MADAME ZELLE

This Italian concept album about Mata Hari aka Madame Zelle falls a bit short for me. Which is a bit puzzling, because plenty of the ingredients are here - an interesting concept (even though I don't understand the lyrics), multifaceted compositions, lovely singing and music, some parts that rock out quite ably, even some jazzy influences and ethnic drumming.

I guess you could say that all the ingredients were added to the soup, but there was too much water. So while they are all present, none have a really strong flavor. The album coasts along at "pleasant" mostly from beginning to end, but rarely do I feel excited by the music, or very emotionally involved. And unfortunately, there are a few parts where the instrumentals just seem to be meandering, looking for that something that would give the album an extra boost but failing to find it...

I've put this album to rest and then picked it up again various times, in the hope of finding what it was that I missed that others are enjoying. But at this point, I have to acknowledge that maybe this album just isn't for me.

And there's not much else to be said. For sure, many will enjoy this album, especially those already inclined to exactly this type of music, but it's not the best of its type.