CONFINE

There seems to be unanimity, albeit with a small sample size, amongst reviewers that the first track on this 1995 release is some sort of a mini epic, truly the best thing since Banco/PFM that isn't certified by those early RPI pioneers, and that one can only be sated by listening to it several times before giving the rank and file pieces a chance. Well, I think I have listened dozens of times and I just don't get the love for "Albi Di Spagna". Yes it's a pretty almost folky start and a bombastic but ultimately predictable middle section and some pleasant piano in the outro but it doesn't seem very distinctive or well developed to me, just a few good but not great if disjointed ideas that don't really bring out the best in each other. Well, let's move on from that, shall we? OK, the rest, for the most part, isn't quite that good.

The fanfare returns here and there but "Confine" doesn't seem to know whether to romance us or rock the boat, so does neither very well, which "Piccole Vele" and "un Altro Momento" respectively illustrate. Most just passes by inoffensively, though the spoken parts of "sinergie.." are very irritating. At some point even a tease has to "put out", and this album only has two tracks that really move me, and dramatically so, in very specific passages. The first is "Pentole Sullo Scaffale", with its emotional guitar/keyboard flourishes that ultimately serenade it offstage, and the second is the closing and title cut, with similar pyrotechnics that give way to a reprise of the opening theme. "Porto D'Inghilterra" offers probably the most appealing vocal themes but I don't see them keeping me company too often.

I suppose if you are seeking RPI options that are still young enough to be respectably dwelling in their parents' basements, you could do settle for SITHONIA who did manage to buck the solo release trend, but better options must exist even within those confines. 2.5 stars rounded down