WINTER DAY'S NIGHTMARE

It is not hard, really, to understand that this brilliant, over-looked album had a hard time being promoted and accepted. Firstly, it was on the Motown label, and one has to wonder if they had any real idea how to market an Italian progressive rock band in the first place. And for the music itself, it is something that was probably "too mainstream for the progressive rock listeners, and too progressive for more mainstream taste". But in giving this record a complete listen, one realizes that it had a lot more going for it, musically and lyrically, than it was given credit for, and that it was special in a way.

Yes, the album does include main songwriter/guitarist/singer the late Federico D'Andrea, who was the main force behind the band, and his at times quirky yet always passionate singing and playing make this still a true Libra album. It is somewhat mainstream, i say somewhat, because that element of the sound is never present in a blatant or annoying way, and Winter Day's Nightmare is still progressive enough to be a great companion album to the band's first and best English sung album "Libra".

The music in Winter Day's Nightmare is quite beautiful, but never trite, and all the songs in it fit in quite nicely. There are a whole plethora of influences in the music, without one of those influences dominating over the others-rock, jazz, funk, folk, etc. One can always make out what D'Andrea is singing about despite his somewhat Italian accent, and his unique, almost philosophical perspective is fascinating to listen to (especially in Nothing Comes, Nothing Goes) And then there is the sad story of a woman whose life is a lie in Lucy Squirrel, a tale that really rings home for the listener.

Instrumentally, the band plays tight, and unites their whole host of influences in a way that is accessible without being a blatant sellout. I have the feeling that this album could have made a bigger impact than it ended up doing, and it is a shame that absolutely nobody, the band included, promoted Winter Day's Nightmare very much. Given a serious look at the music therein, that was definitely a mistake. I give the record five stars.

Perhaps the most startling thing about Winter Day's Nightmare - aside from that cool flamingo on the front cover - is that it came out on none other than the legendary Motown Records, who were operating a bit far outside their usual area of expertise here.

That said, whilst it is a bit unexpected to find an Italian prog band released on a label more known for its titanic reputation for top-notch soul, funk, and R&B, it's not completely illogical. Libra's preceding album, released in its original version as Musica e Parole, had a funk-influenced sound not a million miles away from what Goblin were getting up to on the Profondo Rosso soundtrack. Duly impressed by the band's funk chops, Motown not only issued an English-language version of the album for the English-speaking market (retitled simply Libra and given brand new cover art) but went so far as to give the band a 10-album contract. (Perhaps they were looking to the example of ELP, whose Manticore label had released English-language versions of albums by PFM and Banco to some success.)

The band duly flew to the US and put in a stint recording Frank Zappa, and set about recording this sophomore release - their first to be recorded under the Motown contract. Here, however, things began to go badly awry; reportedly, the group had severe disagreements with their producer, and unfortunately you can kind of tell as much from the album, being as it is a weird mix of accessible AOR with smooth soul influences jumbled in with proggier moments. There's clearly the kernel of a good idea there - a fusion of prog and soul could end up being quite intriguing, like a sort of less poppy and more esoteric take on Bowie's Young Americans or Station to Station - but alas, if the band had a strong idea for how they would accomplish this union, it doesn't come across on the album.

The group went home to Italy by the end of 1975, having split up in the process. They'd reform in a reconfigured lineup for that time-honoured pastime of Italian prog bands - namely, producing a soundtrack for an Italian horror movie (Schock) - but this would be without guitarist Federico D'Andrea, whose English vocals had won them the Motown contract in the first place and are one of the silver linings here. (Whether this was truly a Libra album or merely an album released using the Libra name for a bit of name recognition due to some Libra musicians being in the lineup is a question for another day.)

Sadly, Federico D'Andrea would die after being hit by a car in 1978, putting an end to any prospect of this incarnation of the group reuniting. This is a shame, because like I said, there's the glimmering of something special here, but the execution could do with a bit of polishing-up.