Soerba
La Vittoria Dei Cattivi

I'll start by saying that, generally speaking, I like Soerba. I really loved their debut album "Playback" and I appreciate Luca Urbani's compositional style, but this album, released in 2001, doesn't appeal to me much. Maybe I'll make some enemies who adore this CD, but Debaser is great for this very reason, so I feel free to express my opinion on an album I bought brand new when it came out, hopeful to hear that fresh breeze of novelty from "Playback" again. Instead, disappointment. And to think I listened to it a lot, trying to understand any of my possible shortcomings, especially because the first one had favorably impressed me (as you can see from my review also present here on Debaser). I was undecided whether to give one or two stars, and I decided on one not so much because it might be a work that's severely lacking but because I thought the interesting psycho-electronic mix of the debut could be blended into something even more elaborate and juicy, and I never expected such an evident drop-off. I would have given two at most for the acknowledged wit and intelligence in the writing of somewhat alienating but generally interesting lyrics (I almost completely exclude the song that gives the title to the album when it starts to say ("...chocolate is good, the earth is good, the whole world is good, very good you are good stay good good barley water is good..."). Oh well!
Despite featuring noteworthy collaborations like Lele Battista (former member of the excellent "La Sintesi") and Morgan, the result remains bland. The single intended to drive the album, "Don't Think Love" ("...all suntanned behind the trails of comets...") is the weakest track on the album (I can't give it a precise rating), nothing like the fun and infectious hit "I Am Happy" from the first album, which may be super-commercial but sticks in your head with its simplicity and faux-stupid irony. Having said that, on the same line as the "pseudo-hit" track are the almost embarrassing "Chi fa da sé" ("...who does it alone does it for three, three don't do it for themselves. Three are too many, two are too few..."), the unfortunate "Supercar" ("...boys go on scooters without helmets, helmets hold the brains..."), "Stupid Man" ("...I am a stupid man in a stupid world..."), "Mangiare Sano" ("...what's the point of eating healthy if you can't find nature..."), "La Vittoria Dei Cattivi" ("...the good guys are my favorites even though in films I'd like the villains to win..."), and the annoying "Se Ci Pensi Bene" ("...if you think about it, singers have a vocation for love...").
A separate discussion for the three instrumental tracks 50 AB 006, 007, and 008 which completely diverge from the sound of the album. "006" and "008" are in an almost classical style but very brief, while "007" is an interesting modern synth-pop. Other flashes of creativity appear in the soft and tidy "Ai Miei Tempi" ("...I can't even say that in my days it was all different because my time is now..."), the dreamy lullaby ("...beauty confuses you, makes you afraid of aging..."), the catchy "L'Erba Del Vicino," the best track, which for a moment takes us back to the joys of the first album ("...the bricklayers envy the surveyors, the surveyors envy the architects...") the little more than mediocre "Balla" thanks to a catchy refrain, and the half-successful “Misterioso” which is good up to the refrain that is quite inopportune. But it’s absolutely not enough to fully recover from the trauma of the tracks that turned out really bad.

I'm really sorry to be so negative, but praising this album would have been truly dishonest for me, even if I respect the artists in the band (especially Luca Urbani, whom I know better). In my opinion, the arrangements, too dance-oriented in many tracks, ruin an album that could have been a three-star if it had stayed somewhat darker. In any case, an album that earns "one star" is definitely worth listening to because it intrigues more than a five-star one, paradoxically. The cover is quite nice.