FLEA ON THE HONEY

This is a pretty bad cd with only few redeeming qualities (far and few between). The lyrics are cheesy and the vocals are awful. some of the instrumental parts are cool but the songs are to short and it never seems like this cd flows. I'm mad at myself for wasting my time trying to track this cd down. avoid!

Proto-prog hard rock, decent period piece

This is the first album by FLEA ON THE HONEY, a quartet from Sicily but based in Rome. After this release, they shortened their name to FLEA and released the much better "Topi o Uomini" in 1972. Then they broke up for a while after some personnel changes, but the original quartet reformed in 1975 and produced a really good Jazz Rock album under the name ETNA.

This album is very far from the jazz rock style of 1975. Here there is proto-prog hard rock, with rocking guitars, interesting riffs, even some flute a la Tull. The songs are nothing special, but are not bad. In fact several are quite good--apart, that is, from the singing. They chose to sing in English, with lyrics which approach unbearable. Had they sung in their native Italian, or even kept the album largely instrumental, that would have been a great improvement. But in terms of its contemporaries, it is similar to ROVESCIO DELLA MEDAGLIA'S "La Bibbia"-- again, apart from the silly English lyrics and accent. (The band even sports English names on this one!) There are definitely signs that point to their next wonderful, more overtly progressive album, but in these short songs the approach is hard rock with prog flavoring.

The Sony/BMG mini lp is typical, with nice gatefold but little documentation (unlike the excellent booklets of the BTF mini lps)--and it is now out of print, as are all the Sony mini lps. So if you're interested, particularly as a collector of RPI, act quickly! Two stars, but I wish they were stelle . . .

This is a prehistorically release. The band was of Italian origins and that's the only link with RPI that I can see. This album is a mix of psychedelia and heavy rock. All sung in English to make the link with Italy even less obvious?

I can't be over enthusiastic about this album, even bearing in mind that almost forty years have passed between its release and this review.

Songs are mostly boring. The longest track of this album and opener "Mother Mary" sounds as a joke to me. Some weak drum solo and poor vocals are the "highlights". What comes next is no better: short pieces vaguely psyche ("King's Thoughts"? "Don't You Ever Feel Glad"), jazzy ("Happy Killer") or heavy ("Let The Flags Fly High", "Moon Park Woman") but definitively not very interesting.

You shouldn't be fooled by this inclusion: it holds very, very little to do with Italian music. Some basic rock mood and that's it. The closing "Next Election" features some short flute part and some more constructed music. But nothing too fancy to tell the truth. Two stars is well paid.