Spurred by the success of her excellent 2011 album
RossoNoemi, this Roman singer has rapidly become a rising star of Italian pop music. Contrary to most other talent show contestants (she is an X Factor alumni),
Noémi seems to be the real deal rather than a passing fad, which makes the decision of releasing a two-CD live album when she only has two studio ones all the more questionable. Surprisingly, this is an audio-only release as opposed to a DVD-CD set, which would have made more sense. Recorded live in her hometown's beautiful Auditorium Parco della Musica on August 1, 2012 as a corollary to her sold-out RossoNoemi tour,
Noémi is in very high spirits throughout (she gets positively carried away during a few of her speeches) and her supporting band of Lele Fontana, Gabriele Greco,
Giacomo Castellano,
Bernardo Baglioni, and
Marcello Surace rocks out expertly. The problem, of course, is that most of this material was already present in her studio albums in almost identical arrangements. Half of 2009's
Sulla Mia Pelle is here, as well as the entirety of
RossoNoemi (granted, it only had nine songs, but all of the bonus tracks from the deluxe edition are also present), as well as all of her
Sanremo entries, also released as singles. Two selections are played twice, albeit the second appearance of "L'amore si Odia" is a duet with
Fiorella Mannoia. To sweeten the package, four previously unreleased studio tracks are included: two new songs written by
Fabrizio Moro and arranged by
Corrado Rustici, the strong single "Se Non è Amore" and "Buongiorno Alla Vita," and
Noémi's two contributions to the Italian soundtrack of Pixar's Brave, "Tra Vento e Aria"("Into the Open Air") and "Il Cielo Toccherò" ("Touch the Sky"). In addition,
Noémi augments her repertory with an eclectic handful of live covers by the likes of
Franco Battiato ("La Cura"),
99 Posse ("Quello Che"),
Morgan ("Altrove"),
the Zutons ("Valerie," also sung by
Amy Winehouse), and
Etta James ("Damn Your Eyes"), these last two in English.
Rosso Live is as exciting a live album as one could expect from such a rousing performer as
Noémi and a great introduction to the artist, but is probably redundant for those who already have her albums -- or even only the deluxe edition of
RossoNoemi.