FROST OF WATERMELON

Court often deviate from the traditional RPI path and on 'Frost of Watermelon' they filter their wide pool of influences into a most modern-sounding RPI album. It's a surprising, yet surprisingly plausible, blend of folk, indie, grunge and West Coast. I think this disc would strike a chord with fans of Crossover as the tracks are melodic, concise and varied, and they follow a number of different paths. However the seamless articulations between tracks and the inclusion of a 24-minute multi-part suite ensure that Italian symphonic music is also well represented.

The band's diverse influences are matched by their equally diverse musical resources. The members of Court all seem to be multi-instrumentalists and the list of instruments employed here would require the late Viv Stanshall as MC to do it justice: Mellotron, synthesizer, electric piano, Farfisa organ, oboe, flute, recorder, harmonica, glockenspiel, e-bow, mandolin, slide guitar. The only minor drawback is that these delinquent Italians sing in English. It boggles my mind that some Italian bands exclusively favour accented English instead of their poetic native tongue. That said, at least these lyrics are coherent and there are no major issues with the English vocals on this album.

It took a good bit of searching for me to find a copy of this CD and I was a bit dubious about its quality at first. However the sparks of brilliance come out to shine with repeated listens and these strengthen my enjoyment of the album rather than fortifying my doubts. Throw in the lovely artwork with all lyrics printed inside the booklet and this album is a slam-dunk for fans of modern, melodic RPI. According to torodd's interview with the band this is their most accessible work to date so it's perhaps ironic that I chose to buy the least progressive of their three albums. I guess I'll just have to buy the other two now.