Giacomo D’Attorre – lead singer of Clever Square – has been through a lot of late. With his band. In his personal life. Even just with the state of the world. This fire has fueled Clever Square’s new record Secret Alliance, to be released on April 29th, 2022 via Bronson Recordings (pre-order here): eleven tracks that explore feelings of frustration, disillusionment, and disconnection, and chronicle what it’s like to be swept along by a world that “gets noisier everyday”.
The record was inspired by a creeping realisation; of coming change, and a sense that D’Attorre was “losing contact with who I was before, for the good and the bad.” New needs and desires surfaced; old ones disappeared. Thus he began writing around ideas of rethinking yourself, and “acquiring a new conscience of mutation”. All of this is perfectly framed by Clever Square’s shuffling, quirky indie, and cute melodies. Soft and worn around the edges, like the perfect flannel shirt, there’s a gentle, shambling quality to the music; “blue collar”, D’Attorre calls it. Guitar lines gently bloom, Fender Rhodes organ is sprinkled throughout, and the acoustic strumming sounds easy and unhurried.
D’Attorre has crafted a spell-binding, mesmerizing set of songs that delight on first listen and reward deeper inspection. The music provides a stark contrast to some of the lyrical content, but also serves as the perfect frame. Even in the nosier moments his voice remains poised and restrained, letting the words do all the emotional heavy lifting. Best of all is Secret Alliance’s lone duet, Soccer Rules, the record’s second single after the jazzy Kites From The Noodles Kingdom. Available on all digital platforms today February 11th, 2022, Soccer Rules is an intimate rumination about feeling scattered all over the place and the inability to grasp freedom and peace in our everyday life. It sees Eugenia Fera from fellow Italian indie band Eugenia Post Meridiem wrap her warm, lush voice around D’Attorre’s words, the perfect foil for the song’s gentle, rambling vibe. The related video is directed by Mason Charanza.
“It’s a hymn to privacy, to the joys of secrecy, and solitude,” D’Attorre says of Secret Alliance. That he wraps such heartfelt, profound topics in gloriously laid-back indie adds to the charm, and cements Clever Square’s status as one of Italy’s finest contemporary bands. The world might seem increasingly complex and be spinning ever faster, but Secret Alliance slows it down just enough to savour the scenery and think about charting a path back to something a little more manageable.
