Claudio Lolli
Un uomo in crisi

but you who listen to a song
do you know what a prison is
do you know what a station is for

do you know what a war is
and how many there are on earth
what a guitar can be used for

do you know that we are all dead
and we didn't even notice
and we keep saying "so be it"


Claudio Lolli, a songwriter of unique sensitivity far too forgotten, returns a year after his magnificent debut album with an LP of similar tones, if possible even darker and gloomier. In fact, the record opens with four songs of almost suffocating sorrow that culminates in the nine minutes of Morire di leva, a slow funeral song that seems to want to take listeners by the hand and lead them along this whispered funeral. The few rays of sunshine on the record are found only in the second part, but they seem like a naive hope lost in rivers of present and future defeats. The musical fabric that accompanies Lolli's existential poems, at times brazen and at other times sarcastic, is simple and stripped to the bone as in the previous album: a faint rhythmic guitar played by Lolli himself, arpeggios, some notes of piano and violin, as if it were the work of Nick Drake's subdued brother... which says it all. Although less incisive and scathing than the previous album, without the unsettling invective of a track like Borghesia, it remains a memorable work to listen to and revisit. However, watch out for your mood, these are not fifty minutes to be taken lightly.

*** 1/2