Urban Hat€monger ?

Trust me to miss the most obvious one

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Urban Hat€monger ?

Psychic TV - N.Y. Scum

This album consists of two songs both of approx 15 minutes each. Here's a brief description of each song.

N.Y. Scum - For the first 5 minutes some guy rips as much feedback out of his guitar as he can manage while being backed by a bunch of Hare Krishna's on percussion, all the while a drunk couple has a domestic argument. For the next 5 minutes said drunk guy decides to meditate while still shouting for his best mate (Possibly). Then the guitarist returns with a drummer and the two of them alone with the drunk guy attempts some lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-fi Joy Division / White Stripes hybrid garage rock. The final 2 minutes drunk guy attempts to make a techno record.

Haters - What remnants of a song there is here is quickly forgotten about after just a couple of minutes as the song decends into some random shouting & howling feedback.

In a word ... Brilliant.

Boo Boo would shit himself listening to this

Rating 5/5 Soiled Pants

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Schizotypic

This is a great idea for a Member Journal and will be keeping track of your ramblings.

Urban Hat€monger ?

Yes - Tales From Topographic Oceans

So i'm sitting at home debating whether to listen to Hex Enduction Hour for the millionth time when I hit upon an idea. Why don't I take a difficult album and see how long I can endure it.
The choice was an easy one after taking an instant dislike to this album on reputation alone now was the time to listen to it and see if that reputation is justified. Given that even some prog fans think this is overblown crap it will be interesting to see when a layman like myself makes of it. And if I don't like it, well at least I can thank it for being so ridiculously pompous & self absorbed that it helped create punk.

On we go....

00:20 - Some weird chanting, I appear to have picked up a Current 93 album by mistake.

01:30 - Oooh it's getting dramatic now

01:35 - Synths come in. It all seems to have gone a bit 'pages from Ceefax-ish'

03:07 - Vocals kick in at last

04:06 - It's just dawned on me i'm listening to an album with a Roger Dean cover, someone please kill me.

05:00 - Is Jon Anderson a secret Bee Gee's brother?

06:25 - I have to say this is holding my attention far more than I expected

06:55 - Oooh it's kicked in at last, ROCK N ROLL !!!!!!!!!

07:50 - Sorry but this still sounds like the Bee Gee's doing musical theatre to me

08:25 - Starting to get worried that i'm enjoying listening to the Bee Gee's doing musical theatre.

09:10 - Is this the end of the first song? Oh wait it's just the halfway mellow point.

10:00 - Vocals by Jon Anderson (Aged 12)

11:11 - Funky piano, nicely timed too I was starting to get a bit bored, my interest just perked up again.

12:18 - Guitar solo and i'm actually enjoying it too, nothing to overstated & bounces along nicely with the song.

13:05 - Slow introspective bit with epic crashing cymbals ... yawn.

15:00 - How the hell have I made it this far? Still feels like i've just started.

15:30 - Wish this slow bit would end

16:00 - Boredom beginning to set in.

16:40 - Oh here we go

17:00 - Wakeman goes mental, the rest of the band sounds like they're making music for some chase scene on some cop show. I'm loving this.

17:30 - Well that didn't last long. I was enjoying that too.

18:20 - Shut the fuck up Anderson, I want Wakeman back.

19:30 - Ooh we're building up to the climax now.

19:50 - Sounds like it's going out with a whimper rather than a bang, disappointing.

20:25 - Holy shit, I made it to the end of the first song. One down three to go.

21:00 - Second song starts off really quietly, I have to be honest for an album with the reputation this one has I was expecting something much more overblown , bombastic & dramatic. A lot of it seems quite introspective.

22:40 - This intro seems to be lasting forever.

25:00 - I'm really beginning to lose interest now. This song isn't going anywhere.

27:00 - Sod this i'm nipping out for a cigarette.

32:37 - Sounds exactly the same as it did when I left.

33:39 - The song seems to have finally upped a gear at last.

35:00 - The more 'rock' moments of this album are quite good, It's just having to wait 10 minutes for Jon Anderson to warbling about skies & suns & moons you have to endure to get to them that makes it annoying.

37:48 - Just over 3 minutes of the song remaining and yet again another long drawn out outro.

38:10 - Oh wait another verse, forget that last comment.

40:00 - Fuck sake , just end will you.

41:00 - At last, I hope the 3rd song is better.

41:30 - Well this is a bit different, Nice bit of percussion there.

43:00 - OK it wasn't THAT good. You can start the song now, please?

44:00 - Please start the song lads

44:22 - Is this it now?

44.23 - No it's another slow synth peace. You bastards, you got me going there.

45:25 - Oh great now he's singing along with it I hope the whole bloody song isn't like this.

46:22 - Stop / Start / Stop / Start / Stop / Start ... Yawn

47:10 - I'm sure they're making this up as they go along.

48:00 - I'm seriously beginning to debate surfing porn or something.

49:00 - I'm really struggling to see how this song was written it just seems like random band members showing off.

50:00 - Apparently the whole album with bonus tracks goes on for 2 hours, fuck that.

50:39 - Nine whole minutes of this damn song left, shame because I was really hoping i'd get to the hour mark.

51:35 - This whole continuous background guitar solo is seriously getting on my nerves now.

52:10 - Yeah thanks, Just suddenly stop the song get me all hoping it'll kick back off again with something special & then carry on with the same meandering rubbish thats been on for the last 12 minutes.

53:00 - Oh wow a guitar solo ................ AGAIN.

53:50 - Jon Anderson & Steve Howe appear to have gone into medieval minstrel mode.

53:52 - Check my spelling of the word 'medieval', Yes I spelled it wrong.

56:ish - Bugger , just reset my stopwatch by mistake.

57:ish - Feel like I should grab a lute & walk around saying 'hey nonny nonny' just to fit in.

59:ish Work out that 13 seconds into song 4 is the hour mark

59:laterish - Thank God thats over with.

60:00 - New song & my stopwatch restarted, now lets get to the end of this fucker.

61:38 - 20 mins to go. This song is alright when it decides to go somewhere.

63:00 - Come on lads rock out a bit, you are a rock band after all. It is allowed you know.

63:47 - My first yawn. I was expecting that 60 minutes earlier than this.

64:27 - Second yawn

65:09 - It's just occured to me most of this album exactly sounds the same for the most part, It's either individual keyboard parts or individual guitar parts that all sound the same. it's just broken up with different 'rock' bits.

68:00 - Seriously considering turning this off now, There's only 14 mins left but that's 14 minutes of my life i'll never see again.

68:45 - Badly in need of a piss.

69:30 - Decide to wait it out.

70:00 - This just sounds like really bad soft rock, I have no idea how this band get the praise they do judging by this stuff. I don't even get the impression i'm listening to really talented musicians because it just seems so bland.

72:00 - A halfway exciting bit at last, as I reach the final 10 minute countdown.

73.15 - You know what would be good now, a blistering guitar solo

73.20 - Oh here it comes

73:50 - More functional than blistering, oh well.

74:10 - Everything stops & we get loads of people banging cutlery together. Well I wasn't expecting that.

74:50 - Oh great, A fuckng drum solo. Way to make me listen right till the end you bastards.

76:30 - Seems to have descended into noise, Oh yeah it's easy to do now you've had 76 mins of showing off first.

77:20 - Please don't tell me I have 4 minutes of this soft muzak rubbish with Anderson warbling over it to end this thing.

78:30 - Looks like I do. Fuck it i'll just block my ears & hum for 3 minutes ..... I CAN DO THIS!!!!!!

79:40 - He appears to be singing about a circus, I think thats the first time on the whole album I actually paid any attention to any of the lyrics.

80:40 - We're building up to the big rock ending now

80:55 - And then it all goes quite again,way to spoil it STOP DOING THAT.

81:20 - Is that the end now?

81:35 - FUCK ME I DID IT !!!!!! TAKE THAT YOU PROG LOVING FUCKS, I TOOK ON THE BEST YOU GOT AND WON.


93:20 - Wonders if he can get Boo Boo to do the same thing for Hex Enduction Hour

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boo boo

It's interesting what some people find boring and others don't, I've listened to this album on the whole at least 20 or so times. I guess you could call that a superhuman ability.

I do agree that The Ancient is a bunch of random wank. But I love the other three tracks, Ritual could have done without the drum solo though, you had an otherwise mellow song and it just sounded horribly out of place.

And I can't argue about Jon not being a terribly good lyricist, but I love his singing so it's never bothered me. Very few prog fans really care about lyrics, and I doubt Yes or most prog bands put a lot of emphasis on it, I think they just pick random words that best go along with the music.

Jon sure likes to say "retain" and "disgrace" a lot, that's for sure.

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with your review, I was expecting something far more scathing.

But please stop dissing Roger Dean.

Also, I don't realy have anything against The Fall, it's just common practice that when someone trashes my favorite band, I trash theirs.

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It's only knock n' knowall, but I like it

http://www.last.fm/user/kingboobs

gunnels

I was planning on Topographic Oceans being my first review on this site.

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Let's Play TF2 Sometime.|Unrepresentative Last.fm.|Puns, Pokemon, and Miscellany

Urban Hat€monger ?

I wouldn't call it a boring album as such. I would say it's more an album where you have to really wait to get to the few & far between good bits.
I found it more frustrating than boring.

To be fair so was I

No

I wouldn't call that a review, It was more a commentary.

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boo boo

What other Yes albums have you heard and what were your thoughts on them?

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It's only knock n' knowall, but I like it

http://www.last.fm/user/kingboobs

khfreek

You still haven't listened to The Fall of Troy

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last.fm

Urban Hat€monger ?

I've not heard really heard enough to make a judgement.

Offhand I can remember hearing the title track on Closer To The Edge and not hating it, but thats about it.

Other than that just the cheesy 80s singles that most people know.

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