eMusic Review 0
An exercise in nostalgia and high concept from Danger Mouse (Brian Burton), Jack White, Norah Jones and Italian soundtrack composer and producer Danielle Luppi. Rome is a re-imaging of the experience of hearing music from Italian movies of the ’60s and ’70s, the epoch of Ennio Morricone, Nino Rota and others. Burton and Luppi put the tracks together and enhanced the core group with Italian studio stalwarts like Luciano Ciccaglione (guitar) and Dario Roscaglione (bass). White’s and Jones’s voices are a tell-tale modern signature, but the authenticity of the sound is there; liquid plate effects, smooth voice, strings and bass combinations, high class Mid-Atlantic discotheque tunes. Morricone is the grandest influence, and Rome is a worthy tribute to his evocative tunefulness, but Burton and Luppi can’t match that master’s (and especially Rota’s) balance of sophisticated expression via naïve music, especially with their lyrics. It’s enjoyable, not weighty.
