Hi folks
Not sure if this is news already, but IQ have now reissued 2010 band-approved remaster of The Wake as a standalone single cd (at a sensible price).
So no need to pay silly money for the box set, and if you want an overview on how the remaster sounds then here's my take on it:
https://momentstransition.wordpress....the-wake-1985/
Cheers!
Your thread made me drag EVER out of the old CD pile and give it a spin today at the work-desktop.
I like just about everything IQ has released.
I kinda blow hot and cold on them. Saw them in a tiny student union gig on the Lush Attic tour in 1984 and bought the LP shortly afterwards. Really enjoyed The Wake, but by then they'd stopped gigging our way and by the time Nomzamo came out I'd lost interest.Originally Posted by DoubleDrummer
Discovered the Forever Live album at the turn of 2000 and got back into them again, picking up Ever, which is another fine album. Then it was catch-up time with Subterranea, which I also played a lot.
I carried on with Seventh House and Dark Matter but lost interest after that, mainly because of the band's apathy when it came to touring.
Someone took them to task in the Prog mag letters page about why they toured Europe every year, but couldn't be bothered booking gigs in their own back yard except for London, with the fact that some fans simply couldn't afford the cost of travel and accommodation to London every year. Nicholls' response was less than enthusiastic - ie we'll only do it if someone organises it all for us. I pretty much gave up on the band after that.
I wish they'd give Ever some sort of special treatment. IMO it's their best (with The Wake a close second).
Does it matter that this waste of time is what makes a life for you?
Whilst it's pretty rough around the edges in terms of its production/execution and dated in places ('Corners'), I find The Wake has had more staying power for me than what they did later. I'll actually still listen to this one, something I can't say about the later ones anymore. Maybe because it's the first IQ album I heard, I don't know. But later albums are slicker without actually changing the basic sound very much...the playing improved but some edge was lost.
I really like their gothic take on symphonic prog here and on its predecessor (which is even rougher, but the songs are mostly equally good). 'The Magic Roundabout' and 'Widow's Peak' are probably their best tracks IMHO.
Wow, I remember being at the showcase gig at The Marquee for its original release in 1984. Their best album possibly but I have lost interest in recent years.
This! Spot on! Finally someone who shares my thoughts!
I feel like people most often like The Wake best. My favorite is Lush Attic but I like The Wake a lot too.
Maybe so, but people complain about the sound on The Wake. It would have been a worse album with "cleaner" sound. I think that Ever, for example, lacks edge because of the production.
The Wake is still my favorite by them, though I do like a lot of their recent work. The one I've never been able to get into is Subteranea. Just seems over long and aimless, and way too slick. The slickness of their albums since then is what keeps them from being favorites of mine, though I do like The 7th House and Dark Matter quite a bit.
This is really funny because the only IQ album, so far, that I love is Subteranea. I picked up at the time of the release when I was getting into new progressive music. It reminded me of the Lamb (another divisive album). There's nothing to account for taste - we all differ. This thread is leading me to want to explore new IQ and The Wake might be a good starting point. I gave away a bunch of IQ CDS about five years ago because only one album clicked but I'm willing to explore again!
The slickness is something I'm not crazy about either. I think it reached its peak on Subterranea though, and I still liked a good bit from that album. It had a lot of cool moments.
I love Ever though.
I like everything after Ever better than anything up to Ever. I find Nicholls vocals somewhat challenging on the earlier albums. I am, however, certainly willing to give The Wake remaster a listen or two.
Yeah, I love the Lamb so it might have been people making comparisons that gave me too high expectations for Subteranea. It's not a terrible album, and there are some good bits on it, I just find I can't remember anything about it after it's done playing, which is not a good sign. This actually happens for me with a number of IQ albums, though The Wake isn't one of those. Neither is Lush Attic, Ever, The 7th House (which took a while to grow on me), and Dark Matter.
Yeah, Ever is a great album.The slickness is something I'm not crazy about either. I think it reached its peak on Subterranea though, and I still liked a good bit from that album. It had a lot of cool moments.
I love Ever though.
You know, I agree somewhat about the vocals, though I've always liked them. I have found that Nicholls seemed to get better and better after Ever (which he sounds pretty good on as well). This is unusual for a vocalist, since they generally tend to loose their vocal quality somewhat (or a lot, in some cases) as they age. Not Nicholls apparently, as he sounds as good as I've ever heard him on Road Of Bones.
I'm pretty sure, based on this thread (your comments etc.) I'm check out The Wake.
Listening to The Wake now. It has a great "live in the studio" sound. Paul Cook really bashes his drum kit, which is just fun to listen to.
As a teen I grew up listening a lot to "the new wave of British progressive rock" (much later often 'dismissed' as neo-prog). Out of all these bands from the 80ies those two first IQ albums aged the best for me. I still love Tales and The Wake with the latter probably my favorite. I like the fact that the sound is imperfect. It just had this raw intensity that went missing on later albums.
I kept following IQ in the years to come but with The Seventh House I felt they were just repeating themselves. I also lost my interest in symphonic prog at that point so I never got any of the albums after that. I heared bits but never found them interesting enough to buy the albums.
I got the 2010 remaster of The Wake and i should really go back and revisit it. IQ is probably the only neo-prog band I still follow, as for some reason they still do it for me.
What did you think of Marillion's "F.E.A.R." and Pendragon's "Love Over Fear," if you listened to them?I got the 2010 remaster of The Wake and i should really go back and revisit it. IQ is probably the only neo-prog band I still follow, as for some reason they still do it for me.
Even though Ever is my favorite, those first two albums have an urgency and energy that they haven't reproduced since. Lots of vintage analog synth goodness too.
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