Daniele Luppi is a master craftsman. Not only has he worked on countless film scores (living up to his hero Ennio Morricone), but he’s arranged some of the biggest hits in the world (‘Crazy’ by Gnarls Barkley, for example) and worked with some of the most talented people in the industry (Jack White, Danger Mouse and Norah Jones). Now he’s back with a follow up of sorts to his second studio album, Rome, with Milano, a collaboration with American punk band Parquet Courts and multi-talented Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman, Karen O, which is an extraordinary exploration of Luppi’s upbringing, his homeland and musicality itself.

Beautiful, Foxygen-like strings open the album on ‘Soul and Cigarette’, which instantly shows the softer side to Parquet Courts frontman, Andrew Savage. He opens the album talk-singing: "Albatross flying again, after 20 years in a cage / Passes overseas, brings a ghost to his knees / Feathers flocking into words on a page". It’s a soft, lullaby-esque start to the album, reinforced by Luppi’s playful string arrangements. ‘Talisa’ instantly juxtaposes this with Karen O joining the fray, bringing some trademark post-punk bite. This sees O depicting the role of model Talisa Soto, which includes meeting with the Gianni Versace. O cheekily sings: "Gianni said sashay / And Gianni gets his way". It’s a tongue-in-cheek look at the fashion industry in Italy in the only way Luppi knows how: glossy, loving and steeped in nostalgia.

‘Mount Napoleon’ feels more like a Parquet Courts song but, much like he did with Norah Jones and Jack White, Luppi pulls them back with a lovely, melodic backing track. Halfway through, he employs the saxophone and bells, too, which underlies the second half of the song. The impressive thing about Luppi is, no matter who he employs as the voice, you can always feels his presence. He’s a supreme director and conductor of music. Importantly, this isn’t a Parquet Courts album, it’s a Luppi album, and his stamp is on every single beat. Likewise with ‘Flush’, which Karen O excels on. It’s a punky number which is arguably the catchiest song on the album. O stutters and warbles the chorus of: "Go flusshhh, hush hush hush…" while Luppi organises a bass-heavy, finger-picking guitar over the top of it.

‘Memphis Blues Again’ sees Savage singing classic punk lyrics when he howls: "Emotionalism's a bore, modernism's a chore … Minimalism's absurd / To me it's just a word / I wished I'd never heard,". Luppi employs chugging, abrasive guitar which makes the song the darkest on the album, displaying Luppi’s teenage angst. ‘Pretty Prizes’ sees Savage and O finally sharing a song in a back and forth duet. "Beware of cats that follow you home / Of pretty prizes wearing disguises / Give her some milk, she'll purr as she bites through the bone,". This is O sounding the most like she did with Yeah Yeah Yeahs, her rhythmic tones perfectly juxtaposed with Savage’s caustic intonation.

It’s ‘The Golden Ones’ where Luppi’s film soundtrack sensibilities most come to fruition. Sounding like a 60s crime caper, O elegantly sings: “With me in you, the pleasure is all yours / With me in you, the beauty is whole and true," seductively, which sounds comparable to Kathleen Hanna’s time with Le Tigre. ‘Lanza’ sees Luppi adopt synth, once again showing the way Luppi looks at music. He approaches music making like a playground where he can experiment and, ultimately, have fun with all the toys at his disposal. No more so than album closer ‘Cafe Flesh’, which opens with 1940s style American crime noir saxophone instantly apposed with a vigorous and tenacious bassline throughout the song. It’s a subversive end to an album that is empirical; this is certainly an album that could split people.

Indeed, it’s an album that shouldn’t work and initially I didn’t think it could, but Luppi has crafted a fun look at 1980s Milan with an extremely impressive amount of depth – especially for an album that clocks in at just under 30 minutes. From garish glamour and sophistication to the sleazy, decaying and decrepit world below the surface, there’s so much to find in Milano. All of this is revealed through a cluster of characters, real and fake, inhabiting Milan at the time Luppi was there. The employment of Karen O and Parquet Courts is a masterstroke, notably because they both come from New York City, a city which has also experienced an increased materialisation of youth culture and, subsequently, gentrification like most cities in the last 20 years. It’s a deliciously diverse love letter to the fashion capital of the world.

Liam McMillen

Website: milanoalbum.com
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