Great albums - and why

[Nicky007]

Guys, you aint talkin much these days 

I'v started this thread in the hope that we can really discuss some great music, not just NP's without comments, which often leave me puzzled, but:  Where are our passions in music ?  What gets stuck in our mind, keeps swirlin around for days, re-emerges after years.

Now I wrote in the NP thread what I think is so special about Dream Theater's Awake.

Maybe this can get you guys goin on what's special about some other albums.

But please: Avoid clichés and obvious stuff, like "it's great cuz it's great"; guys, really try to identify: What's special ?  What are they doin here that nobody else has done ?

Nicky

[Nicky007]

OK, here's what I wrote about Dream Theater's Awake in the NP thread - for inspiration:

I'm simply dumbstruck by all the creativity and care they put into this album. There's everything a progmetal geek wants here: I really like Jamie's singing on this album - lotta feeling and fine detail (Greenie, give this one a few spins, yal like it, I'm sure) - Petrucci's already unbelievable here, Portnoy has more expression and variation in a passage of 10 secs than many other drummers have over a whole album, Myung creates that solid base that makes everything else possible for the DT-guys, and Kevin Moore conjures up those great atmospheres - I kinda miss him nowadays ... but then again Rudess aint too bad either, huh guys 

And these guys know what composition and melody is - for sure - they don't just go off on some dumb rave - everything under control, with care 


So guys, now it's your turn. Let's see some action. We enjoy good music, so we also wanna share it ... but I can't read yer minds, so I'd like to have it in writing .....

Nicky.

[erik]

Nicky, big kudos for always striving to keep this forum alive

So, here I go in response to your invitation, with a not so obvious choice in prog terms 'cause so many albums/bands have already been discussed in other threads, I want to avoid repetition. I'd like to make a case for the singer-songwriter Nick Drake. He sadly only made three albums before he passed away too early, all three great and essential, but my fave is his debut Five Leaves Left (1969). His music is really a less is more affair, dominated by his subtle yet dexterous acoustic guitarplaying in a rather unique style, piano, cello and strings. His music is melancholy captured in its bare essence, haunting and moving, but also light and summer-day-ish at the same time, strolling through the English countryside-like. The mood really draws you in. Highlights are Way To Blue and River Man, but the album is great from start to finish.

His second album Bryter Later (1970) was a bit more a band album and has the marvellous track Northern Sky; his third Pink Moon (1971) is his most sparse and desolate album and there are two more albums with different tracks released posthumously (the very worthwhile Made To Love Magic and Family Tree for the completists). There are also some neat compilations out there (Way To Blue/An Introduction is recommended if you can find it), but in the end you may want the three albums. In that case, the Fruit Tree box set is a good option.

[The Butterfly Man]

An album that I'm really fond of these days is Glitter by The Urbane. I've been playing it almost every day for the last week or so. Now what is it that makes me like it so much?

First, I wouldn’t have known this band if it wasn’t for the John Mitchell/Arena-connection. I remember reading a review of their debut album Neon in one of the The Cage fanclub-magazines (man, I miss those days) years ago. That’s where it started.
Second, my passion for alternative music like Dredg, Editors and Foo Fighters for example. The Urbane fits right in this list and bridges the gap between alternative and prog for me.

A few years after Neon Glitter was released in 2003. I instantly fell in love with it’s catchy tunes. Songs like Chain Smoking (A Way To Your Heart), Beautiful Sun or Hate My Radio would be massive hits in a perfect world. I still think that with some promotion The Urbane could get ‘big’, but then again, I’m sure that a lot of unknown bands feel the same way about their own music.

I think Glitter is a typical ‘summer-album’. Maybe that’s why I’m playing it so much these days… Although the lyrics aren’t generally happy or uplifting, the music is in most songs, which makes it great to listen to on a sunny day. It gives me a great feeling anyway.

I also got a cd-r with the rough mixes of the songs from a certain Room-member... It’s fun to spot the (minor) differences between these songs and the final versions that appear on the album. There are also a couple of songs on it that didn’t make it to the album. Complicate and Untouchable were featured on the Time After Time/Chain Smoking-single in the end,  but What Will You Say remains unreleased, which is a mystery to me. It’s one of my favorite Urbane songs, along with Immaculate, Neon, The Tide, Glitter, Beautiful Sun, Give It Away - with that great rocking ending! - and Manhattan.

Too bad it seems The Urbane is disbanded, the last bit of news I heard was that they were recording the follow-up to Glitter, Straylight. That was somewhere in 2007 if I remember correctly. Oh well, at least I still have Glitter!

Tom

[The Butterfly Man]

Nicky, big kudos for always striving to keep this forum alive

Indeed, I'm kinda 'lazy' sometimes when it comes to posting (or too busy, in which case I end up only reading), but I always appreciate Nicky's efforts in keeping this place alive.

So, here I go in response to your invitation, with a not so obvious choice in prog terms 'cause so many albums/bands have already been discussed in other threads, I want to avoid repetition. I'd like to make a case for the singer-songwriter Nick Drake. He sadly only made three albums before he passed away too early, all three great and essential, but my fave is his debut Five Leaves Left (1969). His music is really a less is more affair, dominated by his subtle yet dexterous acoustic guitarplaying in a rather unique style, piano, cello and strings. His music is melancholy captured in its bare essence, haunting and moving, but also light and summer-day-ish at the same time, strolling through the English countryside-like. The mood really draws you in. Highlights are Way To Blue and River Man, but the album is great from start to finish.

His second album Bryter Later (1970) was a bit more a band album and has the marvellous track Northern Sky; his third Pink Moon (1971) is his most sparse and desolate album and there are two more albums with different tracks released posthumously (the very worthwhile Made To Love Magic and Family Tree for the completists). There are also some neat compilations out there (Way To Blue/An Introduction is recommended if you can find it), but in the end you may want the three albums. In that case, the Fruit Tree box set is a good option.

Really helpful Erik, I'm beginning to get into singer/songwriter-music like Damien Rice and will definitely dive into Nick Drake's music with your post as my guideline.

Tom

[Draco chimera]

The band I mostly listen to these times is Muse.

I didn't know much about this band a few months ago, except from that that their apparently famous Supermassive Black Hole was used for the Twilight movie soundtrack. One of my friends was (and still is) completely fond of it. He kept telling me "listen to it !" but I didn't have much time.
Finally, I listened to Supermassive Black Hole, and I loved it. I quickly started to listen to other songs, becoming a fan of the band. I think what I really liked about Muse, is that their music was frankly original. Me and my generation are used to listen to conventionnal music (which doesn't always mean it is bad) : "after this chord, we have to use this other one, otherwise, the public won't like it" is what most famous artists which teenagers listen to seem to think. We're stucked in traditionnal schemes, and we don't manage to get rid of it. Muse managed to get well-known to teenagers and break the usual scheme. Even if it is stil most of the times verse/chorus/verse etc., the chords are not the ones we used to hear put together. And it works. It creates a change of atmosphere, and makes it different from the others. I always liked change and original stuff - that's part of the reasons that made me listen to prog -, so I really enjoy Muse. Now that they are famous, they spread new ideas or insipirations, such as playing classic music (Exogenesis Symphony), do some tribute to Queen like in United States Of Eurasia. I also appreciate the fact that they do not fear to keep trying new stuff : they have an original style, and you can recognize if it is Muse or not when you listen to it : but their music keep changing all the time. This is what made me love this band (in particular The Resistance, even if I think all their albums are good.) I hope it will contribute to make teenagers listen to original music such as prog, instead of the usual commercial "music" they mostly listen to.

[erik]

Let's throw in another one: Godbluff (1975) by Van Der Graaf Generator. It was my first acquintance with this singular band and remains my favourite album of theirs. VDGG have a unique sound, with sax dominating instead of guitar (which is virtually absent) and bass duties taken over by the pedals of keyboardist/organist Hugh Banton. Add to the mix the love it/hate it vocals of Peter Hammill and his lyrics full of existential angst and you have something special.

After they had taken studio trickery to the max on their previous, stellar album Pawn Hearts (1971) and temporarily disbanded, they returned with a much more trimmed down sound on Godbluff, which is all the more powerful for it.  A cover to match, black with only the band logo and the album title "stamped on". Just four tracks that fit together perfectly, no filler.

Opener The Undercover Man is a relatively mild opener. Starting with gentle flute tones and whispered vocals, it slowly builds, reminds slightly of Gabriel Genesis and reveals its beauty after repeated listens. It doesn't prepare the listener for the savagery of track two, Scorched Earth. This is a brutal track, with Hammill's roaring vocals, great sax and organ and ferocious drumming. It cannot be described, it has to be heard. Brilliant lyric as well. Track three Arrow starts jazzy and lets you catch your breath a bit, then develops into a mesmerizing riff with a haunting Hamill vocal over it and builds from there, maintaining the riff as a recurring foundation. Closing track Sleepwalkers is again more epic, like Scorched Earth, with many changes and different themes, working towards a great finale and outro that leaves you wanting more or press repeat.

The following album Still Life (1976) is a worthy successor and there's more great stuff in their catalogue, but VDGG reached perfection on Godbluff.

[Nicky007]

Now what is it that makes me like it so much?

Exactly, Tom 

Great, guys, particularly since you chose albums that are rarely mentioned in the Room 

And very educational for me, as I'm unfamiliar with'm 

So, let's see, guess I can widen my horizons here .....

Nicky.

[Peter]

When I have the time and the nerve, like once or twice a year, I sit down with my headphones and run Pink Floyd's "The Wall". I got to know this album when I visited a neighbour's son and his parents from time to time, and we spent an evening playing Risiko (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risiko_%28Spiel%29). The album was often playing in the background and that must have been in the mid to late 80s, when I was between 13 and 17.

I learned to appreciate that album as a work of art and an ingenious piece of music a whole lot later though, like ten or twelve years later, when I actually started to get bored by radio pop music and standard song schemas. I will not go and compare The Wall to this or that other album, due to the fact that I know far too little about music. Basically this is one of my all time ever favorite albums, because it has not a single moment of boredom for me, not a single moment of "ah...mhm...skip". The story being told makes it even more interesting and unique. I wish there were more albums like that. It's just plain perfect for me

[maddox]

Oh my, 'Great Albums, and (most of all) Why!' 

That's difficult, since there are literally hundreds to choose from.

Okay then, my penny in the pond of prog. ...

I hope this is okay, Peter but I'll do it anyway:



Änglagård ~ Epilog

Though their first album, Hybris, is concidered by many as thé ultimate debut of all time, Epilog was the first album of Änglagård that I heard. The album is, in contradiction to Hybris, totally instrumental, and takes you to a journey to the realms of prog where prog itself began!

Many bands nowadays rely on state of the art instruments like, for instance, digital mellotrons etc.
This is a band, where everything you hear that has keys in it, is pure. Analog, nothing more but certainly nothing less.
Also at the time the debut, Hybris came to life, the drummer/percussionist of the band, Mattias Olsson, was about twenty years old, but here's the thing: you never could've guessed that he was such a young age! The way he played was genius. To me, they all were.
The music these guys (and girl) makes is retroprog and can be described as a combination of old Jethro Tull, old Genesis, King Crimson, Procal Harum and a bit of Camel and Yes.

Like I said, the music is pure.
Let me try to explain with what I mean with that:

Last year there was a commercial on the Dutch telly about a classic radio channel, Radio 4. The only thing they play on that radio channel, is classic music like Rachmaninoff, Bach, Mozart etc.
What you see in that commercial is a full orchestra with violins, cello's, piano's, flutes etc etc etc, you know: the full monty.
They were playing with passion, the conductor raised his baton and almost dueled with the orchestra, as if they were in a musical fight.

But.... You couldn't hear a thing.

They were playing as fast and as good as they could ever do but there was no sound. Nothing, but utter silence.

Yet on the other side of the radio, in the listener's living room there stand a man, dancing with almost the same passion to the tunes of the orchestra and listening to the music! Because he could hear the tunes. Not through the boxes but in his (sentimental mode) heart!

He could feel it!

Now, that is basically what I experience when I listen to music.
But it also reminds me of this album of Änglagård.
It is intense, it is pure, it is the kind of music men or women shouldn't 'just' listen to when hearing it but endure it!
Become a part of it. Be engulfed in it.

Sounds strange, I know and you all might think that I've become cuckoo but when I first listened to this album, not ages ago but just almost two years (!!) ago, I was simply struck with awe!

Hybris is just as good, with amazing tracks like Jordrök and Kung Bore but this album did it for me.

Worth to listen to, trust me.

Info of Änglagård can be found at Progarchives. Just click this liny.

[maddox]

Holidays are over, gents!

Lets talk some music.