Amor Fou
I Moralisti

The Amor Fou are back. And, unsurprisingly, in grand style. With "La stagione del Cannibale", an ambitious project released in 2007, they had already showcased their extraordinary compositional qualities with an album capable of shaking consciences, but above all, telling, track by track, the desolation, failures, and also the hopes of the challenging 70s. Personally, and perhaps I'm not the only one, I believed that evoking the same surprise and delivering the same intensity with a new album would have been quite a feat. However, "I Moralisti" is an innovative response, never banal, which, in my opinion, managed not to undermine the quality that has made Amor Fou known to a nice circle of enthusiasts.

This is the album of evolution, not only from the perspective of the lineup (with the entry of singer-songwriter Giuliano Dottori and Paolo Perego), but mainly from a musical standpoint, transitioning from electro-indie sounds, which partially persist, to purely singer-songwriter atmospheres, inspired by the best Italian tradition. The lyrics are characterized by a subtle blend of realism and drama, real photographs of everyday characters, in which each of us could easily identify.

"I Moralisti" is not just an album; it would be too cold and unobjective to consider it as such. It is a weave of stories, images, and sensations. The good Alessandro Raina does not simply narrate the vicissitudes of these characters, but brings them to life, track by track, voice by voice: we find Enrico De Pedis (the "moralistic" bandit of the Magliana gang) in the sharp "De Pedis", young empty, desperate guys in "Cocaina di Domenica", the all too current story of a priest attracted to a boy in "Peccatori in Blue Jeans", a mother beset by guilt, up to the hopeful tales of a madman now tortured by the normality of the surrounding world in "Un ragazzo come tanti", in my opinion the most moving and melancholically suffered track of the set.

Art, poetry, but particularly music, besides delivering emotions and feelings, have the true unique goal of filling a void. And Amor Fou, with this snapshot of true life, of lived life, suspended between fiction and reality, I believe have amply filled it.

A solid 4.5!