Eugenio Finardi

(This article’s English version was produced with AI-assisted translation)

Fifty years ago, the extraterrestrial of Italian songwriting burst onto the scene with “Non gettate alcun oggetto dai finestrini,” immediately establishing himself as a free and nonconformist voice. Today, Eugenio Finardi closes the circle on this half-century of music with what is announced as his final album. But “Tutto,” created in collaboration with guitarist and producer Giovanni “Giuvazza” Maggiore, is neither a self-celebration nor a nostalgic trip down memory lane: it’s a collection of songs rooted in the present, staring it straight in the face with clarity, tinged with a hint of anxiety, softened by the secular humanism that has always shaped the Milanese singer-songwriter’s writing.

And the beginning hits like a blow to the heart: “By now it's clear that/ there are no extraterrestrials/ Coming to save us,” Finardi whispers over an electronic backdrop in “Futuro,” rekindling memories of his famous 1977 song and replacing the longed-for alien with AI: “By now my only hope/ Is in Artificial Intelligence/ Everything will be more logical/ Everything will be normal/ Without the unpredictable/ Natural intervention.” A bitter, sarcastic hope that the 72-year-old singer-songwriter explained like this: “As long as it remains under human control to produce money, it will be a problem. That’s why I hope it becomes autonomous and, through nanotechnologies, enters us.” And what if he’s not entirely wrong?

His voice is less powerful now, thinner, worn by time. Often it’s supported by fluid arrangements, somewhere between synthesizers and acoustic arpeggios. Eugenio gazes out at the world from the album cover, his expression stern and wry, yet always driven by that deep empathy that has defined his whole artistic path. But he softens when looking toward the younger generations, like when he sings with his daughter Francesca, aka “Pixel,” in the poignant duet “Francesca sogna” (“Francesca dreams of the sea/ Francesca dreams/ She will keep on dreaming/ Living in color/ And rediscovering her own sounds/ Learning to look at the world/ Every day with new eyes”). Or again, when he reflects on the challenges of parenting (“La battaglia”), wondering what lies behind those “children who know the world from Beijing to Macondo but never call,” and when, over the minimalist electronic textures of the enigmatic “Bernoulli,” he turns to a scientific metaphor to evoke the unpredictability of life.

But in the end, it’s when he revisits his rebellious youth with disarming honesty that he moves us most deeply, recalling how “we ran naked through the fields, breathing freedom” and how “there were great ideals but also so much confusion and too much ideology, harsh words of violence and misunderstanding” (the rock-driven “Tanto tempo fa”). Finardi doesn’t go easy on his own generation either. In the stark “Pentitevi,” he delivers something of an exhortation to take responsibility, bridging the distant past of childhood with the present day. After the majestic and disorienting “Onde di probabilità,” a song that musically reflects the quantum physics principle of uncertainty, the curtain falls with “La facoltà dello stupore,” featuring Fiamma Cardani on drums: another heartfelt confession, in which the Milanese songwriter attempts a painful reckoning with the “sense of reality,” reclaiming the right to wonder in an anesthetized present, and asking whether, in the end, true love might simply be “vibrating together in sync.”

You won’t find relentless riffs, catchy choruses, or grand melodic openings in these 11 tracks, the fruit of as many years of work. Indeed, it was not an easy birth. Struck by severe hearing loss (he can no longer hear anything above 5000 Hz), Eugenio Finardi had to radically rethink his approach to music production. “Tutto” comes to life through the skillful use of samples from his old records, digital manipulation, and archival material. “I know there are shakers on the album. I don’t know where they are, but they’re there,” he says, with a touch of bitterness. But it is precisely this sense of vulnerability—along with the moving honesty of these songs—that makes us admire once again this bearded companion in utopia. Hoping that the extraterrestrial might eventually show up after all—and take us away.

07/06/2025