A long, long time ago I met a wonderful girl while on holiday in Southern Italy. To cut a long story short, each month she used to send me a number of 7” pop records which I still have today. They were of course sung in Italian and while I had extreme difficulty in understanding her letters (I embarrassingly had to ask an Italian relative to translate), the music spoke a language that I could easily comprehend. A prime example of the ability of music to communicate in a way that mere words cannot is found in the work of Andrea Bocelli (and if you’re in any doubt just listen to this album and I’m sure you’ll understand what I mean).

There are a number of European singers with strong operatic voices who try to sing modern pop music, including the great Pavarotti and a few UK artists. But it seldom (if ever) works. However, Bocelli possesses the capability to turn his talents to virtually any genre and make it sound convincing and very beautiful. His massive worldwide popularity is testament to this, in addition to his impeccable choice of pop material to record. Listening to his new album, ANDREA, I get the impression that he has a real passion for the pop genre, albeit the Italian version of it. Purity, sincerity and epic scale are typical characteristics of Italian pop music, and on this new Bocelli album these aspects are fully exploited.

The album opens at glacial pace with the contemplative Dell’ Amore Non Si Sa, that opens out into an epic string and piano soaked love song performed with immense expression and sincerity. The next song L’attesa is more overtly operatic in the sense that sweeping orchestral sounds dominate while Bocelli fully utilises his immense vocal abilities to nail the song, and generate goose-bumps from every groove. Un Nuovo Giorno (A New Day) follows, a song that is overtly Italian pop at its melodic and emotional best, and a prime example of how Bocelli is capable of adapting to the genre without sounding like an operatic tenor. Looking at the sleeve notes I noticed that a certain Mr Guy Chambers co-wrote and produced this song along with Enrique Iglesias - a pretty formidable pop trio…

The album is nicely diverse and includes a delightfully light and optimistic Semplicemente (Canto Per Te), an anthemic tour-de-force in the aptly titled Liberta, and a distinctly Eastern/Spanish flavour in the beautiful Sin Tu Amore (featuring singer Mario Reynes and some stunning acoustic guitar work from Luca Bignardi). The album closes on an intensely romantic English language song from the movie The Lazarus Child that also features soprano Holly Stell (one of two exclusive UK bonus tracks). If you’re looking for a song to play at your wedding, this has to be it!

While perhaps not reaching the heady heights of his supreme pop album SOGNO, this offers a more diverse musical menu and represents an ideal stepping-on point to savour Bocelli’s passionate, lyrical tenor voice. A beautiful album recorded in sonically stunning SACD/Surround sound (but playable on all CD players).

4.5/5