Alex Vecchietti - Blessed
Review by Karl Magi
Overall Album Impressions
Alex Vecchietti’s Blessed combines intricate guitar, layered synth sounds, powerful vocal performances and thoughtful songwriting to deliver a message of hope, individuality and forward progress.
The guitar performances on Blessed form the core of the album’s musical personality. Alex Vecchietti is a skilled, sensitive and expressive guitarist as he plays intricate and emotive solos and strong melodies. I enjoy the sheer energy and power that pours from his guitar along with the emotional depth in the music.
All of the musical collaborators on Blessed add richness and unique perspectives to the album, along with their distinctive voices. Joao Esteves, Kosmic Kiss and Daniel Hugh bring their strong vocal performance abilities to bear along with their songwriting skills. The end result is music that is full of heart, emotion and aural pleasure.
The album is also a showcase for Alex Vecchietti’s synth skill. He’s able to weave together sonic tapestries that use synths to add tonal colour, textured sounds and support for the guitar and vocal performances. His synth palette is deployed in a way that contributes to the album’s overall richness and musical variety.
My Favourite Tracks Analyzed
“On The Flesh” comes into being as popping, distorted sounds are overwhelmed by pounding drums, throbbing bass and slicing guitar. The guitar’s howling passion moves with Alex Vecchietti’s resonant, emotive voice as drums shape the music. I enjoy the way in which the vocal power is lacerated by ferocious guitar as the gigantic low end of the track throbs.
Alex Vecchietti’s singing captures the anger in the lyrics. Now angular, sharp-edged sounds pulse and bass oscillates. The guitar intricately whirls through a solo combining energy delivered by Alex Vechietti’s flying fingers. Heavy bass and hard-hitting drums support the powerful, expressive chorus and the track ends on the nasal distortion and cutting guitar.
Real life is becoming an increasingly rare experience and this song explores the consequences of that situation. Our storyteller asks the audience to “reverse all your hatred, reverse all your feelings” and go back to a time when living was worth it. He says that our hearts have been polluted and we ought to “revert to an age when we weren't far apart.”
Now the narrator points out that data tells us what to feel, how to live and defines our sense of reality. He adds that they “scream for your attention” and for more clicks through time and people until “life becomes sick.” He tells his audience to throw all of these things out, to “take all you show and take all you hide” and run. He asks us to show that “you still crave, a life on the flesh, and not in the grave.”
Those in power create a compulsion to follow blindly so they can increase their “stats.” They encourage people lie and “steal from a digital world of fiction” until it becomes reality. They force people to seek attention and show how needy they are. He warns of being seduced by the compulsion to “flick through lies and fake smiles” in a mistaken attempt to make life worthwhile.
The rush of waves on sand and caressing vocal chanting along with blues-inflected guitar open “Escape.” Undulating drums move and massive bass pulses while flashing synth chords swell. Kosmic Kiss’ silky smooth, pleasing voice comes in as it carries a yearning melody. Tentative hope fills Kosmic Kiss’ vocals as the colossal drums and bass throb.
The chorus rises, reaching out with aspiring feeling before unique, ethnic percussion comes in. followed by Passionate, trembling sax carries a smoothly gliding solo supported by the dense bass and drum heartbeat. The sax leaps and grooves on over the pounding beat and Kosmic Kiss' voice soars again, deeply emotive as it flies out and the track gently washes into quiet.
Emotional struggles can drive someone to seek escape when they become too intense. Our narrator talks about being seduced by his imagination, saying he’d “rather pay the price and look the other way.” He adds that he’s “no enemy to life’s temptation” so he needs to redefine himself and escape.
Now the storyteller finds that he can’t face the battle because “I’m losing this fight.” He can’t find his passion and is losing pride. He admits he’s made mistakes so now he’s “gotta find a new way, make my greatest escape.”
He hears his internal voice screaming as the walls fall around him. He addresses another person and says “you see through all my lies” and adds that the other person never seems surprised “when I disappear into the night.”
“Awakening” starts as medium-high, string-like synth entangles in minor key lines that overlap over flowing bass. Gigantic drums create a driving beat underneath rippling synth and add propulsion to the track. Soft sound breathes and a tense arpeggio spins before Alex Vecchietti’s bright guitar cascades into life.
The guitar snarls heavily as the massive bass and weighty drumbeat surge below. Hollow, elevated synths spin above the guitar’s aggressive mass as it slashes through the track. The darkly intricate guitar solo unfurls in madly twisting lines that I find thrilling.
Insistent energy fills the guitar as it spirals with fierce strength above the tidal weight supporting it. As the track comes to an end, the leaping guitar has a palpable presence, leaping and shredding before the track fades out.
Wobbling, grating sounds burst into a retro drumbeat and smoothly throbbing bass to open “Better Angels.” Daniel Hugh’s emotive voice spills into the song over the energizing drumbeat. Glistening synth echoes in the background with a crystalline feeling. A jangly acoustic guitar strums as the driving, dynamic drums and solidly throbbing bass push on.
Daniel Hugh’s voice soars over rough-edged synth pulsation and effectively fills the lyrics with deep expression. The vocal melody is full of defiant energy and lively feeling as the muscled drums and bass support it. Alex Vecchietti’s guitar radiates light as it intricately weaves above the explosive low end sounds. Daniel Hugh’s strong voice carries the charging melody as the track ends on slowly slipping pulses.
Our narrator tells the story of his escape from an emotionally damaging situation. He begins by saying that he can’t believe he ever let the other person in. He admits that he was “blindsided, beguiled by your spin” as the song’s subject won his trust. The narrator realized that something wasn’t right, but let it continue. However, he now adds that "I don't answer to you any more.”
The storyteller says that his “better angels won this bloody war” and he goes on to say that he won’t answer to the other person again. He continues by saying that the other person isn’t “an enemy one can’t simply beat” but had to be conquered over and over to stop the pain. As the song ends, our storyteller confidently states that "I won't do your bidding anymore ‘cause I have grown stronger than before.”
“Neon Groove” commences as distantly brushing drums preface a sharp-edged bass pulse and quickly tumbling guitar. Hard-hitting snare drum bursts underneath gently swirling, rising synth chords add warmth.
Active, wide-sounding bass throbs under Alex Vecchietti’s guitar as calls out the melody, full of lively passion and a sense of rising joy. Throbbing drums and bass create a guiding heartbeat in the music.
Glistening guitar notes interlock before the main melody leaps in, moving into a shredding guitar segment, as wildly howling notes create a dark uncertainty. Underneath, the beat drives on and again the main melody cries out, full of joy and a sense of progress before fading out.
Joao Esteves’ voice twists out over gruff, quickly shifting synth pulsations to begin “Awake.” Sweeping sound flows and massive, hard-edged synths add dynamism to the song. Joao Esteves’ voice is smooth and a little pained as it echoes out over rippling synths with a limpid clarity.
The vocal melody has a drifting, hurting quality over the gargantuan bass and pounding drums. Joao Esteves’ singing is hopeful but melancholy still flows from the melody. Bright guitar twangs through the music as the drum and bass pulse goes on. I am drawn to the way in which Joao Esteves’ mingles strength with aching emotion in this singing. Heaving, slicing bass guides the song to an end as huge drums pulse.
This song explores breaking free of the traps of modern life. Our storyteller talks about the bright screen lights on “the iris of my eyes” as he sits in a darkened room “looking out a window that connects me.” Each thought is “blinking energy.” His thoughts aren’t robotic but “sentient of their liberty.”
His realization that the thoughts are “not a trick, not illusion” brings him to wakefulness. He talks about “a sun, rising, ascending” in a dawn in which “I'm walking in a fantasy, a dream perpetuated.” He feels energy flowing in him, reaching a peak. He talks about how he is now "blooming, the gardens of every day’s moments.”
Our narrator creates verses for his birth as it is “the first time breaking the loop of slumber.” He is “chanting, whispering” as he awakens. The narrator is once again illuminated by the sun as it rises and he ascends.
Conclusion
Blessed is a superb example of what can happen when musical artists combine their talents. Alex Vecchietti and his collaborators have produced an energizing, emotionally powerful and musically engaging album that I find quite enjoyable as a listener.
