Search:

I haven't burned out on Neal Morse's proggy stuff because there's always loads of other great music (and not just prog) to listen to, so variety is not only the spice of life but also keeps me fresh...

Mind you, 'Anna Lee' is one of my favourite Dream Theater songs, so go figure... I'd much rather listen to Falling Into Infinity than quite a few of their other albums.

After the epic rubbishness...

I love Marillion, I'm not partisan about line-ups, nor blind to the rambling faults of some of their post-Marbles albums (for what little its worth, Sounds That Can't Be Made is much more to my...

[etc. - shortened for convenience]

Some good points, Sordel. I honestly don't think BBT's music is as much like Genesis as some of the more dismissively expressed comments along those lines have...

This forum is such an incredibly unkind and negative place sometimes, and often without good cause or much musical objectivity. Quite a few posters couldn't wait to jump in saying they don't like...

I often have considerable respect for Henry's balanced views on some Yes topics, but when it is inferred by association that "Countdown To Zero" is a better composition than Wakeman's Six Wives or...

Surely they'd have been called 'The New Originals' because there was already another band in the East End called 'The Originals'? :-)

For me, Till We Have Faces is the weakest 'rock' album of Steve Hackett's career. His collaborations with Nick Magnus deserved a better last album than this - but I do have a soft spot for the...

FFS, people!

He refers to Jon and Trevor because they are current bandmates (i.e. in ARW). He makes no mention of anyone else in Yes because they're not his bandmates.

The only childishness I...

Indeed - when I spoke to him he also mentioned he liked "several of the new prog bands" (he mentioned Karnataka, and also that he personally thought Radiohead and Muse are prog even if the band...

Me too. I actually think it's better that way - "The First Rebreather" coming in mysteriously after the relatively no-nonsense rock'n'roll "Make some noise".

Also, I don't really understand why...

There's a lot more to Rick's interest in classical music than playing 'Clair de Lune'.

I'm a regular critic for Gramophone, and a few years ago the magazine asked me if I'd like to ghost-write a...

If one listens to the band properly in those classic Abba recordings (i.e. not that ghastly Mamma Mia musical thing), it's proper Prog-Pop.

I wonder if Team Rock / Prog acknowledged that they...

Several people have mentioned Camel.
Do they know something I don't know, or is it just optimism?
I quite liked both of Colin Bass's solo albums released in the last few years, each with Andy...

In true Henry fashion, but with the same kind of selective objectivity causing enthusiastic advocacy, let's look at some facts:

1) EE1 was released, very cheaply priced (at least here in the UK),...

Moon Safari (Himlabacken vol. 2)
Tim Bowness
The Mute Gods
Big Big Train (Grimspound)
Flying Colors
Lonely Robot

Shouldn't Sanguine Hum be coming up with the sequel to Now We Have Light?...

My ranking of Neal Morse's post Spock's solo albums is quite different from most of those above, but I do think The Similitude of a Dream is one of the very best things he's ever done in his whole...

With Marillion, Tull, Chris Squire and Neal Morse's rather fun prog Christmas album, I always make a pretty good Prog-flavoured Christmas playlist.
Honourable mentions for IQ's seasonal medley "For...

I actually like Platinum, so with that caveat:

Songs from Distant Earth - I can see why folks make the new age reference, but to me it's much better that that, and the use of early music vocal...

I've been a loyal subscriber for most of those 7 years, and bought every issue from the start. I don't always get equal satisfaction out of every issue, but any periodical publication is like that.
...

I mostly agree with you, especially about Happiness is the Road (surely their weakest and most rambling album, much as though some hardcore fans appear to adore it), which was even worse to my ears...

Fair enough - but Greg had said categorically and unambiguously several times in public that the band did not wish to reissue Bard in any way, shape or form!
Something was said about it not...

No way.
Look at the date of the webpage: 1 April.
Clearly an April Fool's joke.
The band has repeatedly made it very clear that they are not going to reissue Bard, but they have given their...

I thought this too until Sounds That Can't Be Made, which seemed to me much better in terms of cohesive writing - apart from the meandering "Montreal" (nice for the Canadian/North American fans who...

Yes, though I think he chose his words carefully. He did NOT say he thinks that those three albums are Marillion's best past albums, but that they are those that fans might regard as "landmark"...

Yes, they were very upfront about it, and also made the additional tracks available on a separate EP for a very reasonable price (and which also included exclusive alternative versions of a couple of...

I know who I like the most: Moon Safari, Frost, Big Big Train, Sanguine Hum, Transatlantic and Steven Wilson.
If allowed more than six, I'd add Echolyn, Spock's Beard, District 97, and maybe a few...

Sorry to fly in the face of the majority, but I find 'Seven' and 'Revolutions' a bit patchy and derivative - but with some really great bits. I love the song "Anger", but much prefer the re-recorded...

I've always admired RJG as a keyboard player who can use synths in a tastefully orchestral way, and there's nobody in Prog better at pastiche Mahler/Ravel/Rachmaninov/Vaughan Williams than him.
But...

No, I don't think it is. Haven't got time to watch the dodgy footage, but the fabulous Hyde Park gig broadcast by the BBC (and just released on DVD) featured Milton McDonald on electric guitar - and...

Favourite 5 in randomish order:
1) Wind and Wuthering
2) Selling England by the Pound
3) Foxtrot
4) Trick of the Tail
5) Duke
[we're only allowed five, but I'd put Nursery Cryme and The Lamb...

Alleluia! The first poster to have things in exactly the same order as I would have done, and to give much the same reasons.
I have a soft spot for some of the We Can't Dance / Invisible Touch /...

Actually, I think 'Leap of Faith' and 'Came down' are that good! But I agree that 'Out of nowhere' is the weaker song in the collection - but it's nice to have a more straightforward concise rock...

Hmm, some overlap with some of you...

For me, number 1 is definitely 'Ever', whereas the last few have been enjoyable but not on the same level as my favourite five:

1) Ever
2) The Wake
3)...

Well, I'm sure that all your tastes are more exquisite than mine, but in one way or another I disagree with almost everything posted so far. I'm obviously just out of kilter!
I think Spock's with...

Other than the title-track, I think this is a pretty good album. I'd put it in the top half of the Spock's Beard album league table :-)
The only NDV-led album that I find rather weak is the...

Unfashionable though it may be, my favourite post-Neal albums are, in order:
X
Octane
Feel Euphoria
Brief Nocturnes
The Oblivion Particle
Spock's Beard (9)

There's barely anything between...

I'm a loyal Marillion fan, so will inevitably pre-order this closer to the time.

However, I'm not a blinkered, rose-spectacled, deaf and naïve Marillion fan, so it's been a long time since I...

I'm glad I'm not the only Spock's Beard fan on here who is a bit disappointed and underwhelmed by the new album. The production is excellent, their playing is as good as ever, but I don't think the...

It's not Pink Floyd's last great album - for me, that was Division Bell, and I'd put Animals and The Wall up there too.
However, Wish You Were Here is certainly their greatest, finest and most...

Joined this late, and haven't read every single post, but I think it's worth pointing out that there was loads of utterly shit music in the late 60s and early 70s, and the widespread assumption that...

I interviewed Rick for a back-page interview in a serious classical music magazine a few years ago (Gramophone), and I know for a fact that he doesn't really think this at all. It's hilarious to see...

But those songs on Nine In A Pond aren't the originals - those songs were all on the early EP Seven Into Eight, which was IQ's first recording (before Tales From The Lush Attic).
The original EP is...

^ absolutely agreed - Nick Magnus's N'Monix is an excellent album, and the tracks with Hackett are probably closer to Spectral Mornings and Defector in feel than anything on Wolflight. "Eminent...

I've listened to this three times now. I really like it, and think it's a shade better than Beyond The Shrouded Horizon (which I thought was patchy - sometimes great but occasionally naff).
I still...

I like Rothery's Live in Rome versions of the tracks more than the studio album, which I enjoy well enough, but find a bit bland and smooth on the whole. The live versions have more energy and...

Burning Shed is excellent - their focus is predominantly on KScope and various Steven Wilson-related labels, they also host King Crimson's official webshop, and they stock a smattering of other...

Apologies if someone's said this already, but isn't it rather wonderful that for once we can legitimately say that a new release by Yes will sound just like its 1972...

I can't be alone in finding...

Listened to it twice now. Lots of really good things, and the moog and guitar solos on Regret #9 had me almost jumping up and down with excitement on my first listen.
It's too soon to boldly claim...

Oh, this is sad news - but I confess I lost active interest in them when Dylan Thompson (guitar/vocals) and Gareth Jones (keyboards/vocals) both quit after Dark Angel.
A lot of what I really liked...

Maybe mentioned already, but here's two:
Extreme: Everything under the sun
Queen: Was it all worth it?

I would take music featuring Gilmour's lead guitar playing to my desert island, but probably not any by Latimer (much as though I love it, and would miss it).
The same goes for Hackett over Howe as...

OK, I'll play - though usually these kinds of exercises end up being a list of people's favourite individual players, without much regard for whether they would make music together that'd sound any...

Yep, I agree Yes will have to up their game considerably. I'm not the hugest Toto fan by any means, but just a casual enjoyer - and every thing I've seen or heard of them live confirms that they are...

Oh, I'm secretly fond of the Kids from Fame songs. With retrospect, I can see now that "Desdemona" was definitely my gateway into Prog (I was about nine years old), and from a certain twisted point...

It's never grabbed me as much as I feel it ought to, whereas I actually really enjoy those live cover versions! I've listened to their gutsy performance of Elton John's 'Funeral for a friend / Love...

I wonder if it's quite hard for loyal fans to actually be that loyal unless they turn off their critical listening skills - and I think it's been a challenge for Yes fans since about 1971/2. There's...

Actually, yes it is very different because Polly Sampson is a published author and professional journalist in her own right, and irrespective of her husband's fame and talents.
How many lyricists...

Sanguine Hum
Moon Safari (hopefully?)
Lonely Robot (i.e. solo album by John Mitchell of Frost, It Bites, etc.)
David Gilmour
Steven Wilson
Neal Morse
Steve Hackett
Dave Kerzner (counts as 2015...

No, it isn't the best place to start. Sound quality is ok, but I'd start with Lover's End, the EP Lover's End Pt. 3, and The Gettysburg Address (which has most of the best Blomljud material - and is...