L'ATTENZIONE DEBOLE

Mary Newsletter's fourth album is a fresh take on the modern spacey prog rock album. The true Italian spirit of adventure and humor can be found in this eclectic mix of rock, psych, pop, and electronica. They list their influences as Pink Floyd, Radiohead, and Quicksilver Messenger Service and their guitar sound could be compared to Mark Knofler at times though it is often not as clean sounding as Dire Straits but with more of a spaced-out vibe.

"integro" begins with bleepy samples, weird sounding guitar and distorted wordless vocals. Some frisky acoustic guitar joins in. Then the band comes in heavily with good bass and drums. No one shows off too much but you can tell they are good players. Some normal vocals alternate with the distorted ones. The last minute features some weird squawking noises to the jamming guitar. "il colpo e la croce" is my favorite track starting with eerie noises to acoustic guitar. A beautiful and haunting vocal starts soon after that with absolutely perfect expressive space guitar and bass creating a Djam Karet style atmosphere. There is an odd effect to the vocal that gives a sense of helplessness to the subject. Soft piano sprinkles, bird like noises, and sparingly used percussion all add so much. The Levin sounding bass playing carries the track through some of the quieter moments. "peccato." comes charging out of the previous song with an upbeat drum beat and some rock guitar and heavy bass. More odd vocals give the otherwise static song a little edge. "illusione/delusione" is a jamming instrumental workout. "la pace" features both regular drumming and hand percussion with wah-wah guitar and good vocals. More nice piano here and there. The song structure breaks down in the middle and has some open space with just jazzy cymbals and loose guitar leads. One of the stronger tracks. "morte di un moderato" is quite bizarre with a movie soundtrack feeling, like from a strange 60s film. Exotic instrumentation and a "no rules" playing style of each man for himself. "step forward" is a strange song that begins with an electronica styled programmed beat with psych guitar in the background and wistful vocals. It slowly evolves into a good electric guitar solo over nice slow rhythm before the fast programmed beat returns at the end. "comin' into LA" may go down as the strangest cover I've ever heard. It's an electronica version of Arlo Guthrie's old "Coming into Los Angeles" that could be played at a rave to a roomful of partiers. It's a bit ridiculous to be sure but this album has a sense of humor lost on lots of dry artists. "nothing but the net" is almost a mix of punk, surf, and psych-pop. "in fondo" like the previous track shows the wheels coming off the wagon even further, in a good way, as "normal rock" music blurs into a loose, trippy rock chaos.

This is probably not the band's finest moment, I've been told earlier works are superior. I think 3 stars is being generous as there are some nice moments but inconsistency as well. The band's myspace site claims they have disbanded since this recording. The Mellow issue comes with a lyric booklet and nice artwork on the front and back covers.