Fabrizio De André
Rimini

THE REVIEW

The ability to evoke is perhaps one of the most important qualities that a songwriter, a poet, or anyone embarking on a certain type of writing can have. Evoking memories, moments lived, or even moments that transcend experience, created by the imagination through listening or reading. After "Volume VIII," Fabrizio De André released "Rimini" in 1978, which takes the listener from the regrets of a Fellini-inspired Rimini to the Native American atmospheres of Coda di lupo, reaching the journeys of Sally among "forest gypsies" and "dolls enticing gentlemen." Listening to this record with closed eyes allows the imagination to roam through a series of images that can bring to mind entirely different things even just from one verse to the next. Faber's poetry reaches towering heights in the title track, the story of the "grocer's daughter," forced to "abort the lifeguard's child and then look at him tenderly"; in "Coda di lupo", which through the story of an Indian's initiation recalls the generation of youths raised during the years of lead; in "Andrea", with an almost fairy-tale atmosphere, which tells the story of a homosexual love against the backdrop of the Second World War. Not only do the words play a fundamental role in this record: the guitar of "Rimini" seems embroidered on Fabrizio's words, just as the folk music of "Volta la carta" and "Zirichiltaggia" easily engages the listener.

An album that consistently remains at very high levels, not the best in De André's discography, but right behind his greatest masterpieces.

Ps: this is the first review so I gladly accept advice, suggestions, and constructive criticism. Thank you!