Fiorella Mannoia: Certe piccole voci (Harpo, 1999)

What a voice. Deep, warm, vivid and bittersweet. Every note is full-bodied and enormously femine - neither a Lolita nor a femme fatale fashion, but the voice of a woman, with the placid and overwhelming charm of maturity. Responsibility and everyday life which succeeded to compenetrate with love and dreams.

Some may say the music in this album isn't but ordinary cantautori stuff, not particularly intimate or intense, nor particularly original or elegant. Even a bit mannerist with regards to the sessionman-dominated sound which came to characterize the style of the foremost Italian singer/songwiters during the Nineties. And that would be true, 'cause the point in these songs and these renditions isn't innovation, fantasy or introspection, but talking discreetly to the heart of those who listen. Without changing their life, but giving them for a moment the chance to reflect upon it and dream.

The best episodes in "Certe piccole voci" have this peculiar charm, and there are many of them among the 25 tracks of the double LP. The styles are very varied in terms of composition, often relying on simple structures occasionally coloured by refinate chord changes and Irish influences. The narrations are mainly based on images, but sill their design differs much from song to song. The arrangements, though, are all quite close one another in terms of sound: perfectly centered on the voice, they embellish it with crystalline-clear acoustic guitar chords ranging between delicacy and muscularity. The soundscape is completed by wet synthetizers, glossy piano sketches and jazzy drum patterns and basslines. Here and there, some guitar or saxophone solo steals the spot from the voice giving the music a more instrumental feeling (the results aren't very good, usually).

Fiorella Mannoia emerged, starting from the Eighties, as one of the most personal and classy interpreters of the cantautori repertoire. Her name is linked to such songs as Vasco Rossi's "Sally", Bubola's "Il cielo d'Irlanda", Ruggeri's "Quello che le donne non dicono", Piero Fabrizi's "Belle speranze". "Certe piccole voci" is her first live album after ten studio LPs.

Tracklist:

CD 1

1. L'amore con l'amore si paga (I. Fossati)
2. Sally (V. Rossi)
3. I treni a vapore (I. Fossati)
4. Il fiume e la nebbia (D. Silvestri)
5. Non sono un cantautore (P. Fabrizi)
6. Cuore di cane (F. De Gregori)
7. Normandia (P. Fabrizi)
8. Belle speranze (P. Fabrizi)
9. Piano solo (D. Rea)
10. Oh che sarà (C. B. De Hollanda - I. Fossati)
11. Il culo del mondo (C. Veloso - A. Lamberti - P. Fabrizi)
12. Caterina e il coraggio (P. Fabrizi)
13. Passalento (I. Fossati)

CD 2

1. Le notti di Maggio (I. Fossati)
2. Sorvolando Eilat (P. Fabrizi - Mogol)
3. Lunaspina (I. Fossati)
4. La stagione dell'amore (F. Battiato)
5. Il tempo non torna più (P. Fabrizi)
6. I dubbi dell'amore (E. Ruggeri - L. Schiavone)
7. I muscoli del capitano (F. De Gregori)
8. Ninetto e la colonia (F. De Gregori)
9. l cielo d'Irlanda (M. Bubola)
10. Crazy Boy (S. Bersani)
11. Quello che le donne non dicono (E. Ruggeri - L. Schiavone)
12. Ascolta l'infinito (P. Fabrizi - E. Ruggeri)

Download (128 kbps)

Similar albums on the blog:

Francesco Guccini: Fra la via Emilia e il West (EMI, 1984)

Paolo Conte: Concerti (CGD, 1985)

Paolo Conte: Concerti (CGD, 1985)

Though he's older than the other ones among the most prominent cantautori, Paolo Conte didn't record songs until 1974, and reached personal fame only in 1979, with the album "Un gelato al limon". Despite his longtime work as a songwriter (he's the man behind such hits as Celentano's "Azzurro" and Caterina Caselli's "Insieme a te non ci sto più"), Conte's name is mainly associated with the first Eighties.

"Concerti" is his first live album, featuring some of the most successful and indicative songs. It's a wonderful synthesis of his unique style, based on very passionate and amusing piano playing, old-fashioned jazz structures and arrangements and half-spoken, smoky vocals. Both the lyrics and the music are usually detached, reserved and even cynical at times, but they're unfailingly wise, ironic, unpretentious and somehow tender-hearted. A very cultured and poetic character, Conte often focuses on lazy and autumnal impressions, based on mixed-level nomenclatures, black-and-white atmospheres and suspended chords. Musically speaking, he's probably the most classy of all the italian singer/songwriters.
"Concerti" isn't Conte's most celebrated album, but as a live and recapitulatory album it has two main merits: it works fine as an introduction to his very personal style and his most immediate songs, and it doesn't have the same very tiresome production gloss of his studio recordings.


Tracklist:

1. Lo zio
2. Come di
3. La ricostruzione del Mocambo
4. Via con me
5. La Topolino amaranto
6. Alle prese con la verde milonga
7. Parigi
8. Diavolo rosso
9. Hemingway
   
10. Bartali
11. Un gelato al limon
12. Una giornata al mare
13. Il nostro amico angiolino
14. Onda su onda
15. Sotto le stelle del jazz
16. Azzurro
17. Boogie
18. Genova per noi

Download (~190 kbps)

Alberto Fortis: omonimo (1979)

The debut album by Piedmontese singer/songwriter Alberto Fortis was a good success thanks to the much debated "Milano e Vincenzo" and "A voi romani" and their anti-Rome sarcasm.
Though quite late compared to the main wave of Italian cantautori, the album shows a mature and personal style with sharp, easy-going lyrics and an idiosyncratic use of the voice (ranging from falsettos to vocalising).
The famous progressive rock band Premiata Forneria Marconi played as backing band for the LP. No distinct progressive elements can be found in the music, but the e-piano fairytalesque atmospheres and the acoustic guitar grooves give the album a strong surplus value.


Tracklist:

1. A voi romani
2. Milano e Vincenzo
3. Il Duomo di notte
4. In soffitta
5. La sedia di lillà
6. Nuda e senza seno
7. La pazienza
8. Sono contento di voi
9. L'amicizia

Download (160 kbps)