IO SONO NATO LIBERO

This is THE Banco album, and as far as I'm concerned, THE Italian symphonic album. Of all of the forgettable and/or poorly produced albums from Italy in the 70s, Banco's Io Sono Nato Libero stands out as both a well written and a pretty well produced album. It has all of the good stuff they showed us with their previous two albums, but they really kick it up a notch here. Every piece is memorable. The predecessors had a lot of the right ingredients, but they stumbled sometimes and sounded quite rough. This here is refined Banco. The group is still quirky, but also more sophisticated. From the first few minutes pf the 15-minute opener, "Canto Nomade per un Prigioniero Politico," you can hear the band's maturity expounding. It's still got the bombastic Banco style, but it sounds less pretentious and more crisp & dynamic. The melodies are stronger as well. We also hear a lot of acoustic sections that we didn't hear before. Among a heap of other Italian bands who had a difficult time standing out, Banco was able to do it from album number one, and they really stand out here.