Marco Salzano

Here the Renaissance mark II (with the crystalline voice of Annie Haslam) fully achieve the goal of combining classical repertoire with rock rhythm. Can you understand and Let it grow are delightful folk songs in their apparent simplicity. The sorrowful At the arbour references Debussy. With the lively Carpet of the sun, the orchestra begins to make an appearance. It closes magnificently with the title track featuring a memorable chorus and a beautiful martial outro with electric guitar by Andy Powell.

Heterogeneous Frippian exposure. There’s Gabriel and a more acoustic Here Comes the Flood. There’s Peter Hammill in the pre/post/similar punk Disengage. There’s the elegant AOR of Daryl Hall in North Star. There’s plenty of Frippertronics mixed with soul rhythms in Exposure. There’s the crimsonian Breathless, a tightly wound instrumental with frequent metric changes, a smashing main riff in 7/4, and former Mahavishnu Walden on drums. Finally, there’s Bennett’s lesson: “It is impossible to achieve an aim without suffering.”

Suite composed of 10 movements that, without interruption, alternate sweet tonal harmonies with dark atonal passages, using a very subtle synthesizer woven into a sound structure that includes both a choir and a small orchestra. A child of "Cosmische music," "Sonanze" stands at the crossroads of two musical structures between the synthesizer and the floating marranzano (vaguely "tubularbellsian") on the cover.

Aside from the glam, Ferry's hedonism, and everything else (which may or may not appeal to you), the Roxy Music were a great band, perhaps unique in blending the immediacy of rock with a certain sophistication, especially musical, all very British. This one, one of my favorites, boasts an anthology-worthy slow fade-in, an excellent bass line, and a marvelous hyper-flanger solo by Jobson on electric violin.

A masterpiece that hasn't lost an ounce of its modernity. During that time, Roxy in England and Can in Germany, with their hypno-funk, were playing, ten years earlier, what would become the new trend only ten years later (at least). Incredible!

Well, the album, after those with Eno, is the finest of the Roxy (and not just because of the cover). It highlights the romantic piano playing of the very young Jobson, a perfect stage for Ferry's perverse chansonnier version, even if his sonorous French in A Song for Europe risks a bit of the Inspector Clouseau effect. Great solo by Manzanera in the remarkable Amazona.

Recorded in the bucolic landscapes of Wales, the sixth album by Rush sees an overall refinement of their power rock. The contrapuntal baroque organ-guitar intro of the title track evokes a once-heroic world now in decline, much like the puppet king on the cover lost in the surrounding industrial desolation. A return to the future, instead, with the space-rock Cygnus X-1 and a powerful 4/4 riff that dives from the interplanetary void into the atonal whirlpool of the black hole.

Unreleased two keyboards (of every kind) and drums. The first is the son of the famous maestro Carlo and brother of Alida Chelli; the second is not related to the President of the Chamber. "Dolce Sorella" is highlighted, opening with a Wagnerian quote on the organ and a singing style that somewhat resembles early Fossati.