Cinerama "Disco Volante"

I Cinerama sono il gruppo capitanato da David Gedge, il frontman dei The Wedding Present. Dovevano essere giusto una pausa dal gruppo principale, ma, accidenti...fossero tutte così le pause!
Secondo album che accentua già le caratteristiche del primo lavoro. Romantico, struggente, orchestrale, brioso, stravagante. Insomma il buon David aveva fatto assolutamente centro ancora una volta!! (2000 Scopitones)
Former Wedding Present front man David Gedge has definitively left his former band behind with his new outfit, Cinerama. The guitar-driven lower-case pop of the Wedding Present has been upgraded to Pop with a capital P. Lush, adventurous, and beautifully melodic, Cinerama's second release (following 1998's Va Va Voom) is a veritable feast for the senses.
From the opening track's spaghetti Western styled guitar, it's obvious that the band name is no fluke, and the songs on Disco Volante not only draw their sonic inspiration from such classic soundtrack composers as John Barry and Ennio Morricone, but play like mini-films or perhaps short stories put to film.
This goes as far as the band's naming one song "Superman" and another "Lollobrigida" (the last name of a premier Italian cinema sex goddess). But, thankfully, "Disco Volante" is completely free of kitsch and irony, and it achieves a kind of timeless glamour that is positively romantic. Stretching beyond the usual pop-rock instrumentation to include accordion, vibes, xylophone, horns, and blankets of swoony strings on most of the tracks, "Disco Volante" manages to sound big but not bombastic, familiar but completely fresh.
The key that holds it all together is Gedge's lovely tenor voice and unerring sense of melody, all infused with sort of upbeat good cheer that is a perfect antidote to the legions of nihilistic whiners who have come to dominate popular music in the last few years.
Admirably aided by coproducer Steve Albini, the clear-eyed Pop of Cinerama is joy incarnate and sexy to boot. (Carl Hanni - http://www.amazon.com/)
Every '80s student bedsit stereotype loved The Wedding Present, and this is former frontman David Gedge's new band. If there was a fault with the Wedding Present, it was the self-confessed tendency for "all the songs to sound the same", and the grinding guitars and sometimes strangulated vocals may have put off the uninitiated.
However, Cinerama could not be more different.
Flutes and string sections accompany Gedge's songs of love lost and found. The presence of his partner Sally Murrell seems to have cheered him up - songs such as Your Charms must go down as the happiest material he's ever written.
Also, his libido has certainly improved - "With so many people in the room above/that was the weirdest place I've ever made love" runs the opening couplet of Because You're Beautiful.
However, it's not all hearts and flowers, and Let's Pretend is a heartbreaking ode to the end of a relationship - "And it may seem unorthodox/but I am trying to remove all traces of your personality" states the opening line.
The album is produced by US hardcore veteran Steve Albini, but this is a long way from his work with the Pixies or Big Black. Superman could almost appear on daytime radio (although it won't), and all vocals are high in the mix - a real change of direction for Albini who usually buries vocals underneath layers of guitar.
An excellent album from an under-rated national treasure - who else could write a line like "You need a paramour/someone to pluck your eyebrows for" and get away with it? (John Murphy - http://www.musicomh.com/)
- 146 Degrees
- Lollobrigida
- Your Charms
- Heels
- Unzip
- Apres Ski
- Superman
- Because I'm Beautiful
- Let's Pretend
- Wow (Extended verison)
- Your Time Starts Now
CINERAMA