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Rating: In an era where buying a CD is, depending on one's taste, a revolutionary act, a bit of radical chic, or an old nostalgic obsession, the physical medium has become a sort of fetish for a selected few. You touch it, turn it around in your hands, unwrap it carefully, lest you scratch the digipack cover with your nails, you read every last line of the booklet ("otherwise, excuse me, why did I spend these 15 euros?"): it's a ritual, with its own timing, performed repeatedly with the beloved little plastic disc that gets swallowed by the player. The end of the service, we'll (re)connect for the next listen. Today's youth won't understand a damn thing about this private pagan liturgy of yours, what with their iPods holding three thousand and fifty songs and they can't even name one. "Back off, the CD is mine, and I manage it!".
You understand that in such a context, where for a youngster collecting discs is now comparable to the thrilling charm of collecting pipes, even for an artist, despite decades on the scene, one must wonder if it's really worth continuing to make records, if perhaps it's time to find some alternative path, a bit like the Radiohead of a few years ago, like "MP3s for free for everyone and then we put them on CD a few months later", because while making our above-mentioned fetishists happy soothes the soul, the wallet weeps, as there's not much money here. The mythical CD, therefore, becomes a kind of precious object, almost an art piece, to be produced in a very limited number of copies, destined for a cult among a few initiates. More or less, Mr. Massimo Zamboni and his partner Angela Baraldi must have had a similar reasoning for this album. A live album from the last tour printed in only five hundred numbered and autographed copies containing the best of their repertoire: a true lithograph, so much so if it had been on vinyl you could almost display it in your living room. "Oh yes, this is an original Zamboni-Baraldi, very rare, contemporary art stuff, but what do these boors know." Well, perhaps, but not exactly, something like that.
Because it's worth saying that this little disc is a truly delightful discovery, one that leaves a mark. What at first might have seemed like a risky choice, that is, entrusting the historic songbook of CCCP and CSI to a singer/actress, even with a long resume behind her, turns out to be successful. Not only does Baraldi prove worthy of the role, but she manages to give her own interpretation of the songs, saving the duo from what would have otherwise been a pitiless comparison with the original pieces.
When you listen to "Mi ami?", "Allarme", "Emilia paranoica" it's almost inconceivable that songs like these were conceived over twenty-five years ago: another world, another mentality, another Italy. And the fact that after so much time, both in the studio and live, they still sound so fresh and relevant, exemplified by "Io sto bene", a song-symbol of the void of the Eighties, only confirms, if it was ever in doubt, how at the time the renowned partnership Zamboni-Ferretti had great foresight. Interesting, though perhaps a bit too "stripped down", are the reinterpretations of "Cupe vampe", which perhaps deserved a more emphatic interpretation, and "Del mondo", while lesser-known Zamboni tracks like "Nove ore" and "A ritroso", which deserved much better fate, are truly noteworthy.
Are too many people touring with the CCCP and CSI repertoire these months? Maybe so, but it's really hard to talk about mere coincidences. Pure tribute to themselves or a desire to start again from such a formative experience as that of the Eighties and Nineties to propose something new? We'll see what happens in the coming months, for now let's "settle for" the splendid tour and the CD.
Setlist:
Emilia paranoica
Da solo
Quando se non ora
Allarme
Del mondo
Nove ore
A ritroso
Mi ami?
Io sto bene
Cupe vampe
Annarella
Curami
M'importa 'na sega
Musicians:
Angela Baraldi: vocals
Massimo Zamboni: vocals and guitars
Cristiano Roversi: stick - bass
Erik Montanari: guitars
Gigi Cavalli Cocchi: drums
Tracklist
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