I seem to be slightly less morose this week. I bought myself a present today: a Japan national team football shirt. Paragon on Broadway just above Union Square finally got them in.

Compilation - Mina: 'Briciole Di Baci' (CD; Replay Music; 1966-1969)
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Mina is one of my favorite female singers - dramatic, passionate, and with a vast back catalogue that saw her attempt lots of different material, much of which I like very much. This compilation, released in 1992, is one of many Mina compilations on the Italian 'Replay Music' label. While these are often available quite cheaply, they generally contain no information about when the tracks are from, which is a little annoying.



There's some great material on here, but a lot of very different styles are mixed up. The opening track, 'Stringimi forte i polsi', is a pleasant bossa nova-styled number, but tracks like 'Renato' and 'Stessa spiaggia stesso mare' are more old style rock'n'roll. There are also some big-band style numbers with wild, goofy singing (like 'folle banderuola', 'Bum, ahi! Che colpo di luna', 'Briciole di baci').



The disc also includes a nice version of the classic 'Moliendo cafe' and an interesting Italian language version of Jobim's 'Dindi'. However, my favorite songs are probably the dramatic and atmospheric ballads like 'Improvvisamente', 'le tue mani' and 'piano'. In particular, the vocal performance on 'Piano', in which Mina starts to weep, is incredible.



All in all, this is a nice disc, but the slightly incoherent ordering of tracks means I wouldn't recommend going out of your way to get it.