Hide Vincent
Imperfection

Year 2014, planet Earth. By now, all my relentless search for music is stored within a software that from Sweden has kindly invaded all our homes. Yes, it's him: Spotify, and its flocks of Related Artists, in whose sea it is sweet to be shipwrecked. And so, by now, this is how I spend my days, clicking from one to another, traversing musical labyrinths that lead me to think that perhaps even the butcher at the end of the street has some of his pieces uploaded there.

And so, sometimes, in these journeys through long cavernous tunnels, one discovers the light. I started with Ben Howard, and after about twenty clicks, I found him: Hide Vincent, with a presentation, the cover of his debut album: a sensual embrace of human beings made of smoke and coal. I'm talking about "Imperfection", ten tracks of varied genres so well blended that they appear indistinguishable: Rock, symphonic, electronic, alternative; a warm pot of good things.
I was convinced a bit by everything, the artist's name, the album's name, and the muted beige of the cover, and I clicked play on the top tracks. What I found was a forty-minute journey outside of time and space, among sweet and bitter harmonies, delicate carpets of strings, smooth yet vivid rhythms. At the end of it all, I woke up with a baggage of sounds added to my heart and brain.

The track that opens the doors to this musical adventure is the title track: "Imperfection". A track halfway between orchestral and songwriting, accompanied by arrangements made ad hoc, with compositional wisdom and criteria. A sharp double bass pushes us into a vortex that's not easy to escape, while a series of skillfully played loops introduces us to the backbone of the entire album: the voice. A warm and mature voice, aware and experimenting with tonal extensions throughout the album that are never reckless nor ever predictable.
In short, in the opening, this album has all the cards in place to make us continue.

The track that awaits us is "White Pictures of You". It’s not one of the tracks that thrilled me the most in the entire album, but it's a bit like "that classic that never dies". Well-written lyrics and an adequate vocal line follow a not too elaborate, essential, minimal but overall functional composition. The highlight of this track is the delicacy of the piano touch, played by the author himself, which, in general, within the whole album, seems to be the most intimate and appropriate instrument.

Following, "All Your Days" is one of the best tracks on the album. Lively and brilliant, an original march, colored by ever-moving strings and a very versatile and clean vocality. Numerous influences can be read in this track, an arrangement that originates from the most revisited pop songs to touch on strings like those of the Smashing Pumpkins (in their past glory) or more recent Bat For Lashes.
"Plastic Bikes", it's a piece that hasn't been heard in a long time. Almost four minutes of voice and piano, and nothing else. Breathtaking piano execution and a voice that hits your head like a whirlwind. Then, I discovered it’s also the first single from the album, here’s the video: Plastic Bikes. Undoubtedly my favorite.

The fifth track is "The Constant", and yes, it’s indeed a reference to Lost, as suggested by the few seconds of audio prologue taken from the same episode of the famous TV series. It is certainly the most rock-oriented track on the album, for old-style lovers. Perhaps with verses a bit too "suffocating", but the chorus opens up well to balance it out. Otherwise, a good song, but nothing groundbreaking. The sixth track and the penultimate, relatively "A Sunset Serenade" and "Embrace", are the ones with more pop references, but stylistically are far from the genre. The first is a very interesting ballad, with a breathtaking fretless bass, and a couple of liberating screams in the final reprise that can't help but engage all senses. The second is perhaps the poorest track on the album but without a doubt, very catchy.

In "Cold Winter Suicide" we face the world of electronics. Perhaps the most peculiar track on the album, where the piano leads with simple but decisive touches. The inclusion of female choirs from a voice touching lyrical tendencies makes everything surreal and gives you goosebumps. A final high note and a hammer on the piano keys throw us back into the harsh reality, that of the eighth track: "Brokenskins" (which was also the first I listened to on Spotify, being at the top of the top tracks), eight minutes of voice and guitar, an introspection into the dark, a fairy tale without characters. You truly get lost in the purity of Hide Vincent's vocal cords and his ability to reach the depth of things.

The album closes with a guitar that for forty seconds resumes some riffs of Schubert's Ave Maria, where rough and desperate words leave us suspended in this universe, with the urge to continue, in an album that could have been infinite.

The following button on this artist’s profile has already been clicked by me. An artist who, during my searches (which were not immediate since he turned out to be still among the "emerging" artists) was revealed to be Italian. Two nice discoveries in one: music that today stands out from the crowd and, moreover, from our country. We should be proud of it.

We must support emerging music because there are times, like this, when it is truly worth it.