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Rating: Warning: before reading this review, these two premises are necessary:
1) I admit it: in my life I've never understood what to make of this man, to be honest. If I previously believed him to be definitively defunct after "SpiritoDiVino", in recent months I've partially changed my mind.
2) At least here, let's avoid bringing up the usual stories like "Zucchero has only made plagiarisms", "the greatest plagiarist of all time" (well... take a look at Nek, Giusy Ferreri, and Tiziano Ferro...) and let's focus solely on this CD.
End of premises.
In Italy, it's all too easy to decide to try a different experiment from the classic canons to which singers and bands have accustomed their admirers. Everyone has done it in this world, more or less. Zucchero has done it too.
But it is much less easy to make an experimental album and at the same time make it of quality.
And "Bluesugar" is no exception, released two years after his 1996 greatest hits, composed with the support of poet Pasquale Panella. Thanks to the arrangements of the loyal (not for long...) Corrado Rustici, the album is characterized by more rocking sounds, which replace the soul of the old works of the rough Emilian farmer.
The work, although seen by some as his masterpiece, is, upon careful listening, not completely successful.
If the letter in song form "Eccetera Eccetera" ("I think of you, etcetera etcetera, and I hope in you / The postcard in the soul, which was missing for us") and the dedication to the historic leader of Nomadi, Augusto Daolio (complete with sampling of his version of "Canzone Della Bambina Portoghese" by Francesco Guccini), in "Arcord" are certainly the two best moments of the album, followed by "Back 2 U" and the electronic (!) "(Temporaneamente) X Sempre Tuo", with "Donkey Tonkey", "Puro Amore", and "Karma, Stai Calma", the fall occurs.
The first has a refrain capable of getting on the nerves with just the first listen ("Do the donkey, donkey tonkey"), to the point of pressing Skip indignantly to avoid attempting to kick the player like a donkey ("donkey"), the second is a second-rate 2-cent rocker, while the third seems like an inconclusive bark of a dog unable to breathe ("let's make the goose's beak"...bah), and unfortunately, Irene Fornaciari, the second voice of this track and Zucchero's daughter, doesn't manage better.
Deserving consideration are "I Tempi Cambieranno" (his "Times They Are A-Changin'"? No offense, Your Majesty Dylan, eh...), "Blu" (who doesn't remember "Summer nights, forgotten..."?), which, despite citing in the refrain "Era Lei" by old friend Michele Pecora, is a very enjoyable piece, "You Make Me Feel Loved", not a masterpiece, but a good homage to his land, and the end of a relationship, expressed in "Dopo Di Noi".
Connecting to what was stated above, all in all "Bluesugar" is not an album to be completely discarded, despite some bad and nauseating fillers, and deserves to be listened to.
With the closing of this parenthesis, the worst will come later, with the even worse "Shake" and the sellout "Zu & Co.", real concessions to the god of money almost entirely absent of quality, except for the possible (??) final twist of "Fly", an almost entirely good album and, for now, the last Zucchero album worth listening to.
But maybe some had already suspected that Adelmo Fornaciari is (always been?) a question mark made person.
Caricature? Jester? Craftsman? Brave character? Well, you decide. For me, it's what I've expressed above.
Bring on the insults.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
05 Back 2 U (04:33)
Se sapessi quanto ti ho cercato
quante strade ho rovesciato
per tornare insieme a te.
Io che avevo tante cose in mente
che non ho capito niente
per tornare insieme a te.
I wanna get back
I wanna get back
I wanna get back 2 u.
Se sapessi quanto ho camminato
quanta nebbia ho respirato
per tornare insieme a te.
Io che avevo tante cose in mente
non ho combinato niente
per tornare insieme a te.
I wanna get back
I wanna get back
I wanna get back
I wanna get back
I gotta get back
I wanna get back 2 u.
Perchè non sei
Perduto, amore, ancora
perchè non c’è
nessun dolore, stasera
luna
guarda che luna
calma è la sera, la sera
salvezza del mio blues
qualcuno (ancora) spera.
Se sapessi quanto vuoto resta
quando è buio, quando è festa
e mi son bevuto il cielo.
Io che avevo troppe cose in mente
che non ho capito niente
per tornare insieme a te.
I wanna get back
I wanna get back
I wanna get back
I wanna get back
I gotta get back now
I wanna get back
I wanna get back
I wanna get back
I wanna get back
I gotta get back
I wanna get back
I wanna get back
I gotta get back
I gotta get back now
I wanna get back
I wanna get back
I gotta get back now
I wanna get back 2 u
11 I tempi cambieranno (04:41)
Times times are gonna change
Change changing all the time.
Io sto qui
dentro il vento di settembre qui, così.
Times are gonna change
Change changing all the time.
E sto qui
con la notte che si accende, fino a te.
Tutti i giorni che hai vissuto
e i minuti che vivrai
sono tuoi e sono miei
fino in fondo.
Me li voglio ricordare
farne ancora girotondi
quando i tuoi capelli biondi
andranno in grigio.
Cos’times times are gonna change
Change changing all the time.
Sono qui
col sorriso che si tende, fino a te.
Posso ribaltarti il cielo
con un salto all’improvviso
tutte cose che farei
amico mio.
Rivedermi sul tuo viso
farne ancora girotondi
quando i tuoi capelli biondi
andranno in grigio.
Times are gonna change
Change changing all the time.
Resto qui
guardo l’infinito, già sfinito
spero con te
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Other reviews
By alfo
"Zucchero’s bucolic poetry becomes less rustic, more rarefied, but without relinquishing its distinctly passionate and fiery traits."
"The album closes with 'The Times Will Change', a prophetic track marking the end of this experimental phase and a return to certainties."
