[rating=4.50]
Throughout the 1960s, much of the music that formulated the soundscape to Italian Western films was the product of Ennio Morricone’s scores. His legendary work included composing and arranging the music for films like The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, Fistful of Dollars and Once Upon a Time In the West among hundreds of other films. Morricone’s arrangements and style of creation have been the focal point for Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi’s new collaborative project entitled, Rome, a work that has been over five years in the making. A soundtrack unto itself, Rome subconsciously has a plot and is thematic of Morricone’s style in paying tribute to what have been historically known as Spaghetti Westerns. To capture that distinct essence, Brian Burton and Luppi invited Ella Dell’Orso and many of the musicians who had performed in the backing band for much of Morricone’s music to appear on the record. Burton and Luppi also recorded the majority of the album in Rome’s Forum Studios, which were founded by Ennio Morricone himself.
On the “Theme of Rome’” it’s Dell’Orso’s haunting vocals that solidify the effect the production duo were searching for and the opening drum pattern resembles the opening timpani beat in the theme of The Good, The Bad & The Ugly. Starring as the lead vocalists on Rome are Jack White and Norah Jones, who separately complete each other by acting, in a sense, as the good and evil that exists in Western plots. While they never appear together on the same track, the transitions that occur throughout the flow of the record shift back and forth between the two lead singers.
Threaded throughout the entire album is the instrumental melody that Norah Jones sings in the chorus on “Black.” The notes that you hear as she sings “Until you travel to a place you can’t come back/Where the last pain is gone and all that’s left is black” appear as a reoccurring theme on tracks like “Her Hollow Ways” and “The World” leading up to “Black.” It’s that melody that maintains the victorious attitude that embodies the hero of a Western, and once the tenth track is reached it’s like a victory is won. The high pitched organ that was largely featured on Danger Mouse’s Broken Bells project also makes itself known on tracks like “Black” and “Season’s Trees,” a notable sound that adds a positive vibe to Jones’ pieces.
Jack White’s songs, which he wrote the lyrics for himself, suggest a villain type of mindset entering a small dusty town on tracks like “The Rose With a Broken Neck” and “Two Against One.” The latter of the two details a conflict-based theme as White eerily states “And if think that there is shelter in this attitude, where do you feel the warmth of my gratitude?” A prancing clavichord melody that picks up in the second verse adds a strange effect to the feeling of the track. Additionally, the carefully placed interludes that occur between the songs set the tone for what is yet to come. Adding support to the structure of the arrangements, Luppi’s swelling orchestration of the string sections gives a greater depth to the production behind the record as a whole.
Rome is an album that you must listen to from beginning to end as a whole, for the tracks that blend common themes will give a deeper understanding of the entire listen. Reflective of what became the musical basis for Italian Western films in the 1960s and beyond, the combination between Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi succeed in producing a record of substantial triumph.
