The city never sleeps at night and that city that never sleeps needs a soundtrack. A soundtrack that finds the fairytales of the past in every shadow and every street corner. With the release of their album "If A Night”, Italian band Shijo X have provided such a soundtrack.
Punctuating the songs with instrumental interludes shows that Shijo X have that whole walk under the street lights of the post midnight urban nightmares planned out and you can feel the rhythms of the night in each and every song. Keeping us company on this journey across reality into dreamland is the delightfully poised voice of Laura Sinigaglia and she spins each song into a fairytale spiced with a touch of the exotic.
Taking “Almost in Trouble” as an example, you could make an entire musical based on this band’s distinctly quirky take on the whole Prince Charming Cinderella dynamic. Equally impressive is the sinuous yet twisted “Uptown Bike that turns neatly on its lyrical self.
Perhaps the most important point – and this does seem to be a common trait amongst the European bands that I hear – is that this album is actually interesting to listen to. The musicianship is of a high standard and care has gone into the production which makes “If A Night” an album to be savoured both in its entirety and, indeed, time and time again.