PER UN AMICO

After seeing the extreme amount of 4 and 5 star reviews of this album, I really feel like I've missed something major with this album, as it's another one of those that even after many listens, I still cannot fully enjoy. I definitely believe that PFM are capable of doing some amazing things, as their debut album is a very high quality, beautiful album, but with Per Un Amico, I really struggle with a lot of it. I find that the band definitely works best when trying to create soft, beautiful melodies in their music, rather than during their energetic or experimental moments, both of which the album has a lot more of than Storia di un Minuto, unfortunately having the majority of them either carry on too long for me, add little to the overall feel f the song, or are just somewhat clunky in execution. Whatever the exact reason is, all I know is that I just seem unable to connect with this album properly.

I feel like the most confusing part of this all to me is thatI find the opening track, Appena un po' to be a near perfect song in every way. The classical inspired opening is absolutely incredible, being soft, incredibly catchy, and evoking a feeling of royalty, as if this could be played in a movie scene of a king walking down his halls, with layers upon layers of guitars and flutes building on top of one another until the song kicks into more proggy territory. The accompaniment of the violins to this more complex, heavy section works incredibly, and displays the highly symphonic sound of the band. The layered vocals that come in after this are soft and very pleasant, carrying a lovely melody along with them, while the warm mellotron lines are nothing short of majestic, all in all making this an absolutely stunning song in basically every way, and an easy to choose highlight of the entire band. I then get very quickly taken out of this awe inspiring beauty by the opening section of the following song, Generale. To be fair, this opening section is very fun, reminding me of a more rock oriented take on Emerson Lake and Palmer's Karn Evil 9's second moevement. The song unfortunately has the same issues as it however, as it feels like more of an unstructured jam rather than a cohesive song, and doesn't really do much for me beyond the opening riff, which admittedly is extremely enjoyable. On the whole, the song does jump around far too much, trying out a range of different tones and styles, such as one quite sinilar to that of a marching band, and another making heavy use of an organ, but none of them really sounding particularly good.

The last 3 songs all have a similar issue to them, that being that they're simply quite boring, albeit with some decent moments. The title track has the issue of the main, mellow aspects of the song aren't anything particularly special to me, which is a shame considering this is usually where I find the band finds their stride the most, but at least the faster instrumental section manages to be much better, especially with the drums that progressively get faster as it goes on, all without ever losing the tightness at hand. It's unfortunate that the song eventually goes back to this quieter verse later in the song, as it causes my mind to start wandering again. Il Banchetto shows much better grasp on great melody, being the other song on the album that I can find some enjoyment in. Everything about it just feels very well crafted, oh, except for that dreadful middle section reminding me of King Crimson's Moonchild, but with worse production and borderline unlistenable instruments. This section derails the entire rest of the song, which had a beautiful ebb and flow, going between pleasant verses and intrumental sections, making this much more experimental, sparse section just ruins the song for me, which is a massive shame, given the fact that the rest of it is so nice. Geranio is what I consider to be a fairly mediocre song, having some decent elements throughout, but shifting gears far too often in ways that simply don't quite work out properly, such as the fun, but ultimately average upbeat pop section. I do however, like the way the song crescendos as it approaches its end, and do find it to be am excellent way to end the album, even if the rest of the song is very hit or miss.

Overall, no matter how I've listened to this album, whether it's analysing it incredibly attentively, listening to it casually in the background while doing other things, or somewhere in between, little on this album has connected with me outside of the incredible opening track. Some songs feel thrown together, while others just feel like they simply were missing any particularly great ideas to begin with. It's great that on the next couple of albums after this, along with what came before, I can appreciate this band's work, but this one just doesn't work for me at all, mo matter how much I try.

Best tracks: Appena un po'

Weakest tracks: Generale, Geranio

Verdict: I personally find this album to be pretty ill conceived in quite a number of ways, but despite this, the love this album has received shows that it's likely that I'm just missing something here. I'd recommend starting of with PFM's first album in any case, due to the more conventional writing and the greater beauty it has, but if you want some symphonic prog with some quirkier touches to songwriting, than you may enjoy this album.