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Rating: “The square as an essential place for living”: this is how Claudio Lolli presents his old and important work rearranged with the original group of “Parto delle nuvole pesanti.” The album is one of those necessary ones, for the themes it addresses, because it can still be made relevant, because it is still capable of telling stories of freedom without tainting everything with false rhetoric. But it is also a beautiful album for the arrangements of “Parto,” which are strong, incisive, aimed at underscoring the vigor of Claudio Lolli's voice, which scratches the soul with an imposing recitative.
“I have also seen happy gypsies” represents one of the most important moments in Italian singer-songwriter music and the risk was to spoil it by revisiting it once more with the addition of “Parto delle nuvole pesanti.” But it didn't turn out that way. The album works excellently, there is no regret for the original from 1976, and Claudio Lolli seems to come alive in this new guise, aims directly at the new generation and seems to hit the target. But above all, it seems that “Anna of France,” “August,” and “Albana for Togliatti” come to life with a new, equally dramatic light, where Claudio Lolli & Il Parto delle Nuvole Pesanti free their souls to sing, narrating a world that hasn't changed.
In 1976 there were state massacres, right-wing and left-wing terrorism, Democrazia Cristiana. Today, in the new century, the situation hasn't changed at all, but everything has taken on a different, global aura. Terrorism is still present, but this time it has taken on a global guise, affecting both the West and the East, and squares all over the world are in danger. In Italy, Democrazia Cristiana is no longer present, but “Casa delle Libertà” has come to power, which is a sort of continuum, a mix between the DC and the dirtiest part of the PSI. In short, the years pass but history repeats itself and mistakes are not corrected at all (or are corrected very little). Claudio Lolli is a civil engagement songwriter, like Giovanna Marini, like Ivan Della Mea, like many unknown storytellers in Italy. He is an essential artist for the Italian panorama, never sold to success (as, instead, has happened to Guccini, a valid engaged songwriter) and always consistent with himself. “The alternative in culture is not only ideology, the alternative is organization,” Lolli sings in “Anna of France”. The alternative in culture is not only ideology, the alternative is organization.
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