ALBUM REVIEW: MIND THE GAP “DROWNING IN MY MIND”
Photo credit: Davide Minoja
As an album opener, “Wake Again” makes a strong statement introducing us to Mind The Gap’s sound - an immense, unique, highly relatable, well-absorbed, and immersive sonic world that is hyperconnected to the one we live in. Drowning In My Mind, the concept debut album of Mind The Gap, revolves around two parts of interconnected dreams, which were presented in song form. From the hypocritic world, we live in, war, loneliness, to the waking up and becoming of oneself, Drowning In My Mind is an album you can’t stop listening to from top to end with its introspective lyricism, fascinating storytelling, and kaleidoscopic soundscapes that you could never get tired of.
The lead singer, Valerio Villani has stories in his voice which intrigue you to hear the words he says. The lead guitarist, Giorgio Minoja, weaves his nostalgic, immersive dreamscape into the storytelling and completes the vision. His soaring solo on “Awake” is both a surprise and a highlight in the album. In addition, the interplay between guitar and vocal is one to savor. Luca Bellani’s bass guitar is the subwoofer in the band that adds another layer of subtle rhythm into the groove, and in addition to Raffaella Cipolla’s solid drum that creates a tasteful foundation — Mind The Gap has youthful, inspired sound with matured, a well-balanced vision that dips its feet in different forms of art without losing its direction, and Drowning In My Mind is the sonic realization of that dream.
Setting its scene in an indie rock-pop soundscape with a speck of youthful yet feeling-infused energy, “Nobody is Crying” is the half-time peak of this album, in which an anthemic choir with layers of harmony comes into an epic scene.
From “Get Away,” the album enters a different dimension and added in more characteristic, new sounds, which are really exciting to hear. “Awake” captures the shocking heaviness and complex emotions the moment you wake up from those dreams into reality (think about the moment when Neo woke up in reality in The Matrix), a very emotional moment when you can’t fully accept the truth yet can’t undo the awakening process. Mind The Gap concluded with “Now,” the rebirth after rebirth, that storms with a new high in the maturing and becoming of one’s true self.