Danger Mouse & DanieleLuppi - Rome

Tue 31st May, 2011 in Music Reviews

Rome, a collaborative release between super-producer Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi, is a soundtrack to a made-up film. And while that might not sound as advertising as you’d think, the duo have produced an album that break those preconceptions and captures the very essence of spaghetti westerns, in an intriguing affair staring Jack White and Norah Jones.

The Rose With The Broken Neck has a twinkling, dream-like stature to it, as Jack White lends his voice to give it a quirky twist. It’s real compliment to White, a man who seems to step out of his niche sound so often and come up with the goods. If White is providing the eerie, alluring, dangerous sounds of the Italian film score, then Norah Jones is pretty much the polar opposite. Season’s Trees is the first appearance of Jones on the faux soundtrack, and her voice embodies a great sense of Euro-romanticism against the cunning voice of White.

Even the instrumentals are molto bene, Roman Blue and The Gambling Priest, each a sweeping assortment of strings, strolling bass, and chipped guitar work providing musical romance in the absence of the ever-enticing Jones. One of the albums highlights come in the stand-off styled, Two Against One, with White’s devious tone, up against equally ominous guitar, making this track the quickest on the draw.

Jones turn for a highlight follows soon after with the bashfully erotic Black. Her hushed voice like a sirens call towards the troubling events of the tracks staring White. The World ends the album, with the yin and yang differences between Jones and White finally coming together in a striding finish.

While the album maybe a series of instrumentals, with a few singles amongst it, it certainly is more about atmosphere than hooks. Perfectly catching the combination of European romance and theatrics, with Western cunning, so typical in the film scores they were trying to base a soundtrack around. A tantalizing exception to the bad stigma that surrounds the idea of movie soundtracks.