This poet, painter, and former lawyer from Asti, Italy, has been dazzling Italian audiences since the early 1970s but has just blazed into U.S. consciousness like a meteor with his Best Of debut album on Nonsesuch. After listening to his European style of cabaret music, you too will be hooked on the crooner who is widely appreciated for rhyming Napoli with Minneapoli. The selection of 20 songs ranges in style from a mixture of French chansonette to tango. All feature his raspy voice (Americans may be reminded of Tom Waits) with unmistakably wry lyrics that offer lovers and listeners alike the sensuality and complexity of gelato al limon (lemon ice cream). --Cristina Del SestoPaolo Conte is a completely original talent, and his leathery, life-weary face on the cover is the first clue to the evocative music of this poet, painter, musician, and lawyer from Asti in northern Italy. Observations on the tide of human existence deftly rendered in vividly poetic lines that startle with their originality are highlighted in smoky vignettes of '40s jazz- and tango-inflected tunes, teetering between Cabaret, The Circus, and 42nd Street. Conte's unfiltered raspy voice is the perfect vehicle for his poignant view of the foibles of adult life mused from the corner barstool, admiring women whose "pungent smells [beckon] him like an old-fashioned grocery, its doors flung open to the spring outside." The music is a treat in itself, but the real gold is to be found in his lyrics, and luckily translations are in the liner notes. --Derek Rath
