Wow

Verdena is an Italian post-grunge band. They started in the late \\\'90s as epigones of The Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana and later became more psychedelic, absorbing influences from Motorpsycho and Melvins. They\\\'re quite famous in Italy for their nonsense lyrics and for being a compromise between the so-called \\\"Italian alternative scene\\\" (=pure crap), and a more mainstream territory (their audience is very young, if compared to other Italian bands of the same genre). I never liked their music, too grungy in the 90s, too stoner in the 00s, but this record is a U-turn. I think they listened to The Flaming Lips a lot (especially \\\"Embryonic\\\"), and to Microphones, Bloc Party and the The Beatles too, because this record sounds psychedelic but in a pop way, not in a bigmuffy way. I know that these influence are very far away from each other, but think as a compromise between distorted pop miniatures, articulated drum patterns, cheesy backing vocals and some raw noise-rock riffing and you might get an Idea of how this record might sound. Unfortunately some elements of their previous style are still present, mostly in the harder tracks which sound dated and parsecs away from my tastes (such as \\\"Lui Gareggia\\\", which sounds exactly as an Italian cover band of The Melvins playing \\\"What I See\\\" by Black Flag). However, the poppier side of the record sounds good, but I\\\'d give this record some more listenings, then rate it and write something more accurate. For now it\\\'s a mixed bag: 3 stars.