Los Angeles

Michele Luppi is an Italian vocalist who honed his singing chops in the US too, at the VIT school in Los Angeles. His mentor was Robin Randall (as a songwriter he’s worked with names like FM, Mark Free, James Christian and others). Los Angeles and its mostly AOR and melodic rock vibes left a strong mark on Michele. Back in Italy, he slowly built up experience working with big names on the Italian and international scene, among them Maurizio Solieri, Andrea Braido, Umberto Tozzi, Glenn Hughes (ex-Deep Purple) and Ian Paice (Deep Purple). He also became a music teacher and happily passed on his wealth of knowledge to young up-and-comers. On top of that, he’s worked with the bands Mr. Pig and the progressive metallers Vision Divine.

 

The Los Angeles project is Luppi’s personal tribute to the music he loves most. Most of the songs on the album Los Angeles are written in a proper American manner, the kind we’ve heard on quite a few records. It’s not copycat stuff, though, because every track has at least one part that’s truly unique. Luppi’s big advantage is his pleasant voice, which has plenty left in the tank. The right age (born in 1974) helps a lot here. The backbone of the band on Los Angeles is made up of Italians, but of course it couldn’t have been done without a little help from some friends and heavyweights of the AOR scene. Gregg Guiffria (Giuffria, House of Lords) laid down layer upon layer of catchy, epic symphonic keyboards, while Sweden’s Tommy Denander contributed technically polished guitar parts. Los Angeles is a decent record that convinces at every tempo. In the verses Luppi often leans on sadness and disappointment, which he deftly overcomes in upbeat, fast-paced numbers like One More Try and Run. Overall, the album is very easy on ears that like slow to mid-tempo songs. Luppi’s melodic rock is very welcome, since it carries a lot of love for honest music. Once he fixes his pronunciation, I’ll be even happier…

 

Some of the songs were co-written by people with plenty of experience in this field (Richard Marx, Jeff Paris and Dennis Matkosky – who has written for Chicago, Al Jarreau, Lee Ann Rimes). There are no surprising twists in the music, which makes it all the friendlier on the ear, since it’s direct and clean. Michele plays live in Italy almost constantly, so if you’re into this, you’re bound to catch him. Luppi might be a vocal mix of Eric Martin (Mr. Big) and Mark Free (King Kobra, Unruly Child), but those comparisons are more of a mental burden than an invitation to relax and enjoy this decent soft rock production.