DOLCE ACQUA

Although many people point to Delirium III as the one to grab, I need to point out that there is something very important missing from Delirium's second and third album: frontman, lead vocalist and flautist extraordinaire Ivano Fossati.

One cannot underestimate how much of Fossati's personality and talent went into this band. In two short years he brought them to the top of the charts in the Italian scene on the back of their monster hit 'Jesahel', a finalist in the Sanremo Music Festival in 1972. Furry freaks on national TV entered into an establishment music festival/contest? What?

His departure (drafted, perhaps intentionally, into the army) on the cusp of national and European fame threw a large monkey wrench into the plans, as Delirium was starting to blow up big. Them surviving at all was in doubt, like Genesis continuing after Gabriel quit-unthinkable they'd survive.....hmm.

Which left us with their only album with Fossati, the excellent Dolce Acqua. Acoustic guitars, heavy use of flute and Fossati's remarkable ability to construct memorable melodic hooks make this an essential album for any RPI collection. Like Jesahel, some of this stuff gets inside your head and runs on repeat it is so catchy. What makes this record so satisfying is the unifying cohesiveness contained within, something lacking in their second and third releases. A warmth surrounds every song, like the band had been playing these songs hundreds of times in many settings. This stuff just makes you feel good in a way that their later albums can only hint at. Fossati's vocals (in Italian of course) are some of my favorite in the whole scene, distinctive, impassioned without overwhelming. Some might hesitate at sixties era tinges in backing vocals, but that is all part of the charm of this album.

Reference points would be wide and varied-acoustic folk with jazz tinges and Italian classical leanings? Donovan sits in with Genesis in 1971? Hard to pin down, this one is an original.

Highly recommended. Five stars and a foundation album of the whole RPI scene, pre dating PFM. Get the triple gatefold lp if you can find one for the period piece artwork. The CD usually contains Jesahel, but the lp does not as it was a 45 only release.