Entre_Perpetuo

Like it, but not really impressed or excited by it.

Okay, I do hate the Smashing Pumpkins cover of Landslide for no other reason than Billy Corgan's awful singing. I love him on his own songs, where he can work with his limited vocal abilities, but that song doesn't suit his voice at all.

Care to post a review? I'm curious but haven't got the cash yet.

They had bigger and (arguably) better things to try. They had no time to cap off their prog-related era with a cliche 20 minute epic cuz they realized their incredible skill with the current mainstream and couldn't stand spending too much time on any one thing.

Literally my top four Queen albums in chronological order. ADATR is def more prog than NOTW though (actually NOTW isn't prog at all, lol, but we'll let it slide).

QII/SHA/ANATO Mwah!

Captain Beyond

I really can't think of any actually. If they honestly can't work their voice to the music pretty consistently, I don't think they get enough attention to be popular enough for me to notice, and then most all the ones I didn't used to like at all I've grown to appreciate.

... ... ... ... ... ... Like, you're technically entitled to your opinion but...what? How can you say Freddie had a bad voice? I'm clueless. I'm not saying he's bad... just annoying to me. Union said "Who are some singers you simply can't stand?" in the first post. Ah, thread title threw me off. Well, once again I must beg to differ, but I don't judge. Same with Bellamy. I can see between those two what aspects you probably find annoying actually, which I get.

I must beg to differ.

... ... ... ... ... ... Like, you're technically entitled to your opinion but...what? How can you say Freddie had a bad voice? I'm clueless.

I love the new song. If the record can be as varied and awesome as this new song, it could be up there with In Rainbows

Oh I love his angelic voice! He sounds perfectly celestial. But he does other things very well too. Take the mad laughing in Climbing Up The Walls, the way he used to spit out his uglier lines like no one else ("kicking and squealing Gucci little piggie" from Paranoid Android comes to mind), or the bombast of the climax in Exit Music, he's got other angles to his voice. I for one might like to hear whatever crazy effect he had on Kid A (title track) just a bit more, seriously disturbing.

I'm mainly tired of the "small" sound/production and the consistently unorthodox in the exact same way sense of melody. They find a smallish grove, build smallish intrigue around it, and Thom sounds like a cynical, but never bombastic, angel overhead. I'd like a real surprise.

Do they get any creepier anymore? Is there any creepier place to go from here? I like it...but it's definitely sounding formulaic these days.

Speaking of Muse, another Bellamy favorite of mine is the perfect length, perfect feel, sheer perfection of a solo in "Madness." That's how you put a guitar solo in a pop song guys, with feeling, and class.

I love Jack White's solos and leads. Not underrated I don't think, but maybe under-recognized, as in like not enough people know about him. One of my favs of his is in "High Ball Stepper," which I think shows up right after a big break in the song. Great soloist.

Anyway, my absolute favorite modern guitar solo? The gianormous solo break in Muse's "Reapers." Classic, modern, epic, all the right things.

Inspired by the lead vs. rhythm guitar thread and listening to one of my fav modern guitar solos, let's discuss our favorite guitar solos released on or after January 1, 2000. Not a huge category, I know, but a nice opportunity to sh®ed some light on some oft forgotten modern masterpieces.

I have very minimal skills in guitar playing, though I do play for at least fifteen minutes most days and have gotten a lot better over the past few years. Nevertheless, the guitar I usually pick up and play is acoustic, and I don't often have the time to go plugging things into amps and learning solos and the complex bits, so as a player I'm more drawn to rhythm guitar the more I find out how interesting and deceptively complex it can be... But as a listener lead all the way! Gimme the solos, gimme the style, gimme the soul!!!

Rush: Here Again, great track, but not as great as it's often given credit for FBN: In The End, live version deserves the praise, not so much this CoS: Lakeside Park, good, but not really great by their standards 2112: A Passage To Bangkok, gets old after a while AFTK: ...well, Xanadu if anything, but you can't overrate that... I forfeit Hems: Cygnus Book II, missing the fire of their earlier material and the immediacy of their later material, very very good though PeW: ...Freewill if anything, but only cause it gets a little old after some overexposure, still epic MP: Witch Hunt, excellent track, but lacking the immediacy of much of the rest of the record, almost feels out of place in certain ways... But maybe also The Camera Eye... Signals: well, Subdivisions I guess, but only out of moderate overexposure like with Freewill, this thing is still top tier Rush p/g: Kid Gloves or Afterimage, the first is a bit to silly for all its praise, the second, while touching lyrically, gets musically monotonous very fast. PoW: Mystic Rhythms, only because it receives loads of praise versus other songs on an album where every track is pretty dang equal. HYF: tough, I think a lot of the deep cuts here are over praised for being better than the two end tracks, even though they're still pretty good, I don't think they compare to the big hit openers, stuff like TTP, PM, or sometimes Mission. Presto: The Pass, by the band themselves. Lyrical masterwork? maybe. Songwriting masterwork? Not really no. RTB: either Ghost of a Chance or Bravado, too sappy, not enough punch CP: Animate, good, maybe even great, not amazing though. T4E: ...Driven? Just cuz people recognize its greatness and dismiss the rest of the album? Do enough people even like t4e to call anything here overrated? VT: One Little Victory, because people remember this one and like to forget all the rest of the at least as good if not even better tracks on the rest of the album S&A: Armor and Sword? I dunno CA: Headlong Flight, b/c people forget how great the entire album is just cuz they think this track is the best, though it is awesome.

Rush: Take A Friend FBN: Making Memories CoS: I Think I'm Going Bald 2112: Tears AFTK: Madrigal, but sometimes Cinderella Man as well Hems: Circumstances (that's not saying much) PeW: Entre Nous, but also Different Strings sometimes MP: Vital Signs Signals: Chemistry p/g: Red Lenses PoW: Emotion Detector HYF: Tai Shan (it's really not terrible if you try to forget it's a Rush song) Presto: Superconductor (never understood the hate for this one) RTB: Roll The Bones (look past the rap, it's just about the best the album has to offer) Counterparts: Alien Shore (looking past the lyrics, the instrumental is one of the album's finest) T4E: like everything...this is an all around solid album with just a few major lyrical turn-offs as cons VT: The Stars Look Down S&A: The Way The Wind Blows or Spindrift CA: Seven Cities Of Gold (love that bass line, don't understand how people dismiss it)

Too many mircoaggressions. Seek out your safe space, son. Oh yeah, I remember seeing Rush way back in 1981. It was friggn' awesome. Hey, I wouldn't mind, but I personally can't stand how that's the only way people rank how big of a fan you are of a certain band or musician. By that logic, a young Rush fan who knows their music inside and out, and probably knows 10X more Rush then their own damn parents can never ever be as big of a fan as the one who has been around since the beginning and had seen them a gazillion and one times. Even though they may have Rush posters all over their room and listen to Rush religiously, they'll never be as big of a fan as the one that's been around since 74. The measure of how much a person is a fan of a band shouldn't have to be a stupid pissing contest about how many times you've seen them in concert, but that's just the way it is with these damn people. It's just such high school bullshit, and most of these fans are either Gen-Xers or Baby Boomers You're right, it shouldn't be a contest between who's been a fan longer...and it isn't. I'm thoroughly sorry if you've experienced people saying the younger generations could never have as big of fans for the older bands as the older generations who grew up with those bands, honestly, that sounds like it sucks. However, I don't think that's the reality for most people and most situations. My dad admits I'm a much bigger Rush fan than he is even though he's known them much longer,, and I think he's a bigger Dream Theater fan than I am even though I introduced him to them. Fandom isn't a contest, it's a life experience.

The point is quite simple: to experience the music. That possibility doesn't go away when the artist passes on, it just changes formats and methods. I've been the biggest Queen and Freddie Mercury fan I know since roughly sixth or seventh grade, and nothing (short of meeting a bigger fan) is ever going to change that as far as I can tell. Needless to say I will never meet my hero Freddie Mercury in this life, as he left this world just under seven years before I was born. While I do feel disappointed by this reality, I do not feel left out, nor do I feel sorry for myself, ungrateful, or really hurt by it. The fact that Queen and Freddie have the power to consistently move me and form a major part of my character seven years after the last possible time I could've met them all, and thirteen years before the last time I could've seen them on tour, it never ceases to amaze me and inspire me to do something so incredible. Another pro, I have gotten to know the band and their music and their character with their most classic story arc already complete and ready to be analyzed and repeatedly told. I have gotten to know that, as wild and hedonistic as Freddie and the band could be in their worser times, all the more they made up for it with the final chapters of Freddie's life. The thing I have always found most inspiring, most human, most Godly, most respectable about Mr. Mercury, the way he relentlessly pushed himself in his darkest hour, knowing fully well it was a losing fight, to give back to the world everything it had given him in the form of some of Queen's most legendary music. With death assured, with death constantly knocking at the door, through unimaginable pain and suffering, Freddie only pushed himself harder to make sure he had lived his life worthwhile and done something of some true value to the world. He knew just what death looked like and he didn't let it scare him back into bed waiting for it. He lived the very ideals that his music was meant to inspire in others: Hope, love, tragic perseverence, unity, Destiny, among others, and that gave the music an inherent credibility, nay, infallibility that could never pass away. Sorry that was so long, but Queen matters a lot to me, and I felt it important to reassure you that the band's essentially storybook ending has frankly only made my fandom a more pleasurable and worthwhile pursuit.

This, I believe, is why they do what they do. Every man and woman on Earth is assured of their mortality at some point in the future, wether it be tomorrow or next century. Knowing this fully well, most people try to accomplish something in life that they can have faith in living on long after they have passed away, and musicians are such an excellent example. If you've learned nothing from listening to Blackstar in light of Bowie's death or Innuendo in light of Freddie Mercury's death, then you simply haven't been listening to the true meaning behind the music, the art, the show. Freddie gave it one of his last dying cries,"the show must go on," and Bowie created the mystical scene of the magic of music being passed on, "something happened on the day he died, spirit rose a meter and stepped aside, somebody else took his place and bravely cried, I'm a Blackstar." These are just two strong examples I like, but this is the reality for most of our favorite musicians if I had to guess. One of our greatest fears is that we will be forgotten, and one of our greatest comforts and treasures is the knowledge that we are remembered. By recording music and sending it to the world, artists give themselves some insurance that they will not be forgotten, but more importantly that the music they helped bring into the world need not end like themselves. Music doesn't die, it simply changes hands, switches voices, rises and falls, but lives forever.