IL VOLO

Before the release of their eponymous debut album, all the members of "Il Volo" had collaborated with Lucio Battisti and with lyricist Mogol... Years of hard work as session men and as members of other bands (Alberto Radius and Gabriele Lorenzi were members of Formula 3, Mario Lavezzi of Flora Fauna e Cemento and Camaleonti, Bob Callero of Osage Tribe and Duello Madre, Gianni Dall'Aglio of I Ribelli, Vince Tempera of Pleasure Machine) have resulted in considerable musicianship and experience, but the problem here, in my opinion, is the lack of originality in the song-writing... This probably explain why in this album you can feel so strong resemblances to some works of Lucio Battisti like "Umanamente uomo: il sogno", "Il mio canto libero", "Il nostro caro angelo" or "Anima latina"...

However, although lacking a little bit of originality, the music is good and the opener "Come una zanzara" (Like a mosquito) is really promising... An instrumental introduction that lasts more than two minutes and that features good bass work and a suggestive and mysterious atmosphere, then vocals come in... "Like a mosquito in Africa / Me too lost among millions, nay milliards, of people... Why am I a man?"... The rhythm section is powerful, all along the album you can appreciate good keyboards interaction and Alberto Radius' beautiful soaring guitar... The music flows steadily, track after track, there are some acoustic and melodic moments, some bluesy and jazzy influences... There are no outstanding tracks, but the average quality is really good...

Unfortunately lyrics are quite uninspired... All the lyrics of "Il volo" have been written by Mogol, but in this work he seems to have lost inspiration and every now and then I have the feeling that the lyrics of this album are just leftovers of those written for Lucio Battisti, especially in songs like "La mia rivoluzione" (My revolution), "Il calore umano" (The human heat) and "Il canto della preistoria" (The singing of the prehistory)... This album could have been a good "concept", the music is well performed and there are some recurrent themes (for instance, at the end of the second and of the third track there are little reprises of "Come una zanzara" played by the guitar), but at length "Battisti's shadow" is overwhelming and the band seem to suffer from a kind of "crisis of identity"... In the whole a good album, although not an essential one in a prog collection...