Klimt 1918
Undressed Momento

I am here to review perhaps one of the most important and intimately felt albums in my collection. If at certain points this review may seem to wander or appear overly subjective, it is because the album often touches me in a special way. Since I am writing with the various songs playing in the background to be as relevant to the record as possible, my thoughts may not always be entirely clear, but that doesn't worry me much, as I believe a music review should primarily convey feelings.

"Undressed Momento" by the Romans Klimt 1918 was released in 2003 by our very own My Kingdom Music. The album marks the debut of the Roman band and is characterized by a musical style that is rather difficult to categorize. It is essentially an intimate goth-rock with atmospheric bursts, indebted to fellow Romans Novembre but also to Anathema, early Cure, Opeth, and Katatonia.

Composed of nine tracks, the album opens with an intro in which a chant (in a language I honestly don't understand) leads us to the second track (but the first actual song), Pale Song.
Pale Song is calm, laid-back, and reassuring in its dreamy pace, although it is immediately pervaded by a melancholic vein, which will be a constant throughout the album. Vocalist and guitarist Marco Soellner's voice is clear and pure, and the guitars create very sensual and sweet melodic flourishes.

It is followed by Parade Of Adolescence, charming in its pace and chorus. In my opinion, this third track loses some of its appeal compared to the previous one, although it recovers in the incisive and dreamy finale. The beauty comes with We Don't Need No Music, the first real surprise of the album. An intro in French accompanied by a pulsating and precise drum is followed by warm and melancholic guitars supported by a punctual and prominent bass line. All this forms the backbone of much of this beautiful song. The first verses are sung in Italian, a language that does not clash at all with Klimt's music, which then makes room for subsequent verses in English. It is followed by a powerful chorus in which resigned anger seems to emerge from Soellner's voice. The song keeps building as it progresses, with a finale dominated by an instrumental break that reprises the main riff.

The title track, Undressed Momento, is of sublime beauty, a song that opens with the few notes of a guitar, to which all the other instruments are gradually added, continuing with an autumnal and sorrowful text. Midway through, the song is at the height of its power, and it can only end with a final majestic crescendo. Images of a beautiful autumn day ending, with the sun setting and light filtering through the branches of an oak whose withered and dry leaves tremble at the touch of a gentle breeze: this is Undressed Momento, warm, melancholic, sweet, and whispering, a gem, poetry in music.

The following That Girl turns out to be more forceful and powerful than the previous tracks, with electric guitar lines that intertwine well together, creating excellent motifs. Once again, the middle of the song is irresistible and very incisive. Next is the relaxing Naif Watercolour, a grade lower than the others, though still engaging when it comes to life. The eighth and penultimate track, If Only You Could See Me Now, is angry, disdainful, but also restrained; Soellner's voice, always clear and clean, recites words loaded with contempt and resentment, so cynically spiteful and indifferent ("I don't care if you die/I don't care if you live"). Where Undressed Momento was melancholic, this If Only You Could See Me Now is proudly spiteful. Certainly the third emotional peak of the entire album.

The last track and also the fourth gem of the album is Stalingrad Theme. Its typically death-like start (which hints at the group's roots) with blazing fast drums and powerful guitars then develops into more dramatic yet still well-driven lines. There is then a break coinciding with the start of the singing: the lone voice is later joined by an instrumental crescendo that accompanies it until it explodes again in all its power. This splendid track is the ideal closure for the album, a perfect synthesis of the moods expressed in the record, especially in Undressed Momento and If Only You Could See Me Now.

A magical record, painful and poignant, warm and cold, resigned, melancholic, and angry; an album that encompasses many aspects of the human soul, a decadent, sensitive, and romantic work (in the 19th-century sense of the term). An album that, along with its successor Dopoguerra, should absolutely not go unnoticed in the Italian and European scene. Seek it out, it won't disappoint you.

P.S. A note of merit also goes to the album's artwork, truly well executed and an excellent reflection of the melancholic and intimate nature of the record.