Beatrice Antolini - A Due

‘Sounds like Dresden Dolls’, says the press release accompanying Beatrice Antolini’s second offering, and it’s not kidding. The thunderous, melodramatic piano and the unpredictable melodic direction appear to have been pinched from Amanda Palmer when she wasn’t looking: it’s only the lack of songs about death that rules the queen of baroque cabaret pop out of having a hand in writing A Due. But this similarity is both the album’s strength and weakness. The wonderfully weird Double J and the clipped, foreboding New Manner are brilliant because the inspiration behind them has been reworked into something new; however, tracks like Funky Show and Sugarise wear their influences too obviously, coming across as poor imitations. Only on Pop Goes To Saint Peter and the gorgeous, sprawling Taiga does Beatrice find her own voice, and she really should be more comfortable with it, as this is where the real magic happens. If she can shrug off the shadow of her idols, album number three has great promise.