STORIA O LEGGENDA

The last album released by Le Orme in their Progressive Rock heyday is, despite its fairly modest score in these Archives, one of the highlights of their Golden Age discography. The music was gentler than the keyboard-heavy workouts of earlier albums, and more obviously song-driven. But the songs themselves are some of the warmest and richest in the greater Orme catalogue, and no less affecting for being so economical, with every track falling neatly into a radio-friendly four to five minute range.

It's also arguably the band's most well-rounded and balanced effort since becoming a quartet: more classic GENESIS than classical ELP, although both are lazy comparisons. Le Orme always had its own voice, regardless of the influence: lyrical, romantic, and genuinely emotional, as only the best Progressive Rock can be, especially in Italy during the mid-1970s.

The striking cover illustration by Walter Mac Mazzieri pays tribute to his own artwork for one of Le Orme's best-loved albums ("Uomo di Pezza', 1972), but the newer LP was never meant as a re-tread. The band instead took the simpler musical arrangements of "Smogmagica" and "Verità Nascoste", and gilded them with a delicate magic, leading even the unlikely ersatz-reggae verses of "Tenerci per Mano" toward a soaring RPI chorus.

I shouldn't have to remind regular visitors to these pages that a softer, more accessible Prog album doesn't indicate an immediate sell-out. The music here might be easier on the ears, but from start to finish it's pure Rock Progressivo Italiano, beautifully written and performed. And the album closes with a real humdinger, in the aggressive throwback instrumental "Al Mercato della Pulci" (The Flea Market), in retrospect four of the strongest minutes in Le Orme's later history. It's hard to imagine a more dynamic or appropriate ending, to the album and to the era itself.