PER UN AMICO

Fully embracing the pastoral, acoustic guitar-led sound that Genesis had, by this point, gone a long way towards abandoning, PFM's second album is a tour de force of gentle, tranquil progressive rock. With the occasional keyboard interjection to prevent things getting too placid, the album's standout performer has to be Franco Mussida, who must on the basis of this album be a strong contender with Anthony Phillips for the best acoustic guitar player in prog. I hardly need to delve any deeper into the album's virtues - everyone else has done a great job already - but I did want to submit this review both to echo the general support for this album and to highlight Mussida's guitar playing specifically - I think the album owes most of its success to it. The fact that he's also a great singer is just the icing on the cake.