Jake E. Lee
A Fine Pink Mist

First solo album in every respect for Jake E. Lee, who presents himself with a work that surprises the listener, stunned by the continuous change of registers, sounds, atmospheres and colors coming from the guitar of this dazzling genius of the six strings.

An album that definitely needs to be listened to several times, to savor every nuance, to manage to get inside every single song. It starts with ""Exithouse"", a somewhat tentative track that recalls, with some sounds, the period spent alongside Ozzy. The piece, however, gives the impression of never taking off, and in the end, it proves to be one of the less successful episodes of the album. ""Demon a Go-Go"" initially is very soft, with liquid sounds that then open up into a Pulp Fiction-like atmosphere (perhaps a bit too much). The first part is definitely fascinating, with Jake playing some hypnotic licks, characterized nevertheless by his sharp and somewhat neurotic picking, which is his true trademark. It moves to ""Soulfinger"", which surprises the listener with an almost pop intro, at least until a guitar enters the scene, with its whaw, having all the appearance of wanting to be the troublemaker of the moment. Then everything changes, and the sounds become angular, devoid of any roundness.

A simple and hypnotic arpeggio introduces us to the world of ""Soulfinger"", with a female voice whispering in the background: in my opinion, this is the most intense track on the album, with electric and acoustic guitars overlapping, with rhythms changing, with a voice that keeps asserting itself, regardless of the music and noise around her. A track with almost magical atmospheres, that has the power to change with every listening. The music continues with ""The Rapture"", ""The Magnify"" and ""The Velvet Desire"", in which Jake does as he pleases, besieging the listener's ear with a series of fascinating and mysterious sound worlds. It's worth noting how the American guitarist carefully avoids playing as a virtuoso, always trying to prioritize the pure sound over technique for its own sake. ""Atomic Holiday"" further confirms Jake's stylistic choice, as he experiments with every kind of distortion, delay, chorus, and tons of effects and guitars in a blend that's in continuous evolution. The tracks follow one another like so many worlds of the same universe, seemingly different from each other, to end with the noise delirium of ""Bludfunk".

An album recommended to the curious, to those who love music as a quest: certainly an unconventional product, which once again manifests the visionary talent of a musician often too underrated, and who, after all, with his choices as a piccolo isolazionista has never done much to avoid it.