THE WORLD BECAME THE WORLD

Luckily, the music on here is good enough to make up for the pretty poor English pronunciations of the vocals (not to mention the ridiculous lyrics......more on that later). It's not terrible, and it's certainly not the worst I've heard, but when you compare it to the beautiful melodiousness of the original Italian it can only pale in comparison. I understand why they did it at the time, though I wonder how much it helped their profile in the USA.

The music is quite good as one would expect from this legendary Italian prog band. Especially the first track has a symphonic grandeur and emotional quality that only the Italians are capable of. Just look away is more in a Cadence and Cascade type of style, the soft contemplative ballad. Quite pleasant but not spectacular. The title track, which does not even appear on the original album, manages to somehow capture the sound and feel of the first King Crimson album like no other song I've ever heard. The music for this song is actually from the first PFM album, specifically the song Impressioni di Settembre. A good track. Four Holes in the Ground is a good upbeat number with some great playing. Is My Face On Straight has a bit too much disco sound to it for me, but still is decent. The final instrumental track is decent, but not outstanding.

My biggest gripe is with Sinfields lyrics. Sure, his writing on the early Crimson albums was excellent. But here, he has written English lyrics to existing compositions. Presumably this was done since a direct translation would not have worked. Whatever the reason, Sinfields lyrics seem awkward, silly, and overly contrived. I don't think they work with the songs at all, let alone enhance them (not to mention his ridiculous titles for the instrumentals). To top if off, my copy has quite poor muddy sounding production which makes it a relatively unpleasant listen.

Having heard their original Italian releases, most of which are brilliant, I really see no need to own this. I know I won't be picking up Photos of Ghosts, that's for sure. Because the music is still great, I'll go with 3 stars instead of two, but I'd suggest sticking with the Italian originals.

Share this PREMIATA FORNERIA MARCONI (PFM) review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to infandous
• Report this review (#151136)
• Buy PREMIATA FORNERIA MARCONI (PFM) music online with PA partners
• Show all PREMIATA FORNERIA MARCONI (PFM) MP3/Stream
• Go to PREMIATA FORNERIA MARCONI (PFM) page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to The World Became the World page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for PREMIATA FORNERIA MARCONI (PFM) related discussions