Don't listen to De Andre' if you are allergic to Art!
Marco Dettori | San Diego, CA USA | 09/15/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I generally don't like to be polemic with other reviewers, but I would recommend to kireviewer to limit is reviewing activity to products he has at least a minimum knowledge of. Fabrizio De Andre' is a great poet, one of the greatest Italian poets of the 20th century, who decided to put his lyrics in music. For this very reason, only a deep knowledge of the Italian language can allow one to fully appreciate the sheer beauty of his words. The very idea of seeing him "open[ing] his shirt to show the hair on his chest" cracks me down. It would be far easier to see Bush confessing that he didn't win the 2000 election.
This double album "In Concerto" is the live recording of a famous 1979 tour in which De Andre' played his classics from the '60s and the 70's in completely new arrangements made by the PFM (The original arrangements can be heard in the version of the same songs contained in some anthologies of his earlier works, as "Da Genova" or "Mi innamoravo di tutto"). Vol. 1 contains the best songs, while Vol. 2 has material qualitatively more discontinuous(though "Via del Campo" and "Sally" are two jewels). The quality of the recording is not excellent, especially regarding Fabrizio's voice, which is truly one of the best voices that I have ever heard. I would recommend interested people to listen to his masterworks, "Anime Salve", "Creuza de ma", and his last live "Fabrizio De Andre' In Concerto" from the 1998 tour. Sadly, his last gift to us."
It's not progrock, but it's still good
Marco Dettori | 05/28/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"The main reason I'm writing this review is that the statements made by the other reviewer exaggerate the degree to which this parts from PFM's other albums. The focus here is definitely on De Andre's songs, but PFM do make substantial contributions in the arrangements of them. I really don't think this is pop music akin to Tom Jones or Englebert Humperdink or whatever his name is, it's singer-songwriter stuff. De Andre doesn't have the best voice in the world, and not knowing Italian will reduce the amount of enjoyment you get out of the album, but it's still seriously good music. The overall feel is really not entirely dissimilar to PFM's Passpartu album- good melodic songs with occasionally complex instrumental embellishments."
Track Listings (8) - Disc #1