RIYL: Air-The Virgin Suicides soundtrack, Portishead, Ennio Morricone
It may seem like a stretch, but Danger Mouse has likened his rapidly expanding career as “It” producer and eccentric collaborator to that of a film director. In a 2006 issue of New York Times magazine, he stated “I want to create a director’s role within music… Musically, there is no one who has the career I want. That’s why I have to use film directors as a model.”
Keeping those sentiments in mind might make it easier to understand the album that is Rome. At times, Rome has been described as a “soundtrack without a movie”, so it’s a concept album at heart, and a counterweight to Danger Mouses’ more radio-friendly collaborations with Beck, Cee Lo Green and Gorrilaz.
For Rome, Mr. Mouse (a.k.a. Brian Joseph Burton), teamed up with Italian composer Daniele Luppi and assembled a crack team of Italian musicians, many of whom had worked on the famous 60’s and 70’s Hollywood scores by Ennio Morricone. To keep things lively, Burton also brought in Norah Jones and Jack White to lend their vocals to key tracks. Understandably, a large amount of hype ensued.
Jones and White get 3 tracks each to work their magic, and head-to-head its Norah’s sultry vocals that pair best with the nuanced chamber pop Burton and Luppi have created here. The same goes lyrically, as her coolly detached sexual innuendo runs rings around Whites’ neurotic conceits.
Jones is at her best on “Black”, a gently ominous daydream of organ and violins where she muses about religion and romance and manages to be beguiling and perplexing at the same time with the closing lines, “And when you follow through/ And wind up on your back/ Looking at up at those stars in the sky/ Those white clouds have turned it black.”
While the murmurs that it might have been a contender for “Album of the Year” seem quite heady in retrospect, Rome is a lovely respite from the limited sonic palette that clogs a lot of ears these days. While Burton might not be getting heavy airplay with this batch of tunes, its likely his upcoming collaboration with U2 will find its way to more than enough iPods to make up the difference.
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