The homage to Morricone is overt - apparently Luppi (a composer) and Danger Mouse (an itinerant genre-hopper and collaborator, evidently) tracked down many of the original instrumentalists and singers from those great spaghetti westerns and got them to record for Rome, but it would have been unmissable in any event. What's striking, though, and a bit surprising, is how successful the project is - the instrumental pieces are widescreen epics in miniature, while the tracks with vocals (three each featuring Jack White and Norah Jones, both good) function as both fragments within the record's overall scheme and self-contained songs in their own right.
