...E VIA

Yuck! avoid it if you don't want to have a heart attack!

This album is like hearing FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD or NEW ORDER. Not bad if you aren't into prog music and like the 80's. but please, it isn't for any prog lover who likes the 70's releases of BMS (like me, for example).

You've been warned, this album has NOTHING to do with the 70's BMS, is another band. The same sad thing happened with GENESIS in the 80's.

Very sad :(

This is the first Banco's album I've ever heard. After this listening I was a lot confused about Banco's music and fame. I like only one song of the album (I've buyed this album in LP) "(When we) touched our eyes" becaue is a sweet, electric dance for voice and keyboard. Is the only song who merits to be heard. The other songs are pure, simple and ugly pop, songs written only for record an album, not with a minimum of wisdom. It's a bad album. Don't buy it. This is not Banco del Mutuo Soccorso.

Just imagine Banco trying very hard to sound like, not the 80s Genesis... that would have been better... no. In this album, they're trying to sound like Phil Collins and his Sussudio album. Yes, it's that bad. Or is it ? To tell you the truth, I've seen Phil in concert for his Sussudio album tour and enjoyed it very much at the time. So if you're crazy enough about Banco like I am, well this album can't hurt you but be warned ! The poppy songs are quite well crafted as a matter of fact. I'd rather hear this Banco on the radio than the usual crap. Only for fans.

There is nothing as similar as a "Banco" album from the eighties than another one. If you are in electro-pop, you might like this one. Actually, back to the eighties I have been listening to some bands like "Human League" and alike and liked them quite well. But when "Banco" opted for this disco-pop beat, I just found it disgusting.

In my review for their previous "album" : "Banco, 1983" I promised to tell which album was their worse form this decade (the eighties). "Urgentissimo" held one good song "C'e' Qualcosa", ""Michele E Il Treno" was the one of two halves pleasant song from "Buone Notizie" (the other half one was : "Baciami Alfredo") and there were none featured on "Banco 83".

About this release now. The worst "Touch Your Eyes" sits aside with the horrorous "Black Out" as well as "To The Fire".

Actually, "Mexico City" is half good. Beautiful and inspired Giacomo vocals during the verse, but these awful beats will strike again during the chorus.

If you really want to suffer, I strongly advise you to listen to "Lies In Your Eyes". Dreadful. I thought that "Genesis" (83) or "Yes" ("Big Generator", "Union" or "Talk" reached the bottom but "Banco" has surpassed them quite of bit with their quatuor of the eighties.

Since this album holDs half a good song, the golden palm goes to "Banco '83" as the poorest output from this once good band.

One star for this one, of course.

Atrocius. I have no other words to define this work other than "atrocious". As much as I like "Capolinea", the 80s were not that good for Banco, so I wasn't expecting a great album or something.

But still, when I put that on the CD player I was like "YUCKKK!". All the other 80s albums had at least something that saved them from complete disaster, but not this one. "Lies in Your Eyes" is the only song that comes close to have an actual melody, but even that one is not big deal and it's very forgottable.

When "Baby Jane" arrived I was a bit excited, because the beginning of the song is quite cool (great bass work by Gabriel Amato), but once the introduction is finished it turns into another horrendous pop song, possibly the worst of the batch. 30 cool seconds on an album are NOT enough to save it.

Banco completionists only!

Oh god, it's always so horrible when prog heroes from the glory years of the early-to-mid 1970's desperately try to cling on to some kind of notion of being 'cool' and 'hip' by producing electro-pop dirge like this. Heard from a 21st century perspective it's even worse. There is no discernable link between this risible studio album and the glorious classics of yesteryear, such as the majestic 'Darwin!' or the beautifully-crafted 'Io Sono Nato Libero', so, in actual fact, if your close your eyes and wish hard enough, you may just wipe the fact that 'E Via' ever dared stain the resume of this once great group. However, you can't really blame the band themselves. Punk killed prog, punk died a natural(and rather young) death and was subsequently replaced by post-punk, then shimmering eighties synth-pop, which is the little and much-maligned window of history that this 1985 album has sprung from. It was a truely horrible affliction that affected many a great rock band, a kind of strange, vulgar desire to change with the times and speak to the kids coupled with a temporay absence of musical talent. Just look at Genesis' 1981-to-1991 period, or 'Love Beach' etc by Emerson, Lake & Palmer to name just a few. Again, once great prog behemoths reduced to peddling out mass-media cardboard confectionary posing as music. Happily, the 1980's finished and were replaced by the slightly cooler 1990's - which, to keep it simple, was basically grunge, britpop and then, right at the end, hip-hop - before the much more acceptable noughties engulfed us and suddenly prog was hip again and, hey presto, bands like Banco started to make better music again! Many have wondered about the strange time of the 1980's. One day, far in the future, generations of musologists will ponder over the terrible time of the 1980's, when cheap synth-pop stalked the earth and held our ears hostage in the gloom of the three-minute keyboard-orientated popular music single. They will refer to this time as 'the time of the dreadful crap' and will use it as an example so that never again will this world have to endure a decade of ghastly sin. So, just to re-cap: don't you dare go anywhere near this album. Fans of prog beware, fans of eighties pop rejoice!

One of the best Banco pop 80's albums. They really tried to come closer to the British new wave by using English title of the songs, additional more mainstream sounding vocals by Mike Francis and Mario Valerio. The sound is even more distanced from normal rock sound. Melodies are really good and vocals fulfill the pop music more than enough. Instrumentally, it is a wasted time for all players as it shows a fragment of their chops.

The first song is a very catchy pop song that must have suited the pop market and radio waves well. "Black Out" features good grooving bass guitar, also good vocals but terrible drums especially fill-ins are dreadful. "When we touched your eyes" sounds quite like Spandau Ballet - a good but not authentic song by Banco. This is their first ballad attempt on the record but contradicts quite dynamic guitar. Another slow song by worse by far is "Mexico city" that only has acoustic guitar to be different from the rest of the pack and some chorals. "Lies in your eyes" is another very typical British mid 80's song with mildly interesting keyboard accompaniment. "Baby Jane" tries to be less commercial and does sound more authentic but still does not save the album.