Ciao Bella, Paolo! (CD Review)

[John Feeney]

If you, the intrepid 2+2'er, are looking for something a little different, maybe something with an Italian/French flair, Paolo Conte may be just what you're looking for. Below is a review of "The Best of Paolo Conte," which I posted a while back on CD Universe. First a link to the CD on Amazon, which has been more efficient lately for listening to samples:

Paolo samples


Discover Paolo!

If you've somehow found your way to Paolo Conte, do not hesitate to buy this CD. I discovered it a year ago, tipped off to it by a shop owner who had it playing as I browsed through his store. Since then I've bought lots of CDs in diverse genres, probably more than any prior year in my life. But this may be my favorite of all. The songs are filled with wonderful, catchy melodic elements, excellent musicianship, and lyrics which are poigant if you understand Italian (or read the translations), but satisfyingly ambiguous if you don't. Of course none of it would come off as well without Paolo's voice, worn by yet filled with life. If you like the idea of listening to a kind of jazzy european cabaret music, or if you never thought you'd be tempted to chuck it all to move to an Italian hill town, but think being so tempted sounds inviting, then this is the CD for you. It will have your head swimming with visions of life, love, passion, and yearning, not to mention a littel gelato al limon as you reminisce under an Italian sunset.

[John Feeney]

...which of you original 34 viewers of this post went out and bought the CD? Uh huh, that's what I thought. [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img] Now listen here. You are missing out. Your life is incomplete. You don't know it, but it is. I've tried to help. The song samples don't capture it too well, but you can get all of them here.

Now I expect the first person who buys it (or swipes some of it with Kazza or something... just don't come crying to me when they throw you in the big house) to report back with an appropriately appreciative review. If you don't like it, either give it a few years as you're just too young, or try a little ECT as your brain needs to start fresh. [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

[Ray Zee]

i listened to all the samples. he sounds alot like the actor anthony quinn. and i dont recall him having a singing career.

my head isnt swimming sorry.

[John Feeney]

But really, you just have to trust me and buy the CD. Dip your head in the water, man!

[Rick Nebiolo]

John,

A couple hours ago I clikced on your link and it took me to a web site that sold CD's and the site (not Amazon) had every clip on the album. Now we go to Amazon. Did you change the link?

BTW. is this guy good because he is so bad it is good? I mean sort of like the movie "Plan 9 From Outer Space".

Regards,

Rick

[Zeno]

Are you Serious? I listened to all of the samples as a test of my endurance. A few songs have a snappy beat but most are either lurid slow death tunes, morbid gruel, drooling sap, raw dripping chatter trash with discordant piano background, insipid drivel, or Tony Bennett on Opium.

If I saw this man in a Milan nightclub and he came close to my table I would stab him in the throat with my stiletto and then steal his girlfriend. It would be the only gentlemanly thing to do.

That’s my Review. You may not like it but I can’t help it – this guy makes me sick.

I’m 50 now; maybe when I’m 90 I will like it but I hope not.

Le Misanthrope

[Zeno]

Rick - We posted almost at the same time. I just noted your "plan 9 from outer space" comment. That, perhaps, is the ticket - so to speak.

-Zeno

[John Feeney]

Rick -- My original post had the Amazon link while my follow up post has the CD Universe link. I'll comment on Paolo's music in my reply to Zeno.

[John Feeney]

Okay, this is interesting. I think our divergent perceptions may stem from two things. First, the song samples just don't capture the songs well at all. I noticed that some don't even contain the chorus of the song they sample. There's also a factor which is well known, but which nevertheless seems often to be overooked. It's the fact that many if not most people tend not to like many if not most pieces of music the first time or two they hear them. Most songs that one is going to like only become enjoyable after a few listens. They grow on you. Call this the grow factor.

I don't know if studies have examined the grow factor, but it would be interesting to know if some songs seem *generally* to be "growers" for most listeners, while others are more immediately likable, or if a song that's a grower for one person is just as likely to be immediately likable for another. I'm belaboring this point only because it's surprising to me that my experience was quite different from yours. Unlike a great deal of other music, Paolo's stuff did not have to grow on me much at all. I liked it rather well from the start. Hmmm...

That leads me to wonder if the problem with the samples is the bigger factor here.

I urge anyone reading this thread to take a chance, get the CD, maybe when you can find it used, and see if you don't end up liking it a lot. Then please report back - especially if you didn't like the samples. I want to see if I'm right that he'll likely quickly grow on you. (Reality check: No one's going to buy it. No one's going to report back. Yeah, I know. But I was on a roll writing this thing, so who cares. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img])

Paolo has been called an Italian Tom Waits, but he's not nearly as gritty as Waits. He's basically a gravely voiced jazz/cabaret singer and, as you can see by the Amazon reviews, is loved by many.

(A quick note on the "grow factor": I think this phenomenon is very, very common. How many times have you really liked an unfamiliar song a friend has played for you. I know I rarely have, and that others only rarely seem thrilled with something I play for them. Yeah, I know, maybe I just have kooky taste. But really, I think the grow factor is dominant here. In fact, I've reviewed over 200 songs on garageband.com, and have noticed that I've only liked a few right off the bat, though I've grown to like many others after a few listens. Of course that doesn't mean there aren't some which one hates justifiably right from the start. [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img] Perhaps not surprisingly, I've also noticed that songs I do like from the start are more likely to wear thin on me sooner. I think they are more often of a sugary, poppy nature, and lack the feeling, depth, nuance and such that gives a song a place among those one likes for the long haul. Curiously, Paolo was an exception for me.)

[Zeno]

All good points especially the one that the samples don't give justice to the song(s) as a whole. True. I have also notice a growth factor to songs, or to different types of music that I did not like when younger etc. that I now find very appealing. But even given the above, I could not buy his CD. For some reason when I hear his voice I foam at the mouth.

As usual I'm exaggerating but Paolo just has no appeal to me. Others may think differently as obviously you and many other people do. But I think I would much more likely buy Cyndi lauper's new CD of old standards than this Paolo CD.

As a sort of side item, I have a best of Bach CD and there is one piece that I simply deplore, Chaconne for solo violin. It is a tortuous piece of vile sawing and scrapings that I find grating. I skip over it every time I play the CD. It only grows MORE grating to my ear as time goes by. The same thing for a piece by Schubert called “Erikonig”. It is a bashing, beating piano wreckage with some slobbering woman trying to out do the piano by flinging operatic whoops throughout. If I, by some strange chance, should be at a live performance of this bleating musical farce; I would shoot the piano player then leap on stage and straggle, with my bare hands, the fat bitch performing this alleged song. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

-Zeno

PS I hope you will keep us informed of any reports that come back.