Wednesday, September 7, 2022

Living Life ~ Italy


Mysterious Dream (1981)

Living Life's second album is one of those out of time, out of place albums. You can count on one hand the amount of interesting progressive rock albums from Italy in 1981. While mainly instrumental, there are a few places for English vocals, yet another oddity. Hard to grab a narrative for the album, as it does sound familiar but doesn't really belong to any particular movement or common sound. Like with Bounty, ultimately the music falls to symphonic fusion, and could be considered jazz fusion as well. But I would argue it's more progressive rock in construct. Five long tracks and all very pleasurable to the ears. There's a strong melodic component throughout, though nothing really stands out either. Side 2 is slightly better than the other. One of those albums that requires multiple plays to understand it. Those are the best kind. Of note, drummer Roberto (Johnny) Betti was with Circus 2000 originally.

Ownership: 1983 Nexus (LP). Thick gatefold. I rarely mention it, but all of my Japanese albums have the obi and insert (with a couple of very rare exceptions). 

9/7/22 (review / new entry)

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