PER UN AMICO

This has to be the most original and the most simply astonishing prog album ever to come out of Italy. Compared to its predecessor, STORIA DI UN MINUTO, it's an enormous leap forward. If I've awarded it four stars, not five, this is only for the following reasons:

1. On the whole, those lazy vocals still sound weak. When they get a bit more powerful (as on "Il Banchetto"), the harmonies remind me of run-of-the-mill Italian pop.

2. As other reviewers have pointed out, the final track is dreadfully repetitive. After the grand fiesta of all that came before, you'd expect the album to end on a bang, but instead you get a mess.

3. As musicians, the members of PFM are second to none (their technique is clearly superior to what Genesis, Jethro Tull and other British bands could do at the time) but PER UN AMICO does not reach the heights of the greatest prog masterpieces.

But let's be grateful for what we've got! You'll be hard-pressed to find a more breathtaking collection of virtuoso violin solos, clangy rock guitars, jolly multi-tracked recorders, spooky waltzes, Beach Boys-style vocal outbursts, exuberant mandolin-strumming, pseudo-baroque interludes, magisterial grand piano cadenzas and dreamy Moog & Mellotron climaxes - all wrapped up in quicksilver tunes with more unexpected tempo changes than you can shake a stick at.

Essential listening for symphomaniacs!