Paolo Siani & friends feat. Nuova Idea - The Leprechaun's Pot of Gold (2019)

The band Nuova Idea was an Italian Progressive band that was around way back in the 70s, right when the movement was really taking a hold. The band broke up during the same decade, but Paolo Siani, drummer, has been around releasing solo albums and other collaborations ever since then. Early in 2019, he released the album "The Leprechaun's Pot of Gold" featuring Nuova Idea, who Paolo reformed in 2011.

The album starts out with the ambitious track "Standing Alone". This one is a pretty good rocker with just enough progressive style to keep it interesting. There is some great guitar and organ parts throughout, and the melody is decent. The vocals here are by guest singer Anthony Brosco, who has a more flamboyant voice than the regular singer Roberto Tiranti, who is a decent enough singer also. After this, the next track "Inflate Your Veins" starts off with a more romantic flair with a nice sax leading the way, but after a minute, the band comes to life pushing this song to another emotional rocker as the sax continues to lead the way.

The title track "The Leprechaun's Pot of Gold" comes next. It seems the quality of the music falters a bit here as this track tries to make itself into an electronic style sound with robotic, processed vocals, but it only comes off as sounding a bit tacky. There was really nothing here that piqued my interest. "Statue of Wax" again uses electronics to enhance the vocals. The track is more interesting than the last, but the processed vocals do nothing for the music in my opinion. The music is produced more by keyboards, and at least it is pleasant and interesting enough on its own, but could do better with normal vocals. Later, the vocals become more interesting as they become normal and are sung in Italian, but with a mid-East flair and that part is quite nice.

"Lord Brummel" leans towards the more dramatic style with a pop flair and upbeat tempo. At least the vocals here are natural, so that helps as do the more storytelling style of the lyrics. The feel is more progressive also with a good used of dynamics and percussion breaks. There is also a great keyboard and guitar solo in there that keep things interesting. "Walking on the Limit" begins as a pastoral song with some nice flute. Drums soon join in with some guitar and the track turns into a moderate tempo song. Again the music is decent enough here, but they bring back in electronic processing for the vocals, and while it isn't as annoying here, it still brings down the quality of the song. After the vocals, the flute returns, but it gets repetitive for way too long and fades slowly to the sound of waves.

"Time to Play" continues with more processed vocals, but again the musicianship is still good. Too bad the electronically enhanced voice just brings everything down. The song itself has a nice march/calliope style and is quite complex. It makes a sudden left turn in the middle as it takes on an interesting style and at least there are no vocals here. Next is another version of the 1st track "Standing Alone" this time sung by another guest singer Paul Gordon Manners, who has been a member of several Italian bands. Other than the vocalist, nothing really changes here, and his vocals don't do anything to improve on the first version, so one wonders why this was even added to the album.

The album ends on the 9 minute track "We're Going Wrong" which is a cover of a song from Cream's album "Disreali Gears". The band tries their best to make this sound like it came from the early 70s and even give it a psychedelic edge. While the instrumental section with the killer guitar and organ interplay is quite convincing and amazing, the quiet sections and the vocals are not as great.

Here we have an album that has some great musicianship and could have been so much better, but is ruined by the unnecessary use of electronically enhanced vocals. The vocalist is good enough singing in his regular voice and if left alone, the album would have been much better. I think I understand why they did this, probably to try to coincide with the lyrical content, but it brings the quality of the entire album down. Sadly, we end up with an unbalanced album that can only be considered good, but not essential. ~ Review by TCat



Track List:
01. Standing Alone (5:59)
02. Inflate Your Veins (6:06)
03. The Leprechaun's Pot of Gold (5:15)
04. Statue of Wax (5:28)
05. Lord Brummel (6:57)
06. Walking on the Limit (6:05)
07. Time to Play (5:29)
08. Standing Alone (Alternative Version) (6:06)
09. We're Going Wrong (9:02)

- Paolo Siani / drums
- Giorgio Usai / Hammond organ
- Roberto Tiranti / bass, vocals
- Martin Grice / sax, flute
- Guido Guglielminetti / bass
- Giangiusto Mattiucci / Rhodes piano
- Nik Carraro / electric guitar
- Ivana ''Ivy'' Gotti / theremin
- Marco Biggi / drums (7)
- Paul Gordon Manners / vocals (8)
- Anthony Brosco / vocals (1)
- La Banda G. Puccini di Adro, directed by Costanzo Manza

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