Reale Accademia di Musica ~ Italy

Reale Accademia di Musica (1972)

---May 2005

Here’s an album that has grown immensely on me over time. When I first heard it in the late 1980’s I was nonplussed. But in the last few years, its melancholic introspective songwriter style mixed with classically inspired prog rock has become highly appealing. Nine minute ‘Il Mattino’ captures this combination perfectly. Only ‘Ognuno Sa’ is tough to swallow (too singer-songwriter for me). Fantastic keyboards throughout (piano, organ).

---10/19/26

Time to enter into UMR. The album starts off somewhat slow, and not what one would associate with Italian prog rock. Great things reward the patient. Once the album catches the wave, the results are excellent. 'Ognuno Sa' closes off the A side, and yea, I guess it doesn't maintain the power of 'Il Mattino'. But I like it better than the review above implies. All of Side 2 is satisfactory, moving from standard issue Italian prog rock into heavy rock realms, almost like Uriah Heep would do at this stage. This shores up with the 1972 Italian scene versus the more adventurous 1973 scenario. I attribute this to all (well, most) of the bands challenging each other to reach newer heights of creativity. I talk about this phenomena in both the Semiramis and Alphataurus reviews. When evaluating 1972 (and 1971 by extension), there are many remnants of hard rock and late era psych still prevalent. Reale Accademia di Musica comes from this stock.

I find the entire gatefold cover extremely interesting. What kind of imagination comes up with this stuff? As the youngsters would say today - it's so random.

Ownership: 1972 Dischi Ricordi (LP). Gatefold. Acquired in 2005.

First copy: 1990 Contempo (LP). Gatefold. Acquired in 1991.

1988; 1991; 5//05 (review); 10/19/26 (update)