Jesus Christ, who would have thought?

Who would have thought that Nato, a Burlington based singer-songwriter who is more known for his solo acoustic performances, would release one of the most amazing and interesting albums to come out of the Queen City in a long time? A carefully crafted twelve song cycle, Roomful of Fans is inventive, playful and pure, unadulterated pop fun. Was that a touch tone telephone solo I heard on the opening track?

Nato has been promising this album for a long time,. He's been coming up to the Good Citizen office saying: "The CD is almost done yet, I'm working out the details now" and I've been thinking: "Damn it, Nato. You have been working out the details for a year now!" but in the end it was worth it. The production is near perfection. The mix of electric/acoustic guitars, moog organ, percussion and, uhm, a touchtone telephone is flawless. I'm pretty sure that I even heard the sound effects to the Atari version of Donkey Kong, too.

The coolest part of this CD is it is truly a solo album. Nato played almost all of the instruments on the CD, with a little help from Matt McCarthy. Nato didn't call on any local jazz musician, no F.O.Ps and no M.O.Ps to help him out with his music. No sirree bob. This is pure Nato through and through.

Roomful of Fans is a super rad album, that should be in everyone's CD collection. If you dig Elvis Costello, Talking Heads and They Might Be Giants then you should dig Nato's Roomful of Fans. Near genius. Roomful of Fans is a super rad album, that should be in everyone's CD collection. If you dig Elvis Costello, Talking Heads and They Might Be Giants then you should dig Nato's Roomful of Fans. Near genius.

Chris Parizo would like to let every one know that F.O.P stands for "Friends of Phish" and that M.O.P stands for "Members of Phish".

good citizen: issue 12, winter 1999