sitboaf

Yes! And Days of Future Passed is very easy to listen to in a single sitting, as well, from The Day Begins/Dawn is a Feeling right through Nights in White Satin/Late Lament.

Bruce still sings the song better here than a healthy Blaze Bailey did. Oh, that's sad you didn't get to experience the full power of the Air Raid Siren.

Though I will always despise Pat Moraz for his role in ruining my favorite band (The Moody Blues) in the '80s, Relayer is undeniably awesome. Gates of Delirium is epic and Sound Chaser is perfectly harnessed chaos.

I listened to Presence yesterday before I even noticed this thread. As thunderously great as Bonzo could be, I think I am most amazed by choices he made where NOT to drum. Genius.

I'm guessing that a large percentage of fans dislike RTB despite loving Bravado, whereas I would say I like RTB despite not loving Bravado. If that makes sense…

I, too was very anti-Zeppelin because of when I grew up. It was the early '80s when I reached my teenage years and really started to like (and dislike) music. Growing up, I had heard Stairway one million times, but all the kids I didn't like thought Zeppelin was "Wicked awesome. Best band evah!" So I hated them. Ever see the TV show Freaks and Geeks? As I entered high school, I was definitely in the younger group, the Geeks (I was actually a class or two behind them, but close enough). But the Freaks (James Franco and Jason Siegel and Josh Rogan) were the upperclassmen. They were the older brothers of my friends, the ones who played boomboxes in the back of the bus, and wore jean jackets with patches on them, and had to shave, and SMOKED, and got beer somehow for parties, and cut school and maybe HAD SEX. They loved The Wall and The Song Remains the Same. And that made them scary. But then I got out of high school and went to college in the mid to late '80s, and the last thing you wanted to be playing around your new friends was some '70s hard rock, so you listened to 10,000 Maniacs and The Smiths instead. And then I heard Led Zeppelin again when I was in my 20s. And I didn't want to like it, but OMG, I thought this stuff was actually good. I just had to compare it to the weak hard rock I'd just been exposed to. I mean, GnR was really good, but Warrant? and Poison? and Bon Jovi?? And I realized I didn't care about the Freaks and jean jackets and smoking anymore. I had figured out that Pink Floyd's stuff, includiing The Wall, was cool, so why not Zeppelin? Once I let go of my hangups, I listened anew. And Zeppelin knocked me on my ass. They still do. I'm still sick of Stairway, and sometimes I think listening to Black Dog is like being hit repeatedly with a hammer, but the Freaks were right. Best rock band EVAH.

Though I have a small admiration for Billy Joel, he has written several songs that make me cringe. I, too, do not like "We Didn't Start the Fire", but I think I hate "You May Be Right" even more. There is no fault whatsoever to be found with Allentown and Moving Out...do you agree? Yes??? Good, I thought so :) I actually love '70s Billy Joel. But one day in 1979, he woke up and realized he was a really famous singer/songwriter. :o So he tried to go all rock and roll, and Glass Houses was the weakest sounding rock record ever (you're off the hook, Rupert Hine), and I don't think he ever reached the top of his game again. Having said that, I take Songs in the Attic to the proverbial desert island. It's in my top 15 albums of all time.

I have to nominate Billy Joel's We Didn't Start the Fire before this thread implodes. This song makes no sense.

i saw the HYF tour, and it was the most fun i ever had at a rush show. as far as i can recall, the audience was WAY into it! if anyone there was upset about the synths, they somehow went to sleep from 1981 to 1987 and didn't realize it was their 4th synth album in a row. i know there are a lot of fans who dropped off after moving pictures, but those people generally weren't there 4 synth albums later, especially after HYF, their most synth-y album. you have to remember that back then MTV was really popular and their current songs still got played on rock radio, and unlike today, even casual fans still heard their new material, or at least the big hits, so they knew what was going on with Rush, even if they didn't like it. that's the thing - most HYF boots I can find, the crowd really digs the synth set. obviously they go crazier for sawyer or la villa, but there's a big reaction for certain synth tunes that seemed to bore people on the CA tour. If that were true, it would make sense. The album is a product of the times, and the sounds of those times has not survived very well. The synths have a very dated feel that Rush's other work generally doesn't have. stating your opinion as if it were fact (and i'm well practiced in that technique ;) ) doesn't make it true or anything more than your opinion. a hell of a lot of people here LOVE their synth period. too bad you're missing out. I think it's implied in his post that it's his opinion Goobs. Saying that something "feels dated" is pretty clearly an opinion, no? Stating an opinion in the form of a fact would be, oh, I don't know, saying that objectively the best music of all time was recorded between 1966 and 1976, or something to that effect. ;) point well taken, but i still don't read it as opinion. i guess the thing i really find annoying is when ledrush is in the minority with his opinion and tries to frame things as if he's in the majority. anyway, it's his loss if he's missing out on some of Rush's best albums. and i would say more like 1965-1978 ;) yeah, it's like the thread where he talks about counterparts being worse than test for echo. and tries to like, mathematically prove it or some stupid shit. it's crazy Hey! That was my thread. How did I get dragged into this? For the record, I love HYF. It just has 2 more songs after what feels like the end of the album.

I also cringe when hearing Dog Years or Virtuality, but the combination of bad lyrics and bad melody make Totem one of their worst choruses: Angels and demons dancing in my head Lunatics and monsters underneath my bed Media messiahs preying on my fears Pop culture prophets playing in my ears Ugh. That makes for one weak trifecta of songs. Even worse than Speed of Love and company.

I adore Joni and have almost all of her stuff. Critics panned "Hissing" when it came out becuase it sounded like "Court and Spark" - it just wasn't as good. But now it's a more universally admired album. Her foray into world music was years ahead of Paul Simon's and others'. And most interesting (to me) is that while it's still got that nice, warm sound with all the killer Tom Scott horns, the lyrical content changed from personal to third person. For "Hejira", which I also love, she switched back to personal lyrics and sparse instrumentation. Except this time she strummed the electric guitar. Makes for some haunting tunes. And then following "Hejira", she went full-on experimental jazz. I imagine she confused and alienated a lot of her listeners through the late '70s.

I agree it's hard to compare albums by doing a song for song. In the case of these two particular albums, however, it works. No epics, one instrumental, similar play order. It's probably folly to try with other pairs of albums. I created this thread because for these 2 albums only, I think it's a valid tool. And I remember your thread about songs getting individual scores. I believe I christened it the "Johhny Blaze" system. I used a similar "modified Johnny Blaze System" where songs under 2 minutes got half-weight, songs over 8 minutes got 1.5 weights, and epics were broken down into individual songs if the parts are enjoyable separately (i.e. 2112 is a suite of 7 songs, while La Villa Strangiato is one long song). Counterparts does pretty well under that system, while T4E is dead last.

I often wonder why some fans dislike Counterparts. More of a mystery to me is why some really like Test for Echo. They were consecutive albums, but I think one is among their best, the other is their worst. Then it occurred to me that they were constructed in a very similar way. And we can compare them song for song. Both have a fairly similar overall sound. Both have 11 songs. Both start with a radio-friendly song, followed by a harder song. Both albums struggle in the middle. Both albums have an instrumental toward the end. And (in my opinion), CP wins almost every head-to-head matchup. I'll go thru the songs, listing the CP song first, followed by a symbol (">" means "is a better song than", "=" means "is about as good as", and "<" means "is worse than"), and finally the T4E song. Here's how I score it: 1. Animate > Test for Echo 2. Stick it Out < Driven 3. Cut to the Chase > Half the World 4. Nobody's Hero > The Color of Right 5. Between Sun & Moon = Time and Motion 6. Alien Shore > Totem 7. The Speed of Love >> Dog Years 8. Double Agent >> Virtuality ...here I have to swap the 9s and 10s to get the instrumentals to line up... 9. Leave That Thing Alone >> Limbo 10. Cold Fire = Resist 11. Everyday Glory = Carve Away the Stone That's a final tally of 7-1 (with 3 ties), in favor of CP. And some of the CP wins are really lopsided. Again, I don't get the love for T4E. I'm ready for the flaming, though. Go ahead and copy/paste my list. Change the symbols. Make your case.

The opening of Dire Straits Money for Nothing. Once, I even got it entirely right! That was a big day. I want my MTV!

I have those 2 albums, but I got them from someone else. So, there was never a time when I really had the desire to like them. I think that makes a huge difference. Every now and again I put on Siamese Dream (and also Mellon Collie) because I know they're good, but they haven't sunk in yet. They might not.

OK, We'll call the album Time and Motion. Side 1 track 1: Time and Motion track 2: Red Tide track 3: Face Up track 4: Bravado track 5: Animate Side 2 track 1: Scars track 2: Cold Fire track 3: Test for Echo track 4: Between Sun and moon track 5: Ghost of a Chance track 6: Where's My Thing? Ok, Honkin', I've never done this, but I just listened to a submitted "Rush Era playlist" (yours) straight thru, to see how well it holds together. The first transition, from the fine opener Time and Motion to Red Tide, was a little rough for me, but the next couple changes felt good. Animate was really weird to hear in the middle of an album, though. I thought side 2 worked well. Ending with an instrumental is an odd choice, especially after a moderately sad song, but it turned out OK. And I think I missed Dreamline. Overall, good job! :finbar: I was wondering where Dreamline would fit. The Time and Motion / Red Tide combo was based on tempo, and the keyboard riffs. I just played 'em with a fade overlap and they worked pretty good, I thought...the initial keys part, anyway. Yeah, you're correct about the fade. The start of Red Tide is great. I guess I meant that when the song amps up, it has a similar energy that matches instead of complements the opener. Your milage may differ. You know what... it's really hard to quantify album flow! But since it's not impossible, I'll keep trying.

:ebert: I'm retroactively jealous for 30 years

I'm on 20 years and counting. Maybe if more than half of it was audible...

OK, We'll call the album Time and Motion. Side 1 track 1: Time and Motion track 2: Red Tide track 3: Face Up track 4: Bravado track 5: Animate Side 2 track 1: Scars track 2: Cold Fire track 3: Test for Echo track 4: Between Sun and moon track 5: Ghost of a Chance track 6: Where's My Thing? Ok, Honkin', I've never done this, but I just listened to a submitted "Rush Era playlist" (yours) straight thru, to see how well it holds together. The first transition, from the fine opener Time and Motion to Red Tide, was a little rough for me, but the next couple changes felt good. Animate was really weird to hear in the middle of an album, though. I thought side 2 worked well. Ending with an instrumental is an odd choice, especially after a moderately sad song, but it turned out OK. And I think I missed Dreamline. Overall, good job! :finbar:

Not counting Rush albums (as if there would be any!), what album that you LOVE took the longest to grow on you? Maybe you hated it at first, or just didn't get it... Housemartins - I remember back in the college (in the '80s!) hearing their first 2 albums over and over and over again, and thinking every single song sounded exactly the same. But now… well, all the songs still sound kinda similar, but those are 2 great albums. Neil Young - Tonight's the Night - I stuck with it because I kept reading how awesome it was supposed to be. It took forever (maybe 15 or 20 listens), but I finally got there. Now I put it on every time I want to remember what it's like to lose a beloved pet :( The Who -Sell Out - not sure why this took a long time to grab me. Lots of great songs and funny commercials. Maybe in another 20 years I'll finally start to like The Final Cut.

I understand. i think it's a real challenge to create a good "album" even when given a lot of good songs to put on it. I have some albums with barely 3 good songs on them that sustain me for the whole 40 minutes, and other albums with 7 or 8 good songs that are hard to listen to. I'm extra curious as to what you would create in this exercise.

Studying Brazilian economic strategy - and learning Brazilian Portuguese. ;) When we went to Portugal, she did all the talking, but we discovered that the Portuguese don't trust Brazilians! I think she started telling people we were American.

Driving the Last Spike - Genesis

A Farewell To Synths 1. Dreamline - rtb 2. Test For Echo - tfe 3. Cut To The Chase - cp 4. The Pass - p 5. Ghost of a Chance - rtb 6. Leave That Thing Alone - cp 7. Animate - cp 8. Driven - tfe 9. Chain Lightning - p 10. Nobody's Hero - cp 11. Available Light - p Start with the best song of the whole era, get a couple of the more "thoughtful" songs some play (sorry, Resist), separate the first half from the second with a great instrumental, then grab EASILY the best album closer of the 4 in Available Light. Not exactly my eleven favorite songs, but I think it works.

We're obviously bored on the forum lately. It's time for the long-dreaded continuation of making era-based albums. The thread for Part 1: The Kimono Years is here. And Part Two: The Synth Years is here. For part three, we'll focus on the '90s, or post-synth albums. Whatever you'd like to call it. In fact, go ahead and title your album, too. We'll be pulling selections from Presto, Roll The Bones, Counterparts, and Test for Echo. The rules: 1. Title your album. We need a good name for this era. 2. Choose eleven songs (because 3 of the 4 albums in this era had 11 songs) 3. Choose at least 2 from each album. That leaves 3 wildcards. 4. Include at least one of the three instrumentals (Where's My Thing?, Leave That Thing Alone, Limbo). 5. No time restrictions! Even the eleven longest songs would fit on one CD, and we are in the CD era. Go!