Osanna ‎– Suddance (1978, CD, Italy)

This was a 1978 reunion of Osanna. Actually only Danilo Rustici, Lino Vairetti, and Massimo Guarino from the old lineup are present on this album, with two new guys. I found this 1978 release surprisingly good, given so many of the major Italian prog bands had seen their best days behind them, like PFM, Banco, and Le Orme. Suddance is not like the four albums they did in the early '70s, so don't expect another Palepoli. But it's still a good album of Neopolitan prog rock. This group hailed from Naples, and most of the songs on this album are sung in the local Neopolitan dialect, except for "Chiuso Quo", sung in standard Italian, "Naples in the World" in English, and the title track which is instrumental. The music has a more jazzy and acoustic feel to. A great example going to "'A Zingare", a nice acoustic piece. I really love the vocals, and in fact I thought the vocals are even better than on their classic albums. "'O Napulitano" is a great proggy piece with some great jazzy passages. "Suddance" proves they can make great instrumental music, while "Naples in the World" proves, just like their other albums that English isn't their strong point (Palepoli aside, which not a word of English is sung on that one), but I still find the song itself enjoyable. Given how much in bad shape prog rock was in 1978, it's nice to find some decent albums from that time, like this one. It's a rather underrated album, but I didn't compare it with their early stuff and I actually enjoyed it very much on its own merits.