ONCE AROUND THE WORLD

First of all I want to say a couple of things: this is the FIRST time I give a 5 stars rating and most important of all, you MUST have at least some appreciation for pop music to enjoy bands like It Bites.

I think it's a mistake to judge It Bites as a progresive band, I'd like to define their music as pop/rock with some notable progressive influences. All songs from "Once around the World" scream "pop" and I don't think the band were proggers trying "desperately" to appeal the masses. All compositions sound very honest, incredibly inspired and mature for such a young band which also shows great musicianship and impressive vocal arrangements. Probably the 80's approach of the production of this record let many people down as well as the approach of the songwriting: there is almost no hint of any 70's prog influence. I can barely imagine how fresh this album might have sounded back in 1988.

There's no weak track here: "Kiss like Judas" I think was a minor hit for the band, next come three fantastic tracks in a row "Yellow Christian", "Rose Marie" and "Black December", great prog-influenced pop songs with complex vocal arrangements. The title track is what I call a more conventional "prog" song because its lenght, instrumentation and structure but in my humble opinion doesn't represent the real approach of the band, the rest of the album is a better example of that.

It's sad this very talented band didn't make it big, perhaps they were too good and sophisticated for mainstream popularity and too "poppy" for most progheads who, two or three decades later, are still willing for some mellotron-fulled 20+-minute epics.

Fortunately It Bites are together again, minus bandleader, main songwriter, guitarist and great vocalist Francis Dunnery, this time replaced by John Mitchell (of Arena fame). Hope this reunion bring some interest for this great band.