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Le Orme - Ad Gloriam CD (album) cover

AD GLORIAM

Le Orme

 

Rock Progressivo Italiano

2.83 | 119 ratings

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J-Man
Prog Reviewer
2 stars Le Orme is often recognized as one of Italy's pioneering symphonic progressive rock bands, but listeners shouldn't expect anything of the sort on Ad Gloriam. Released in 1969, Ad Gloriam is very much a product of the psychedelic hippie era; rather than delivering the bombastic symphonic rock that the band would introduce on their next few albums, the music here is an unoffensive stab at late sixties' pysch-pop. While still quite decent for a debut outing, this is a pretty unremarkable listen in most regards. It fails to sound as innovative as Le Orme's future efforts, and it also pales in comparison to the best psychedelic pop out there - in short, Ad Gloriam is pretty unessential for anyone except the die-hard sixties' rock collector.

Ad Gloriam was clearly inspired by the likes of The Beatles, The Who, and Spirit, as the music mainly consists of pleasant psychedelic pop tunes with very little in the way of complexity and depth. Unfortunately, Le Orme doesn't deliver this style nearly as well as their predecessors do, and I'm usually left with a pretty stale taste in my mouth when the album is over. The usually short, major-chord compositions are pretty unremarkable, and Le Orme hardly offers any ideas that haven't been done to death by the time it was released.

Though the band offers a few solid melodies and memorable hooks throughout Ad Gloriam, it comes across as a bit stale to this reviewer. Le Orme offered 'too little too late' on their debut album, and while the result isn't anything terrible, it isn't original or memorable enough to warrant a listen from anyone outside of their core fanbase. All in all, this is an interesting debut from one of Italian progressive rock's most famous groups, but I wouldn't venture to say that it's a particularly great one.

J-Man | 2/5 |

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