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ThyroidGlands View Drop Down
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Points: 206 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ThyroidGlands Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 26 2024 at 16:10
TOAPP is better than Discipline.
Animals is overrated.
Camel is very boring, and Mirage is one of the most overrated prog albums.
CTTE has a perfect side a and a decent side b. It's a highly overrated album.
Bloody bloody racket and rumpus
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Zappastolethetowels View Drop Down
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Points: 1158 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Zappastolethetowels Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 26 2024 at 17:00
Originally posted by ThyroidGlands ThyroidGlands wrote:

TOAPP is better than Discipline. that is indeed a hot take
Animals is overrated. one of my favs - not their best so to speak
Camel is very boring, and Mirage is one of the most overrated prog albums. love Moonmadness & Sinclair era
CTTE has a perfect side an and a decent side b. It's a highly overrated album. only 'decent' track is AYAI imo, hard to think if a more consistent prog album in general thus the acclaim imo
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verslibre View Drop Down
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Points: 17253 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (2) Thanks(2)   Quote verslibre Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 26 2024 at 18:51
Originally posted by Zappastolethetowels Zappastolethetowels wrote:

Originally posted by ThyroidGlands ThyroidGlands wrote:

TOAPP is better than Discipline. that is indeed a hot take


Positively
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GuruCan View Drop Down
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Points: 190 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote GuruCan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 30 2024 at 01:56
These days, 'Book of Saturday' is the only track from LTiA that still feels fresh to me.
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GuruCan View Drop Down
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Points: 190 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote GuruCan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 30 2024 at 01:57
To me, 'The Present' by The Moody Blues is a total five-star gem from the 1980s because the album is packed with stunning tracks that really capture a unique vibe, and Patrick Moraz’s synthesizer playing is absolutely fantastic!
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vectoria View Drop Down
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Points: 1 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote vectoria Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 30 2024 at 05:09
I love how subjective music tastes can be! I totally agree with you on 'A Momentary Lapse of Reason'—it doesn't get enough credit for its atmosphere and mood. And yes, 'Think of Me with Kindness' is an underrated gem! Music's beauty lies in these unique perspectives
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richardh View Drop Down
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Points: 28113 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote richardh Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 30 2024 at 21:49
Originally posted by Starshiper Starshiper wrote:

Originally posted by Cristi Cristi wrote:

Originally posted by Starshiper Starshiper wrote:

"Tormato"—a testament to Yes' willingness to push boundaries, an album that acknowledges the rather eclectic taste of its admirers, was alienating their wider audience—is certainly not a record for everyone. For the uninitiated or the casual Yes listeners, "Tormato" really can feel like if they are attending a long cricket match.

So whoever does not like Tormato is "Uninitiated" or just a "casual listener"?! LOL I am neither and I've thought much of this album. And i have tried to get into it, believe that. Ermm

I also don't think they were trying to push boundaries when story goes they were pressured to make a new album rather quickly after the success of GTFO. So Tormato was basically a contractual obligation. 

One can't really talk about "Tormato" without mentioning the rather important role the then-new synthesisers played in the making of the album. The late 1970s were a time of fast-growing interest in electronic instruments, and Yes was among the forerunners within this trend. Synthesisers allowed a wider range of tones, which allowed the band to experiment with textures and instrumentation. The synthesiser's usage on "Tormato" represents a significant leap for Yes into new sounds. Wakeman had modified his keyboard setup to include the Birotron, a tape replay keyboard that he had co-funded during its creation and production four years prior, and the Polymoog, a polyphonic analogue synthesiser that he said was mostly used for "soloing and filling," and all of it works majestically on "Tormato," the album whose only real flaw is (again) a non-Roger Dean sleeve design.
Personally, I always imagined flying saucers playing music like "Arriving UFO," a track that was/is repeatedly bashed by those with limited understanding of British and European progressive music. Not only did this predict the neo-prog trends that were yet to come in the 1980s, but it also further emphasised how Yes was committed to innovation. It showed that Yes could adopt modernity while furthering their artistic boundaries. Also often bashed, "Circus of Heaven" is indeed an original song that produced a fanciful ambient rock tapestry.
Unlike the previous "Going for the One" album, which sounds very serious and classic, "Tormato" allows the band to have more fun with melodies.
Steve Howe's guitar sounds like a forerunner to Mike Oldfield on his '80s records; however, it's better guitar work than the 80s Oldfield.
Alan White shines as well. He is most known for his solo in "Release, Release," but his drumming in "On the Silent Wings of Freedom" is truly outstanding. As that song begins in a triumphant manner, Chris Squire dominates with his octave-length slides and extracts a fairly distinctive tone from his bass. In "On the Silent Wings of Freedom," one of the greatest Yessongs, Squire's bass roars and spits like a thunderstorm.
Regarding bonus tracks, they are absolute winners that make the admission fee alone worthwhile. For instance, the song "Money" is unlike anything the band has ever recorded before.


It's an okay album. I remember it being the first Yes album I ever heard and it was a while before I bothered listening to anything else by them. It wasn't particularly cutting edge at the time, mostly prog was getting left behind especially in the use of synths excepting for the likes of Tangerine Dream (assuming they are prog) and the likes of Vangelis and JM Jarre. Yes were also splitting apart as a band but at least had the last one great hurrah with Drama before they descended into the 80's AOR scene. Personally I like Release Release a lot. I roomed with an AC/DC fan in the early 80's and he loved playing my copy of Tormato just for that although I'm not sure he liked anything else on that album. It is quite eclectic and book ended by a couple of great tracks. Overall it fails to satisfy though and this is from a band that hasd hit some massive highs. Sub par Yes anyone? Not many like it that much and it just reminds us that prog was in decline ultimately, at least ELP were still doing side long suites!
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presdoug View Drop Down
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Points: 8628 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote presdoug Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 01 2024 at 05:42
Originally posted by verslibre verslibre wrote:

Originally posted by presdoug presdoug wrote:

Chocolate Kings is PFM's greatest album


Still peak PFM, so that's not a hot take.

I meant to get back to you on this; Chocolate Kings was somehat of a divisive record; some fans did not like new lead singer Bernardo Lanzetti, due to his vocal style or the English lyrics, and yearned for the earlier sound of the band...to say it is their best album would, indeed, be a stretch for many.....
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richardh View Drop Down
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Points: 28113 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote richardh Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 01 2024 at 20:25
Originally posted by presdoug presdoug wrote:

Originally posted by verslibre verslibre wrote:

Originally posted by presdoug presdoug wrote:

Chocolate Kings is PFM's greatest album


Still peak PFM, so that's not a hot take.

I meant to get back to you on this; Chocolate Kings was somehat of a divisive record; some fans did not like new lead singer Bernardo Lanzetti, due to his vocal style or the English lyrics, and yearned for the earlier sound of the band...to say it is their best album would, indeed, be a stretch for many.....

I think they lost a lot of that 'warmth' and originalty at this point however it does have a harder jazz fusion edge. Personally I love Out Of The Roundabout but some of the tracks have a truncated half finished feel about them. Agree that the vocal was divisive but also I prefer his singing on Jet Lag for some reason. That is a little quirkier, funkier and perhaps a little underrated. All that said I believe that PFM never returned to the very high level of the first 3 albums. L'isola Di Niente has the perfect balance of ideas for me especially.
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KorgC3 View Drop Down
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Points: 19 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote KorgC3 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 hours 2 minutes ago at 23:31
Rick Wakeman's post 70s output is genuinely great. People tend to mock his later works. I've seen arguments ranging from him being "way too derivative of his influences", or that he's a "schematic boring w**ker with one to two decent tracks per-album".
I guess some of his stylistic choices are an acquired taste, but I don't see why he deserves to be lampooned more than anybody else.
Many people seem to overlook his innovation, especially when it comes to combining different musical styles and eras.

Some of the artists associated with MGM cartoons like Raymond Scott and Scott Bradley, are genuinely some of the most innovative musical minds of their eras. Given how far they were pushing unorthodox compositional elements before it was common, I believe that they deserve to be taken more into consideration, not only in discussions about important 20th-century composers, but also Prog music in particular.

Dream Theater has generally awful mixing, even in their best albums. I don't like most their new stuff, and the synthetic mixing is one of the reasons, but their recent output is already a subject of contention amongst the fans. I don't see that many people ever considering production issues when it comes to their older quintessential works. If to put it simply, I think that there is no balance between the volumes of the different instruments. The drums and the synthesizers are noticeably louder compared to the other instruments (vocals included), and the bass is completely overwhelmed and lost in the final mix. I see some coming with the argument, that loudness is a key feature of Metal, therefore this is justified.
DT, however, never came from that branch of loud "punk" inspired Metal. Roughness was not part of their image either.
Honestly, compare them to any of their contemporaries, or even bands partially influenced by them like Circus Maximus and Haken. None of them had such readability issues with their album mixes as DT. In fact one of the reasons to why I got into live bootlegs, is that I wanted to get a better grasp of Myung's bass. Listening to their bootlegs made me appreciate the bands virtuosity much more. I'm not a huge fan of LaBrie, but the way he re-harmonized certain vocal lines in some of his performances before the poisoning incident, made me enjoy some of these live versions more than the album mixes. Honestly, the bands problem is that they hinge too much on sustaining the image of a "calculated" act, while in-fact, they are at their best when they simply improvise on a whim.

Edited by KorgC3 - 10 hours 53 minutes ago at 23:40
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