Review: Rome

Brian Burton, also known as Danger Mouse, is a musician and producer known for collaborations that are both real and imaginary. In 2004 he released a collage of the Beatles' "White Album" and Jay-Z's "Black Album" ? which he aptly-titled "The Gray Album." He's also created songs from scratch with the groups Gnarls Barkley and Broken Bells. His latest project is an unlikely homage to Italian film music, starring two very disparate singers: Jack White, formerly of the White Stripes, and Norah Jones.

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Brian Burton, also known as Danger Mouse, is a musician and producer. He's the man behind the 2004 mashup of The Beatles' "White Album" and Jay-Z's "Black Album" which he aptly titled "The Grey Album." He's also half of the group Gnarls Barkley.

Burton's latest project is an homage to Italian film music called "Rome," and our critic Will Hermes has this review.

WILL HERMES: I'm not a huge fan of Westerns, but I make an exception for the films of Sergio Leone, mainly because of their soundtracks by the great Italian composer Ennio Morricone; full of weird choirs, overheated string arrangements, electro guitars and all sorts of other surprises.

Here's a piece of one of his best-known scores, the theme to the 1966 film "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."

(Soundbite of music)

HERMES: Danger Mouse loves Italian film soundtracks too. He built the worldwide hit by Gnarls Barkley, "Crazy," around a sample of one. His new record is a collaboration with Italian composer Daniele Luppi titled "Rome," which is where it was recorded, in a studio co-founded by Ennio Morricone and using many of his old session musicians, like Edda Dell'Orso, who sang on the soundtrack to "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."

(Soundbite of music)

HERMES: But "Rome's" big selling point are two other singers: Jack White and Norah Jones. It's Jack White's most notable appearance since he announced the break up of the White Stripes, a group his three songs here don't much resemble.

(Soundbite of song, "Two Against One")

Mr. JACK WHITE (Singer): (Singing) Make no mistake, I don't do anything for free. I keep my enemies closer than my mirror ever gets to me. And if you think that there is shelter in this attitude, wait till you feel the warmth of my gratitude. One, I get the feeling that it's two against one. One, I'm already fighting...

HERMES: Even more remarkable are the three songs by Norah Jones, which are a reminder of how versatile a singer she can be when she's not making Norah Jones records.

(Soundbite of music)

Ms. NORAH JONES (Singer): (Singing) Fall down hoping to seem like the sweat of evil, but too proud to bleed. And it's not a mess, so be honest with me. We can afford to ignore that I'm a disease. Like a ghost since we had to be and when they were all making back to me and they tried...

HERMES: I never thought I'd hear Norah Jones sing the words I'm a disease. But I'm all for artists playing against type, even if the material isn't precisely what they do best.

And I don't mind that I can't figure out exactly what sort of story this filmless film music might be telling. I love the way its songs and instrumentals, full of harpsichord, celesta, orchestral strings and those ghostly choirs, conjure up images of haunted drifters and anonymous streets.

It's like a soundtrack that simply got tired of supporting a movie narrative, walked out of the theater, grabbed the first horse that it saw and rode out of town.

(Soundbite of music)

NORRIS: The latest album from Danger Mouse is called "Rome." Our critic is Will Hermes.

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