ENGLISH GARDEN

Between nostalgic antiques and postmodern concern. This is how on their website Quintorigo define this album, the first with all the lyrics written in English. We are far from the experimental research of the beginnings and it's immediately clear from the "glam" opener and title track, followed by a beatlesque "The Fault Line".

The musicianship is great as always and the acoustic chamber instrumentation don't betray the nature of the band. Who loves this band will get pleasure even from this "rock oriented" album. I don't say pop. It's easy rock, sometimes radio friendly and lacks the inventive of albums like Rospo.

Listening to "Teardrops" it's hard to think that this is not a British band of the early 70s. It fades out but the following song "How Does It Feel" stars more or less with the same chords. The difference is made by the excellent vocals of Juliette Lewis. This song is closer to the old Quintorigo and surely the album's highlight.

"The Place They Claimed" leaves the easy environment for more interesting sequences of chords and signatures. This is the Quintorigo that I like and the things go better with "Somewhere Else", an avant-rock song which alternates heavy and mellow vocals on a jazz base.

"Shepherd of The Sheep" Is a heavy Rock and Roll song. Who is used with Quintorigo won't be surprised. Who is not will have the possibility to hear how hard rock can be played with strings and a sax. Quite a return to the cover of Deep Purple's Highway Stars.

I think that "Candyman" is a cover. It's a blues that I think I have already heard. An excellent song anyway. Juliette Lewis is back on "Lies!" a song in perfect Quintorigo style with hard rock accents fused with chamber music.

"Hang Man Blues" is opened by double bass and mute choir. It may be a standard, I don't know. There is a number of "hangman's blues" around and I don't know all of them. This one is a classic blues, very "black" in the vocals with the bass making the big part. It's long time that I don't listen to blues and this song renews my love for that music each time...

The album is closed by a jazzy track with a touch of Canterbury. "Burning Doubts" may be a Caravan song, at least for the vocals. Here Luca Sapio demonstrates to be able to change his vocal how he likes. It's a dreamy song, the best possible as closer.

It's unusual that the easiest tracks are all grouped at the beginning, but the transition to the most interesting songs is so smooth that it's difficult to catch at the first listens. I took many time to enter in this album that it's an excellent entry point for who is not familiar with the genre. Three solid stars...4 if it was for the second half of the album only.