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Third album of their career (1989) for the talented It Bites, originating from Cumbria, a very rainy region in the northwest of England facing Ireland. It was their last work before a long hiatus, lasting almost twenty years, thankfully ending with the fourth and then the fifth album, at that point, however, with a slightly different lineup.
The album is more or less on par with the two that preceded it, compared to which it is generally decidedly heavier, more hard rock. Nonetheless, what stands out is that particular progressive pop rock specific to this band, indebted to all the usual big names in the field who set the trends in the seventies, yet capable of distilling an unmistakable style and a peculiar, recognizable sound. Also, an admirable balance, avoiding excessive virtuosic passages, overly long solos, and overly elaborate arrangements.
As always, the vocal part is very well-tended, above average in harmony and even “gaiezza” compared to the usual parameters of this rock subgenre that often deals out deep melancholy and, above all, a sickeningly serious tone. That is to say: no fairy-tale lyrics, mythological creatures, “Total Mass Retain,” and other similar snobbish phrases for this brilliant quartet out of time, out of fashion, out of everything.
A great track is “Underneath Your Pillow,” constructed on a captivating rhythm synth sequence, upon which develops a vocal melody traveling over sophisticated chord progressions, supporting refined harmonizations in the choruses.
“Till the End of Time” is appetizing because it's a Led Zeppelin-esque rock blues played somewhat sideways, as Frank Zappa would perform it; it's a pity about the 1980s-style drums, as rigid as a milestone here as roughly everywhere. “Sister Sarah” is even more tantalizing, being a thundering hard rock well-chewed by Francis Dunnery's agile electric guitar.
In “The Ice Melts into Water,” the particular vocal delivery of Dunnery himself is given free rein, which may not appeal as a style and timbre, perhaps constituting the one reason not to take an interest in this band. The track is an extensive and composite ballad, as usual for them off-kilter and hyper-arranged, which in certain passages recalls the 10cc's “I’m Not in Love,” another distant but sure inspiration for It Bites.
What makes the album unmissable is the last track (absent in the LP, present only in the CD), a quintessential masterpiece. Dedicated and titled to the late Dunnery’s father (“Charlie”), it is an instrumental of almost eight minutes, different from anything else by It Bites, from progressive, from rock music. The frontman places the electric guitar on his lap, ditches the pick, and starts playing it by tapping with the fingertips of both hands, with a “tapping” technique truly of his own strict monopoly. The left hand on the lower strings, the right on the upper, together create a marvelous arpeggio with an incorporated melody, constantly supported by a (single) repetition created with the delay effect, accentuated by its position on the opposite side of the stereo panorama. Midway through the track, a lead guitar joins in, enriching the music and the pathos. The heartache and sorrow for the loss of the parent are superbly recreated by this solitary performance of the talented English musician, which more than any other transmits to us the greatness and uniqueness of his It Bites in the international landscape of rock music.
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