Francesco Renga's approach to life translated into music

In 1998 Francesco Renga leave i Fear. In 2000 he released his first solo album, “Francesco Renga” (read the review here). The second album was released in 2002, “Traces” (read the review here). On May 17, 2004, twenty years ago, Francesco Renga releases his third album, “Rooms with view”. A record that he presented to the press saying: “This last year my life has been marked by events full of meaning: the meeting with a new partner and the birth of a daughter. 'Rooms with a view' is my approach to life translated into music”. The following is the review of the album he wrote for us Giulio Nannini.

Francesco Renga returns more bold than ever with an album – his third as a soloist – born during a decidedly significant year: a new partner, the show girl Ambra Angiolini, and a daughter, Jolanda. There was enough material from which to draw inspiration for these twelve new songs; even if the album was thought of as a diary, so it contains not only the life that Renga observes. In fact, as the title suggests, “Rooms with a view”, the gaze is introspective but also means being able to observe things from different points of view: looking and being looked at.

From a musical point of view it is an album that struggles to find a precise dimension. The pop soul emerges forcefully when the songs take a rock turn – and vice versa – as happens in “As it pleases me” and “Non ti passapiù”. The melancholy and songwriting streak emerges proudly in the single “Cierai” – perhaps one of the least immediate songs on the album – “Immobile”, “Anna (waiting for you)” and “Solo”, while Jolanda has unleashed the fear of responsibility in the singer-songwriter paternal, photographed in the song “Nel nome del padre”, a prayer about the fear and opportunity of being a parent.

Also on the theme of fatherhood is “La Surprise (un ray di sole)”, a dialogue between a father and a daughter, in which it is the father who asks his daughter to take care of him. “Comete” instead develops as a theorem on the end of relationships: for Renga love never ends, it simply changes place, because “only in songs do you die for love”. “Un'ora più” could have come from a Renato Zero album from the Seventies, while the best moment of the album comes with “Meravigliosa (la luna)”, a musical song, sparkling and overwhelming.

Instead, irony dominates in “Until yesterday”, a little story with a final twist (“Inspector / I'm in shock / I really didn't want to kill her / I'm a victim”), a paradox in which the relationship between victim and executioner is reversed. Then there is a ghost track, perhaps underestimated, entitled “Forever”, on the theme of a son who is yet to be born, written prophetically by Renga before Jolanda's birth and already appeared as a ghost track of “Tracce”, but here rearranged as if it were a jam session.

“Camere con vista” (an applause for Fellini's cover, which recalls the photography of “Otto e mezzo”) presents itself in conclusion as a homogeneous album in the choice of sounds (always calibrated, never innovative) and traditional in the instrumentation (guitars, bass , drums, some keyboards and Hammond, and the use of the Orchestra of the Italian Musicians Association directed by Umberto Iervolino). But above all Renga's voice stands out: particular, original, communicative. “Camere con vista” is the further stage of a new path, more introspective and singer-songwriter.