JET LAG

Here's where PFM really loses it. By this point, they were residing in Los Angeles (but no longer after this album). This was their second album with ex-ACQUA FRAGILE vocalist Bernardo Lanzetti, bassist Jan Patrick Djivas had been with the band since "L'Isola di Niente", and for this album they brought in Gregory Bloch, apparently a violinist for some latter-day version of IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY (which is a bit strange, since everyone knows that David LaFlamme was quite a capable violinist himself in that BAY AREA band). "Jet Leg" was their final Los Angeles album, with PFM returning to Italy (and Bloch staying in California), and concentrating on the Italian pop market. There is no getting around the fact that Patrick Djivas was quite a talented bassist, showing his abilities off his fretless bass. Not to mention Bernardo Lanzetti with his Peter GABRIEL/Roger Chapman-like voice.

But unfortunately this album, for the most part is very non-memorable. I can understand that the band couldn't run the style they explored on "Storia di un Minuto" and "Per Un Amico" in the dirt, realizing they wouldn't be able to top off those two albums even if they tried, but to go for an album that consists little else than a lot of noodling around that goes nowhere is pretty inexcusible. Supposedly "Chocolate Kings" is the better album, but I hadn't heard this. "Jet Leg" is far from a classic in my book, and for PFM completists only.