IL TEMPO DELLA GIOIA

Even if this is a good album, it's impossible not to compare it with their previous effort. "Il Tempo della Gioia" is more polished and "controlled", or even more personal than their first eponimous LP, and yet somehow it lacks in its spontaneous force and catchy melodies. The best tracks here are the first two ones. "Villa Doria Pamphili" is impressive; the band shows a more romantic approach to their music, piano and violin blend divinely and the vocal parts are very well performed, quite in the vein of the best Italian melodic tradition. "A forma di..." follows in the same vein, an instrumental displaying an emotional baroque main theme and wonderful choir/violin/harpiscord and piano variations. If the album continued this way, it would be far better than "Quella Vecchia Locanda" and overshadow some other contemporary bands, but with the title track things begin working differently. "Il tempo della Gioia" is a very good piece, indeed, with solid melodies and a wonderful "concerto" structure, mixing jazz fusion, rock and classical hints; nevertheless, lyrics are sometimes laughable and pretentious, some vocal harmonies annoying and the sound of the guitar a little inconsistent. Then, in the last two pieces, the band seems to lose the right path to a good song. "Un giorno, un amico" can be divided into two parts: the first one is instrumental, floating between heavy prog and fusion, never blending them in a convincing way and recycling some very abused tunes in Italian Prog Rock (key shifts, above all); then comes the sung part, quite more enjoyable, more in the good romantic approach the band had displayed in the first two pieces of the album - again: the problem is with the lyrics, which try to be symbolic and poetic, but end up being pretty clumsy. Finally, "E' accaduto una notte", since its very beginning with echoed choirs, sounds like a weird laid-back mix between the Balletto di Bronzo's "Ys", PFM and a bit of Le Orme. The piece is very well performed, the ability of the band members with their instruments is stunning, arrangements are very well proportioned and yet... you don't get the impression of listening to something more special than any other Italian Symphonic Prog effort from those years. Anyway, "Il tempo della gioia" is a good visiting card to Italian Prog (but check out for their first album!!!)