Tellaro
Setback On The Right Track

Reviews are not always written to praise a great achievement or to criticize a work that didn't go so well. Often, it simply feels necessary to point out a group whose potential is evident. I won't spend too many words on this work that remains confined to the few who know the group as an already established local reality, a reality that you would like to see transcend regional borders to be thrust into the musical scene that matters. This is because 'Setback On The Right Track' is truly a remarkable work to which you would like to see credited the merits it deserves.

Even the first track suggests that we are not facing just another indie band repeating the now institutionalized clichés of the genre. Tellaro has personality and they are keen to demonstrate it with 1985, a piece supported by electronic interferences on which classic guitars and warm voices create an alluring and captivating melody. Immediately afterwards, the tone changes, with an almost folk-like, rhythmic guitar introducing When I Died Alone, one of those tracks that leaves your critical reason wavering between a harsh judgment that would criticize the catchiness of the track, and one that nonetheless cannot deny the strange beauty those three minutes of music possess. But apart from a few exceptions, this is a constant throughout the album. It's hard to tell if Tellaro is one of those bands seeking an "alternative" pop, but still easily digestible to reach a wide audience, or if there's something else underneath. In reality, listening to the tracks repeatedly reveals they are much more complex than might seem at first glance. This is a consequence of Tellaro's greatest asset, which is the ability to compose pieces that charm the listener, catchy but not trivial pieces, on the contrary... Exemplified by the splendid I Was 70% Water, truly one of those tracks that makes an album worthwhile, or the beautiful Kamer Te Hur and Cyclop's Helmet.

'Setback On The Right Track' is not a masterpiece, it's not one of those albums that opens the doors of the musical Olympus to a group, yet it is truly a work that deserves to be listened to and appreciated. Without falling into the banal controversy of commercial music circuits that stifle small deserving realities, I only regret that the originality of this Sicilian trio does not reach a wider audience. This is not only because they deserve it, but because it is truly a private pleasure denied to that public unfamiliar with this small but splendid musical reality.