{"id":25491,"date":"2023-06-17T05:30:19","date_gmt":"2023-06-17T09:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=25491"},"modified":"2023-06-19T10:15:26","modified_gmt":"2023-06-19T14:15:26","slug":"album-review-marco-rossi-the-sincerest-form-of-flattery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2023\/06\/17\/album-review-marco-rossi-the-sincerest-form-of-flattery\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Marco Rossi — The Sincerest Form of Flattery"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I\u2019m as interested as the next listener when an artist\/songwriter of quality decides to embark upon what we used to call a \u201cbusman\u2019s holiday.\u201d David Bowie\u2019s Pin Ups<\/i>, John Lennon\u2019s Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll<\/i> \u2026 collections of cover-versions of songs that influenced the artists can be revelatory, adding to one\u2019s understanding of that artist. That\u2019s the case with The Sincerest Form of Flattery<\/i>, a new 12-track collection from Marco Rossi. Rossi is best-known as a music journalist, and he brings a deep-dive, crate-digging mindset to this release.<\/p>\n

The list of artists covered on The Sincerest Form of Flattery<\/i> reads like a who\u2019s who of hardcore music fiend favorites. Deep tracks from the Strawberry Alarm Clock, Nazz, Paul Williams and other high quality acts make this set a delight. Rossi\u2019s approach is less retro than, say, The Dukes of Stratosphear; he gets the vibe right without creating recordings that sound vintage. The production aesthetic is top-notch, just gauzy enough to suit the material but sharp enough to let the music shine through.<\/p>\n

Some of the arrangements are scintillating; Rossi\u2019s reading of Orange Bicycle\u2019s \u201cLA\u201d sounds like The Association backed by Nazz. And speaking of Todd Rundgren\u2019s old group, Rossi\u2019s cover of \u201cForget All About It\u201d captures everything that\u2019s special about the proto-prog\/power pop classic. Rossi doesn\u2019t reinvent the tune (nor should he) so it sounds a lot like both the Nazz original and the Gladhands cover. But one can never get enough versions of the song. The drums are especially powerful and well-recorded, with a splashy, bashing yet precise Keith Moon feel about them.<\/p>\n

Even though the song selections are drawn from an assortment of artists, The Sincerest Form of Flattery<\/i> has a cohesive character; if one didn\u2019t know that these were covers, they\u2019d likely just think of the album as a collection of very, very good songs with compelling arrangements. And that\u2019s what this is, really. Only hen \u201cLet\u2019s Get Together\u201d comes up will the typical listener encounter a song they\u2019ve heard many times. And Rossi does some interesting things with the vocal arrangement.<\/p>\n

A faithful take on We The People\u2019s sweeping \u201cIn the Past\u201d closes the album. The power of the recording belies Rossi\u2019s approach to the project: he sang and played everything himself, but these songs sound very much like the work a proper band. Chances are good that even the most obsessive fan of \u201860s psych and related styles will encounter at least a tune or two that\u2019s unfamiliar. And if that leads them to further investigation, then part of Marco Rossi\u2019s goals have been realized. Recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m as interested as the next listener when an artist\/songwriter of quality decides to embark upon what we used to call a \u201cbusman\u2019s holiday.\u201d David Bowie\u2019s Pin Ups, John Lennon\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25492,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,57,65],"tags":[3077,5170],"class_list":["post-25491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-psych","category-review","tag-fruits-de-mer","tag-marco-rossi","cat-49-id","cat-57-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25491"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25493,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25491\/revisions\/25493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}