EMOTIONAL TATTOOS

I have been a huge fan of PFM ever since I listened to 1972's Per un amico about one and a half years ago. I wasn't only wonderful 34 minutes spent, but also my entry to the world of RPI. And when I heard that they are going to release a new studio album this fall, I was a very lucky guy. One thing more before we begin, as an aforementioned big fan of the band (liking every record from Storia 'till Jet Lag, Suonare Suonare and Stati di Immaginazione) I may just be a little more tolerant than your average RPI fan

Premiata Forneria Marconi is a very strange band, after releasing dozens of albums during the 70s and 80s, just one in the 90s they are a real chameleon in the new millenium, releasing only two real studio efforts with 2000's Serendipity and 2006's Stati Di Immaginazione and some what I call creative experiments with their Dracula Album, Mozart Album and that A.D thing. Stati was a huge thing, entirely instrumental but as the score can tell you it stands with their best, so the level of anticipation was high. 2017's Emotional Tattoos will be a very devisive record - and your attitude towards it will depend on your personal preferences. If you can cope with the first side of 1980's Suonare Suonare and it's fusion of light prog with pop and rock and some killer chroruses, you'll probably like Emotional Tattoos as well - if you can't well you will probably not rate this among 2017's finest records. The first two singles available at this moment give a relatively good impression on what is to be expected. Emotional Tattoos is released in two forms, English and Italian - I never listened to the English Version and probably never will, those vinyl fans out there be warned, only the orange vinyl is italian.

Emotional Tattoos is not as progressive for instance the new Maxophone record, but it's not a simple pop album. First off the albums sounds great though the instruments sound vastly different than those found on Stati but after the first synths on opener "il regno" you'll notice that Patrick Djivas bass playing is incredible, very upfront and varied. The violin is also very dominant much to the dismay of guitar fans - this being the first PFM record without founding member Franco Mussida and though Mario Sfolgi plays just fine, he is barely noticable on this album. With Mussida gone, dummer Franz di Cioccio assumes the role of the sole lead vocalist with is fine from a vocal standpoint - the guy sound great for being 70 - but much less pleasent from a drumming standpoint. Franz is a very skilled drummer, but he is not a god, he probably can't sing a whole song while playing complicated progdrums. This is very noticeable on this album with the only complicated drum pattern being on the instrumental "Freedom Square" which is fantastic by the way.

What we have here is over 60 minutes of good music with sprinkles of prog in it, mostly noticable on the aforementioned instrumental, the middle part of the albums second track "Oniro", the fast and frantic "La danza degli specchi" and "Dalla Terra alla Luna". Other than that we have the pounding bass playing of the albums second single "La Lezione", a very dominant violin on "Quartiere Generale", a beautiful ballad with "Le cose belle" and little bits of filler with "Il cielo che c'è", "Mayday" and sadly the albums closing track "Big Bang". The album would have definetly benefited of a shorter running time. What all of these tracks have in common are killer choruses, giving me earworm after earworm all weekend.

Is Emotional Tattoos good? Well it depends, I liked it quite a lot, it is not as good as Stati, the classic albums or Suonare Suonare's first side, but if you can live with the fact, that the band's not that quiet pastoral acoustic band of the first two records and neither the eclectic one of records three and four and Stati, nor the jazzy one of Jet Lag, you'll find a fine collection of songs with this late years release. Let's hope there will be future records maybe in the vein of old in the future.

(sorry if there are any grammatical errors in this review, I'm a native Austrian)

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