IL MIO CANTO LIBERO

Lucio Battisti is virtually a household name in Italy, but for some reason or another I had never heard any of his music until I stumbled upon a cheap secondhand vinyl copy of Il Mio Canto Libero. It seems like the man's massive popularity in Italy has never been extended to America, but nevertheless, Il Mio Canto Libero was a massive hit in Italy - it was actually the best selling album in the country in 1973. While I do think this is an inconsistent and often times tepid effort, it has sparked my interest in further investigating Lucio Battisti's body of work.

The music you'll find here is gentle, romantic, and emotional Italian pop with a few ventures into rock territory. While this is admittedly not a style of music that typically excites me, songs like "La luce dell'Est" and "Io vorrei. non vorrei. ma se vuoi" are simply beautiful. As a matter of fact, the pastoral and subtle portion of Il Mio Canto Libero is what I enjoy most - I wish the album didn't contain a few rather boring rock tunes like "Confusione" or the first half or so of "Gente per bene e gente per male". None of the album is poor, but I find that when Battisti delivers the more emotional tracks, his true talent shines through. The upbeat tunes just strike me as uninspired by comparison. Of course, Lucio Battisti is a gifted vocalist, and his delivery throughout the album is quite impressive. His singing is probably what most people will walk away from this album remembering.

Il Mio Canto Libero is a good album, but it strikes me as pretty average throughout the majority of its duration. There simply aren't a whole lot of great tunes here, and the inconsistent changes in mood between songs leads to a rather disjointed album flow. Still, the production is great, the vocals are impressive, and the musicianship is professional, so 3 stars are fair here. While I wasn't blown away by Il Mio Canto Libero, I'm curious to hear other albums from Lucio Battisti.