bar italia - Tracey Denim

  by Zena Grieg

published: 3 / 7 / 2023

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Review

The elusive, interview-eschewing London-based trio bar italia (Nina Cristante, Jezmi Tarik Fehmi and Sam Fenton) formed in 2020, have brought out a new record. Their third album, self-produced, ‘Tracey Denim’ is an experimental mix of genres ranging across moody rock, pop, post-punk and trip-hop. Running through the songs are themes of angst, relationship breakup, loneliness, unrequited love and vulnerability, set against a backdrop of intimate harmonies, overlapping vocals, languid basslines, dissonance a striking leitmotif throughout. Songs to listen out for in this fifteen-track collection include: the languorous opening number ‘Guard’ with its looping piano; lead single ‘Nurse!’ with its laconic lyrics: “You said, I’m coming alive/Haven’t felt this way since you were 21”; the intense, imaginative, ‘Punkt’ with its spoken-word lyrics, jangling guitars and insinuating refrain: “…I don’t owe you an explanation/I just wanna lose control”; the mid-tempo ‘Missus Morality’ with its distorted crescendo; the lush, acoustic guitar-driven ‘changer’ with its yearning vocals; ‘Clark’ with its infectious guitar-bass interplay and deadpan chorus: “I guess you caught me on a bad day/But it’s okay if you’ve got time/You fuck me up so gladly/Kinda telling you that I don’t mind”; the melodic punk-pop ‘Friends’; and the closer, the baroque ‘Maddington’ with its swirling chords and layered sonic kaleidoscope. A group which has largely gone under the radar, bar italia have produced an album which demands attention.

Track Listing:-

1 guard
2 Nurse!
3 punkt
4 my kiss era
5 F.O.B.
6 Missus Morality
7 yes i have eaten so many lemons yes i am so bitte
8 changer
9 Horsey Girl Rider
10 NOCD
11 best in show
12 Clark
13 harpee
14 Friends
15 maddington

Band Links:-

https://baritaliaa.com/

Label Links:-

http://www.matadorrecords.com/
https://twitter.com/matadorrecords
https://www.facebook.com/MatadorRecord
http://matadorrecords.tumblr.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/matadorre
https://www.instagram.com/matadorrecor

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