SENZA SPINA

With this album I finish the reviews of Angelo Branduardi, at least until he will release a new album.

"Senza Spina" is the literal translation of "Unplugged", but we have to keep in mind that the best things released by Branduardi are almost acoustic, so in terms of sounds the difference between this album and his early works is not that big.

The first three songs are previously unreleased and this seems to be a major's idea to help the sales of a live album. The kind of commercial operation that in general I don't like, like putting an unreleased song into a compilation to have it bought by the hard fans.

"Il Denaro Dei Nani" (Dwarves Money) is nothing special if you are already familiar with Branduardi, specially if compared with "La Tempesta" (The Storm) that's an excellent song about mariners and ships, more in line with Renaissance's "At The Harbour" but less dramatic, than to the Harum's Salty Dog.

The last of the new songs "Cara Rimani" (Dear, Stay) is surely not the best song released by Branduardi but it's not too distant from his standards. Nothing more to say about it.

Now let's start with something really good. "La Lune" (The Moon) is the French version of his very first success. As he did many years before on "Concerto", this live version has a long instrumental intro just tied up to the song. After the percussion part a second intro, more in line with the original song, brings to the Branduardi's vocals. It takes 3 minutes before the song becomes recognizable. Nothing to say about the song that's one of my favorite Branduardi's things. The French lyrics doesn't sound bad. Branduardi's French is surely better than his English.

Another classic song from the past "Tanti Anni Fa" (Many years ago) is faster than the original with more guitar and a hint of finger picking. I prefer the original, sorry.

"Gulliver" is another classic. It was not included in the first release of "La Luna" but was reprinted later in a second edition of the album. This version looses the folk flavor of the original. Both Branduardi and Blackmore's Night have taken the idea from a trditional song. Listen to "All For One".

The album proceeds with "Sous Le Tilles" (Under the Lime Tree), another classic. The main difference with the original is the French.

"Il Cappello A Sonagli" (The bells hat) is almost identical to the original.

Luckily there a jump. the 80s of Branduardi are almost forgotten. And he goes directly to four songs taken from his masterpiece "Branduardi Canta Yeats".

The closer is "L'enfant Clandestin" (Lullaby in Italian) taken from one of his three movie soundtracks. This song was aung in the original version by an actress not very tuned which was giving a dramatic accent to it.

The famous traditional song "O Sole Mio", sung even by Elvis Presley is most useless thing that could be found on this album. Feel free to skip it. It's probably because I'm italian, but his attempts to use the accent of Naples sounds a bit ridiculous.

Not a bad album, but it's not a good starting point for Branduardi's discography. If you want to start with this artist go for the first four studio albums. This is good but absolutely non essential.