzo sogna". The album appears unbalanced, between near-masterpieces and unassuming divertissements. The dance opens with the title track, with a Spanish flair that induces a bit of hypochondria at first listen, creating an atmosphere resistant to the Italian musical taste of the period. The refrain "Dove silenzio dove silenzio dove" represents the "oh oh cavallo oh oh cavallo oh oh" of twenty years later, while the title recalls, but only for a word, a song from 1976, "Il suonatore stanco", of a completely different arrangement and depth. A not very successful beginning, in short. But the second song is enough to credit Vecchioni, who takes up a novel by Russian writer Evtushenko from 1962, to compose one of the most beautiful songs of his entire career: "La stazione di Zima". In it, the Professor dialogues with God, in a thread of songs that began with "Angeli" in 1993 and continues to this day. Essential piano arrangement, Vecchioni's voice is warm and paves the way in his dialogue with the Almighty. From Evtushenko to Eisenstein, and here's "La corazzata Potëmkin", contrary to its title a light-hearted piece where he shows himself as a "puppeteer of words", with verbs like "metaforiamo" and "floating synesthesias", "alliterative nonsenses". The "Vaudeville" twenty years later, where the role of songwriter and criticism are mocked. Alternation of light and deep songs. Thus, respecting this alternation, another great episode in the career of the Carate Brianza songwriter, at least on the same level as the second track: "Canto notturno (di un pastore errante dell'aria)" where the famous composition by Giacomo Leopardi is paraphrased, replacing the word "Asia" with "air". "Il navigante si perse in un sonno di stelle irraggiungibili..." a spine-chilling start. Next is "Quest’uomo", a song from father to children, as was "Figlia" from 1976 and as would be "Figlio, figlio, figlio" in 2002. This time the alternation begins with serious songs. The ironic song that follows is "La gallina Maddalena", a half-Neapolitan melody (Vecchioni's family was Neapolitan, perhaps for this reason) that immediately captivates. But to break the festive atmosphere there is "Celia de la Cerna", dedicated to Ernesto Che Guevara's mother, in which the Cuban hero is recalled, akin to the figure of the weary bandolero from which the whole album takes its name. Here too, Latin guitars dominate the scene. The atmosphere returns playful with "Compañeros", with Vecchioni playing with Spanish and Italian words, just as he did with "Poesia scritta in un bar" eight years earlier. The companions, however, give continuity with the previous track. After the music of "La gallina Maddalena", it's time to sing in Neapolitan! In "'O primm'amore" Vecchioni returns to sing in Neapolitan after "Lettera da Marsala" from 1979 and to pay homage to the city after "Nel regno di Napoli", a track divided into three parts from 1986. In his singing, he is halfway between someone who has never spoken this dialect and someone who has heard it but certainly doesn’t master it. Thus emerges a balanced interpretation, which does not turn into the ridiculous nor boisterous. Vecchioni manages to elevate perhaps the most well-known dialect in Italy, surely aided by the Neapolitan song tradition. The album closes with another love song, but this time after Spanish, Neapolitan, and naturally Italian, it’s English's turn, with "Love Song (Despedida)", where the piano slightly recalls that of "La stazione di Zima". However, the subtitle is still in Spanish and means "farewell, goodbye", and the track is therefore aptly placed at the end. This song might be the best arranged of all, the chorus is goosebumps-inducing! Among the musicians featured on the album is the "usual" former Nuovi Angeli Mauro Paoluzzi on guitars.

"El bandolero stanco" is a Vecchioni album worth discovering, almost a concept album on the Latin temperament, between irony and depth, between "war and peace" to use the title of another Russian author besides the one mentioned in the album. An album ultimately of cultural contamination, more so than other albums. Enjoy listening.