The Rock Album Survivor Reviews Thread

[JGuy Grungeman]

Abbey Road by the Beatles.



Well, it's often argued which is the best Beatles album. The general consensus will usually be one of four of their albums: Sgt. Pepper (my fave), Revolver, White, or Abbey Road with the last two mostly duking it out. Personally, I think Sgt. and White are better, but Abbey Road does deserve most of the hype it gets. I mean, Beatles are one of the most fun, sunshiney, and psychedelic bands one could ask for. It's easy to see why they're loved, and considered to be overrated.

Abbey Road shows off some of the Beatles' most resonating pieces of soft, poppy goodness, even though it doesn't express the same creative level as Sgt. The best tracks include She's So Heavy with it's fantastic guitar work (although I'd like more lyrics), Come Together which is notable for it's deep tone and its Aerosmith cover which might be better, Octopus's Garden with its innocent and childish behavior, and Never Give Me Money with the absolute love for the psychedelic/sunshine pop vibes. The album keeps its ultra-fun and fantastic aura throughout, even if every song is different.

Not their best album, but one of their most notable. I'm really glad I got to listen to this again after all of the Beatles songs were taken off of Youtube.

92/100. It's a great album, but I have a few other priorities on the popp rock list.

[JGuy Grungeman]

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn by Pink Floyd
Round: Psychedelic Rock
Style: Psychedelic Rock, Space Rock

I liked it from the first time I ever heard it. Relistening to it today, I can't deny how amazing the album is. How many would be surprised to find that Pink Floyd started out as a somewhat different, more experimental psychedelic band that blended the pop feel of rock and drugs of psychedelic with a sense of wonder and thought? This is apparent in songs such as Pow R Toc H and the opener. So the fact that they changed pace a little later in their future is very interesting. This album is nothing like their other grand hits such as DSOTM, The Wall, and WYWH and Animals. Their psychedelic side occasionally has traces of early space rock and early garage rock. And the vocals are out of this world, combining the harmonization and production to make a sleek, astral kijnd of atmosphere that drives the messages of this odd album into a league of its own.

1967 has always been one of my favorite years in music, notably for Sg.t Pepper, Surrealistic Pillow, Forever Changes, and other psych albums. Piper is one of the best examples. However, I have a couple I'd put above it, so it's not going to win.

[TechnicLePanther]

Whenever I want to unleash my anger on Frown, I let Merzbow do it for me. Frown is so distressed at not being able to even feign interest in Pulse Demon.

[JGuy Grungeman]

Mirage by Camel



Style: Symphonic prog
Release: 1974
Length: 38 min.
Round:Symphonic prog

Believe it or not, I know the keyboardists daughter online. I've been curious about them for a while. Finally, I decided to get to more prog after bragging that I had heard 60-70 prog albums, notr including some of the subgenres. What better place to start than the band I've been most curious about?

Letting myself enjoy the music, it took a minute for me to realize this was not going to be what I expected. I was going for something more symphonic. What I get is weird electronic backgrounds andf a very upbeat tune to begin "Freefall." For five minutes, energy and Pete Pardens lead the music into a very progressive, very cool sound. But a total turnaround appears in "Supertwister." Lead by the most beautiful flute I've ever heard, this soft, soothing, almost jazzy experience really brought out the music-junkie in me. It felt like a supergroup with Mozart, Miles Davis, and Phil Collins. I was pretty sad when it ended. Next came "Nimrodel / The Procession / The White Rider ," which starts off with a very weird guitar techniquew, almost like music to an alien invasion. The flute whistled like the X-Files theme, and it ended with a crowd cheering a parade on. After that, the second movement of this strange musical story goes into a beautiful electric experience with violins to back it up. Other parts include a soft rock experience with beautiful harmonized vocals and a sound effects amalgam played to a deep, cool bass. Truly, this epic is a story in movements, like an anthology film in the form of a wonderful song.

The second side starts with something more simplistic: "Earthrise." If it gets complex later, that's cool as well. Either way, just about every moment of this album has been pretty awesome. This cute little xylophone-esque lullaby has been a great way top start off a song and the second side. And as predicted, it gets more complex. It shifts between the strange lullaby and raw energy with precise timing and excellent musical skill. I've rarely ever heard such skill in composition. I'm almost surprised this group is not a member of the big four. The final track, "Lady Fantasy," starts with a heavy amount of keyboarding, and goes into a soft, summery poem of love. Beautiful. It later goes into a hard rockin', ecstatic collage of guitar solos. And there's still seven and a half minutes to go! We exit this long, ecstatic solo and go into a softer, more sym,phonic and operatic are driven by guitars that play with the samer poetry as a violin and more of Barden's keyboards. This part transcends into a very ambient, post-ropck sound that drags emotion and quality into a whole new level. The vocal poetry begins again speaking of walking on whirlpools, sitting on sunbeams and other cryptic lines than bring a strange sense of vocal psychedelia into the mix. And so, we go into the most raw, energetic, eccentric, and heavy moment on the whole album as the guitars gleefully rock their way through a well-composes piece of grand sloppiness, ending with a short, symphonic fareell until album 3.

This grand album magnificently shifts between the sad and the happy, the soft and the hard, the energy of the sun and the serenity of the moon. In all forms, this album is musical poetry. I'm glad I can finally tell Pete's little Talullah her father was nothing short of magnificent.

Overall, this is one of the best prog albums I've ever heard. It is a collaboration of the whole of music in the form of its own kind of rock opera, a story formed of several epics with no plotline or point other than to entertain through the essence of rock music. I'm gonna have a hard time deciding wether this or Selling England will be my top spot. 100/100.

[The Batlord]

You brag about the number of albums you listen to? DWEEB!

[Frownland]

Inb4 "I'm not bragging" followed by a long defensive rant about how keeping track of albums makes you humble or something.

[JGuy Grungeman]

Actually, I was going to say the bet you made was beaten by seven times the amount. Haven't even listen to ten albums quickly turned into 70. This has nothing to do with humility, but the humor in which your post may have been partially serious and yet you were cxompletely wrong.

[Frownland]

Originally Posted by JGuy Grungeman

Actually, I was going to say the bet you made was beaten by seven times the amount. Haven't even listen to ten albums quickly turned into 70. This has nothing to do with humility, but the humor in which your post may have been partially serious and yet you were cxompletely wrong.

That was a little shorter than I expected.

[The Batlord]

Originally Posted by JGuy Grungeman

Actually, I was going to say the bet you made was beaten by seven times the amount. Haven't even listen to ten albums quickly turned into 70. This has nothing to do with humility, but the humor in which your post may have been partially serious and yet you were cxompletely wrong.

[JGuy Grungeman]

In den Garten Pharoas byPopol Vuh

This album can put scenery and images in your mind like no other album can. The album is beautiful, mysterious, ghostly, imaginitive, like a secdond soundtrack to Koyaanisqatsi. I am not high. I have never taken any of those drugs in my life. What I'm about to tell you is nothing but a story played in my mind, told from the conversion to imagery from music that is this album. This review tells of everything I saw in my imagnation while listening to this album.

This is a dialogueless album that's job is to use its krautrock and ambient instrumentals to create a new scenery.

Upon the first splash of the water, I had a strong feeling the album would casrry a very strong sense of serenity. When serenity is strong, that means it's extremely calming and relaxing. I think the spashing of water does a fantastic job at that I even felt my fingers type so slowly as my troubles washed away in the emenation of ambience from this album. Ghostly, but wonderful, as if a gospel were singing a tribute to a dead, great man, and the waters flowing from the fountain was singing with them.

Brian. Eno. Can. Suck it.

As the ambience ends after a wonderful five minutes, African drums bring the krautrock into this ambient treasure, shifting from the flowing waters of green field with mountains to an African dance of mystery. I have never heard an album that exercises the imagination as much as Popul Vuh's In den Gärten Pharaos. "I suppose the album could do more with complexity," I thought to myself. As I rthink that, the drums began picking up, more energetic than ever. I wondered what was in store as the instrumenrts played a ghostly tune to these bongos. A dance to the deceased. As we enter a softer, more poppy tune backed up by keyboards and the same soft ghostly winds of music, my mind enters a little playground area where children are playing on swings and slides... and wondering where the music of the African dance comes from as it echoes through the wind. As the keyboards became more ambient, I found myself looking at a purple night sky, shifting quickly from an orange sun to a purple moon, and then... back where I started. At a field with a little stream of water. And next to that water, was a tribal man playing on the bongos, playing for the dead who have now gone into the sky, as the fish in the water just splash, wondering who this man was, and then going on their way down the stream. This was all one track: "In den Gärten Pharaos."

After the track ended, I had to take a small break to soak in what I just heard. But I was so eager to find where the next track would take me!

The secopnd track began with an orchestra playing under a sky where all of space could be seen lighting up the band. As the image zoomed out, I saw the orchestra playing for ghosts, all captivated by the combination of music and space. Some carrages came and delivered coffins. Some of the audience had to leave to go back to the sky. As the drums came, I found myself in an African desert again, the sun brightening the tan sand, where a tribe had been playing for those who are alive. Both bands had stopped playing, as if they could feel each other's emotions.Slowly, the orchestra began playing again, with a wonder in their mind what the afterlife was like. As an ambient flute played, in space, a doorway opened. In this strange afterlife, ghosts had been playing in their own band of flutes and cymbals and their own vocals. Some of them played like pipers from an old Irish fairy tale. In his mind flew the images of fairies and cupids. As the cymbals drowned out most of the music, I saw a ghetto town, wherre there were people who either wished their lives were better or wished they were in heaven. A sad image. I saw a church in that town, where the same coffins from before were being put in. Many of the people in the ghetto surrounded the church, wondering what was going on. In the afterlife where the band played, some of the ghetto men had floated up there. The band welcomed the m to the afterlife. The ghetto men walked away from the band, still listening to them. I came back to the desert, shifting in between the desert and the ghetto man walking through the afterlife. It seemed to shift so fast that the two almost blended together. The messiness and noisiness of the cymbals represented the ghetto, and the bongo drums represented the African tribe. When they did blend, I saw African gods flying through space. It seemed as though they were familiar with the troubles of the two realms blending in one. This image lasted for a while. But the two realms eventually separated themselves. And the area in space that they occupied became nothing but space.

In Africa, I saw the orchestra playing to the living tribal children... songs for the dead. And joining them was the ghetto man. As the music picked up, I sawe the African musicians join