CRISTIANO DE ANDRE' - Scaramante

Long overshadowed by his father's "cumbersome" presence, and at the same time forced into demanding comparisons, Cristiano De André is not the typical well-connected golden boy who exploited his dad's success to grab undeserved attention: on the contrary, his reserved and honest character has always led him to calmly accept living under the same roof as an Italian singer-songwriter of still unmatched talent, and to pursue a career of his own with professionalism and dedication. Now that Fabrizio sadly remains a shining memory for so very many people, and the passion for his masterpieces is, if anything, even more intense, the figure of the son has involuntarily moved a little closer to the spotlight, and so "Scaramante", the artist's first album after the great loss and the fifth of his discography, has enjoyed unusual expectations. Let's examine, then, how well those expectations were met, and why, starting with its merits.

As is evident from the very first track, the care taken in the recording process is genuinely commendable: the author, a refined instrumentalist, has chosen the team of musicians for his new effort with great taste, and has directed proceedings with a mastery worthy of far more seasoned composers. In this sense, the arrangements never dip below a certain standard, the interaction between instruments of very different backgrounds (a dozen of them) is orchestrated with class, and even the vocals boast a clarity of execution that many colleagues would envy. The main limitation, however, affects the ideas animating the ten tracks on the record: Cristiano has written every song along the lines of very specific traditional models, more concerned with presenting them in elegant dress than with reworking them in the true sense of the word. The risk, in cases like this, is slipping into the mediocrity of an uninteresting mannerism, a flaw that "Scaramante" falls into on three occasions: "Sapevo il credo" echoes childhood memories of New Trolls, Baglioni and Cugini di Campagna, borrowing images with no trace of modernity; "Fragile scusa", with its booming electric guitar riffs alongside sumptuous string backing, betrays a clear intention to liven up a faded mosaic of clichés (the chorus is, in no uncertain terms, a banality); "Le quaranta carte" freely mixes together Antonello Venditti, Alex Britti and the Ligabue of ten years ago, without much flair.

What must be noted, however, is that in the hands of such a capable and well-balanced artist, even the most tedious of stereotypes sounds more valuable than it structurally is. So although this is almost never a matter of originality, let alone innovation, what matters is that wherever De André junior manages to shake off the burden of the easiest, most obvious tradition, his personality and his gifts emerge unmistakably: among the best moments are the Latin-tinged reverberations of the expert lead guitar on "Buona speranza" (played by a superb Rocco Zifarelli), the delicacy of the frequent world-music touches (which in "Un'antica canzone" become intriguing effusions of an age-old memory, blending effectively with the light, husky vocal), and the tender dedications to his father Fabrizio ("Il silenzio e la luce", an excellent closing track built solely around a piano accompaniment, and "Sempre Anà", which borrows from "Creuza de ma" both the return of Genoese dialect and the presence of the great Mauro Pagani).

From a thematic point of view, finally, the album alternates between the biting social pamphlets of family tradition (above all "Lady barcollando", an image of the "victory of having over being") and the biographical reflections of a man in his forties, graceful in their writing but lacking any truly memorable passages. In conclusion, if this was meant to be the album of maturity, let's welcome it with firm approval, while bearing in mind that in the near future the talented Cristiano will surely be able to reach even more ambitious goals.

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26/10/2006