Viola
Don't Be Shy...

Review - brulée for this album... I don't think it really needs repeated listening to be able to talk about it...

Let's start with the merits: the young Viola, with her more than pleasant appearance and the well-known last name and cinematic background, could have made a classic grand debut with a big label and publicize this album to exhaustion: instead, this, her first work, is released under an independent label and with the help of former Giuliodorme members (fondly remembering their concert in my city and the sweet "Goodbye")... I should also mention that she seems to be committed to playing the guitar and doesn't aim to be one of the many more or less in-tune girls flooding the radio. In short: Violante Placido intends to make music seriously and, regardless of taste, this seems to be an established fact.

As a start, moreover, it is no worse than many others... From the first track (in English, like much of the album), one realizes they are in front of an intimate, highly listenable, and very, perhaps too, tender pop album... If one were to imagine a scenario, it could be a beautiful background for a car drive for two by the sea.
This album might, appropriately proportioned, evoke Suzanne Vega, and at times the constant guitar-voice pairing reminds me of the softer acoustic Carmen Consoli... But surely Violante lacks Consoli's strength and sensuality. Here it is all much more ethereal, almost dreamlike dimension... and probably that's the intention, considering the atmospheres evoked also in the video clip of the first single, "Still I" (the second track of the album).
Only in "A Zero" do the sounds seem somewhat deeper, with a more pronounced bass line.

In short, deferred to September. The exact score would be 2.5, but a 3 for encouragement can be given since it's the first album... and as a matter of fact, embarking on such an adventure as an ordinary person when she isn't, in a world of climbers, I think deserves admiration and respect.