Vasco Rossi
Sono Innocente

And here he is, the old and now truly pathetic Vasco Rossi, back again!

There are those who love him madly no matter what he produces, and those who would strangle him regardless... but it's hard to remain indifferent to a provocateur like him, who is, let's say, the scapegoat of the "Italian rock" music scene.

Over 3 years after "Vivere o Niente," on November 4, 2014, the new album "Sono Innocente" was released, already preceded by songs such as "L'Uomo Più Semplice," "Cambia...Menti," and "Dannate Nuvole."

From the title, we can already sense a Vasco who seems to want to introduce his new LP by saying, "I am innocent, so I know this record is crap, but don't blame me." And indeed, the album immediately starts with the title track, and the listener already understands that the bewildered Kom no longer has serious ideas in his head. "Sono Innocente ma..." is the classic rocker just to let us know that he is still rock despite everything; actually, he feels like someone who "stands firm like Rocky." In my opinion, this track already feels like the typical filler song tossed in to pack a CD like in his last albums without any glory, yet this should be the backbone. Vasco declares himself innocent as if he were in court, in front of a judge who has been in front of him countless times in his life.

And the second track, "Duro Incontro," seems like a continuation of the first, maybe even worse. The Emilian singer-songwriter claims he had a "Tough Encounter," but unlike those Rocky Balboa had with opponents like Apollo Creed or the giant Drago, he's confronting his own head, now devoid of enough gray matter to recreate lyrics we all resonate with and stadium anthems like "Vivere," "Sally," "Liberi Liberi," etc.

In "Come Vorrei" comes the poignant ballad, or at least it tries to be, but the old Vasco is always too deep in thoughts, full of doubts and uncertainties about his future, even on a sentimental level. The piece already seems heard and reheard in his recent works, at least those of the last decade. Nothing special, even if it might be one of the less disposable tracks of the entire album, imagine the others!

"Guai" starts off very well, with a beautiful acoustic guitar, although upon first listen I immediately thought it was "Via" by Gatto Panceri, as the chord progression seems the same. However, despite a catchy refrain, again, the lyrics seem written just for the sake of it, the rocker always feels blameless, but unlike the first song, in this case, in front of a presumed "her." In short, a topic already tackled in the past.

I wouldn't even like to spend too many words on the next "Lo Vedi," a typical "Vascorossian" rock style with useless and endlessly repeated phrases like "it's just not for you" or "you believe it or you don't believe it, you see it or you don't see it." Already halfway through, you can't wait for the song to end.

Then comes "Aspettami," a little song to sing at the stadium with lighters waving as was done in the past, a dreamlike atmosphere like the voice of the one singing it, who sounds as if he's just come out of a stunning hangover. Again, the song seems to recall others by the same author written in the last period like "Come Stai," "Vieni qui"......and enough please, we've already heard and re-heard! Still admirable despite everything is the guitar solo before the final chorus.

"Dannate Nuvole" is the most surreal of the entire work of "Sono Innocente," and as the words suggest, a sense of lightness is perceived, like someone who indeed seems to be walking on clouds. Again, a great central guitar riff, worthy of a Stef Burns still in great form. The song seems the least already-heard, so we might say we like it, though it certainly can't be compared to a classic of Vasco's discography.

"Il Blues della Chitarra Sola" is a blues reminiscent of "Una Favola Antica" from the album "Canzoni per me." The lyrics are absolutely not commendable, the usual filler of an already composed song.

This next part is perhaps my slight favorite, but let's be clear, I didn't say the part I ADORE. "Accidenti Come Sei Bella," "Quante Volte," and "Cambia-Menti" are indeed 3 completely different songs from each other, but perhaps they're the ones that don't make you want to skip to the next track before they're finished. The first of these might be the most successful on the album, celebrating the beauty of a girl who is the most beautiful of all, even more than the most beautiful in the world, after all, she is his "half of the sky." Vasco sings this song with a thinner yet always very slurred voice, as in the '80s, his golden period. In the second of the three mentioned, the pace slows down further to highlight a text addressing the harshness of a life that passes and never returns. Indeed, the lyrical part is more creative than the others in this case, but still, the music seems already heard (like that of "E Adesso Che Tocca A Me" in the chorus or "Colpa del Whisky" in the initial guitar riff). The last one we already heard on the radio, and it's the one we can mostly dedicate ourselves to. After all, we all have vices and flaws, passions and ideologies, wrong and not very useful habits. A nice track especially for the final chorus and also because the sax is used, an instrument unfortunately little used by Rossi in the last two decades. In the instrumental "Rock Star," instead, the solo of the electric guitar and the electronics present throughout almost the entire album echoes, which seems to conclude itself, but when the worst seems past, what you don't expect arrives, the bonus tracks, or the additional tracks, the ones that perhaps should not have been included. "L'Uomo Più Semplice" in reloaded version could indeed have been spared to us poor fans, as well as "L'Ape Regina" the "sweet little floozy in search of her flower" in which it's true that irony finally arrives and it's what has been missing so far, but even here the lyrics seem thrown there just for the sake of it. A ridiculous doubly metaphoric fairytale story, on par with "Mary Louise" ghost track of the previous "Vivere o Niente." The disaster completes with the concluding "Marta Piange Ancora" which if little Vasco wrote at 15 and never published, there must be a reason. Indeed, despite the gentle music, the Komandante does a series of phonebook numbers "118, 113, 112, 1240" so if you forget a number, don't consult the yellow pages.....listen to this "wonderful" song. Anyway, what can I say??? I suggest you listen to old masterpieces like "Bollicine," "C'è Chi Dice No," "Liberi...Liberi," and then this last one. You'll ask, but are we sure this is the same composer? indeed it is! I thought that already 15 years ago Vasco should have stopped, but now he has really hit rock bottom. On Facebook, he anticipated the release of "Sono Innocente" writing that it would surprise us..... instead, you disappointed us, my dear.