MAIORANO – Glorious Days

KKBOX: https://www.kkbox.com/sg/en/album/0V.yL5Co1zkr90F2SJd4009H-index.html

MAIORANO – Glorious Days, is a full-length album with Alex Maiorano leading a stylish sextet composed of saxophone, trumpet, organ, guitar, bass & drums through powerful, lively & emotional songs which connect with the heart and soul of the audience, along with drummer Alessio D’Alessandro. The two started out playing together in a band at age 14, and jumping ahead to 2010, they went off to Berlin together to play to a larger audience and turned their small folk/blues outfit into a powerful soul act. Glorious Days is essentially a rock album with loads of soul and inflections of other styles which keep it interesting.

There’s a punk-ish attitude to some of these songs, but they’re ten times the musical prowess of punk rock. So, it’s just a flavor among the many to be found by MAIORANO on this album, which contains just as much ska influence and the vocals probably dominate these aspects. They kick off with “Just A Sign” and it follow the aforementioned-vibe, but it’s the piano that gives them a constant twist and ups the overall energy. “Give Me A Fix” follows a much more-big band approach without losing the same attitude as the opening track, rendering the disc getting better as it goes, thus far. The build-up is fantastic.

After the big sounds of the previous cut, “I Got You” brings some serious power pop into the proceedings, and it’s a very accessible tune with great vocals, unlike the singing on the first two tracks. The chorus pops really-hard with some backing voices to make it almost a pop rock anthem and the horns add just the right touch on this great little gem. The punk attitude applies even more on this track, without limiting it to just one thing. But it gets even more vocally dominant on “Days In The Life” with its sassy lyrics and some marvelous guitar playing. The latter two tracks play in great succession together.

They get back to that big band sound in the opening moments of “25 Times,” but it goes into more of a ballad style track with just as much going for it as anything on the record. It simply gets better as it goes. The horns get quite a workout on “Just A Little Bit Closer” with Alex Maiorano’s vocals getting increasingly better, and once again backed by more voices on one of the album’s best moments. This is full of everything this band seem to be about. But it’s followed with the lesser but still great “Cani Neri” which is a title that obviously carries a European vibe, and a killer bass and drum interlude that makes it.

“Monkey In My Head” is where things get more mainstream, but less energetic in the process with the vocals doing a different level of business with an up-front dominance. It bubbles along nicely, but the album picks back up on “I’ll Never Know” with an even more mainstream track. It’s worth noting how these songs play very well in pairs. By the time you hear this you either get the whole album or you don’t, as there isn’t one filler cut to be found, including “Dirty White Shoes.” It’s all a lot of fun and downright contagious.

I-TUNES: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/glorious-days/1434304564

Michael Rand