LA BUONA NOVELLA

A few days ago I wrote a 5 stars review about "AD 2010 - La Buona Novella" by PFM, so decided to review the album by FABRIZIO DE ANDRÉ (La Buona Novella) that originated this masterpiece and honestly after years of not listening this release, found it dated and a bit disappointing in comparison with the 2010 release.

Lets start with the fact that FABRIZIO DE ANDRÉ is a "cantautori" (singer songwriter) more than a Prog performer and composer, so whoever expects a Progressive Rock masterpiece, will find instead some sort of revolutionary troubadour with a fantastic voice that reminds me of the Russian bard "Vladimir Vysotsky".

One of the reasons I bought this album back in the late 70's was because I found PFM performed it, but their role is secondary, because the album is written by and for FABRIZIO DE ANDRÃ?'S glory, and that's a shame, being that the concept is brilliant but sadly the band is underused and most of the songs except "Il Sogno di Maria" are undeveloped.

The atmosphere is a nice blend of Medieval and Folk music with an incredibly poetic lyrics, but seems empty because the voice and guitar of "De André" are not enough to get the brilliance this conceptual album deserved.

Still enjoyed " from start to end, specially "Maria nella Bottega del Falegname" (Mary at a Carpenter's Workshop) a song that has everything a Prog fanatic will expect, from beautiful melodies top nice orchestration and chorals.

Probably if "2010 AD - La Buona Novella" wasn't so fresh in my head, would had rated "La Buona Novella" with 4 stars, but my opinion is that PFM took an extremely beautiful album and turned into an almost perfect masterpiece, so I will give 3 stars to "FABRIZIO DE ANDRE" release, that should be 3.5.