Modena City Ramblers
La Grande Famiglia

THE REVIEW

La Grande Famiglia is the second album by Modena City Ramblers, both chronologically and, according to many, in terms of beauty, following the unsurpassable Riportando Tutto a Casa. Indeed, this CD still echoes the strong energy and freshness of folk ballads, slow, melancholic, yet also aggressive and wild, which strongly characterize the early works of this group. The music of MCR here is capable of eliciting a wide range of emotions, spanning across various shades of sound and rhythm, a typical feature, in my opinion, of folk music; all of this is also thanks to the skills and versatility of the band members.

La Grande Famiglia opens with the tracks "Clan Banlieue" and the title track "Grande Famiglia," two captivating pieces that, when listened to live (and I speak from direct experience), involve the audience in an instant jumping frenzy, leaving one breathless after five minutes, a testament to the fact that this group really knows how to entertain, especially live. The frequent, abrupt changes of atmosphere experienced when listening to this album are perhaps indispensable elements for fully understanding the music and lyrics of the various pieces, which are often highlighted by one another through contrast: it is quite striking, for example, to listen to the sad, slow melody of "L'Aquilone Dei Balcani," a flute that seems to drift further away until it becomes an echo and disappears, only to find oneself catapulted into the midst of a folk festival in a beer-filled pub, urged by the liveliness, speed, and cheerfulness of "Le Lucertole Del Folk." In my opinion, some pieces, if listened to individually, would not have the same flavor they assume in their original context; they would lose something. A record, La Grande Famiglia, that knows how to entertain, move, and raise awareness on current themes (like the Sicilian people and the mafia in "La Banda Del Sogno Interrotto"), that pleasantly revisits a cornerstone of Italian music like "La Locomotiva" by Guccini, and ends with two sad songs, quite the opposite of how it began, two songs more of farewell than goodbye, almost as if to seal a golden era, that of the first two albums by MCR, which now comes to a close, and probably will not return.