Virginiana Miller
La verità sul tennis

Let's start with the cover, fantastic. The album is worth every penny just for this. The girl's name is Silvia Pannocchia, I don't know anything else about her, but what I see is enough to hold her in high esteem. Inside the booklet and on the back of the CD, there are two more splendid poses that are no less suggestive and will certainly appeal to the most eager.

A second interesting aspect of the album is the Baustelle; what do the Baustelle have to do with it? You may say. Yet they do matter, because in 2002 Rachele Redigheri, Francesco Bianconi, and Claudio Chiari, that is the Baustelle, were playing and singing as support to Virginiana Miller in the album "La verità sul tennis". Today Baustelle enjoys the great success of their splendid album "La malavita", but they have not forgotten the masters of the past who are paid homage in the introduction to the text of "Revolver" which is inspired by the track "Malvivente" by Virginiana Miller, the third track of this record.

The third interesting aspect of "La verità sul tennis" is the songs, splendid. It has been three years since the previous "Italiamobile", the group has since changed the bassist, released an acoustic live titled "Salva con nome", won the Ciampi Award, changed record labels from baracca & burattini to Mescal/Sony, and above all started a fruitful collaboration with Giorgio Canali.
All of this gives life to an intense, smooth, and convincing album in which extraordinary pearls are set like the aforementioned "Malvivente", a fantastic song that talks about the life of the heart-throb bandit Vallanzasca in a romantic Milan of the 70s and which, as I mentioned, was a major source of inspiration for several tracks by Baustelle (particularly "Revolver" and "Un romantico a Milano"), like "La vita illusa", a splendid, sad, and cynical ballad about the vain lives of many young people today, and the incredible "Abitano la terra" in which the lyrics, believe it or not, are even by Leon Battista Alberti, from whom Virginiana Miller virtually took a piece from "Profugiorum ab Aerumna Libri" of 1441, in which a pathetic portrait of human beings makes us all feel a bit ridiculous, and in which the poet questions the mysterious utility of our existence.
There are also decidedly more positive episodes, in perfect Virginiana Miller style, such as "Aerosol" in which a boy suffering from asthma deals with psychedelic inhalations, and "Rimerende" which is practically a self-cover of "Merenderi" and "Un'altra sigla per Harlock" which pays homage to the 1980s cartoon (those of our generation know what I mean).

What else can be said? "La verità sul tennis" is the third chapter in the convincing rise of a great band that moves from initial surprise to definitive consecration thanks to ideas that are uncommon, courageous, and surprising, carried forward with absolute coherence and without ever betraying themselves and above all without ever betraying us.