​1974 Luciano Michelini “Anna Quel Particolare Piacere” on RCA

Lovely Library/Soundtrack action from the great Michelini. It’s so methodical, always building toward a cinematic conclusion, alternating between jazz and a more ethereal classical style. The cover is somewhat deceptive in that there is little harmonic sense of babes, bodices, and imminent gunplay, just a constant swelling of narrative. Which is just as well, because there’s already plenty of Isaac Hayes around. See, Anna is a nice young Catholic girl who falls for a gangster who, let’s be fair, is kind of a prick even if he weren’t a thief and murderer, and the title “That Particular Pleasure” sort of intimates that Edwidge Fenech (as Anna, what a name!) is compensated by the life of crime in more than furs and jewels. It’s more noir than gangster, more moralist than realist, and in the end, it pretty much turns out bad for everyone. Except random owners of this record, which has a really nice, languid, compositional edge to it. Oh yeh