Stranafonia - Per un Vecchio Pazzo. 1997 Italy

Yet another CD from the late 90's explosion of Italian progressive rock, Stranafonia provide a very fine, but ultimately faceless album. All the elements are in place: Keyboards, guitars, impassioned vocals in Italian, and a solid rhythm section who do an admirable job of moving things around at a moment's notice. But there's really not that much meat on the bone, even though the platter looked good on initial inspection. Perhaps it's a bit lyrical heavy, or maybe it's the tinny 90s production combined with the digital-age synthesizers in full effect, but whatever the case this one tends to blaze by without too much notice. Difficult for a die hard Italo-progressive fan like me to wash my hands of, but this isn't the first album I pull down as a classic representative of the late 90s Italian scene.

Ownership: CD: 1997 Lizard. Standard jewel case release

Removed from collection (2017)

1998; 9/7/13 (new entry); 9/14/17 (removed)