Pat Metheny Group
Imaginary Day

It took me several years to put together my collection of Pat Metheny CDs, and now I own 32—I am proud of it. It wasn't easy to find them. I traveled, investigated, asked around, and combed through store shelves to deepen my knowledge of the artist who completely changed my musical tastes, the only artist to whom I have said (and the only one to whom I would say) to his face "I love you Pat", at the end of a trio concert, the only artist whose pick, autographs, and concert tickets I keep in a case. Yet, despite the great admiration and joy this man knows how to give me with his music, I must admit that some of his works left me feeling perplexed.

I would like to mention an old album from 1977, "Watercolors", that disappointed me with its sparse and insignificant content. I would like to mention and review "Imaginary Day", which is 20 years later, my first PMG album, my first purchase, in 1997. And it must be said that in that year I bought the cassette almost on impulse, without knowing what I was buying, because I had only heard one piece by Pat until that moment, and it was "Renato's Theme", among other things performed on the stage of the Sanremo festival the previous year (thanks Pippo Baudo), and I liked it so much that I was determined to buy something of his, hoping to recapture the atmospheres enjoyed that night on TV. I made a terrible mistake. "Imaginary Day" was really too far from what I expected. So, determined to find that blessed piece heard at Sanremo, I quickly went to purchase another random cassette of Pat. I continued like this for 4 albums when I finally realized that I would no longer stray from that music, and I decided to discover where the prolificity of an artist like Metheny could lead. But let's get to the album.

"Imaginary Day" was born in 1997, under the Warner Bros label (it will be the first and last time) and follows the curious "Quartet" released just a year earlier, representing a definitive phase of fogginess for the PMG, arousing strong perplexities among the leading artists themselves, especially for the drops in tension during live performances and the lack of enthusiasm felt in the environment. The lineup naturally consists of Metheny and Mays; 7 out of 9 pieces are composed together, with Rodby on bass, Wertico on drums, various percussionists, and talented multi-instrumentalists like Blamires and Ledford. In fact, there is little cohesion and the "spiritual" glue typical of the PMG is missing. It is a sophisticated production, made of sound research, care for infinitesimal details but, on the other hand, a decided loss of freshness. Numerous are the combinations of genres that, however, slightly derail the known sound of the group. I would like to quote a phrase by Antoniodeste that struck me, to start the review of this work: "album penalized by poorly executed desires for modernism".

The album opens with "Imaginary Day", which draws inspiration from Indonesian gamelan music, but frankly it is a bit heavy. It is followed by "Follow Me", richly orchestrated, clear, and sunny (with Rodby on cello), a pop-fusion piece not memorable. We skip the insignificant intro "Into The Dream" to reach the bluesy "A Story Within The Story", a decent melody, credible for the group, certainly not innovative. It has a pleasant and interesting structure "The Heat Of The Day", between flamenco and Iranian folk. This piece is probably the best of the album, which unfortunately doesn't have much to remember. We move on to the decent ballad "Across The Sky", up to the revolutionary (wow, what a flight of fancy, Pat) "The Roots Of Convenience" at times with a trash-metal matrix (the rocky veins are also interesting, but one wonders why they ventured down this path, in the sense of "let's try everything". Lack of identity or forcing of ideas???). Like a video game. "Too Soon Tomorrow" calms things down (ballad) and "The Awakening" closes the album demonstrating a good attention to detail and orchestration (but it reminds one of "Facing West", already heard).

I don't think that many listens will allow better appreciation of this work. Unfortunately, it is just a routine album, constructed, like the others, from scraps of material prepared by Pat and Lyle, but with the feeling that this project is somewhat a remnant of everything the PMG had expressed in recent years. A curiosity to close: to be remembered, especially from the live performance, the incredible instrument used by Pat, the 42-string produced by the American luthier Linda Manzer the "Manzer Picasso 42 string". Monstrous!