Statuto
Canzonissime

In a period marked by waves of re-releases of CDs not always essential, I think it's worth highlighting the remastering of this excellent album by Statuto, on the occasion of its tenth anniversary.

Since I currently only own the original version from 1996, I will comment on that one, merely pointing out that the remastered version includes bonus tracks, a demo, three live versions, and two tracks released in 1990 only as singles, "Tu non sai" and "Ci sei tu", Italian versions of The Kids are Allright and Substitute by the Who, respectively.

At first glance, it might seem like an album of only covers, given the titles: "Solo tu", "Con te", "Il cielo in una stanza", "La mia banda suona il rock", "Liberi liberi", "Pensiero stupendo", "Pugni chiusi", and "Una donna per amico". Absolutely not so. Statuto had the curious idea of presenting an album of new and original songs, assigning the pieces titles of famous Italian songs from the past.

And the trick works perfectly, because Oskar and friends do an excellent job in what is not an easy task, with beautiful tracks, often socially committed, other times just funny and ironic as is their style. In "Solo tu", with a great rocksteady rhythm, it talks about a drug problem that ended well ("we laugh about it because you said enough, the past will not return"), "Con te" is a ballad that pays homage, but in an original and non-trivial way, to the then-prevailing Britpop, "Il cielo in una stanza" (unconfirmed sources reported that Gino Paoli was quite pissed off with the use of his title, but the matter interests me less than nothing), is a reggae that talks about life in prisons, where there is rightly no "sky in a room".

One of the funniest episodes, in my opinion, is "La mia banda suona il rock", where, with witty audacity, Oskar sings that his band plays "rock full of creativity, hard, transgressive and original" and is an "unclassifiable" group. It’s all very ironic, evident is the dig at the press when talking about their rock journalist friend who will review them (note that Statuto, in twenty years of career, have truly seen it all, from success on a large national scale to even the boycott of the same institutions of their hometown). The chorus says "We are like the Rolling Stones, there is no bigger band in the world". After all, weren’t they the ones who said, "We are the best group of humanity, great musicians, songs of high quality") ("We won the Sanremo Festival").

Then returns the reggae-ska with "Liberi liberi", about a couple that, despite adversities and various problems, lasts over time ("This love knows how to break the chains on the wrists..."), "Pensiero stupendo" is a slower track that still winks at the Brit-pop of those times, while "Pugni chiusi" has rightfully become one of their classics, a piece in full Statuto style, talking about mod mentality and fighting against a system that wants us as numbers, all alike, conformist and unable to think for ourselves.

The carefree fun returns with "Una donna per amico", a tasty depiction of a poor boy lamenting about "having only female friends", but when the occasion arises... "Mom, I don't understand this one, she politely asked me to accompany her home, she asked us to stop a bit, what great impudence: she tried to kiss me!".

In short, when it comes to presenting ourselves with a Statuto album, we can be sure it will never lack skill, rhythm, fun, social commitment, and most importantly, great music.