PER UN AMICO

When I first tried Per un Amico, after seeing that it was one of the top 10 rated albums on all of PA, I decided to listen to some songs, and I was disappointed; it seemed like just another boring, instrument-driven prog album. After a few months, I returned- and wow, my opinion was turned around 180 degrees! After many, many listens, Per un Amico grew on me much like Hybris did later, and I began to experience the true beauty of this excellent album.

Appena Un Po begins in a beautiful, field of mellotrons that sends shivers down my spine. Then, slow acoustic guitar comes in with a little bass, and flute joins thereafter, followed by harpsichord, and the music keeps building until at 2:17, it tumbles into a mix of instruments playing together. After about 4 minutes, the mellotron takes over, resulting in a beautiful solo. This then morphs into a medieval march, and the song concludes with more vocals and another mellotron solo. Next is Generale, an energetic rocker reminiscent of ELP, featuring some excellent drumming, guitar and violin work in the first half. Around halfway through, the music fades away, only to return with drums and flute, and it soon turns into an amorphous mix of constant style changes, darting from one sound to another, before returning to it's beginning sound to end the track. After Generale is the title track, possibly the best from the album. It begins with flute, then moves into a somewhat sad, possibly nostalgic ballad. However, it reaches its peak after the lyrical parts, as instruments twist and turn in a frantic dance, and I must mention an excellent use of synths around 4:07. Next is Il Banchetto, a pretty upbeat, acoustic guitar driven tune. At least, that's how it starts. Soon, everything but the acoustic guitar falls out, and synth takes the lead in yet another eclectic dance of various instruments. This is best seen around 4:08ish, when the band seems to develop ADD, bouncing around with the synth in a fashion reminiscent of King Crimson's weirder moments, though more its certainly more... playful, or fun, than most of King Crimson's output. This then goes into a bit of piano, and soon the upbeat ballad returns to finish the song. Geranio begins with some delicate instrumentation, before blooming around 2 minutes in and turning into... well, you may have noticed that they like to make constantly moving instrumental passages, and Geranio does just that. Overall, the album is an amorphous, always changing mass of an album, and every style change results in a new and exciting success. However, you must approach with an open mind and a developed love of prog- recommended to any prog fan who's heard the more well-known stuff and wants something new and stunning. Though I wouldn't call it essential, I think it's even better than excellent- thus, I'll give it (roughly) a 9.25/10, which can be rounded up to five stars.