Roberto Vecchioni
Ippopotami

Crucial album in Vecchioni’s discography, this «Ippopotami» (1986) can be considered a “movement album”; it is indeed configured as an album of transition, experimentation, and change, representing a departure from the typical singer-songwriter production, due to the overwhelmingly predominant presence of producer Michelangelo Romano.

A very rapid “moment” in Vecchioni’s career, a decidedly different cut for an album that relies on Roberto’s “distraction” and Romano’s intellectual narcissism, resulting in a flop in sales. But this more elitist way of conceiving the song (even though it does not reach the cryptic nature of Battisti and Panella’s works), which Roberto will reject with the next album, ending the collaboration with Michelangelo, should not be read negatively: overall, «Ippopotami» represents an innovation and is, as such, noteworthy, having managed to detach itself from the usual way of understanding the work of the musician/poet.

Completing the triangle is Mauro Paoluzzi's equally narcissistic performance, who, as arranger, indulges in various experiments, managing to play all the instruments (except the winds) and thus creating lengthy instrumental codas and introductions, as in “Oltre il giardino,” where he unleashes his nymphomaniac vein and proves his skill and broad overall vision.
Wishing to extrapolate a main theme from this album, if the title track “Ippopotami” is excluded, a metaphor of «modern man in the western world», from the nocturnal atmospheres emerges human solitude: starting with the protagonist of “Notturno,” who walks alone on the street, while others «return home clinging to the steering wheel»; a small masterpiece, this one, a talkin’ blues trailing the long previous track, with music that mixes the noises of the jungle at night with a strictly metropolitan text; moving on to the French prince of “Nel regno di Napoli” (an exception track of the album: it is the only one that seems set during the day); concluding with the man of “Aimez-vous Chopin? (Una serata normale)” and the endless solitude of the twins “Così lontani dalla riva” and “E noi le voci e le parole.”

The great absentee is the woman, if we exclude the one spied on by the voyeur in “Indiscreto”; and if there is one, it is a fleeting appearance: «with a poet don’t speak / tells stories with no way out / he wants a woman who disappears / the only music of his life». There is one last element, finally, that makes «Ippopotami» an atypical album; because, besides Romano’s collaboration on the lyrics and Paoluzzi's subversive use of electronic instruments and classical/blues arrangements, the longtime fan finds another pleasant (or disappointing, depending on the case) novelty: in fact, Roberto sings in Neapolitan and – for the first time – in French (see “Nel regno di Napoli” and “Chiari di luna”); whether you like it or not, the choice is spot-on and very suggestive; but, ultimately, this should not be what makes Roberto’s diehard fans reflect; at most, instead, the more or less significant interference of Michelangelo.

For those who prefer an artist’s innovative aspects, this album is highly recommended. Otherwise, three years later comes «Milady», to the delight of all the professor’s fans.