Un sorso in piu' (Live At MTV Supersonic)

Being that MTV Italia and Carmen Consoli were, as the liner notes state in Un Sorso in Più, "almost born together," back in 1996 when the network was just starting up in Italy and Consoli's first single "Amore di Plastica" was just hitting airwaves, it made a lot of sense to dedicate an entire day to "La Cantantessa." And so, MTV Italia spent all 24 hours of air time on October 23, 2002 celebrating one of the pre-eminent Italian artists of the 21st Century, the event culminating in a two-set concert broadcast live from their studios in Milan. It was, the network heads realized as Consoli was performing, the first ever Italian MTV Unplugged show, which meant an album commemorating it was certainly in order. Under such conditions Un Sorso in Più was made available to the public the following year, and it does a good job of conveying — as well as a live album can — "the magic of that evening." Though for the original concert, Consoli had divided her performance into an acoustic and an electric set, the album intersperses songs from both, which is a nice effect, because Consoli is equally emotive and compelling in whatever setting in which she sings. She moves from sweet and introspective in "Quello Che Sento" and "In Bianco e Nero" to fiery and bitter on "Matilda Odiava I Gatti" or "Fiori d'Arancio." She even does a cover of "Can't Get You Out of My Head" (a studio version of which was included on the record Carmen Consoli), conveying a dark, powerful aggression that never came close to appearing when Kylie Minogue sang it. Un Sorso in Più may be a kind of greatest hits for Consoli — though it does focus much more on the later side of her career, which makes sense, as the album was recorded right when L'Eccezione was being released — but it's also a fantastic, and not at all cursory, overview of what the talented singer can do, and works well either as an introduction or as an addition to a more complete collection.