odradek

Nothing significant to add, except to join the meager (it seems) list of those who have and appreciate this album, undoubtedly their best (a clear winner). It's one of the most inspired of those years, with top-notch songwriting.
Of course you choose them carefully, Socrates...

What a kind spirit, Socrates. And add a name that had slipped away from the little conversation in the bookstore, a few lines up. A thin consolation that old Bunker, kicking the bucket, compelled newspapers, magazines, and segments of some news programs, even local ones, to publish obituaries. And that "Like a Fierce Beast" will enjoy a spotlight for a few days...

Yes, we needed the gossip (recycled, 'that these and similar profound reflections were already the battle horses of "ancestors" of the Caz) about Enrico Berlinguer and family. Just what we needed. My question to RingoStarfish was obviously not formulated to discuss the figure of the Sardinian, but the content of the text which, rightly, cannot interest our far-sighted interlocutor (your exhortation is really pointless, as you can see, Ringo). A text that is twenty years old, which I haven’t read, I believe, since then. But which I think I can still share today. And in essence still "recent." It astonished me a lot back then, and it would astonish those who express considerations, judgments, sentences on things that are frankly incomprehensible to them. Simply bigger than they are. And this should not be interpreted, instrumentally, as a value judgment. It’s a matter of good taste, a sense of proportion. And, probably, also of a need for the absolute so similar to acne. A matter of age.

Kosmo, you look really cute with that miniskirt and the badges... magnificent the tale among the ruins of communism. I totally understand your sense of liberation...
RingoStarfish, you make me blush... well, I’m just glad it’s all over. I really liked the move to finish something that was already finished. To not become monuments of oneself. To change, to make mistakes. If it were to happen now, they wouldn’t have the warm wind of '77 behind them, nor that murky sea to throw the raft into.... They were almost an organic creature born from those years. This doesn’t change the fact that, for example, Lindo's words have grown with him. But I haven’t even listened to the latest production (PGR) with attention; you know, I’ve grown old too, in the meantime. But sooner or later, I’ll give it a listen.

I really care about you. Son. An ecumenical odradek. But what a struggle...

Well, Kosmo, a bit hasty, indeed. Yes, I believe that "from the outside" they gave that effect, but at the beginning that redundancy, that absence of "credibility" as you seem to understand it, made perfect sense. The rest of the journey is consequent, not linear, but consequent. For the reasons I mentioned earlier. The iconography also follows the path, which is of absolute honesty, even if hard to decipher for those who don't understand certain codes, and therefore a source of possible misunderstandings: from the clamoring of the beginnings to the ascetic room of Etica/Epica. It’s not like talking about another group. "Music to music" doesn't apply here. It's not enough. I don't know if I made myself clear, I hope you do. Bye.

Josi, I’m going to tell you something that might sound exaggerated: Lindo is not exactly a preacher. But, especially in certain cases, he has reestablished, within that iconography, in that context and in these years, the tightly-knit, indissoluble bond between song and prayer. There’s something primitive yet very modern in that treatment of song as such, deliberately “disturbed” by the iconographic apparatus, since “neon signs attract fools.” When I saw them for the first time, they had such ridiculous instrumentation that my band, by comparison, looked like Pink Floyd. It was clear that music wasn’t the only instrument of the liturgy, but even with the evident poverty of means (including technique), there are small delightful solutions on this album as well. Yes, yes, I know. You’re not convinced. I’ve sensed your underlying perplexity. But I had to give it a try. Have a good day.

RingoStarfish, sorry I didn't do it earlier, but I wanted to thank you for having spared me, by doing so, the temptation to get involved in this review. It's a pity about the missed opportunity, in the comments, to raise some interesting questions starting from some considerations also contained in your rec. One question, 'I don't have the vinyl at hand: but is this where the open letter to Berlinguer is, regarding the issue of "sacrifice"? The only truly political text of ours, and very humane. I liked it a lot. What do you think?

Josi, are you lined up? It doesn’t seem to me that this applies to them, not in the sense we usually attribute to this term. Although it may superficially appear that way. I really don’t feel like opening the discussion, which risks becoming grotesque in this context, but only those who haven’t understood, as often happens, can bring up some pathetic attempts at “historical analysis” to evaluate an album, certain songs... Iconography is another matter, and even there there’s much to say; everyone has their own opinion. However, the quality of the writing is so far superior to idle chatter of any kind that it comes across as pure. I’ve said it: the discourse has been much more complex, contradictory, and articulated than it appears, and they are a unique entity, absolutely indigenous, without the burden of conforming to any import model, to any cliché except the one they create themselves, time and again. And even just this would suffice to make it a unique experience. I’ll wrap it up, because I’m starting to get apologetic, and I don’t want that. And besides, what I love most about the CCCP are the mistakes. Bai

Well, it had to be done. The beginnings were so naive and full of contradictions, yet already so determined that they turned out to be the most entertaining. I’ve seen them from the start, I met Lindo, I can't be "objective." But I have no doubts about it (and that's a rare thing): after Area, the most significant group in Italy—Ferretti has written some of the most dense and precise words ever (for pop songs, that is). I’m sorry to have to say this, it's not to stir controversy at all costs, but it must be said: title and cover practically perfect.