Review Summary: Bradford Cox, meet your identical twin. He ain't half that bad...He ain't good yet either.
At a quick precursory glance, there isn't much to distinguish Alessio Natalizia (the man behind Banjo or Freakout) from Bradford Cox. It's easy to imagine that, despite being a skinny italian, Alessio easily outweighs Bradford, but after that things get slightly more difficult. They both have that sharp whisper of a voice, which despite it's lack of volume, can be the most powerful thing in the room. They both create beatle-esque/beachboy-esque pop songs which sound as if they were taken through a car wash of ambience, then shot up with PCP. When compared to Atlas Sounds, they both work primarily out of their laptop. That said, the biggest difference I could find was evident two songs into Banjo Or Freakout's self-titles album. That is, Alessio still has a ways to go.
Banjo Or Freakout borrows the dream pop sound from Cox and his contemporaries but fails to be anywhere near as intriguing. The hooks often fall flat, the textures often uninspired, and sonics that half the time can only be lazily described as boring. It's hard to be less critical when you face the fact that you've heard it all before, except better. Even the songs within the album appear to be sad ripoffs of one another. "105" opens up the album well enough, and even though the hook is a bit bland, the end of the song is constructed beautifully, exploding into an array of celebratory synths. Unfortunately this formula of two hooks and an outro is repeated for well over half of the tracks on the album, giving the whole thing an unfortunate sense of drab predictability.
This predictability doesn't seem to come from a lack of imagination, just a lack of a sense of what to do with it. Brilliant ideas are hinted at throughout the album, camouflaged within either formulaic or sloppy writing. "Can't Be Mad For Nothing" ends in a mad rush of percussion, which can be described as nothing less than enjoyable, unfortunately it stays a minute and a half past it's welcome, to the point where a breath of fresh air becomes a meandering mess. Idiot Rain has a wonderfully catchy refrain, but the verse that leads up to it is marred by a slapped on nineties pop guitar line that the song would simply be better without. "Fully Enjoy" is composed of an absolutely electric combination of guitar noodling and ambience, but to fully enjoy it you have to ignore the song that lays on top of it, with it's soggy verses,and even soggier refrain.
Even though the majority of the album is a disappointing mix of intriguing ideas, and tired songwriting, the albums finds a minor redemption in it's conclusion. Alessio does something odd here, he takes the copy and paste dream pop of the first six tracks of the album and subtracts the glitter, optimism, and the beach boy influence. The album consequently becomes a much more darker affair. This is where the best and most original songwriting is found. "From Everybody Above" is the tightest song on the album, minimalist electronic haze masterfully glazes over the glum but catchy affair. "Dear Me" takes the climatic urgings of his previous works and turns it upside down into a depressing yet previously unexplored ambiance. "I Don't Want To Start all Over Again" ends the album on an emotional high note, Alessio repeating the songs title over and over again until he confidently reaches the cathartic climax. The conclusion of the album is easily the brightest part of the album, as it not only points to Alessio's ability to write exciting music, but also to what the record could have been.
The downfall of Alessio Natalizia is the lack of confidence to move past his own influences and come into his own sound. While many of his ideas shout the potential of what Alessio could be, you can't ignore what he is. A producer who not only wears his influences on his sleeve, but also dresses up as them every halloween, and prays to them every christmas. It's a struggle many young musicians face, and the result often determines their entire career. When it comes to music though, people aren't looking to hear attempts at sounding like your favorite artists, they're looking to hear you. If anything, Alessio needs to grasp that.
