Review of Rome album created by Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi

To view my online copy at http://www.hivemag.com/, click here

With The Guardian streaming this album for free, I could not resist listening to it over and over again on a somewhat blue Monday. It changed my day as it took me through the most chilled if slightly eerie acoustic guitar riffs and sweet harmonising vocals.

Rome reflects Brian Burton aka Danger Mouse’s love for Italian film soundtracks. He has collaborated with Daniele Luppi, a TV and film composer who guides this hauntingly diverse project, which has been created mainly by musicians who played on the original Ennio Morricone scores.

Since releasing his prominent 2004 The Grey Album, which consisted of slicing instrumentals from The Beatles’ LP known as The White album with acapellas from Jay-Z’s The Black album, fans have been waiting with baited breath to see what limits Danger Mouse will go to next, to change and push musical mainstream boundaries.

After spending the past few years working on his act Gnarls Barkley, to producing music for Gorillaz, Beck, MF Doom as well as The Shins, Danger Mouse has chased his wish to complete an album full of magical tracks that I would put up there with one of the best albums of 2011.

This album includes vocals from the legendary Jack White of White Stripes/Raconteurs fame on tracks such as Two Against One’, ‘The Rose with the Broken Neck’ as well as ‘The World’. There are also vocals from the middle of the road/not so cool singer Norah Jones, who’s reputation appears ever-changing especially when you listen to her sensual sounding voice on songs such as ‘Season’s Trees’, ‘Black’ and ‘Problem Queen’.

There are other amazing shorter tracks such as ‘Gambling Priest’ and ‘The World (Interlude)’, which include haunting harmonies and seductive string sections. Also, the song ‘The Matador has Fallen’ sounds strangely like The Doors!

This is a refreshing guide into Danger Mouse’s passion for Piero Umiliani, Bruno Nicolai and Piero Piccioni. It will certainly make you glad that he has the imagination and will power to complete such a detailed music project, and it once again highlights Danger Mouse’s ability to continually be a unique and forward-thinking producer.

If you’d also like to enjoy free streaming of Rome, the go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/may/09/danger-mouse-daniele-luppi-rome or if you’d like to check out some of the music video clips, go to www.romealbum.com.