STORIE INVISIBILI

So, you wanna hear a funny story? Less than a week ago, I finally check out Banco without any prior knowledge about them. After playing their legendary first three albums, and falling in love with them, I find out that they've got a new album out THE SAME WEEK. I've been actively listening to album after album for 12 years now and I don't think that's ever happened to me. So I made the decision to make that my first album of Feb. 28, the day of release.

Of course, this doesn't mean I expected brilliance. One look at the track lengths will tell you that they're going a bit more pop. So this needs to be judged as a ROCK album. Now, there's no shortage of catchy melodies, thankfully. These things still come pretty easily to the band even more than 50 years into their career. I haven't heard their reviled 80's works, but I'm certain this is way better. There's a strong prog influence that doesn't often work its way into the time signatures, but leaves plenty of room for numerous surprises that maintain flow because of the personality of the band. Of course, it also helps that they're essentially playing the same instruments they've been playing for 50 years, which means, even though you're getting a bunch of pop rock songs, you're still getting plenty of Banco spirit, which is all I could've asked for. This also helps most tracks to keep their own identity, and since Banco is largely personality, that means each identity is strong and independent.

Obviously, it may be a disappointment that this isn't the most proggy of prog albums. But what really matters is how Banco's able to deliver this direction, and they succeeded constantly. The same jazz and classical influences are their in a radio pop rock fashion that ironically strays strong. I think if I had to tag this, I'd say it's an art rock and pop rock album with elements of prog pop and symphonic prog.

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