Whether it’s the sheer quantity of material recorded during “the COVID years” or the luck of finding Sergio Napoletano in the stacks, one thing is certain: the amount of material recorded during “the COVID years” is truly endless. Memory Aisle is where Napoletano used the time of social distancing to write, record and eventually find his indie stride after years of playing for some of the major Staten Island bands.
Sergio put down his ideas on an iPad and “Lockjaw”, the first track on Memory Aisle, his five song EP, serves as a milestone for that because of the lo-fi guitar intro. This is then followed by the creation of a licensed studio that can only be produced in the real studio. To put it into words, this whole EP sounds like the Sebadoh records that I used to listen back in my college years. You will then probably also occasionally hear his vocals, which can sometimes sound the same like J. Mascis of Kings of Leon from early days.
I would say that the memorable moments for me are the acoustic guitar and piano on the title track “Memory Aisle”. In addition, I don’t forget the falsetto ‘ooohs’ and ‘ahhhs’ which is very good. Napoletano declares that the idea of the song “Memory Aisle” comes from the idea that we can go to a supermarket and revisit our memories from our
While all of the songs are phenomenal, “Petty Folks” is my favorite. The EP ends with this song, but you can still see that Sergio is a songwriter that has talent and people are awaiting for his next release.
Sergio Napoletano – Memory Aisle
