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Le Orme - Orme CD (album) cover

ORME

Le Orme

 

Rock Progressivo Italiano

1.51 | 61 ratings

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clarke2001
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
1 stars The perfect example of contemporary (at the time) sound picture. The album was recorded in 1990 and it sounds exactly as any other weak pop-rock album from the era. It's not enough 80's to have that cheesy synth-pop sound, it's not enough 90's to sound like a rock revival.

The album is horrible. That is, the songwriting is horrible, the melodies are forgettable, the sounds are dreadful.

"L'universo" starts like an atmospheric techno pop tune in the vein of PET SHOP BOYS and that's the only good thing I can say about it. Unfortunately, very soon the..ehm.."drums" and "guitar" kick in and we have the track arranged in the worst EROS RAMAZZOTTI style (no offense to EROS' fans, Ii like some of his songs too, and he is miles away sound-wise anyway). The second song, "Terra Antica" is even less memorable. Heavily processed vocals are really annoying. The whole thing is overproduced and it sounds so "precious". There's a kitsch solo so swamped in reverb effect it's difficult to say is it guitar or a saxophone.

I had some expectations for "Dublino Addio", if nothing else, some poppy Irish tune. But no. Rhythm-section are those programmed electronic drum machines, and that's the BEST part of the song, it slightly resembles 80's Peter Gabriel. "Diventare" starts with unaccompanied pseudo-classical (wow!) "piano" solo that last for about 10 seconds. The "piano" is, of course some crystal Yamaha DX7 or Korg M1 thing. The rest of this pile is swamped in reverb on all instruments, plus annoying female back vocals.

"25 Maggio 1931" features ANGELO BRANDUARDI on violin. It starts almost nice, like a 80's atmospheric ballad utilising synth pads, but very soon it degenerates to the cheapest digital reggae-pop. Violin solo barely sounds like a violin, it's so mutilated with sound processing. Melody is not worth mentioning.

"Se tu sorridi brucia il mondo" starts with arpeggiated synth and chorused guitar. Again, that horrible reverb on vocals. But I would forgive that if only the whole song had continued in that pace. Again, slightly artsy-fartsy feeling, something between cheesiest DIRE STRAITS and cheesiest Peter Gabriel. Drums ruined everything, but there was not much to ruin at first place.

"Chi sono io" starts with that awful "orchestra hit" synth sounds. Everything else is awful beyond description. Another song that starts with more or less decent "piano" pattern is "Ritrovare te". This one contains some guitar riff buried under all that digital swamps.

"L'indifferenza" is the title that describes listener's emotions best. Wow, this one is almost rocking. Nevermind the stupid and derived chords.

In conclusion, avoid this one. If you are by some chance a fan of the cheesiest sounds and production from the late 80's and early 90's, avoid this one. That says something about the actual songs and songwriting. Every melody on this album (I'm calling them melodies only from the musical theory point of view) could slightly resemble (if you try very hard) some other song from the 80's that you probably know, only a resembled one will be a light year better.

This is not only an album that deserves the lowest rating; this is one of the worst albums I heard in my life.

clarke2001 | 1/5 |

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