EZIO
Release Date: 4th April 2011
This is the Day is NOT just another Ezio record. Here, after many years, we finally have the ultimate ’Ezio in a nutshell’ record. Recorded in a rustic country house studio in northern Germany, This is the Day captures Ezio‘s songs and performance in their most potent form.
Ezio are a band originating from Cambridge, whose core members are Ezio Lunedei (Singer, songwriter, guitar) and Mark ‘Booga’ Fowell (Guitar). Lunedei met Kenyan born ‘Booga’ in Cambridge in 1990 and the two have made a perfect union ever since. Since their inception way back when they’ve been on a musical journey that has seen them release albums on major labels (1994’s ‘Black Boots on Latin Feet’ on Arista/BMG, Diesel Vanilla’ on MCA/Universal) and tour with Paul Young, Les Negresses Vertes, Joan Armatrading and Big Country.
Along the way Ezio have built a huge, loyal fanbase through blowing crowds away with their breathtaking live performances. They’ve also continued their musical development by releasing a number of ever-evolving studio albums, the strongest of which is their latest offering, This is the Day on which Ezio and Booga are joined by by Lars Plogschties on drums and Marcus Praed on bass.
The album opens with understated number A Small Dream, whose subtle picked guitar and piano recall the stripped back work Johnny Cash did with Rick Rubin later in his career. Next is Bad Bad Place, a rocker reminiscent of Tony Joe White, the original swamp fox, in all his gin-soaked, leather-clad glory. This is the Day and Supermarkets take the pace of things down a little with a couple of wistful ballads then, in a track that would no doubt make The Boss himself proud (’Bruce Springsteen’) we see Asbury Park, New Jersey meeting Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire with lyrics like “I’ll never be The Boss. Just lower management I guess. I’ve never had a Thunderbird. A beat-up Volvo is less absurd“. Can’t Stop Dreaming, Marina, Each Time You Cry are powerful (and possibly personal?) meditations on love and the loss of it. Things pick up again for The One and Only One, a driving track much in the vein of Ryan Adams and the album closes with heartfelt waltz I Still Want You.
“This time something else happened. Something you always need but we’ve never had. This time, for the first time, we got lucky!“, Ezio says of the sessions for This is the Day.
They got lucky. We got lucky, too.
Track Listings:
1.A Small Dream
2.Bad Bad Place
3.This Is The Day
4.Supermarkets
5.Bruce Springsteen
6.Can't Stop Dreaming
7.Marina
8.Bicycle
9.Each Time You Cry
10.The One And Only One
11.Mad At Myself
12.I Still Want You