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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Workin' Class Rock and Roll, May 29, 2000
Yeah, his voice does sound a little like Sting, but his music has more in common with the working class rock and roll typified by Bruce Springsteen before The Boss ate a monster slice of morose pie and got deep starting with "Nebraska." Nek's music is more about cruisin' the Jersey boardwalk with the wind in your hair, and making plans with your friends on a lazy summer day with endless possibilities ahead. Okay, so he's singing in Italian so I don't reeeeeeally know what the songs are about, but they smell like my adolescent years to me.The first song you're going to want to turn to on this CD is Track #3, Se Una Regola C'e. This is his biggie, the song I heard on radio stations from Vienna to Istanbul in the summer of '99. It starts with a guitar riff that faintly echoes of Born to Run, albeit without the signature bass line. Nek launches directly into his singing with a melody that catches you and throws you around and spits you out right before the chorus comes along and hits you upside the head. Try listening to this song at high and low volumes- the louder you play him, the better he sounds. Two other knockout songs are Ho In Testa Te, a slower song that has the feel of a chant about the verses, while the chorus parts soar in an easy floating melody, and Se Vuoi Se Puoi, which doesn't immediately appeal but grows on you. He's got the slow ballads, too, and they're good, but you expect that from an Italian teen heart throb. Unlike Latin American artists like Jon Secada, Ricky Martin and Marc Anthony who actually sound better in Spanish than they do singing identical songs in English, I think Nek would do well in translation. I've seen some of his stuff in Spanish but no English versions yet.
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