genre: Spaghetti Western

Rome -- featuring Danger Mouse, Daniele Luppi, Jack White, and Norah Jones -- has piqued a lot of people's interest in what exactly a "spaghetti Western-influenced" album is. (Listen to Rome here)

Spaghetti Westerns were Western movies made by Italians. These films were made in Italy because it was cheaper and the area resembles the American Southwest. The scores to these movies, usually made by Italian composers, were sometimes amazing. You can't talk about spaghetti Western film scores without talking about Ennio Morricone, but I'll get to him later.

Rome is getting a lot of attention because of Danger Mouse's and Jack White's names being attached to the project. That kind of bothered me at first, because while it's a fine album, sometimes it skates by on autopilot, and I think there's a lot more interesting spaghetti Western music out there that people should hear. (I've since listened to Rome a few more times, and it's a pretty damn good album in its own right.)

Canyon Candy is another spaghetti Western-influenced album from 2011 made by musicians from the indie rock sphere. This album was made by the chillwave band Javelin, created as the soundtrack for their friend's movie and released on Record Store Day. It's a really fun psychedelic record that incorporates elements of glitch and chillwave into the spaghetti Western sound. (Check out my previous post on Canyon Candy, complete with album stream, here)

The reason why I like Canyon Candy so much is because Javelin understands what makes spaghetti Western albums so much fun -- the goofy little psychedelic tidbits of sound. Ennio Morricone was the pioneer and master of that sound. When he scored his first spaghetti Western film in the '60s, he couldn't afford a full orchestra. And thank god for that. Instead, he incorporated the jaw harp, trumpets, gunshots, cracking whips, whistling, and the electric guitar.

I could go on and on about how influential Morricone was on film scoring, or about how he soundtracked over 500 films and TV shows, but instead let's just check out some of his music. Even if you don't realize you've ever heard Morricone's music, you have. Just listen to "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Theme". Are you a fan of Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D minor"? Then check out "La Resa Dei Conti". Ever seen Muse live? They do a cover of "The Man with a Harmonica" as an interlude.

I can't recommend the pictured Ennio Morricone Anthology enough to Morricone and spaghetti Western beginners. It's two discs of incredible, emotional, and just plain fun music. Do yourself a favor and check it out.