Settlefish
Oh Dear!

One day a friend asked me something... "Hey Marco, what do you think of the new Settlefish album? "... "You know, I've heard it's very pop... catchy and with an American sound, so to speak... They haven't sold out, have they? They're still the same, right?"

"Well... it's very different from the previous ones... you know, they've made a pop album"

At the sound of this three-letter word, my friend shot me a piercing look... he got up from the table we were sitting at, headed to his bicycle, and rode away...

I was bewildered... but not too much, I kind of expected it...

The fact is, talking about "Oh! Dear!" is not exactly the easiest thing in the world... it's inevitable to say it's a pop album... I don't see how to replace this ominous term... But pop is not always synonymous with "easy"... if it were, this would be an album you could digest at first listen... and well!... that's not the case at all...

I remember the rainy day I bought it and, all enthusiastic, listened to the CD without a care, having no idea that Settlefish had decided to fight with my ears... so I found myself lying on the bed with the cover in my hands, contemplating the song titles and wondering how it could happen... "How the hell did I not like it? Do I throw it away or listen to it again? Yet from the first notes, you can tell it's an immediate album, damn it! Even the cover seems to affirm it... huh!"

In fact, all the songs seem simple, carefree, and danceable... how can it not go down?

... simple, because this is an album with balls... made by matured musicians, pop is their attire, not their creed... it's an album to follow, with an instrumental logical thread... not a concept, mind you... but a set of songs to follow with concentration and not distractedly... it seems Clancy has found a more personal style in singing... and the drums are perhaps more in the foreground compared to the always excellent and precise guitars... it's probably these drums that remind me in some ways of the Cure...

About the songs, it must be said that they are all more or less built on the same structure... the most beautiful moments of the album are the opening track "Head Full of Dreams", where you already understand a lot about the rest of the CD, "Summer Drops"... where after a calm start it reaches a guitar-filled finale, real gems are the two "I go to Quixotic" and "The Boy and the Light"... "This City" is one of the most violent songs of the album, the concluding "Wishing Tunnels" is also beautiful... remember the four melodic interludes with the voice in the foreground and of very short duration (we're talking seconds) placed throughout the tracklist...

A very good choice also to prevent everything from becoming excessively heavy...

... Settlefish are back... and they've made a pop album... and what a pop!

1 Head Full of Dreams
2 Ballons
3 Summer Droops
4 Interlude 1
5 I Go Quixotic
6 The Boy and the Light
7 Interlude 2
8 Lonely Boy
9 Whirlwind in Delivery
10 This City
11 Interlude 3
12 In the Neighborhood
13 Interlude 4
14 Slowly Moved On
15 Wishing Tunnels