"Bellissimo", the first track, the known one. Starts off soooo dreamy, building up to this majestic thing, where the strings come in, and finishing off in a kind of melancoly, with a rather sad guitar... The feeling has just been born!
Jo has a magnificent voice. The well-known connoisseur claimed a resemblance to Billy Mackenzie, in voice and style if I'm correct and that can be nothing but an advantage. Sometimes, she's like:
- I have this great fucken voice, but I'm too bored or tired with all this shit life and love is giving to me to sing...

Low.. Smoky.. Very sensual... Maybe it's the jazzy feel that's obvious all through out the album. Kind of retro, too..
But there are songs where she reveals herself, such as "Quatra Neon"... Just as she shows off her happiness...
On the other hand the "Bliss" that follows isn't all that blissful. Must be all those wind instruments and stuff...
And this:" Love is my teacher...". The process of finding, knowing, understanding... And then maybe "...we reach the sky..."
The counterbalance is coming sortly after...
"...I wanna fly before I fall..." "Heavenly" Do not be misleaded by the title... Or by your feelings...
There is a more drum 'n bass feel on this track. Ilya are part of the Bristol scene and a dash of trip-hop is inevitable. Just one of the many elements of their sound.
Nice samples also here... the " strange voices " she hears... before she dies...
And diversity, in the sound, all during the tracks... I like that!

One of my favorites is "Soleil Soleil". It reminded me so strongly of another song, one I haven't heard for quite a while and still haven't managed to remember it... I will.
Hhhmmm... the humming part! Yes, it's this humming part that does the trick...
"...we can do nothing if we try... hmmm...mmmm..." Back to our love story here... A crisis maybe? One of many...
I can see a pattern: happy sounds-more gloomy lyrics, a more depressing tune -optimism in her words. But still not that clear... Just like life!
Song n. 5 out of nine and the best has just begun. What a song "Pretty Baby" is!!!
A simple piano jingle, followed by some eerie sounds, introducing us to a sober sad call:
" Turn around... I'm still here... Press ur face to mine..."
Growing more intense on the way, as " I see you... evaporate, too..."
And her sad call turns to a desperate cry...
" When lovin starts to die, so am I......Turn around... I'm still here... Pretty baby..." One last breath and you remain still for a while...

Pull yourself together, it's just "All For Melody"... Ha! Relieving to say the least... Lovely kind of Spanish-sounding guitar here. There are so many instruments popping in here and there all through the album, apart from my always beloved strings and harp. Piano (classic and electric), horns 'n stuff, like trumpets, cornet, flugel... A sax and clarinet and even what sounds like a banjo(!?) And trust me, that sounds weird at first but great...
It feels like a jam session sometimes! I imagine them in a classy -but with a decadent aura- little club (cabaret?)...
Improvising, playing their music but really digging what they're doing. This is "Happy and Weak".
It just has it all. A look back on the whole album... Guitars, bass (damn I said nothing about the great bass lines... Real nice!), drums, horns, strings, samples, Jo singing, chorus like backing voxx... All in action here! A look back on that love story I was talking about...

... Right before the end...
" We had everything... And still wanted mooooore..." Yeap!!! I know!
The singing is magnificent and the music just as glorious... No more! "They Died For Beauty"!
And this is how it should be really: A grand ending for an equally grand beginning... in Music... and in Love... No misery...

This album is a rainbow. Has its red passionate and joyful moments, its blue moody ones... The hurtful and spiteful yellow, some green strokes of relaxation and even a shadow of purple...
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