Pat Metheny
Works

LA RECENSIONE

As far as I know, I am the only fool who cries when listening to him live. Sorry if I sound clichéd and predictable, but this is the only artist who truly manages to move me! This collection of tracks is very important to me for two reasons: first of all, it was the first album of his that I purchased. Second, it contains what I believe to be one of his most beautiful songs, "It's For You," which was part of the soundtrack of the movie "Fandango," featuring a barely twenty-something Kevin Costner in one of his early roles: a cult for me (for most, a b-movie, nothing more than a teenage flick akin to "La Boum"... let's just drop it, okay!).

Beyond the emotional aspect, this album contains some of the best tracks from what was Metheny's career when he was still recording for ECM, the record label with which he debuted. This CD gives us back much of that artist who, during that period, spanning from the late '70s to the early '80s, was not yet using the synthesized guitar so extensively, delighting us with the sweetness of the classical one, as in "Goin' Ahead" or "Sueño Con México". Above all, there's much of his youthful compositional style in these tracks, when, not knowing how to categorize his music (why does the music world always need labels?!), they called it "fusion". Besides "James," perhaps his most famous song from that period, there's "Travels", live, beautiful and haunting with those sounds we would later find in "Still Life (Talking)," which remains, in my opinion, a masterpiece.

 I don't know if this album is still available. I paid a few lira for it: in those years, I was a student with little money, and it seemed like a real bargain to me. Even now, after so many years. P.S.: the stars are only four because I don't feel like giving five to a collection of tracks, as I don't consider it a true album.