Italy's Cheap Wine's fifth CD is fascinating collection of music ranging from retro folk to powerful modern rock and alt singer/songwriter. The folksy "I Can Fly Away" has sweet vocal harmonies in the CSNY vein. "Move Along" shakes your soul with a furious guitar punch. "Snakes" begins with a slightly twisted acoustic passage, before the dramatic but edgy guitar snarl ensues. Fresh music and excellent musicianship prove that this act deserves more worldwide notice.
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Cheap Wine is the hardest working band in Italy. For five years and five albums they successfully conduct their rock'n'roll career from Pesaro, a small Italian port on Adriatic Sea. With each album Cheap Wine approach heart of rock'n'roll closer and closer. If their first ep was an interesting exercise in genre, and if their previous album Crime Stories was a nostalgic
and detailed study of rock'n'roll outlaw imagery, then this new album can't be called a study or exercise, this album is a true-to-heart record, performed with meticulous originality. Cheap Wine never hid their influences, but this is their landmark record as they struck right into the center discovering their own identity. And that's what this record is about - it's about self emancipation, and self-discovery, not only of a band searching for their sound, but also of characters described in the lyrics.
Another key topic here is escape. Characters roam away and disappear to nowhere after their discovery is confirmed. Musically, songwriting is solid through the record and guitars are ringing. As usual, the key member of the band is Marco Diamantini, but this time his brother Michele took a fair share of creative input producing the record and co-writing nearly all the songs together with Marco. 
There are several songs that feature a gorgeous melodious choir. Cleverly, the most beautiful choir chant was placed as an opening track to set the mood and additionally sets apart this album from the rest of their catalog. Another cool choir song is a wonderful cover of Dylan's One More Cup Of Coffee. 
It is a fact that the music of Cheap Wine is full of American iconography. You'll hear songs about gunmen, outlaws, desert, Brando, Bonnie and Clyde, you'll hear about a desperate lover who hits the highway alone discovering that moving along is the only way to be. It is not a surprise to hear Italian band singing so eloquently about these things as this country produces a vast majority of european western sub-culture. Spaghetti westerns, comic books about independency wars, Indians, Wild West and swamp super heroes all come from Italy. Obviously this band swallowed all this subculture and connected it with rock'n'roll. The mixture is dense, deep and very original. 
When the "americana" genre started to wear out in past couple of years, this Italian band lights up the new path which will hopefully be followed by some of their american colleagues as well.
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