Capitol

Film music is often a playground of tireless freaks looking for more than just what’s on the radio, but Italian film music – well, now you’re talking about the motherlode. For years, Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi have wanted to make an album like Rome, which pays homage to the lushly orchestrated neo-surrealist sounds of legends such as Ennio Morricone and Piero Umiliani. Very much an extension of An Italian Story, Luppi’s own 2004 debut, this outing matches its predecessor by reconvening the three surviving members of Morricone’s original studio band, the Marc 4, then ups the ante with a few guest vocal turns by Jack White (on the wah-soaked ballad “The Rose With A Broken Neck” ) and Norah Jones (quietly carrying the eerie atmospherics of “Black,” the standout of her three performances). Faux film soundtracks aren’t a new thing – Danger Mouse’s own 1999 album The Chilling Effect, under his Pelican City alias, comes to mind – but this is one of the few that actually deserves to have a movie accompany it.