Propaganda
1234

In the wake of the excellent and recent review of their debut album, it's certainly worth remembering the continuation of the "Propaganda" project whose long gestation cannot conceal the economic disagreements that arose almost immediately after the release of "A Secret Wish" and the not-so-consensual separation of Claudia Brucken from the rest of the group in search of better engagements than those promised by the renowned ZTT, co-owned by Brucken's husband.

But yes, the search for "treasure" doesn't always succeed, and indeed Propaganda 1 essentially dissolves, to the regret of many who hailed "A Secret Wish" as phenomenal upon its release, and who were only partially consoled by the release in '85 of "Wishful Thinking," a decent remix of the original masterpiece. The group disappears until 1990, when the surviving member Michael Mertens gathers the two former members Dorper and singer Susanne Freytag, along with new recruits Forbes and McGee on bass and drums, taken from Simple Minds, while moving himself from percussion to keyboards. He then completes the lineup with singer Betsi Miller, who doesn't make one miss the icy Brucken much and especially ensures the group a lucrative contract with Virgin, then at its peak.

Critics will immediately object that such a lineup could not compete with the previous one, filled as it was with excellent collaborations: Steve Howe, for all of them, and then Mertens, who didn't want to miss anything, decides to do the big score and hire, with what cachet we don't know, the good David Gilmour along with a certain Mel Collins (King Crimson, and I write this only for the younger ones on the site!) and finally keyboardist Howard Johnes (well, perhaps he didn't trust his new role too much.........) and so everyone is happy and ready to listen to, without any hesitation, this work.

Which honestly does not pale at all compared to its predecessor, quite the opposite! However, it cannot reach the innovative charge: coming after it and especially at a distance of a good 5 years, which in the music world is a decidedly long period, able to let even the most deep-rooted trends fade, but especially lose "memory" with an audience not too consolidated as it certainly was with Propaganda.

Nevertheless, "1234" had good public success, particularly the two singles: "Only One Word" where Gilmour intervenes, but without the prominence that might have been expected and "Heaven Give Me Words" which even surpassed it as a result, given the better catchiness. Nevertheless, these are not the tracks I find most interesting, so I refer you to: "Ministry of Fear" and "La Carne, la Morte e il Diavolo" which faithfully reconnect to the style of "A Secret Wish" with a nice cadenced interlude in the first, which in some passages cites Alan Parsons of his better times, and a pre-war romantic literature reference in the second that cites the essay by our Mario Praz.

Overall the album is of high level and qualitatively homogeneous, with a small pop drop in "Wound in My Heart"; cover worthy of the highest score, given the citation of Boccioni, or at least so it seems to me, and his masterpiece "Unique Forms of Continuity in Space" (central detail). In conclusion, "1234" will not disappoint those who appreciated its predecessor. Produced only in digital version with an almost impeccable recording, only a little low in volume, an element that will inevitably require a bit of stress on your amplifier, assuming and not granting you want to enjoy the numerous musical nuances present.