02/12/2009

By http://www.inkoma.com

Komakino reviews You a lie

Comaneci  - You a lie
(11 + 1 hidden tx CD, 37'56'' - Madcap Collective / Fooltribe / Here I Stay, 'o9)


Review

There are a cat and a mouse, very pissed off, on the new Comaneci's record front cover, You a Lie: - maybe they're pissed off about You, or about themselves, - who knows, - all brilliantly drawned by the talented artist Erica il Cane.
Recorded by Mattia Coletti, and produced by Bruno Dorella - two important actors of the italian alternative non-scene (see the Wallace rec profile page for the first, and Bar la Muerte rec, OvO, Ronin and more for the latter), - i guess this album is going to be remembered in the future as a representative example of high inspiration and promise-brought-to-success for something finally Musically and Emotively Good in Italy.
Active since 2002, a couple of line-up changes, several EPs and a full-lenght album in 2007, They toured Europe and recently USA, too, - now Comaneci is the core-member Francesca Amati - classical guitar, gentle vocals, and Glauco Salvo - electric guitar, banjo, - both homebased in Ravenna, in middle Italy.
The opening song A pair of glasses is magnetic, - calm and circular, - it's the perfect door for a record collecting nude songs of naked beauty, - no artifices, - it's like when You met a very beautiful natural look girl (in italian we say "acqua e sapone", 'an english rose', i guess, people say in UK).
A song like Satisfied girl is able of a such delicacy almost unexpected in its only 2 minutes and just a few chords: guitar and banjo, Amati's vocals in full grace and sweetness, - totally charming and.. potential soundtrack for a TV commercial about cookies!, - people having milk and cookies on a sunny Sunday morning, - yeah, i can clearly see it: it is a such so pure song and heart-warming.
The piano-driven track Like, - whose a previous version was featured on the limited edition EP Girls was sent to grandma's in 1914, tune formerly named Battle, - grows into a vortex of melancholy and instruments, - then, Not, - previously called Pumpkin Snatching (Song Of A Cold World), turns Your skin to goose-bumps along with the meowing refrain "Don't tell me you want me / if you desire something else", - nearly heart-rending when it gets burnt by distortion, - and notwistanding the good feelings of Green, the following Promise is another suspended evening lullaby, act to heal your nerves, with a lovely tempo kept in the first part by a palm mute guitar and then by a violin pizzicato.
Sleep baby sleep obeys to the band's policy of spartan sounds, warm and unplugged, - a strict ensemble of frail electric and folk notes, cello, mostly drumless - where She looks like written in a sort of Woman of 1000 Faces spirit, - several girls in the same girl, - a lovely slow ballad, and the (false) last track Good company is a delicate male/female vocals duet, - and if You hold tight for about 2 minutes, You'll get to an hidden track, an evocative melody dear to Cat Power's The Covers Record.
Definitely one of my favorite records for this year.

+++++++