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Rating: Is it still possible in 2008, in this Italy, to take everyday reality, turn it into poetry, and put it all into a pop/folk song? Can you hum a tragedy in the shower?
This album is here to say yes. To tell us that "Il liberismo ha i giorni contati" (Neoliberalism's days are numbered). To narrate daily miseries, the homeless at the station, and the tragedy of little Alfredo, the decline of the empire and teenage rebellion, dreams of love and the remnants of the twentieth century in a centenarian's memories, Baudelaire, and Piero Ciampi. Playing on contrasts with uplifting melodies, captivating rhythms, killer choruses. Blending references and quotes from the best singer-songwriter music and emerging with great personality.
Francesco Bianconi today is a mature and aware author - even though it would be unjust not to mention the compositional contribution of Rachele Bastreghi and Claudio Brasini - and this album is an important record. A work that manages to be an image of these times and equally singable, pop that becomes art.
Amen.
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Other reviews
By Andrea_Brindisi
If I said this album is a masterpiece it would be an exercise in style as if I criticized it.
These songs cannot be reviewed. They can only be recommended, gently, to be inhabited.
By joseleaci
Here are the Baustelle, here is the talent that makes its way in spite of our envy and our amazement.
It works and I, who have long awaited someone to artistically amaze me as the three can do, adopt them, follow them, choose them, want them, applaud them, and buy them.
By Antropophagus
"Amen: a simple word that indicates a liturgical closure, a term that encompasses a thousand and one meanings."
"With 'Amen' we might all be able to understand at least a sixteenth of our current life and direct our hearts and souls in a single way out... A M E N."
By Frana77
"Amen," their fourth work, possibly travels on an even higher level, bordering (allow me to say) on perfection.
"Amen" is a heavily played record, using not only the canonical instruments but especially many strings and a brass section, making it symphonic, almost like a cinematic soundtrack.
By Nikki
The signing with the major label hasn’t benefited the Tuscan band, not due to alleged pressures from the label but simply because, during production, the larger budget available undermined their sense of moderation.
The mountain has given birth to the classic mouse.
