Cisco
La Lunga Notte

The Modena City Ramblers are dead: the time to publish the horrid (and senseless) "Appunti Partigiani," the last attempt to beg for some pennies, and the dark era begins. Cisco is gone.

But he is not dead. Oh no, not at all. Not only that, but he still has much to say. Thus is born "La lunga notte," an album that is like a single, great ballad of nostalgia, protest, and poetic creation. The expression of all those feelings that animate the singer's existence, in continuous struggle against a system that inevitably lacks some primary needs.

A man a bit resigned and a bit not, who admits his limits but does not accept that life cannot improve. That is the meaning of "La lunga notte," an era of suffering, pain, and tears, where many still long to see the light. "Queremos ver luz, para nosotros nada." An album, perhaps unwittingly, full of hope, despite the sad, melancholic melodies. "We have seen things hard to understand, and if you can't make sense of the things you've lived, the memory will fade."

It would be nice to report all the lyrics, each one more beautiful than the last: surely it is impossible to express on paper Cisco's deep voice, which accompanies us on this short journey into the collective conscience that everyone should take. "Look closely, don't you see that it's raining stones on us?" The few weak moments of the album (2 or 3 tracks) are offset by others of enormous intensity: the first 3 songs alone are worth an entire album, but shortly after the halfway point, you'll find a piece that deals with human dignity, standing out from the filthy society, and "remaining splendid... like a diamond in the coal."

So, while the MCR act like clowns and prostitute themselves with "Dopo il lungo inverno" (as if there was a new bloom in their production), Cisco holds his head high, proving that he was the soul of the group.

Take an hour, abandon everything for a bit and let yourself be enchanted by a work perhaps not perfect, but too sincere to be avoided. Listen to it with abandon and with precise attention.

As if the world would end tonight.