Rome

Norah Jones, Danger Mouse, Daniele Luppi | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 17, 2011)
• Original Release Date: 2011
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Capitol
• ASIN: B004E0Z4XK
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (57 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,342 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Some five years in the making, the conception of Rome actually dates back even further, to the 2004 meeting of Brian Burton a/k/a Danger Mouse and Italian composer/arranger Daniele Luppi. Burton was emerging from the aftermath of the media storm around his Grey Album and beginning work on Gorillaz now multi-platinum and Grammy winning Demon Days. Luppi was amassing acclaim for his album An Italian Story, which paid tribute to the cinematic sounds that shaped his childhood, while writing music for the screen (Sex In The City, Nine, etc.) and soon thereafter contributing arrangements to Burton projects including Gnarls Barkley, Dark Night of the Soul and Broken Bells.

United in their shared passion for classic Italian film music, Burton and Luppi have created a record like no other: Intense songwriting periods both together and apart and travels to Rome during which Luppi reunited for the first time in decades original musicians from the scores of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West including the legendary Marc 4 backing band and Alessandro Alessandroni's 'I Cantori Moderni' choir laid the groundwork. Recording took place in Rome's cavernous Forum Studios formerly Ortophonic Studios, founded, amongst others, by the great Ennio Morricone -- employing vintage equipment, for which Burton and Luppi would pay with bottles of wine, and making every effort to replicate the recording practices of the 1960s/70s golden age, recording live to tape, with no electronics, computers or 21st-century effects.

Crucial to the completion of Rome has been the enlistment of two lead vocalists who not only do justice to but complete the three songs each written for a man and a woman. While on tour with Gnarls Barkley, Burton met Jack White and a year later, White recorded his contributions The Rose With The Broken Neck, Two Against One and The World in Nashville. White s counterpart, in a revelatory turn, is Norah Jones, who flew to Burton s L.A. studio from New York to sing on Season's Trees, Black and Problem Queen.

With acclaimed director and photographer Chris Milk brought in as "Visual Director", half a decade of hard work and unstinting perfectionism would draw to a close as the album and package were completed.

From Rome's opening with soprano Edda Dell'Orso's dramatic voice (the same haunting vocal presence from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly 44 years ago) gracing Theme of Rome to the closing strains of The World, Rome -- for all its cinematic qualities -- is not the soundtrack to an imaginary movie, but rather a complex, nuanced pop record rife with counterpoints of intensity and darkness as well as uplift and light. (Luppi calls it "a small window on human life, touching on love, death, happiness, desperation, and the visceral connection of a man and a woman".) It's an ambitious work with a uniquely modern sound achieved through traditional, vintage means. It is, above all, a fully realized album, perfectly formed and hauntingly beautiful.

Welcome to Rome.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 62 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars GRAB YOUR HEADPHONES AND ENJOY THIS SIMPLY STUNNING MASTERPIECE! May 17, 2011

By Scott Daly

Format:Audio CD

Lush, mellow and sexy as all get-out, this curious pairing of American producer Danger Mouse (he of Gnarls Barkley and Broken Bells) and Italian composer Daniele Luppi (he of Sex and the City) could have been tedious. But Mr. Mouse's track record of mesmerizing collaborations -- no matter how out-there the premise -- remains peerless, as this tribute to iconic Italian film music drips with '60s cool. The material is original; the project was five years in the making. But Ennio Morricone's influence (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West) is robust. In order to replicate the retro sound, Danger Mouse and Luppi recorded as if it were 50 years ago, which means no computer trickery. They also brought in musicians who worked with Morricone on those classic spaghetti-Western scores. And to give it all a little commercial polish (but still retain that hip sheen), Jack White and Norah Jones were brought in to contribute vocals, each one steamier than the next. Jack White plays a sorta gunslinger, especially on The World, which sounds like dusty dueling music. And Jones is pure femme fatale, luring people into her tricky web on many scrumptious rides. This is a true masterpiece and I can already say it will be overlooked by many but trust me and get this one now!

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Theatrical May 17, 2011

By Nse Ette TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Audio CD

This is an album I have waited for with eager anticipation ever since I heard it was in the making. One of my favourite producers Danger Mouse collaborating with Italian composer Daniele Luppi on an album of theatrical Spagetti movie soundscapes, and the vocals of Jack White and Norah Jones. How could it possibly fail?

Well, it doesn't. The sweeping "Theme Of "Rome"" (laced with operatic flourishes and delicately tapped percussion) opens the album, followed by the gently shuffling "The Rose With A Broken Neck" with White's vocals layered in upper and lower register. White appears again on "Two Against One" (in a spoken/sung performance), and closing cut "The World".

The pace of the album rarely strays above a midtempo shuffle, and every song is brief. Jones appears on the sultry "Season's Trees", the dark "Black" (with cascading guitar sounds and an intro remniscent of The Eagles' "Hotel California"), and the gently swinging "Problem Queen".

Other standouts are the Bluesy "Roman Blue", the ghostly "The Gambling Priest", and the incredibly beautiful "Morning Fog" (with quivery organ, haunting harmonies and a delightful keyboard solo).

It's nothing earth shattering, just deeply affecting and beautiful, and sometimes, that is enough.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Space station lounge music June 7, 2011

By Alexandra Henshel VINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

Not what I was expecting, but lovely and dreamy. A few tracks had a western feel, but for the most part, it really reminded me of late 90's Air- which I love, so that worked out for me.