Pfm - Chocolate Kings
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Free Music Notes for Chocolate Kings
Free Music Review: Best album
Hit: 5 Stars
Chocolate Kings features the addition of lead singer Bernardo Lanzetti. This expanded the group to six musicians. Lanzetti sounds like a mixture of Peter Gabriel and Gentle Giant's Derek Shulman. All lyrics are in English.
Musically, this album is rich in progressive rock arrangements and songwriting. It is a wonderful mix of keyboards, guitars, violin, flute, drums, and vocals. Six fairly long songs make up the album. This album should be in every prog-rock fan's collection. Too bad the album isn't more readily available.
Buy this album, even if it means applying force to the scoundrels and scallywags who should do a better job of supplying quality music to the masses.
Free Music Review: best of pfm
Hit: 5 Stars
this is definitive ther best one, aggresive, very well structured, just awesome.Free Music Review: Classic Italian Prog
Hit: 4 Stars
This is a great album. Of the PFM albums I have, it is in the top tier, but I would rank it as second best, hence I gave it only 4 instead of 5 stars.To place it: The earlier PFM album that I have heard sounded a bit too pretentious, the later PFM was not particularly Prog, more like Folk. The two great PFM albums that I have heard are Chocolate Kings (this one) and Jet Lag. Of these two I would say that Chocolate kings falls more on the Rock side of Prog Rock and Jet Lag lands more on the Prog side.
Because it is a little less experimental, I would say that it would apeal to people who like Hard Rock and AOR, as well as the diehard Prog fans.
As a historical note: this album was somewhat controversial at the time of its release. The original cover (a chocolate bar wrapped in an american flag) actually made the political reference much clearer. PFM have stated that they felt that they were unwelcome in the American market after making an album which made critical remarks about America's involvement in Europe after WWII. (GIs would hand out chocolate to the kids, presumably to make them like America, but I believe this is not the actual source of the critique, just an allegory for the way US aid in general was put to political purpose. In Italy this was particularly bad because the party with US backing, the right-wing Christian Democrats, held power for about 50 years, until it finally fell in a corruption scandal, in the '80s IIRC).
Free Music Review: A strong album by a band in transition
Hit: 4 Stars
"Chocolate Kings" found PFM on the way from the progressive peak of "The World Became the World" to the fusion-improvisation of "Jet Lag". The band had brought in vocalist Bernardo Lanzetti, who had better command of English than guitarist Franco Mussida, in an attempt to break into the American market. Lanzetti's hoarse voice is an acquired taste (25 years later, I still haven't acquired it), and the production quality had dropped off a bit from "TWBTW". But the songwriting and arrangements were still first-class, and every song is of high quality. Opener "From Under" is a quiet storm, focused on a drop-dead gorgeous violin-synth theme. "Chocolate Kings" may be PFM's best attempt at a hit radio single (in execution, not airplay). The other three songs all start and end with beautiful slow melodies, with fast, intricate passages in the middle. This album has more of the improvisation that typified PFM's live shows than previous albums. Violin/flute player Mauro Pagani left after this album, and was sorely missed. Good luck making out the lyrics without a visit to a fan web-site, and good luck understanding them even then. The title cut appears to be about the influence of American culture and values on Italy after World War II.Free Music Review: Good, but they would do better.
Hit: 4 Stars
Earlier PFM albums, particularly Pictures of Ghosts and When the World became the World, or their counterparts with Italian lyrics, are, in comparison, superior to this later effort. Chocolate Kings is a transitional recording which finds PFM assuming a harder jazzier sound, less classically influenced, with a reliance on english language lyrics. Bernardo Lanzetti makes his debut with PFM here. His voice is an acquired taste, not as easily accessable as earlier vocals. Even when not at their best, PFM still presented music with skill, sophistication and integrity. A significant member of the progressive music family. This particular album is well worth the listen, perhaps not essential, yet still very enjoyable...Simon