‘The gift’ of Renato Zero to the fans

An “anarchist outside the henhouse”, a free spirit who believes in his songs: this is how he defines himself Renato Zero presenting in Rome “The gift”his new album. It was November 18, 2005, it was the Roman musician’s 25th studio album. We are celebrating the anniversary by republishing the review he wrote for us at the time Luca Bernini.

Over thirty-five years after his debut, Renato Fiacchini is today more than ever “RenatoZero”, artist, character, glam icon, saving guru, and much more, all contained in those two words, name and surname, which now they are one. Having grown up, become bourgeois and gained just enough weight to convey tranquility and opulence, “RenatoZero” is so much him that he has become a caricature in the hands of comedians and cabaret artists, lookalikes and extras (the parody offered by Panariello is only the first and most famous of an infinite and equally affectionate list). “RenatoZero” is a trademark, in everything he does: for how he speaks, for how he sings, for how he writes. For the costumes worn in live shows, which never fail to amaze even now that age sometimes imposes minimalism and sobriety on them; for that cackling voice with the Roman intercalation that time has mitigated but not erased; for the sui generis use of the Italian language always balanced between refinement and blunder.

“The gift” is an unannounced album, and in fact off the schedule for those who, like him, are now used to releasing albums with a certain laziness. “Capttura” was released in 2003, followed in 2004 by the double live “Figli del dream”, and less than two years later a collection of new songs has now arrived: an unexpected gift for the fans, a moment of rediscovered creativity for him, who with this album he takes the opportunity to celebrate the joy of having become a grandfather (I think there were many who didn’t even imagine that he was a father) and dedicate a moving thought to his “no longer secret inspiration”, Karol Wojtila.

“Il dono” is a coherent and inspired album, perhaps even better than “Cattura”; a work that follows in the wake of his most recent ones, mixing orchestras and electronics, rock instruments and band in an almost pharaonic way, as the first extract of this work clearly shows, the single “While I wait for it to return”. The lyrics, for their part, are also a trademark: words at times so rhetorical as to be embarrassing (see the lyrics of “You’re fine there”, a poisoned indictment against America which becomes an opportunity to wave the flag in a single meatloaf all our national treasures, from Amalfi and the Royal Palace of Caserta to the Savoyards of Chianti, spaghetti, Leopardi and Puccini), but on the other hand RenatoZero this is how he is: he believes in the commonplace precisely because it is commonplace, and therefore the territory of the “people”, which has always been his only point of reference (he says it well in “The example”).

Thus arrive the song on non-EU citizens (“From the sea”) and the one on religious tolerance (“Immi ruah”, a title that means “divine spirit” in Hebrew), even if the core of this new album is precisely the present, made up of gifts that are like fruits to be savored.

RenatoZero celebrates his life (“Una vita fa”), his profession (“D’aria e di musica”), his ecumenical impetus (“Life is a gift”, “The example”), love and non-love (“You will be amazed”, “Do it yourself”) and he does it with passion and art, on the thread of songs lavish with strings and winds as a soundtrack, pianos that climb over pompous and exciting arrangements. In short, the module that worked well for “The Best Years of Our Lives” is used here with great generosity. In his infinite goodness, RenatoZero also gives us a drop of poison, this time dedicated to the world of radio, inept and increasingly tamed and put to sleep by advertising jingles and unoriginal programming: “Radio or no radio”, this is the title of the song, may not be surprising, given that such criticism comes – and decidedly out of time – from the only one who, regardless of good and evil, can now afford to do without it, but one cannot fail to give credit to RenatoZero for having said – as often happens to him – what many of his colleagues think but for opportunity or fear of retaliation they wouldn’t put into a song. Respect.