APPUNTI PER UN IDEA FISSA

For Beethoven fans and hard core Italian fans only....buyer beware.

This one is pretty far down the list for those working on an Italian collection. It has its moments but also suffers from some major problems. The sound quality and production on this album are just...freaking..awful. And I have the remastered recent reissue! If this one is the cleaned-up version I'd hate to hear the old LP. Normally I can get past poor sound but for some reason it really wrecks my ability to get into this one.

So to the music. The first track is Beethoven's "Patetica" and this is the highlight of the album. It is a decent though not phenomenal marriage of rock and classical music themes with average musicianship. "Lo Spegnifuoco" is a rather awkward two minute throwaway, sounding like an "idea" that bands come up with and put to tape for later investigation. "Equivoco" began side 2 on the original vinyl version and starts with some nice piano and vocals and the band will kick in with a heavy edge about half-way through. "Rabbia & Poesia" features nice classical guitar and the barely audible vocals that you can't turn up because if you do the heavy parts will blow you out of the room. So you're stuck either babysitting the volume or not hearing the quiet parts. It's too bad because this is a rather nice song. "Corale" sounds a little like a high school cover band playing a backyard kegger that they recorded on a boombox.

The bonus tracks are older pop songs that ironically have better sound quality than the album, but are really pretty insignificant to prog fans.

If this sounded better and was mixed better it might be a completely different album for me. I do hear some promise in places but I just can't get past the production. Thus I have to go 2 stars here and say this is for Italian fans only and Beethoven fans interested in hearing the first song.