Me and My Army by Phomea: Album Review

by Gabe Finch December 5, 2022

December 5, 2022

Me and My Army by Phomea: Album Review

The “Grunge poet” Tuscan Fabio Pocci’s musical moniker Phomea’s latest album makes the listeners ponder the age-old philosophical question, “What is human?”

Following the footsteps of his entirely acoustic debut album, Annie, Phomea continues the trend of writing songs around the acoustic guitar with the introduction of electronic elements. The album starts with the highlight track, Take Control introducing the listeners to the electronic elements to expect. The second and title track of the album is a beautiful marriage of melancholic acoustic melodies with Thom Yorke-style songwriting. Then the album proceeds to please the listeners with the proggy alt-rock ballad ‘Unplease Me’ and ‘Lover’. The album takes an unexpected turn towards a more Nine Inch Nails-inspired industrial sound in “Ruins of gold”. But you’d be fooled if you think that’s there is to the song. Phomea had hidden the smoothest jazzy saxophones playing over layers of industrial beats, acoustic guitar melodies, and vocal harmonies. The mix of industrial and electronic elements continues with spoken words in a robotic voice thrown in the interlude track J.B. The album later resorts into a darker melancholic acoustic overtone in the song The Swarm featuring Flavio Ferri which later turns into a dreamlike reverberated fuzzy synth-soaked acoustic guitar heavy track Perfect Stone. This is toned down a little in the following track “Dark” and finally, he concludes the album with Stevie Nicks-like guitars and deep airy cathartic vocals.

To sum it up, just like the debate of the rhetorical question the album ponders upon, it is layered with sonic and lyrical anecdotes from as methodical as the platonic definition to as eccentric as Diogenes’ counter to it and poetically beautiful and human like everything that followed. It’s a stunningly beautiful listening experience.