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Hrychu View Drop Down
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    Posted: July 09 2024 at 19:41
Some albums are considered super mega ultra masterpieces even though they don't really have any good musical content and their warm reviews are usually influenced by how legendary or iconic they are. Here's a couple of my picks:

Terry Riley - A Rainbow in Curved Air
Tangerine Dream - Rubycon
Can - Tago Mago
Univers Zero - Uzed
Captain Beefheart - Trout Mask Replica

Edited by Hrychu - July 09 2024 at 19:43
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Rubycon is a masterpiece and one of Tangerine Dream's finest works. It's just not for you.
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Originally posted by verslibre verslibre wrote:

Rubycon is a masterpiece and one of Tangerine Dream's finest works. It's just not for you.
The whole point of this thread is to list the "masterpiece" status albums that aren't for you. If you do love Rubycon, then by listing it here, you're not really contributing to the topic. ;)
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Ditto on Tago Mago. Totally respect it, and I do find it interesting, but can't enjoy it. Most of the Tangerine Dream I have heard makes me feel similarly. It's certainly stimulating to me from an historical perspective, but I don't think I'm in a place in my life where I can really fully appreciate albums like Zeit, Phaedra, Rubycon, etc. Maybe Ricochet, I'll have to re-listen.
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Originally posted by Hrychu Hrychu wrote:

Some albums are considered super mega ultra masterpieces even though they don't really have any good musical content
This is a contradiction. If an album is great, then by its very definition it must contain good songs..

Originally posted by Hrychu Hrychu wrote:

The whole point of this thread is to list the "masterpiece" status albums that aren't for you.
Then maybe you should rename the thread to "Albums that are considered masterpieces, but you don't like" or something like that. The current name now leads to confusion.


Edited by Junges - July 10 2024 at 01:49
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Originally posted by Junges Junges wrote:

Originally posted by Hrychu Hrychu wrote:

Some albums are considered super mega ultra masterpieces even though they don't really have any good musical content
This is a contradiction. If an album is great, then by its very definition it must contain good songs..

Originally posted by Hrychu Hrychu wrote:

The whole point of this thread is to list the "masterpiece" status albums that aren't for you.
Then maybe you should rename the thread to "Albums that are considered masterpieces, but you don't like" or something like that. The current name now leads to confusion.


My thoughts exactly. Thumbs Up Thanks for pointing this out. 
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Hrychu View Drop Down
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Originally posted by Junges Junges wrote:

Then maybe you should rename the thread to "Albums that are considered masterpieces, but you don't like" or something like that. The current name now leads to confusion.
No. That'd ruin the joke. The thred title is a spoof of "Crappy albums with one great song".
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Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom. I've tried several times to tolerate this highly rated album, but I can't. Not for me.

Also, any Flower Kings album.

Edited by Grumpyprogfan - July 10 2024 at 05:28
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Steven Wilson - Hand.Cannot.Erase.
More like "ears.cannot.stand", or any SW for that matter, no matter how many listens.
Welcome to the middle of the film.
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Originally posted by Grumpyprogfan Grumpyprogfan wrote:

Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom. I've tried several times to tolerate this highly rated album, but I can't. Not for me.

Also, any Flower Kings album.

I wholeheartedly agree with you on Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom, and mainly due to Logan's recommendation, I've really tried to like Rock Bottom after listening to the album several times, but it still remains near the bottom of my rockpile,  and on the subject of The Flower Kings, I half-heartedly agree with you. In other words, I like all of The Flower Kings albums but can't for the life of me remember any of their songs - apart from The Flower King, obviously. Smile


Edited by Psychedelic Paul - July 10 2024 at 05:47
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Originally posted by Hrychu Hrychu wrote:

Originally posted by verslibre verslibre wrote:

 Rubycon is a masterpiece and one of Tangerine Dream's finest works. It's just not for you.
The whole point of this thread is to list the "masterpiece" status albums that aren't for you. If you do love Rubycon, then by listing it here, you're not really contributing to the topic. ;)

Your topic is not rightly named (as someone suggested), but also, you speak of "songs", about albums that really don't contain any:
"Songs" imply that there are sung vocals - which disqualifies instrumental music pieces (which can be called "tracks", "numbers" or "pieces"). 


Originally posted by Awesoreno Awesoreno wrote:

Most of the Tangerine Dream I have heard makes me feel similarly. It's certainly stimulating to me from an historical perspective, but I don't think I'm in a place in my life where I can really fully appreciate albums like Zeit, Phaedra, Rubycon, etc. Maybe Ricochet, I'll have to re-listen.

You listed two very different phases of TD  Zeit is very different from Ruvbycon & Phaedra. 
I can totally understand where the beatless Zeit can be boring and quite unsettling, but once the sequencers appear in Tangerine's creation, it becomes very different

yes, start with Ricochet for a reassessment (it's the most Floydian of their albums)
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Most of IQ, and Neal Morse's albums are considered great, but as hard as I've tried, I can't get into them. Same with Dream Theatre, and the whole prog metal genre. 
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Quote "Songs" imply that there are sung vocals - which disqualifies instrumental music pieces (which can be called "tracks", "numbers" or "pieces").
I think you're being overly pedantic. I've heard numerous native English speakers refer to any complete recorded piece of music as a "song".

Quote Also, any Flower Kings album.
I see where you're coming from. TFK's style is pretty polarizing. Plus, Roine's lyrics can sometimes get on your nerves if you expect them to make sense.

Edited by Hrychu - July 10 2024 at 06:11
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Originally posted by Junges Junges wrote:

...
This is a contradiction. If an album is great, then by its very definition it must contain good songs..
...

Hi,

Hmmmm ... what if the album is NOT about songs? I have never, once in 50 years, thought of TD or Klaus Schulze as "songs".

Sad to see a thread like this ... I'm not sure that the responses will make much sense. 

In many ways, the "song" thing is what is going to hurt "progressive music" and "progressive rock", or "prog rock". It makes it look like all music that is made and created has to conform to the conventional/commercial standard of "song" and "format".

I hope that never happens, and would love to see PA do a bit more on that concept. What started the thing that helped create PA was the progressive elements, not the regressive, and form/style ideas.

Oh yeah, Beethoven's 5th has no good songs at all! Neither does Mahler's 3rd!
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Originally posted by moshkito moshkito wrote:

Originally posted by Junges Junges wrote:

...
This is a contradiction. If an album is great, then by its very definition it must contain good songs..
...

Hi,

Hmmmm ... what if the album is NOT about songs? I have never, once in 50 years, thought of TD or Klaus Schulze as "songs".
I think it was pretty clear that the thread's author meant tracks, compositions or whatever-word-makes you-happy when he wrote "songs". He even wrote "any musical content". So I don't understand the need to be pedantic, when it is pretty clear what he meant..
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The title seems contradictory but I'll try to play along.


Tangerine Dream - Phaedra
Fripp & Eno - No Pussyfooting
Mike Oldfield - Incantations (and maybe his other 70s works)
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The corporate stadium rock version of Pink Floyd. Although often highly rated on this site, I find most of what Floyd did after Dark Side to be boring and tedious. I do love their early music though.
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Originally posted by Mormegil Mormegil wrote:

Steven Wilson - Hand.Cannot.Erase.
More like "ears.cannot.stand", or any SW for that matter, no matter how many listens.

Don't agree, but "ears.cannot.stand" made me laugh...thanks...
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Originally posted by Hrychu Hrychu wrote:

Originally posted by Junges Junges wrote:

Then maybe you should rename the thread to "Albums that are considered masterpieces, but you don't like" or something like that. The current name now leads to confusion.
No. That'd ruin the joke. The thred title is a spoof of "Crappy albums with one great song".


If the thread title's a spoof, you have to roll with it.
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Most psyche prog that is highly rated probably. Some bands need great songs some don't. For instance The Moody Blues are all about the songs, then something like Tales From Topographic Oceans or Amarok is anything but. No need to have rules about this. Camel's The Snow Goose and Rick Wakeman's Six Wives Of Henry VIII have no songs but they sort of actually do compared to say Tangerine Dream's seventies albums up to and inc Ricochet. Yes I'm waffling bit basically asking just what is a 'song' anyway?
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