Shreddy Lee

QUOTE (Weakly Criminal @ Jun 14 2012, 09:12 PM)

QUOTE (Shreddy Lee @ Jun 14 2012, 06:32 PM) QUOTE (Jmo2112 @ Jun 14 2012, 08:15 PM) They need to make albums without necessarily wanting to so much. Actually, you have that backwards. They don't need to make albums at all, as they readily admit that albums don't make money these days. They only make them because they want to. Ah, but the tours do make money. You don't really think the prophet motive is totally absent do you? No, I don't. You're right, tours do make them money. That has nothing to do with albums though. Albums don't make them money. If they wanted to, they could tour on all old songs and make plenty of money. Looking at profit as a motive and nothing else, they have absolutely no reason to make an album nowadays. That's the point. They do it anyway.

QUOTE (Jmo2112 @ Jun 14 2012, 08:15 PM)

They need to make albums without necessarily wanting to so much.

A lot of great choices, but I'd like to show my love for One Little Victory. After that hiatus when no one knew if Rush would ever be back, for the very first thing for people to hear on that new album to be Neil's furious drumming, that had to be pretty awesome.

http://i509.photobucket.com/albums/s337/pierrechang/PROOF.jpg

At first, I didn't get the song either. It just completely passed me by and I didn't think there was anything remarkable about it at all. But after a couple more listens, I suddenly couldn't get it out of my head. It just has a great melody and I've been singing along with it, especially the chorus, more than any other song in recent memory. Of course that's in addition to all the other awesome elements of it.

Clockwork Angels

Caravan

Headlong Flight

The Anarchist

From my understanding, no, he doesn't actually make it there. He wanders around, gets lost, etc. and then has to go back. I think.

I like some of the other songs better, as songs. But, purely in terms of which closes an album in the best way, I do think The Garden wins for that.

http://www.therushforum.com/index.php?showtopic=74539

QUOTE (ShlappinDahBass @ Jun 11 2012, 11:14 PM)

His bass in BU2B's chorus is probably one of my favorite lines from him. Ever.

Wow, how did they screw that up with the songs. First I just switched the track numbers. Then I read this thread and realized they actually flipped the titles, not the numbers, so I had to go back and change it and re-sync it to my iPod.

I need some more in-depth listens with the full quality versions of the songs when they're released to pick up on everything, but right now I can say I really love the bass in Headlong Flight during the "some days were dark" parts. Then there's of course the great intro to Seven Cities. And you've gotta love his solos in Caravan.

QUOTE (Unattractive Truth @ Jun 11 2012, 06:43 PM)

I'm so excited, I almost blue myself.

Just to clarify, I wasn't saying that the way I see it is the right way, or that it's better, or that it's how it should be. On the contrary, I purposely worded it to show the way that this perspective loses that extra something that some of you guys have. I don't think that "it comes down to math" is a good thing. I just genuinely wanted to pose this question, and sort of say that for me and others my age, we never knew any other way.

 

Leaving aside Rush and some of the other similar kinds of bands some of us may listen to, do the majority of albums put out nowadays lend themselves to this way of thinking? Or is it a relic of the past?

One of the ways music has changed a great deal over the past few decades is in the idea of the album. I grew up as the sort of digital revolution of music was taking over, and everything was moving to downloading MP3s and all that, though I did use CDs briefly.

 

So to me, an album is simply the collection of songs that are on it. Nothing more. I place all the importance on the songs themselves, and I've never really had any notion of considering an album as one whole work, how the songs "flow" and thinking about how or if they affect one another, the song order, etc. I understand that this is exactly how it used to be, and for some still is, but I feel like to me and likely most of my generation, this is a foreign idea.

 

When I evaluate an album, what I'm really thinking about is how many songs on it I like vs. how many I don't. It comes down to math, really. If I think most of the songs are good, and there's few to none that I don't think are that good, then it's a good album to me. How it flows, and all these other types of things that I often see people talking about, don't enter my mind. To me it's just, here's all the new songs this band has made, one after the other.

 

So, do you place importance on how an album fits together as a whole, how the songs flow and complement each other, etc? If so, why? Is it because you grew up during the era where that was the norm, and are just used to it? If not, why not?

 

And most importantly, is this way of thinking about an album still relevant today?

I don't agree, but hey, it's okay. Not everyone is going to like it. No problem with that.

7 citues! I saw it, you can't hide!

I think that's a bit of a stretch. I guess I kind of hear what you might be talking about, but they really don't sound similar, certainly not to the extent that they reworked that riff for Carnies. No way.

 

Also, comparing them to Van Halen in any way is sickening.

S&A is the very definition of a mixed bag for me. There are some really great standouts like Far Cry and Mal Nar, a couple others I like, and a good chunk I think is pretty weak.

 

I think CA is far better in just about every way. There's not a single track I would call weak, and I prefer the overall direction of it to S&A's largely acoustic sound.

QUOTE (Kelly D @ Jun 9 2012, 06:22 PM)

I'm incredibly inclined to agree. I can't get it out of my head!!! "The lenses inside of me that paint the woooorld black. . ."

I'm glad to hear this Goobs, and I'm happy for you that you have been able to come to a new appreciation of these songs. Goober liking BU2B? I think I just saw a pig fly by my window...

 

I still don't understand why your enjoyment of the songs seems to hinge so much on whether or not they express a particular view that you wish they would express, or that you hold yourself. You prefer the message to be more optimistic and uplifting, and that it would end in some kind of embrace of faith or spirituality - that's fine - but I don't get why it not going in that specific direction should ever inhibit your enjoyment of any song in any way. That's just not the story he was telling, and it shouldn't be penalized because it's not the way you wished it would be, it should be evaluated on its own merits. But that's a conversation we've had before, and I know we'll just have to agree to disagree.

The cover is a bit bland and boring, not sure why they went with that. There's tons more things they could have done than just slapping the clock over red clouds. The other images are all far better.

He's clearly evaluating everything from a purely prog standpoint, and basing everything on how prog it is or isn't. That's really all he's concerned with, which doesn't make for a proper review.