THE ROTTERS' CLUB

This might just be my favorite album of all time. Any genre, period. And it's an *album* meaning that each song flows into the next.

I listened to this just about every day for a year or two while attending Berklee College of Music and at the end of that period, I still couldn't say for certain which parts were improvised vs. composed, where one song started or ended. Well, some points are obvious, and on the CD, the tracks are labeled, but with the vinyl, it all sort of blended together.

Other questions too, like "Is Phil Miller an abstract genius, or is he just terrible?" plagued me for years. Clearly he's not a technical wizard and you can hear him hit some obvious clams in the solos, but he's not marching to the beat of anyone else's drum, he does a lot of upper-structure triads with his harmonizations and he composed some of the best pieces (like Underdub). So, yeah, he knows what he's doing, but he's just raw and a little outside.

I know the general consensus is that the first (self titled) album is better, but I have to disagree. It has some high points, to be sure, but this one is just more mature. After listening to them both for 25 years or so, I really don't want to listen to the first album any more, yet I'm almost always delighted when this one comes on shuffle.

In terms of it's place in Prog Rock, I can't say this album is better than Kind of Blue, Birds of Fire, Permanent Waves, The Yes Album, One Size Fits All, or In Absentia. But I like it just the tiniest smidgen better than those and musically I put it in the same league. Thus: favorite album of all time.