Any artist that opens their record with the sort of swirling, pompous decadence of sound that Migliori Amici & Co do on their latest offering [best of friends] is guaranteed a warm welcome at Sentinel Daily; Anyone who can successfully evoke thoughts of the mighty Kansas in their late seventies pomp surely possesses a talent not to be sniffed at, and talent is our currency at SD. And on the evidence of opening track Sick Shit (and never was a track so suitably monikered) MA&C would appear to be very rich men indeed…

Second track Glasgow Reel isn’t quite so successful; Guitarist Ray DeTone solos heroically, but can’t quite stop the rest of the song drifting into the sort of territory Chris De Burgh might have claimed in 1980.

Actually, De Burgh may have been a welcome guest here, as the lack of vocal hooks is sometimes a problem, if, like me, you don’t play an instrument and marvelling at the superior chops of great musicians becomes a bit of a chore after a while without something to sing along to.

That said, and not wanting to dilute the enthusiasm displayed in my opening paragraph, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the playing that DeTone, his musical co-conspirator Michael Sciotto and their army of distinguished guests deploy across the album, and, as noted, at times the brilliance they display is simply inarguable. Sentinel Daily readers will be interested in the presence of names like Mark Clarke (bass, Billy Squier), Adam Holzman (keys, Steven Wilson) and Ralph Merigliano (keys, Ross The Boss) in particular and the way they all combine, especially on the excellent Arctic Drift, will have fans of deftly executed prog swooning in the aisles at first contact.

Shattered Glass heads back to Kansas territory – and consequently scores off-the-scale approbration marks again from this writer – and if this style of music gets you hot under the collar then there’s absolutely no doubt that you are going to become best friends with Migliori Amici…

[best of friends] is out now.