Customer Reviews

Medina

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Pino Daniele is probably the most talented musician in Italy right now. He has an amazing voice - one that is extremely high, but still sounds masculine and not strained. Many of his other cds are much more bluesy, but this one has very little in the way of very obvious blues influences. Instead, it combines Italian, English, Arabic, French and Neapolitan dialect into a mix that is ear-catching and enjoyable at first, and continues to grow on you with each new listen. It's music with obvious catchy melodies, but with a detailed and multi-layered composition that lets you listen many times without getting bored. Most of the songs would fall somewhere in the rock-pop genre, but with influences from all over the world. While I like every song on the cd, the first four are particularly good. They feature a number of different guest artists, all who measure up to the talent of Daniele. Don't let the fact that the lyrics are mostly in Italian scare you off -- while I speak Italian, I certainly don't speak French or Arabic, and Neapolitian dialect is a bit beyond my skills right now -- even if you can't understand the words, you can pretty much figure out what the songs are about. Daniele has a very emotive voice. I've bought a number of cds by Italian artists to work on my Italian -- Pino Daniele is the only artist I'm positive I would buy no matter what language he sings in.

The first time I discovered Pino Daniele's music was while watching Video Italia on a cruise ship in the mediteranean. I was impressed by his song, Sara, so as soon as I hit the mainland of Italy I ran out and bought his latest CD, Medina. I am an American who doesnt speak Italian but the music spoke for itself. I realized that Pino was an impressive vocalist, guitarist and overall musician after listening to the CD from beggining to end. The CD was a fusion of soothing jazz, spanish and arabic music that fit together nicely. Anyone who is open minded and appreciates music should love this album.

Being one of the most interesting Italian artists of the last 25 years, Pino Daniele has done it again: a wonderful album with some beautiful songs.

After the highly disappointing 'Gelato al Equatore' Pino strikes back with one of his best albums to date. After his musical exploring of the South American continent(on Mascalzone Latino for instance)Pino turns his musical direction to Northern Africa and the Middle East. Again he succeeds in integrading foreign musical influences into his own Neapolitan style. And what a wonderful result it is.

He still sings with his wonderful voice, and keeps delivering these beautiful songs we have grown to like over the last couple of years (Sara for example is brilliant).

I must admint though that I wasn't directly impressed with this album when it was first released, but after a couple of listeningsessions it opened itself to me. Therefore no 5 star review.

I can only wonder which continent will be explored next. His recent tour (of which I was lucky enough to visit a concert in Lecce, Italy) didn't give me a clue yet. Due for april 2002 is a live album of his last tour so I'm afraid we have to wait some more time to find out where Pino has been gettig his new influences for new songs. Still, the live album will be great!!!

I own 12 of Pino Daniele's CD's and his diversity and virtuosity are stunning! That said, this is one of the least listenable of his works, and quite divergent from anything he's done in the past. I would NOT suggest getting this CD if you don't own at least the five previous CD's, or even his very early work. It is not indicative of his style or sentiment, but rather an interesting if unsuccessful foray into middle-eastern-influenced music. It's for his most (blindly?) ardent fans only, lacking in the meditteranean beauty of harmony and melody that so characterizes this otherwise superb artist. PASS.