Shootin’ Stars – In the morning – in the dark debut album review

If you follow this blog, you might have noticed that the great me, is in love with Italy. I can never emphasize enough what an amazing culture this country has, and its people have style, and let’s not get started about Italian food. Everyone and every other country looks up to Italy. La bella vita. It’s all what Italy is about. Being a happy go lucky civilization, what would you expect from a three women band from Italy? An album you’ve never expected to hear? Happy go lucky music?

Shootin’ Stars, a band formed in 2003 by Francesca Bottaro, Guilia Bottaro and Francesca Cricco just released their debut full length studio album ‘In the morning – In the dark’. Even though the band’s discography seems like a Tuscanian dry red wine, the band have a very strong repertoire of live gigs, both locally in Italy and abroad. Winning musical contests and gaining air time such as on radio station RadioRai1 (one of Italy’s most followed radio station) is the norm of the day. The album ‘In the Morning – In the dark’ is a well-blended recipe of avant-garde not so dark and relaxing music with hints of dark wave, blues, fokk and acid influences. Yes, acid, that’s not a spelling mistake. An eleven track voyage of poetry, culture, personal experiences and dry fruit music. Some of the lyrics are in English and some are in Italian, which sound much better. No wonder the Italian language fits better such music genre. The Italian langauge is more vast, thus people get to express themselves better when speaking this languange. So I would expect something better than the norm here, music above average from Francesca, Guilia and Francesca.

‘Teeny-weeny kit’, the album’s first track is a dreamy fairy tale like track with Tinker Bells flying around. Good intro, although not too graspy, will definitely leave you on the edge wanting more. Soon into the second track ‘Mirrors’; weeping saxophone and a multitude of soul haunted vocals, the track sounds dark and depressing, in a musical positive way. That kind of track a good producer would typically use in a bar scene for a fifties crime movie, where everyone was monochrome. ‘Before the battle of Moher’, is an epic instrumental track. It sounds folkish and in my opinion this track is the three lovely women’s showcase. It sets standards on how music should sound, how flutes should be played and what music should deliver to the heart and soul. An ecstasy trip of flutes, guitars, fretless bass and Aborigine like drums with cymbals.

‘L’Epifania di Vita’ is the first track that delivers a more sentimental feel, thanks to the introduction of the Italian lyrics. Reminding me of Canaan, although not such a dark song, this track’s chorus will definitely drag you away into some abyss, where you can’t stop thinking about your life’s low times. Indeed a Mellow and flowy track with very beguiling drum playing, thanks to Francesca Bottaro. The album’s fifth track is also an instrumental track; ‘In the morning – L’acquario’, and it features some simple yet amazing piano works. I wonder who came up with the title of this song. I mean what would a morning and an aquarium have to do with each other, or even better a good piano track? And that was Side A of the CD. Side A? Aren’t the cassette tape days over?

Side B puts you on alert mode immediately thanks to the sixth heavy electro acid track “Magpies – in the dark”. Forget about singing, it never went well with acid-like music. We just read lyrics. Then it’s time for “Quartetto d’archi”, another interesting instrumental track. The Saxophone prominence in this song makes it sound like a London underground homeless song, during a cold and wet winter night. For those of you wondering and snobbing people around, street performers do play some amazing good music as well. ‘The Second Coming’ without any offense is my least favourite although still a good’ish tracks. Allow me to say that it sounds a little bit, too common. On the other hand, the following track called ‘Creatures’ is again another haunting song with amazing vocals and background natural atmospheric noises. ‘Disharmonious’, the tenth track is a fairy catcher song. Aren’t you tired of chasing fairies? Both vocals and instruments remind me a lot of Dead can Dance, which means it delivers the right amounts of chemicals to your brain.

And it’s time for the last track, ‘Lullabye-bye’. What this trio did is what you typically do with your food. You always leave the best for the last, so you keep your taste buds excited for much longer. And Shootin’ Stars seem to want to leave a good impression on their listeners; not because they really need to, but yeah the eleventh track excels. A thirteen minute lullaby which starts with a bluesy sound, faultless singing and ends with a climax; all instruments playing together accompanied by background voices and water stream. Sounds like an orgasm, doesn’t it?

An excellent album, well produced, amazing artwork and contains a good variety of sounds, touching music, a balanced mix of music genres, and female vocals. What do you want more in life? Definitely you don’t need to analyse the band repertoire of live gigs and awards to know that this band is going places. Simply listen and watch the below music video, and if this track does not grasp your soul with a pair of cold hands, I don’t know what else can.

You can listen to Shootin’ Stars music on their SoundCloud page or else follow them on Facebook to keep yourself updated.