Zucchero Sugar Fornaciari
Black cat

HEP! New dereview by salesuliveires. I’ve chosen a singer not exactly loved by everyone, and from whom I bought [for the third time in my life] a new album.

Golden notice: whoever insults-slanders-ridicules here does not know it’s depravity or pure ignorance, theirs; those who write intelligent comments I consider good people, regardless of political color, religion, ethnicity, marital status, age, social class, preferred music genre.

*********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Moving on to the album: the new backing vocalists return on some tracks to have a say compared to the last concept-album of unreleased songs Chocabeck....a necessary choice; the friend Bono Vox wrote the lyrics of a song, colleague Biagio Antonacci [in the choirs] and Mr. Mark Knopfler participate in the arrangements of some pieces, so all the more reason. Also notable is the presence of an Avicii cover, Ten more days.

The four singles extracted [listening to various radios] Tredici buone ragioni, Partigiano reggiano, Voci (namanama version) and Streets of Surrender [also available in Italian titled Ci si arrende] are all formally valid except for one [Voci (n.v.), a plagiarism from a Swedish author, moreover,] which really adds nothing new to his discography.

Also to be discarded [especially the lyrics, which are quite monotonous] is Ti voglio sposare, even though the base is bluesy with some hints of roots rock.

Following, introduced by the amusing speech of the mayor of Contursi Terme [true!] L'Anno dell'Amore, an ironic manifesto towards the prevailing customs in today's society; the aforementioned cover Ten more Days, could be defined as a so-so experiment; Hey Lord, a subtle gospel track where the author’s Faith is well expressed without prolixity;

La tortura della luna, airy soft-rock with an emotional build-up [intro and finale avoidable, verse-bridge passable, and chorus perfect]; Turn the world down with a "’beatle style"’ without descending into pantomime and with reflective lyrics; Fatti di sogni [with a small self-quotation] and Terra incognita are both serious yet relaxing, which is almost a standard in the ballads of the Tuscan-Emilian singer-songwriter. Note: the weakness of the CD is that there are no breaks or real instrumental interludes between the central tracks [mainly between the ‘’anglophone’’ ones], but I still give it a 3.5 [4 in essence] after a nice listen a few hours ago...fine.

p.s. even without the money and "majesty" of Zuckerberg, I would like to emphasize that despite 2-3 recent plagiarisms and the flop Una rosa Blanca, Zucchero skillfully holds the stage on par with other Italian singers with long and intense careers, from Zero to Loredana Berté to Ron.

Having said that, I shall leave you in peace for quite a few months {!}

-addìos-