Senza Nuvole＜限定盤/White Vinyl＞

A half-year after releasing her debut EP, Stupida, which compiled her early singles along with some new recordings, Amici di Maria de Filippi winner Alessandra Amoroso made her full-length debut with Senza Nuvole. It's comprised of very similar material, including four songs credited to Federica Camba and Daniele Coro, the songwriting tandem who had penned her chart-topping hit singles "Immobile" and "Stupida." Not counting bonus material, Senza Nuvole includes a mere ten songs, only a few more than her seven-track debut EP, and while the material is uniformly strong and well performed, there aren't any surprises here. These new songs, all of them power ballads, sound a lot like her old ones. Then again, that may not be an issue for fans of her early singles who are perfectly content with more of the same. Most similar are the four songs credited to Camba and Coro: "Estranei a Partire da Ieri," "Senza Nuvole," "Ama Chi Ti Vuole Bene," and "Arrivi Tu." For instance, "Estranei a Partire da Ieri" is more or less a rewrite of "Immobile," while "Senza Nuvole" is highly reminiscent of "Stupida." Make no mistake, these are great songs tailor-made for the Italian singles chart and Amoroso belts them out with passion and intensity, but there's little to nothing original about them. Among those songs not credited to Camba and Coro, "Ama Chi Ti Vuole Bene," "Segreto," and "Bellissimo" are all excellent. There are a lot of first-rate songs on Senza Nuvole, to be sure, and Amoroso is once again in fine voice. The problem is that it's all too familiar and leaves one curious to hear how the undoubtedly talented 23-year-old soul-pop singer would sound if she were to sing something other than power ballads patterned after "Immobile" and "Stupida." ~ Jason Birchmeier