stoopid

Drumming is usually the first instrument/player in a band that suffers at the hand of aging, so they may *need* to at some point (also of note: The Moody Blues did this).

Pfft, who needs lyrics when we have imagination.

You are not alone.

Also one of his worse for understand WTF he's singing. When I think of it, there's a few tracks on Awake that fit this description. But it's still my favorite DT album. I wouldn't want James to sing the songs any other way, it's operatic and fits the material on the album perfectly. He's an underrated singer, most bash him because he's not metal. DT is a prog band ffs. Is he my favorite thing about DT? Definitely not, but he's as much a part of DT's sound as the shredding.

It's... fine. Moving on.

Haha that has to be one of the best rock and roll quotes.

I knew it!

Sounds like something the staff at Rolling Stone would say. I suspect we have been infiltrated by the self appointed music police!

AI is only as good as the flawed humans feeding it data. It's certainly a viable starting point, then curate the list from there.

Sadly a lot is driven by publicity, whether positive or negative. RS have been irrelevant for a while now (decades?), it wouldn't surprise me one bit (*puts on tinfoil hat*) that the list was intentionally bad. (*removes tinfoil hat*) Whether or not it was done intentionally, I'm sure all their marketing metrics point to putting out lists like this periodically to keep their brand alive in the public's mind. Anyone suspect AI / ChatGPT might have been the source for some or all of this? (oops, forgot to put the tinfoil hat on!)

I enjoyed the last couple albums with Mangini, but like so many others (especially those of us who were fans since the beginning), the band never felt or sounded quite the same when Portnoy was booted/departed. Something to look forward to I suppose. They're still not too old to put out a handful of albums before the inevitability of age takes it toll and winds things down for them.

Not sure I'd want the job, would you? Mega church pastor? Oh hell yeah. All the coke and hookers money can buy at the expense of the gullible parishioners.

Yeah delusion only gets you so far.

If you mean "less stress", then that is kinda a thing. The caveat is not everyone's sources of stress are self induced, so their "attitude" alone may have no bearing on whether or not they experience stress, to what extent, or whether it impacts their health/vitality. You can be a prisoner of war, and be the happiest and most optimistic person on the planet, but your actual conditions could kill you in a matter of months. Your "attitude" can't save you from starvation and disease. I think that's an abused trope/meme. There's tons of miserable, manipulative, and downright evil people who live into old age.

Fertilize, aerate the soil. Prune annually.

Some people age more gracefully than others. Genetics.

Full disclosure -- I thought Rush 666 was much older and only guessed that based on things they have posted. But certainly where that's taken us was worth the diversion, if only for the laugh.

Midway there. Errr... well, midlife there.

Your days are numbered pops.

Starting with the black album they slowed the bpm of most tracks and even wandered intentionally into the hard rock side from time to time. There's some good examples posted already. There would be an equally long list of "heavy" as "non-heavy" tracks since 1991.

He was old. From what I estimate, very old. It will happen to all of us even-tu-al-ly.

He's not alone.

+1 exactly my list I'd say Harmony and GFD are a close third, maybe tie. To The Bone isn't as far from #3/4 as Raven is from HCE. All his releases fall in the 'very good' bucket, except tFB at the bottom and HCE at the top. Both firmly earn their places.

There is no news here. lol

Thanks for checking it out Dave, as always high praise coming from you.