album rating: ★★★★☆
Genre: Italian pop / cantautore / soft rock. T'innamorerai ('You Will Fall in Love') is the third studio album by Marco Masini (born Florence, 1964), the singer-songwriter and pianist who emerged from the Florentine rock scene in the late 1980s to become one of the most distinctive and controversial voices in Italian popular music of the 1990s. Masini's music fuses Italian pop ballad tradition — he worked closely with the celebrated songwriter and producer Giancarlo Bigazzi throughout his early career — with a raw, confessional directness, a bluesy undertow and a lyrical intensity that repeatedly rubbed against the grain of mainstream Italian radio. T'innamorerai was released on 14 January 1993 and was recorded at Studio Mulino Recording in Acquapendente (Viterbo), with additional superimpositions at Studio Sant'Anna in Castelfranco Emilia, mixing at Studio Fonoprint in Bologna and pre-production at Studio Tobia Music in Florence. The album contains nine tracks. Its title song, 'T'innamorerai', became a cult anthem of Italian pop of the 1990s. The album also contains 'Vaffanculo' ('Fuck off') — an outburst directed at Masini's detractors, at the music industry, and at those who labelled him a 'prophet of depression' — which was banned by most Italian radio and television networks due to its language but which, paradoxically, helped drive interest in the record. In an interview with Corriere della Sera in January 1993, Masini declared the song was dedicated to 'the liars and those who call me a prophet of depression.'
Label: Dischi Ricordi S.p.A. (Italy), produced for Tobia Music S.r.l., released 14 January 1993.
Production: Pre-production by Giancarlo Bigazzi, Marco Falagiani, Marco Masini, Mario Manzani, Massimo Barbieri and Stefano Mazza.
Recording studios: Studio Mulino Recording, Acquapendente (Viterbo); Studio Sant'Anna, Castelfranco Emilia (MO). Mixing: Studio Fonoprint, Bologna; Studio Mulino Recording; Studio Sant'Anna.
Critical reception: T'innamorerai was a watershed moment in Italian popular music, combining undeniable commercial appeal with artistic provocation. The song 'Vaffanculo' generated enormous controversy while simultaneously becoming one of the most discussed Italian pop songs of 1993. The debaser.it review calls it 'a fantastic album that includes songs like Vaffanculo — a fresh breath of realism in a perfect world built by other singers', and describes the title track as 'a cult song in the panorama of Italian music'. Marco Masini has since been described as an artist who opened 'a new path in Italian music and popular culture.'
Commercial success: T'innamorerai sold more than one million copies worldwide, establishing Masini's international reach. The album was released in Spanish as Te enamorarás and was particularly successful in Spain, where it earned a gold disc; it also obtained gold discs in Germany and France. Masini was simultaneously becoming an international sensation, appearing across continental Europe with a reputation for uncompromising lyrical authenticity.
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