RosGos
Canzoni nella notte

Maurizio Vaiani, known as RosGos, aims high with his "Canzoni Nella Notte", named after the Lombard term for robin.

The opening track "Viaggiarti Il Cuore" is a masterstroke of songwriting, a perfect mix of refined pop, tremolo guitars, and electronic inserts, following the lead of Depeche Mode but, thankfully, without copying them, maintaining an original stylistic imprint.

Like many albums we have cherished throughout our lives, we could easily listen to this song on repeat for months, discovering the rest only after a year, or perhaps never. The musician from Crema is no novice, having released several well-crafted albums with Jenny's Joke in the early 2000s, singing in English.

The transition to Italian is not at all traumatic, and although the music is more pop, traces of an alternative background remain, somewhere between Radiohead and The Cure, which reveals itself more in the sound choices than in the songwriting, which is more rigorous and respectful of Italian tradition.

All the tracks show a truly notable level, an underlying melancholy where Vaiani's voice is perfectly at ease, oscillating between intimate moments and melodic openness.

If we really wanted to find a name with something in common on the Italian scene, we might think of La Crus, but here there's no self-indulgence in donning the cantautore's guise; there is nothing but a series of songs that possess their own strength.

"Parole" is another of the most successful tracks in an album that, which is rare, really has its own sound—though not always perfect, it is appreciable.

Perhaps it's Vaiani's voice that is most penalized by the production—not that it sounds bad, but it's bare, essential, and in a historical moment like this where retouching and editing become part of the production and not just error correction, such a voice, in its fragility, sounds odd.

The electronic gospel of "Resta Qui Con Me" is equally beautiful, another song with the potential to remain and leave a mark among fans of less traditional singer-songwriter music.

There are truly many surprises contained in this "Canzoni Nella Notte"; I've revealed only a few because it makes no sense to tell all and spoil the surprise of a truly successful album.