Toto Cutugno
L'italiano

THE REVIEW

Hello guys, after my first forays into cinema, for my fourth review allow me a gentle and respectful entry into the world of music.

The logic guiding my music reviews is the same as for my cinematic ones: the so-called "minor" music, snubbed by critics even if it has great commercial success, reviewed objectively for the readers of the site.

Let's start with Toto Cutugno and his most famous album, "L'italiano" from 1983.

Toto is one of the most well-known singers of Italian pop in the '80s, no longer as popular here, but still very famous in all of Eastern Europe, where he found himself, willingly or not, as an ambassador of our music, with all the perks that come with that: perhaps because his melodicism, his powerful voice reminiscent of a tuneful Celentano, and his physical appearance have an unmistakable Mediterranean imprint that stirs exotic thoughts linked to the land of blooming lemons in the people of the East. To this, we add how, for many years, he was "the" singer for expatriates in Northern Europe, especially Germany, just like Reitano and other singers of the Belpaese.

In the '80s, Toto presented himself as a handsome, brooding, taciturn, and reflective man, while in later years, his image became more popular among average TV audiences as a guest on several Sunday shows on Rai 1, with a certain success with audiences, showing his more playful and sociable side.

The prejudices tied to Toto's now retro image, in my opinion, should not overshadow the quality of some of his pieces, tied to excellent melodic intuitions and arrangements that are not entirely trivial, often open to the influence of the most trendy music.

I obviously don't want to bore you with a track-by-track analysis, knowing how you probably don't like it and don't like Toto either, but I draw your attention, as proof of what's just been said, to "Flash", contained in this album: the melody crosses with rock guitaring and some electronic effects borrowed from the AOR craze in the early '80s, sealing a nice crossover that can interest fans of Italian pop as well as those of Anglo-Saxon music.

"La mia musica" is also beautiful, a sort of confession about love for singing and composing with autobiographical touches, and "Innamorati", where the tired themes of relationships are rendered in an extremely catchy manner. "Soli", with which Toto won the Sanremo Festival in '80, was also recorded by Celentano, and it demonstrates the vocal setup similarities between the two singers, besides having lyrics that touch melancholy chords, avoiding the intellectualism of certain songwriter's songs.

I have deliberately skipped analyzing that little backward anthem of our consumer habits: "L’italiano", a song that, when listened to again today, almost evokes tenderness for the clichés it paints, marking, in any case, an era: the one where our country, basking in the euphoria of the recent World Cup victory, calmly traveled towards the iceberg represented by the economic and political crisis of the late '80s and early '90s. From a sociological perspective, the piece - captivating in its melodies - describes a world that, on one side, is no longer there, but at the same time sketches the portrait of a human type still very present at our latitudes.

What can I say: the most critical will accuse me of praising trash – remember I also listen to the Saccarine Trust – but I hope they don't do it to dismiss a ghost: the one of the cassette tape that many parents of today’s readers - or the older readers themselves - had in their A112, or their Ritmo, or their Simca Horizon, in those '80s so distant and yet so subtly close, as evidenced by Toto's participation in the next Festival, hosted – if I'm not mistaken – by the indomitable Pippo nazionale.

Sincerely Yours Il_Paolo