Roberto Vecchioni
Il cielo

"Il cielo capovolto", the female-driven album, is one of the best episodes of Vecchioni post '70s if not of his entire production.

The album opens with a charming Vecchioni-style 'manifesto', 'my girls', and their 'flash of incurable smile', here we find the peak of the professor's unbeatable sweet optimism that reaches its climax in a verse '...they defeated time with love', so romantic it would give Guccini shivers (always sensitive to the theme of time as an indissoluble force and a limit to human experience). Of 'Where', the Prof. says 'all my experiences will culminate with my death anyway, where else will they take me? It is not death that scares me, but not living anymore'. And if you think he's resorted to the old and boring 'track-by-track', you're mistaken. The fact is that almost all the tracks deserve at least some words, in fact, the album contains a handful of small great classics, and if not all the tracks are irresistible, several are masterpieces.

The theme of myth returns to be central, perhaps for the last time, but it does so greatly: this time the profiles described are those of Pessoa and Saffo, in two famous tracks on which I avoid saying what you already know.

The atmosphere is broken by 'Your ass your heart', a simpler piece with a more syncopated rhythm, which perhaps has a cousin on the previous album, where we found 'Essay on classical and modern dance', both tracks remind us that love is a theme that can also be taken less seriously, it's not only idyllic or chivalric poetry, but also a game.

With this track, from myth, it moves to more personal themes: the following songs are precisely 'Your ass your heart', 'My love', 'My little genius', 'Little fools'. Here we get the rightful tribute of no less than four songs to the songwriter's woman. Each song is original in its own way: it’s his woman herself singing in both the profound 'My love', and the parodistic 'My little genius'.

The album ends with a somewhat difficult and cryptic piece: 'Conversation with a Sad Blue Lady', the theme of the duality of life and art as two different, but parallel worlds, can be sensed. This track reminds me of that Wilde phrase that it is not art that imitates life, but the contrary.

Summing up the album, with a bit of imagination, it's a small great masterpiece. It’s easy to listen to, not boring, and offers many different interesting points for reflection, as well as presenting tracks that are, in my opinion, fundamental for Vecchioni's poetic. In short, besides having several beautiful tracks, there are also some unforgettable ones, all with at most a couple of fillers that, however, do not bore too much.

For me, the album deserves a 9 or 9.5

"Time fades my things, not those loved together, they are fixed in your eyes, and I am fine with them."