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IQ: The Wake (1985)
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Steve Wyzard View Drop Down
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Points: 2835 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Steve Wyzard Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: IQ: The Wake (1985)
    Posted: March 30 2021 at 17:44
Some time in the late 1980s, I found a vinyl copy of IQ's The Wake in a record store (in the USA of all places, where they had not been signed to a record label yet) and bought it instantly. I had heard so many comparisons between this band and Marillion (who I was listening to incessantly at that time) that I just had to hear them for myself. I was disappointed upon discovering there was no lyric sheet enclosed, as the album seemed to have a high concept running through it that I just couldn't fathom. Peter Nicholls's vocals also took some time to adjust to.

I really loved the piledriver blow of "The Wake", Tim Esau's basslines on "The Magic Roundabout", and the very ethereal "Corners". The rest of the album left me cold: I just didn't get what the band was trying to accomplish. I taped the 3 songs mentioned above (still have it today), and soon traded the album in for credit.

It's been 30+ years since then and I have not heard another note by the band, although I've read a lot about them from time to time.

I'd be interested in what others think of this album, and if the concept has ever been explained.
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verslibre View Drop Down
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Points: 18576 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote verslibre Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 30 2021 at 18:34
Hey, Steve! Here's a very brief rundown:

Quote Matching the moodiness of the music was the interlinked lyrical concept of death that Nicholls had conceived and written. Although not a traditional concept album with a single storyline, IQ were determined to record an album with a consistent and central theme that permeated all the songs,

“I had always had a thing about death and that was a theme that was filtering through the lyrics,” explains Nicholls. “There was an Edgar Allan Poe story which was about someone being buried alive [The Premature Burial – Poe Ed] and that really hid itself in my mind somehow. Outer Limits had working title of The Bridge and I had this idea of somebody walking across a bridge. At the end was heaven, but if you fell off the bridge it was hell. It all sounds very simplistic and a bit like sixth form poetry now, but we combined that and it became the story of someone who dies at the end of the first song and then an account of what happens to his soul after that.”

The story of IQ's The Wake | Louder (loudersound.com)


While I love The Wake a lot, I think their 1993 album Ever is even better.
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richardh View Drop Down
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Points: 29474 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote richardh Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 03 2021 at 02:05
I think The Wake was a special recording. It had a very 'do it yourself' feel about it. The worlds of punk and prog seemed to be colliding . This was not 'polite' prog. It was sheer raw energy and coming from the very depths of the earth. It stands out from so much else I've heard. Unfortunately the band lost it's nerve , Nicholls left and it became just another eighties pop rock band before eventually getting back on course in the 90's with the fabulous album mentioned above.
Conceptually I always took it to be about alienation and musing over thoughts of suicide. Nicolls lyrics are always very abstract and you can put what you want on them. I was never a fan on the horrible plastic eighties when fashion and looks were more important than reason and substance. This was the perfect antidote. Nasty and raw and not excusing itself to anyone! 


Edited by richardh - April 03 2021 at 02:07
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Squonk19 View Drop Down
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Points: 4789 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Squonk19 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 03 2021 at 04:33
My first IQ album and still regularly played after all these years. Dark and brooding and with memorable moments throughout. The Poe-like lyrics always gave it a wonderfully unsettling feel. That start to The Magic Roundabout still gives me tingles. They matured more and went on to have many more musical highlights obviously, but this album is archetypal neo-prog and deserves to be held in high esteem by long-standing fans. 
“Living in their pools, they soon forget about the sea.”
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Prog-jester View Drop Down
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Points: 5909 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Prog-jester Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 04 2021 at 17:13
loving it, my second favourite from them after Dark Matter, along with The Seventh House. "Headlong" is just brilliant, a perfect neo-prog mini-epic
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geekfreak View Drop Down
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Points: 9872 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote geekfreak Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 05 2021 at 00:10
It’s a outstanding album of neo-prog it’s. In my top five albums list.
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essexboyinwales View Drop Down
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Points: 5224 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote essexboyinwales Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 07 2021 at 04:41
Originally posted by Prog-jester Prog-jester wrote:

"Headlong" is just brilliant, a perfect neo-prog mini-epic

This is so true, a perfect description!

One of the finest of the early "neo" albums (although I hate that term)

And the re-mix that came out a few years ago is tremendousClap
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Points: 23104 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guldbamsen Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 07 2021 at 05:07
My favourite IQ album. I love the whole almost post-punk-like production of the album. Adds some Yan to the Yin in a way that really suits me well. The song writing is excellent as well and those wonderful synths always get me whistling along.
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