LO SCEMO E IL VILLAGGIO

DELIRIUM are a band hailing grom Genova,Italy and ''Lo scemo e ill villaggio'' is their second studio release.After an interesting debut release,which had a an evident folk rock sound,the main man of the band Ivano Fossati left the group to purchase a solo career.The new situation alond with the rise of the italian prog rock wave seemed that had an impact to the band as the second release has more obvious progressive leanings...

The album consinst of a total of 8 rather short tracks except the over 7-min ''Gioia..''.The new member of the group is Martin Grice who contributes in vocals,sax and flutes.Don't be sceptic about the different vocal ranges you will hear in this work as all the band members contribute in this section after the departure of Fossati...As for the music,at times it's quite interesting,at other ones it's just average...Despite the progressive path the band has chosen to follow,there are also clear folk traces from the past and pop leanings...Unlike bands like PFM or LE ORME which were more symphonic,DELIRIUM mix various styles of music like pop,jazz,symphonic,folk and ethnic resembling to a sound very close to BLOCCO MENTALE...But,although I trully find BLOCCO MENTALE'S ''Poa'' a masterpiece of prog rock,this one has some flat moments so it can hardly be categorized even as an essential work...I really like some symphonic or jazz passages where the italian music romanticism is obvious and amazing...But,as I have written,there are moments of flat music or passages that work as fillings to my ears...

My general feelings for this album are mixed and depend on my mood...It isn't an album I will play often in my CD player,but on the other side it's an album I'm sure that I'll try to listen to sometimes in the future...So I guess the truth lies in the middle...3 stars exactly,not slightly worse or better that that...