Virginiana Miller
Gelaterie Sconsacrate

THE REVIEW

In the summer of 1996, suddenly, almost out of nowhere, Virginiana Miller appeared. And they did it with a fantastic single "Tutti al mare" and subsequently with the album "Gelateria Sconsacrate," which represented a sudden novelty in the chronically stagnant state of music, in the San Remo-style small Italy. Indeed, at that time there was a great stir in what we could call alternative Italian music, the kind we listened to. It's no coincidence that many great bands from our country emerged right in those years and still today are points of reference (for us, that is). But Virginiana Miller, true natives of Livorno, immediately put something different on the table, a stunning fusion between a music that is the splendid offspring of great Italian songwriters of the past and, on the other hand, influenced by the British rock of the eighties, particularly by the Smiths. The result is a sparkling rock sometimes playful and sometimes even vicious, with sudden and extraordinary melodic and melancholic flashes. Everything is enriched by the lyrics of Simone Lenzi, singer and writer, surprising for their depth, irony, and intensity, sometimes even literary in certain passages.

The Virginiana Miller recount the feelings of every teenager of the eighties with incredible precision and verisimilitude. All the tracks have a surprising atmosphere suspended between (self-)irony and melancholy and tell stories that belong to everyone's life. In the single "Tutti al mare," which narrates a typical Italian family's trip to the sea, it is a perfect example of the "Virginia Miller style," tight rhythm, rickety guitar, deep voice, and lyrics that feel like a movie. Everything in balance between carefree sensations and growing melancholic anxiety. The rest of the album is a series of gems, one after the other. Unexpected songs and lyrics that cut like blades. Amazing are "L'uomo di paglia," "dotlingen," and "L'estate è finita." A great but practically unknown album, published by a great label "Baracca & Burattini."