PASSPARTÙ

I'd only acquired this on vinyl recently since owning most of their catalog up through Jet Lag for decades. (I'd been told by 'big kids' to avoid this one early on). However, I am glad I finally located a copy of this, and was pleasantly surprised. This one shows the band in a transition, finishing Bernardo Lanzetti's three album run as lead singer. Although it would seem to be a huge drop from their heady days of their 1971-1976 era, and is definitely a huge change from the LA jazz fusion of the previous album Jet Lag, I seem to put this album on quite a bit.

The first thing that makes this album different is the band has returned to singing in Italian only and abandoned English vocals. For most, this is a strong improvement (most RPI fans and original fans in Italy shunned most English vocals on Italian bands). This change alone would make the hardcore fan excuse some of the borderline easy listening and primordial world music experiments contained herein.

Instrumentation veers towards acoustic Latin/world music feel, but there are passages that show flickers of their former glory. My only complaint is that they intentionally bury the few fiery moog runs and burning electric guitar solos here far down in the mix-making the overall feel of the album the priority. They make sure that the varied folk melodies that tie this album together stay the focus of your attention and don't get overwhelmed by flashy soloing. This will drive away many fans of their earlier material that view said flashy soloing as the only reason they've shown up. The opening track Viene Il Santo has some of the spirit of old PFM, the ability to make you get up and spin around the room with abandon. Opening track on side two is the instrumental title track, another highlight.

It needs to be noted that this is the first PFM album without any violin on it, one of the signature elements of the PFM sound. (they remedied this immediately on their next album with the addition of Lucio Fabbri-still in the band today). Five guest musicians is a little worrisome, and a sign for many bands that the end of the creative road might be closer than further.

Maybe it's the return to singing in Italian that makes me more forgiving of the foibles and clunkers here, and overlook their shedding of 'prog rock icons' for a streamlined commercial approach intended to shift some units. I would have ignored this as an epic failure had I run into it when it came out, but now I can hear their ability to weave traditional folk melodies into songs that just make you feel good. It's a shame that many would never give this a chance, but honestly I am surprised that I come back to this record over and over, week after week, and brighten my day. Still some magic in there.

Still out there on original Italian vinyl pressing if you scour the web. The inner sleeve art is uncredited, but is from the Metal Hurlant school of psychedelia-a weird opposite vibe to the dreaminess contained inside. Three stars for hardcore PFM fans. Prog fans might not find much in here