CONCERTO GROSSO Nº 2

Upon reforming The New Trolls, the group probably made a mistake in wanting to repeat/rehash one of their better works of their first period. First, it was over three years after their previous line-up and the line-up was not very different, Salvi's on keyboards absence is dearly paid.

Musically, the album's title track sounds a bit like the precursor of Rondo Veniziano's 80's kitschy eeeeehhmmm!!!!.. "violin" works and at the same time the worthy successor to their first Concerto Grosso of 71. Although there are moments in the 13 minutes that are superb, there is plenty of cheesy fondue for all of Italy. Filled with Vivaldi and Bach reminiscences this "opus" is again directed by Enriquez and the results are not that far off the first Concerto Grosso. The singing is a bit of a cross between Vanilla Fudge and Queen (especially in the second movement, they sound like Freddy Mercury At The Night Of The Proms), but overall the second version comes close to its predecessor but no cigar. The rest of the album is not quite up to the symphonic caliber, but holds some charms as in Quiet Seas might just sound from a Cart Stevens or Springsteen album.

The flipside starts with a CSN&Y impersonation (20 Years) mostly due to the pitch perfect vocals, and the next Bella Come Mai where the arrangements behind the kitsch girl-group-like vocals (almost waiting for those doowop behind it) are quite good and worthy of some of the masters in the genre. However the weird, awful and out-of- context Let It Be Me (an Everly Bro cover) is an awful track that ruins the album's continuity just when the following Le Roi Soleil (whose Queen-esque vocals can remind of a rhapsody from Bohemia meeting 10 CC's taste for pastiche), might just be the album's proggiest track even if it is rather unrepresentative of Italian-style prog. My version of the album (a Japanese release under catalogue # KICP 2153) contains a ninth track called Vento O Cent'Anni that is probably the best track of this album, starting out on a hard rocking guitar alternating with an acoustic and strong vocals, soon joined by a great flute >> absolutely enjoyable and a glimpse of Di Palo's hard guitar past.

While hardly undeserving CG#2 is not a bad album per se (no real weak tracks outside the cover), but the many different passages always reminding of some other group. I suggest you try to find the Japanese version of this album for the great added bonus track