ALL THE BEST - ZUCCHERO
While his by turns mournful and bombastic collaborations with Miles Davis, John Lee Hooker and Luciano Pavarotti might be this Italian star’s most obvious tickets to an American audience, they’re hardly the catchiest cuts on this economically culled, two-decade-spanning sampler. Where he really excels is with studio-pumped and gruffly passionate sort of middle-aged-lothario dance-rock–exemplified here by “Diavolo in Me” and the electronically buzzing boogie-woogie “Amen,” which might remind U.S. listeners of Robert Palmer in the ’80s. “Baila (Sexy Thing)” and “Un Kilo,” meanwhile, give Caribbean rhythms a tough, funky kick. And though he’s susceptible to drowning his more anguished ballads in schmaltz, hand Zucchero an anthemic melody and his mall-blues longing can rival prime Jon Secada or Lou Gramm. Prettiest slow one: the pairing with Vanessa Carlton for a remake of “Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime,” an almost proto-emo 1980 hit for forgotten new wavers Korgis. All the Best
