Fabrizio De André’s Le nuvole: Italy’s disillusionment at the end of the 1980s

Abstract

Fabrizio De André’s Le nuvole (1990) recreates and denounces the social apathy that characterized Italy from the end of the 1980s until the early 1990s. Exemplary of De André’s criticism towards Italy’s society, Le nuvole illustrates the artist’s maturity as a social commentator. In this album, De André explicitly takes the stance of the engaged intellectual not only in the songs of the album but also in the many interviews that accompanied its release. Together with this copious corollary commentary, this article analyses in particular side A of Le nuvole. The songs on side A are more explicitly critical in their focus on oppressive powers, the waning of engagement and riflusso, the social shift towards materialism and hedonism, and the dawn of the Berlusconi era.