Baby Blue
Come!

"..But don't you cry babe, because tonight we'll have a shady time" (Eileen)

It's late at night. You know you're far from home, but not too far because there's music all around. Picture yourself at this moment hearing innocent laughter, like children playing, coming from who knows where. You start to question and get agitated, until a hand gently brushes your shoulder and whispers in your ear: "Do you want to dance my child?". The heartfelt advice from the writer is to have no hesitation and follow this mysterious and joyful muse, dance with her, meet her funny little friends and then who knows...

The dichotomies in the lyrics and music of this "Come!", the first CD by Baby Blue produced by Paolo Benvegnù, intertwine in a seductive and irresistible manner. Shady charm and childhood games, melody and noise, spontaneous irony and melancholic-supplicating riffs of the best blues tradition alternate with mastery, grace, and a sweet, damnable charm of bygone days (which ones, I really don’t know!). The music can be rough and hard, but just when it seems that things are getting out of hand, we are surprised by rhythm changes, sudden vocal caresses, or solos as essential as they are impactful.

Everything meticulously studied then?

Exactly the opposite. This perfect harmony between sugar and bile arises spontaneously from an artful inclination of those who have music in their blood and thus couldn't live without it. The Taste. That's what differentiates a well-played, sung, and produced CD from "Come!", a spontaneous tendency towards the most beautiful melody, which manages, however, to give the natural space it deserves to the compositional violence and musical urgencies of the group. I speak of "Suga" or "Rita", where the sweet nursery rhyme-like verses are suddenly interrupted by abrupt and delightful guitar/vocal explosions; or "Took Me Long", a splendid love plea that develops into an enchanting rhythmic and vocal crescendo and concludes in a playful coitus between the voices of Mirko and Serena.

"River", in my opinion one of the peaks of the CD, drags and torments you for three-quarters of the piece, strong with a skillfully "monotonous" drum/guitar combo that finally finds release and satisfaction, but only for a moment; because the finale is all Serena’s and her desire to dance. "Under Your Foot" is hormonal, sick in its sweetness, and dignifiedly powerful in sound; a dream, not for the one who wrote it but for the one who, listening, cannot help but imagine a night of ardors and caresses.

Serena Altavilla in all of this Sings. Whispers. Screams. So distant from this splendid blue night of loves, kisses, and merry-go-rounds, yet so in symbiosis with her singing, with the sonic impact of the tracks.

Velvet Underground, Elvis Presley, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Violent Femmes, Bob Dylan. These are just some of the groups to which, for various reasons, the Prato-based Baby Blue might be compared. And it's evident that our Baby Blue have listened to plenty of records (and what records!!!). But even daring any comparison would be a forced and decontextualizing operation, which would deprive "Come!" of that enchantment, joy, and shadowiness that arose only thanks to the talent and artistic intellect that characterizes these four guys.

Chill!