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Hello ladies and gentlemen of de beaser!
For my first review, I chose an album that is very important to me, possibly the one that most allowed me to admire the beauty of the country I live in. Therefore, I am very motivated. After this brief preface, I'll proceed straight to reviewing the album.
"Creuza de ma" is music (as the album is more of a commercial undertaking) dedicated to travelers, those who live their lives wandering for any reason and can only stay briefly in their homeland; pure heart, pure soul, pure poetry. Drawing inspiration from these reflections, our duo De André/Pagani takes us to an ancient Mediterranean center (not confined to just Genoa, even if the choice of language might suggest otherwise) where the current language is a mix of all the port cities and colonies. It makes us live and breathe that almost nomadic air of sailors, the economic turns of the cities, the marginalized, and the common people.
The whole album is infused with Mediterranean instruments like the oud, bouzouki, and other instruments typical of the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern environment. Even the voice of our Faber becomes more expressive, abandoning the constraint of the "Brassens style" singing due to the greater adaptability of the Genoese language, which is almost devoid of the low rhythm typical of the Italian idiom.
The subjects covered are among the most varied. It starts with "Creuza de ma," which shows the need for simple goods in contrast to the habitual nature of modern life, which shows an indifference: the indifference of sailors towards the people on land who seek quietness even in their thoughts, taking refuge in wine before the night of the journey, because all of them, together in the morning, are "masters of the rope that binds them and leads them down a sea path," going through " jamin-a " an authentic ode to the prostitute where De André, not constrained by censorship, blends a hypnotic melodic line with a vulgar yet extremely sincere eroticism typical of those who, like travelers, cannot have love when they want it. A splendid solo finally guides the listener to the explosion and introduction of the most painful moment of the entire album, "Sidun" (Sidon), a city in Lebanon destroyed and rebuilt dozens of times due to war, and to that heartbreaking verse of a parent who must say goodbye to the child killed by war (in this regard, the universality of Genoese is even more recognized) and closed by an almost hopeful Sardinian choir.
Then comes the fearful commander Cigala in "Sinan Capudan Pascià" who, rather than challenge his luck, let himself be captured by a Moor, and while he rowed in slavery, suddenly rushed to the galley's helm, saving the Sultan's life who, to reward him, made him Grand Vizier named Sinan Capudan Pascià. A vizier that exalts the universality in this case of the same greed for money that unites the entire world "and tell those who call me renegade that the sultan allowed me to shine his silver and gold, cursing Mohammed instead of the Lord. The music flows and accompanies us to meet a scrawny man forced to become a pawn collector in "A pittima" as, debilitated by his physique, he could not do a more arduous job. The theme, accompanied by a flute that highlights the character's uncertainty, is one of those typical "moments of the poet" that exalts beauty in a disagreeable figure like the pawn collector, ennobled by safeguarding the ragged ones.
The journey takes us again to "A dumenega" in Genoa, where the prostitutes enjoy their day off dressed as great ladies and mocked by the population/clientele. As in the most sarcastic De André, the reckoning comes when one of the mockers learns that his wife is among those prostitutes, finally closing with the return of the sailors who cry for their loves before the journey, their only certainty. A certainty against the insecurity of returning home, the very essence of all travelers from "da me riva."
David Byrne defined this album as one of the most important of the '80s, but I believe that very few understand the crucial importance of what is defined as one of the first examples of World music.
Immense Faber.
What do you think? Don't be afraid to judge so I can improve.
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