ACQUA FRAGILE

I can't believe how many people are un-impressed by the two Acqua Fragile records. It's like everyone is so ready to fall over the Wakeman/Emerson/Minnear axis of evil, that their judgement has become clouded. These LP's exist in their own element, and are products of their own time, and rules.Frankly, I find the honesty and innocence in these songs kind of sweet, and naieve. You try being a teenager in Socialist/Marxist Italy in the early 70's with rampant unemployment, extreme inflation, while still living under the shadow of world opinion regarding fascism, and Mussolini. Its a wonder punk didn't start there before anywhere else, and it's certainly no surprise that Italy embraced it so passionately when it hit. These recordings opened my eyes to a whole world of Italian musicians attemting to find their way, like some sort of weird rite of passage. Their heroes just happened to be the great prog stars of the day tempered with their own vision of the world. We don't hate the Raspberries because they were influenced by the Beatles, the Who, and the Beach Boys. We marvel at their attempt to meld those influences to create something unique of their own. The same must hold here as well. Please don't believe the people who tear these albums apart. Listen to them. You might even find them beautiful, and refreshing in light of all the crap we are forced to endure on the radio these days. You won't get any million mile an hour guitar noodling, or screaming, scronking virtuoso keyboard arpeggios. You will get two lps of stylistically wonderful music