Vanilla Sky
The Band Not The Movie

Doing a quick Google search under the entry Vanilla Sky, the first thing that pops up is the sci-fi movie starring Tom Cruise, rather than these four former youngsters now in their 30s who, with this work, reach the milestone of 10 years in their career.
Realizing they are often mistakenly associated with something else, the band from the capital baptized their fourth album as "The Band Not The Movie".

This album release presents several novelties: on one hand, the return of the historic bassist Cisco, and on the other, the end of their relationship with Universal, with the album being released under The Alternative Factory (their personal label) and a total return to English, a decision that is advisable.

Now hedging a bit, it can be said that "Waiting for something" remains unmatched, despite this album attempting to partly recover that early approach and being closer to the American scene rather than proposing a forced caricature of it (their words) in Italian.

But the question to ask is the following: which geographic area first and audience later are Vanilla Sky targeting today? Not the audience of various talent shows, not the lovers of punk tout court, as they are too clean and tidy. Comments on various social networks and their various tours in Eastern Europe and beyond show that their golden market is undoubtedly the East rather than internal.

Personally, among the latest releases, Alkaline Trio did better, despite this, the season is right to lend an ear maybe under the umbrella at the beach or returning from some vacation.

This album compared to "Changes" sees again a greater contribution of the guitars, without foregoing some more thoughtful moments as shown by the final piece and "Slow motion end".
The peak, however, is reached with "The Longest Winter" where somewhat melancholic vocal lines and a well-accompanying solo guitar lay the groundwork for a chorus to shout out loud. The chorus of "Giving Back" instead brings the mind to "Unfriend" (track from WFS). Lastly worth mentioning is "A Nation of Allright".

Nothing new under the umbrella, but a pleasant return nonetheless.

Rating 7