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Topic ClosedMost pretentious album?

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Poll Question: Which is the most pretentious of these albums?
Poll Choice Votes Poll Statistics
18 [25.00%]
6 [8.33%]
34 [47.22%]
5 [6.94%]
1 [1.39%]
0 [0.00%]
2 [2.78%]
1 [1.39%]
5 [6.94%]
This topic is closed, no new votes accepted

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Phil View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 08 2007 at 10:29
Probably "Journey.." though I still love it!
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andu View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 08 2007 at 10:49
Originally posted by Ghost Rider Ghost Rider wrote:

Pure, unadulterated wisdom.... The current fad for minimalism (which has its merits, if done in the right way - otherwise it's just cold and devoid of feeling) would deny artistic value to many masterpieces of the past on the grounds of their being pretentious.


Well tank you. Smile Yours is an excellent point, also; a good thing to know is that all the various forms of minimalism that have emerged in the past were initially received as extremely pretentious (like Le Corbusier in architecture, Mondriaan in painting or Tristan Tzara in poetry in the modern era) before being accepted as true expressions of human creativity. So pretentiousness goes both ways, pomposity and minimalism...
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Norbert View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 08 2007 at 13:04
Originally posted by Ghost Rider Ghost Rider wrote:

Originally posted by andu andu wrote:

There has always been an ambiguous placement between pomposity, pretentiousness and great art for many artists in the past. Just think of Shakespeare's fantasies with highly improbable stories and huge amounts of drama and melodrama, pathetic singing, ridiculous situations (but then remember the classical comedy strict conventions to be followed), or of actually most of the whole genre of Opera; or think of Balzac's Human Comedy, filled with huge amounts of crappy romanticist blah-blah and the pretention to be the mirror-image of modern society (which I think he actually deliverd) - but also think of his marvelous dramatic story telling, character development and visions of nature and society; and one last call, think of Michelangelo's dramatic struggle to paint the story of man and god in the Sistine Chapel: he is so close to kitsch (himself was aware that being a sculptor denies him many of a painter's ability), but how powerful his vision is!
So in conclusion my guess is that plenty of great art is done at the border between pretention and greatness, pomposity and visionarism; what matters IMO is whether the final product has the needed equilibrum between all sides and is a viable, living creature. The rest is history...
 
Do I need to tell I love ELP or Tales from Topographic Oceans?... Smile


Pure, unadulterated wisdom.... The current fad for minimalism (which has its merits, if done in the right way - otherwise it's just cold and devoid of feeling) would deny artistic value to many masterpieces of the past on the grounds of their being pretentious.

As rock derives from rock'n'roll, which is a very simple musical form, it is expected to be simple and straightforward, and any deviation from the norm branded as 'pretentious'  - as if lots of highly regarded classical music wasn't just that...
...and I agree with my two wise forum colleagues.
                   Also in musical preference. Tales rules!Smile
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Mlaen View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 09 2007 at 10:30
ELP Dead
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Jeremy Bender View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 09 2007 at 11:57
Originally posted by Mlaen Mlaen wrote:

ELP Dead
 
ELPSmileWink
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Moogtron III View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 09 2007 at 12:26
Notwithstanding the fact that I never heard Skinny Fists or the second Moodies' album mentioned, I think none of the albums mentioned is pretentious. For instance, I love Yes' Tales From Topographic Oceans because Yes didn't think that the idea was too far out. They just did what they wanted to do, and thirty + years later the album still shines, after the release of so many muzak through the years by other artists. I hate it when the so-called serious music press is condescending in its attitude towards the 'pretentious' progressive rock.
 
Still, I must say I had to smile a bit, some time ago when I listened to an old Earth & Fire album, called Song Of The Marching Children, and looked at the subtitles of the title track:
 
Song of the marching children (18:20)
...a) Theme of the marching children - 2:20
...b) Opening the seal - 1:10
...c) Childhood - 3:10
...d) Affliction - 1:30
...e) Damnation - 2:53
...f) Purification - 4:17
...g) The march - 3:02
Well, I wouldn't call that pretentious either, it's just a charming portrait of an era. So: I wouldn't know a pretentious album. And Journey, Pictures, Tales and The Lamb are just brilliant.
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