IQ Appreciation Thread - Progressive Rock Music Forum

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J-Man

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Posted: July 15 2009 at 16:04

natewait wrote:

I like IQ too

I guess I'm more of a fan of their newer, more symphonic, direction because I absolutely adore Dark Matter and Frequency and have a harder time getting into their older stuff. To be honest, though, the only other IQ album I've really listened to is Subterranea and I've only listened to it once, so I think I need to give their older stuff more of a chance.

Their vinyl debut "Tales From The Lush Attic" is incredible stuff, you should check that out.

The opening epic is one of my favorite, and if you like Gabriel-era Genesis, you should love that album.

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Posted: July 16 2009 at 02:48

progrules wrote:

That was some initiative Roj to start this thread. I don't expect it to become as long as TFK's though but who knows these words will be punished. And don't be mad if I'm not hanging out here as often as on our "own" thread. I hope we haven't lost you on TFK now that you have your thread Unhappy

I'm not a big IQ fan even though I'm PA's biggest neo fan. Probably they are too intelligent for me Big smile

But I will give my list of their albums in order of my preference:

1. Seventh House 4,25*

2. Subterrenea (like your top two, but the rest is totally different) 4,1*

3. Ever 3,6*

4. J'ai Polette d'Arnu 3,5*

5. Tales from the Lush Attic 3,5*

6. Are you sitting comfortably ? 3,25*

7. Dark Matter 3,2*

8. Nomzamo 2,9*

9. The Wake 2

And I still have to explore Frequency (my supplier did the same thing here as yours did with The Flower King: they didn't have it at the right time so I will have to wait a while) But I guess it will be on 3rd or 4th place estimated from what I've heard and read.

Can you give your list of all these albums (right now I only know your top 5) Roj ?

Hi Henk and thanks for posting. I've been a little quiet the last few days. Here's my ratings of the IQ studio albums:-

7 Stories Into 8 - 3.25 stars. Great promise on this classic oldie.

Tales From The Lush Attic - 5 stars. One of the very best early neo albums in terms of composition, if not production

The Wake - 4.5-4.75 stars. Brilliant album, I've always loved this one.

Nomzamo - 2.5 stars. Proof that Peter Nicholls is essential to IQ.

Are You..... - 2.5 stars. As above.

Ever - 3.5 stars. This one underwhelmes me a little, but Leap Of Faith is truly amazing.

Subterranea - 5 stars. Wonderful concept album, very atmospheric. Strangely the epic is for me a (relative) weak point.

Seventh House. Their best album. Superb from start to finish, a masterpiece.

Seven Stories Into 98 - 3.75 stars. Excellent renewal of this oldie.

Dark Matter - 3.5 stars. Sacred Sound is as good as anything they've done. Tracks 2-4 are good but whilst HOS has some great parts it leans on Suppers Ready too much for me.

Frequency - 4.25 stars. Excellent album but with a couple of weaker tracks. The better tracks (1,2,3 and 5) are absolutely tremendous.

So that's my verdict, and I'm sure many will disagree. Don't worry Henk, I'll never stray too far from the TFK thread Wink

lazland

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Posted: July 16 2009 at 13:01

Roj M30 wrote:

.

I'm not a big IQ fan even though I'm PA's biggest neo fan. Probably they are too intelligent for me Big smile

But I will give my list of their albums in order of my preference:

1. Seventh House 4,25*

2. Subterrenea (like your top two, but the rest is totally different) 4,1*

3. Ever 3,6*

4. J'ai Polette d'Arnu 3,5*

5. Tales from the Lush Attic 3,5*

6. Are you sitting comfortably ? 3,25*

7. Dark Matter 3,2*

8. Nomzamo 2,9*

9. The Wake 2

Can you give your list of all these albums (right now I only know your top 5) Roj ?

Hi Henk and thanks for posting. I've been a little quiet the last few days. Here's my ratings of the IQ studio albums:-

7 Stories Into 8 - 3.25 stars. Great promise on this classic oldie.

Tales From The Lush Attic - 5 stars. One of the very best early neo albums in terms of composition, if not production

The Wake - 4.5-4.75 stars. Brilliant album, I've always loved this one.

Nomzamo - 2.5 stars. Proof that Peter Nicholls is essential to IQ.

Are You..... - 2.5 stars. As above.

Ever - 3.5 stars. This one underwhelmes me a little, but Leap Of Faith is truly amazing.

Subterranea - 5 stars. Wonderful concept album, very atmospheric. Strangely the epic is for me a (relative) weak point.

Seventh House. Their best album. Superb from start to finish, a masterpiece.

Seven Stories Into 98 - 3.75 stars. Excellent renewal of this oldie.

Dark Matter - 3.5 stars. Sacred Sound is as good as anything they've done. Tracks 2-4 are good but whilst HOS has some great parts it leans on Suppers Ready too much for me.

Frequency - 4.25 stars. Excellent album but with a couple of weaker tracks. The better tracks (1,2,3 and 5) are absolutely tremendous.

So that's my verdict, and I'm sure many will disagree. Don't worry Henk, I'll never stray too far from the TFK thread Wink

Strange, because Dark Matter and Frequency have barely been away from my MP3 player for some time now. I rate Dark Matter as at least a 4 star album, and really am thinking seriously about editing my review to a five star album. Harvest of Souls is an incredible epic track. On the last two albums, Nicholls has demonstrated to me why he is one of the finest vocalists of any genre about.

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Posted: July 21 2009 at 04:50

progrocker2244 wrote:

natewait wrote:

I like IQ too

Their vinyl debut "Tales From The Lush Attic" is incredible stuff, you should check that out.

The opening epic is one of my favorite, and if you like Gabriel-era Genesis, you should love that album.

I think IQ sounds far more like early-Collins-era Genesis than the Gabriel-era.

Lodij van der Graaf View Drop Down

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Posted: July 21 2009 at 04:55

Well IQ is one of the biggest Prog bands in New Wave Prog scene. And my favourite album of 'em is The Wake. Ever and Tales from the Lush Attic are great too, but I still cannot get into Subterranea, I wonder why.

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Posted: July 25 2009 at 23:31

Bump,

For those that are interested, IQ review here.

Subterranea: The Concert - IQ

I absolutely love IQ, though I think some times, their CD's tend to sound too similar. Some time after I review Ever, I'll post more about this.

-------someone please tell him to delete this line, he looks like a noob-------

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progrules

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Posted: July 30 2009 at 06:35

progrocker2244 wrote:

I'm not a big IQ fan even though I'm PA's biggest neo fan. Probably they are too intelligent for me Big smile

But I will give my list of their albums in order of my preference:

1. Seventh House 4,25*

2. Subterrenea (like your top two, but the rest is totally different) 4,1*

3. Ever 3,6*

4. J'ai Polette d'Arnu 3,5*

5. Tales from the Lush Attic 3,5*

6. Are you sitting comfortably ? 3,25*

7. Dark Matter 3,2*

8. Nomzamo 2,9*

9. The Wake 2,5*

Can you give your list of all these albums (right now I only know your top 5) Roj ?

You seriously put Are You Sitting Comfortably above Dark Matter?!?! Shocked

I understand this question Jeff and indeed it requires some explanation. It's not even that I like Are you sitting that much (though it's good imo) but more that I don't care for Dark Matter really. And that's not quite easy to explain. I don't like the long epic (for such a long track it's not memorable enough for me especially compared to The Seveth House and Further Away f.i.) and none of the shorter tracks to be honest . Just Sacred Sound is good enough but no better than Falling apart at the Seams.

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rushfan4

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Posted: September 29 2009 at 15:21

Poor IQ. Kicked to the curb by The Flower Kings and Marillion. I've really been listening to Frequency a lot lately. It is in the 5 CD player in my bedroom. I will usually throw a CD in in the morning and listen to that but then when it moves on to the next CD it is usually Frequency. I am loving this album so it still remains in the CD player for the next listen.

Also, I am really enjoying Martin Orford's solo CDs. The Road Home is excellent. I listened to Classical Music and Popular songs for the first time today and I was pleasantly surprised by how well it fit in with the IQ discography. With the album title I was expecting something totally different.

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Posted: September 29 2009 at 15:22

Though my exploration of the subgenre thus far has been limited, The Seventh House is my favorite album from it.

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J-Man

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Posted: September 29 2009 at 15:23

I just wrote a review of Dark Matter the other day:

http://www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=241784

Check out my YouTube channel! http://www.youtube.com/user/demiseoftime

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Posted: September 29 2009 at 23:07

My 3 fave IQ albums are "Dark Matter", "Ever" and "The Wake", in this order of preference. I regard "Frequency" as a great album, too, something like a recapitulation of "Dark Matter" and "Seventh House": it will definitely be in my Top 10 of 2009.

Kind regards.

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Posted: September 30 2009 at 03:13

Epignosis wrote:

Though my exploration of the subgenre thus far has been limited, The Seventh House is my favorite album from it.

A man of good taste here. A damn fine album indeed. Welcome to the thread Robert

I am going to see IQ in concert this saturday, at The Met Theatre in Bury. It's a fantastic venue, fits maybe 300 people, standing only, and the bar is excellent too

. And I'm not driving so I get to have a few beers while watching one of my favourite bands

. They are due to play the entire Frequency album so that should be great. I really think that most of the album is absolutely top class and I very much look forward to hearing Riker Skies.

Good to see the thread has had a bump.

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Posted: September 30 2009 at 03:16

rushfan4 wrote:

Hi Scott.

Martin's discography is something I've not explored yet, though I have a couple on my birthday wish list, so fingers crossed

So I take it Classical Music.... is actually prog, as opposed to it's title?

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Posted: September 30 2009 at 03:33

IQ are one of those bands I discovered through this site in the very early days of 2004 & 'Dark Matter' remains one of my favorite albums, not only by them, but of my entire collection.

I've yet to hear a substandard album by these guys & still yet to see them live - I do need to get 'Frequency' though which is their 1st without Martin Orford (although if you check out the recent interview I did with him, it appears he was one of the major writers, yet garnered no credits...)

Further on Martin Orford, I'd highly recommend his swan song to the music industry, the excellent 'The Old Road'

Edited by Jim Garten - September 30 2009 at 03:34

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rdtprog

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Posted: September 30 2009 at 04:07

Jim Garten wrote:

- I do need to get 'Frequency' though which is their 1st without Martin Orford (although if you check out the recent interview I did with him, it appears he was one of the major writers, yet garnered no credits...)

Interesting point! I didn't know that. Maybe be that's why the latest sounds like typical IQ.

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Posted: September 30 2009 at 04:43

IQ were my third favourite band - Then the Flokis pushed them into 2nd equal with Genesis and Yes.

I disagree with Roj on this one here is my list

1. Dark Matter

2. Ever

3. Subterranea

4. The Wake

5. Seventh House

6. Tales from the Lush attic

7. Frequency

8. Are you sitting comfortably

9. Nom zamo

Having said that Are you sitting comfortably and nom zamo have FOUR outstanding tracks -

Human Nature. Nostalgia/Coming apart at the seams/Common Ground/Wuhrensh the rest is well below par.

Harvest of souls is one of their best efforts and 150% better than anything on the latest CD excpet the title track.....(If frequency had been extended to 25 mins - the latest album would jump four places !!!)

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Posted: September 30 2009 at 06:10

Jim Garten wrote:

I've yet to hear a substandard album by these guys & still yet to see them live - I do need to get 'Frequency' though which is their 1st without Martin Orford (although if you check out the recent interview I did with him, it appears he was one of the major writers, yet garnered no credits...)

Interestingly Jim, I read on IQ's own forum a post by Martin where he was adamant the band actually retained some of the parts he'd played on the Frequency album, rather than Mark Westworth re-doing them. Despite this, he still didn't get credited. The band denied it though.

I personally think Martin will be missed by IQ. I think he's a fantastic keyboard player, one of my favourites of the modern era. Whilst Mark Westworth seems a perfectly capable keysman, Orford has always had great presence, both when soloing and providing a backdrop. I find he has great touch, warmth and feeling in his playing.

The proof of the pudding will be when IQ produce material that Westworth himself has had a hand in writing. Let's hope we don't have to wait 5 years for the next one

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Posted: September 30 2009 at 09:56

Roj M30 wrote:

Jim Garten wrote:

Let's hope we don't have to wait 5 years for the next one

Amen to that. I'm very jealous of you going to see them in Bury - have a great time Roj and let us all know how it went. Frequency is a great LP from a great band, whoever wrote it Wink

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Posted: September 30 2009 at 10:06

Roj M30 wrote:

rushfan4 wrote:

Hi Scott.

Martin's discography is something I've not explored yet, though I have a couple on my birthday wish list, so fingers crossed

So I take it Classical Music.... is actually prog, as opposed to it's title?

Yes, it sounds like an IQ album. Martin sings on a couple of songs, John Wetton sings, and Mr. Nicholls from IQ also makes an appearance. I guess all of IQ's members made an appearance at one point or another on the album; along with members of Arena and Jadis.

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Posted: September 30 2009 at 10:23

lazland wrote:

Roj M30 wrote:

Jim Garten wrote:

Let's hope we don't have to wait 5 years for the next one

Amen to that. I'm very jealous of you going to see them in Bury - have a great time Roj and let us all know how it went. Frequency is a great LP from a great band, whoever wrote it Wink

Me too. In many ways it really stinks being a fan of so many prog bands based in England or mainland Europe that can't afford to tour our side of the ocean. I'd love to see bands like IQ, Pendragon, and Marillion live, without having to travel halfway across the country to attend a festival. But hey, at least Britney Spears came here the other day.