album rating: ★★★★☆
Genre: Canzone d'autore / Italian pop / soft rock. The self-titled album of 1979 marks the high point of what is widely considered the most creative period in the career of Lucio Dalla (Bologna, 1943 – Montreux, 2012), Italy's most idiosyncratic and beloved singer-songwriter of the second half of the twentieth century. It was the second album for which Dalla wrote both words and music himself — a decisive step taken after the end of his celebrated creative partnership with poet Roberto Roversi. The album contains several of his most enduring songs: the anthemic new year meditation 'L'anno che verrà', the intimate character portrait 'Anna e Marco', the atmospheric 'Milano', the melancholic 'Stella di mare' and the duet 'Cosa sarà', written with singer-songwriter Ron. Dalla's vocal style — at once warm, rough, operatic and conversational — and his capacity to blend experimental impulses with broad popular accessibility are both at their peak here. The album is accompanied by minimal but thoughtful orchestration, with synthesizers, pedal steel guitar and a small ensemble.
Label: RCA Italiana (Italy), released February 1979.
Producer: Alessandro Colombini. Mixed by Alessandro Colombini and engineer Ezio De Rosa.
Recording studio: Not individually specified in publicly available sources; recorded in Italy.
Critical reception: Lucio Dalla is consistently regarded as Dalla's masterpiece and one of the greatest Italian albums ever recorded. Rate Your Music rates it among the best albums of 1979 worldwide. Discogs reviewers have called it 'a masterpiece, the best of Lucio Dalla and one of the most beautiful Italian albums of all time, one of those albums everyone should hear at least once.' AllMusic considers it among his finest works. 'L'anno che verrà' has become one of the most beloved Italian popular songs of the twentieth century.
Commercial success: The album was a massive commercial success in Italy, where 'L'anno che verrà' became an enormous hit. It represented the commercial confirmation of Dalla's popularity and is one of the best-selling Italian albums of its era. It has been consistently reissued and remastered, most recently in a 2019 anniversary edition.
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