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Album title: Sounds that can't be made
Artiste: Marillion
Nationality: British
Year: 2012
Subgenre: Neo-Prog
Player(s): Steve Hogarth (Vocals), Mark kelly (Keyboards), Steve Rothery (Guitars), Pete Trewavas (Bass), Ian Mosley (Drums)
Familiarity: Know all the Fish albums and probably around 50% of all the Steve Hogarth era material.
Favourite track(s): "Gaza" “Pour Your Love” "Power"
Why? "Gaza" The best lengthy track on the album and despite its politically based lyrics, the song actually sustains itself really well and it's a great album opener. "Pour Your Love" is basically a great song that proves how well Marillion can do a modern day AOR track and Steve Hogarth's voice is well suited here. "Power" was my favourite track with its subtle mood and vibe and loved Steve Hogarth's voice on the track.
Least favourite track(s): None, but the album does nosedive in its second part.
Why? If I had to pick one then "Montreal" which just didn't do anything for me.
Any preconceptions prior to listening, whether good or bad?
Everything that I've listened to by Marillion with Steve Hogarth on vocals has normally been very good to downright outstanding at times and it's strange that I should say this, as I don't classify myself as a Marillion fan really. Maybe deep down and without realising it I really am a Marillion fan with Steve Hogarth and therefore should listen to them more. I say Steve Hogarth as with Fish I have to be in the mood to listen to early Marillion.
Factoids you'd like to share? Said to be the band's most politically charged material and when reading about the album, I was surprised at how many Marillion fans view this as a poor album overall.
End impression: Need to revisit the Steve Hogarth discography real soon!
Comments: Always great to see a quality release by such a mature band that have a lot of albums in their discography. The first four tracks were great but without doubt the lesser four tracks were pushed towards the back of the album and therefore I struggled a bit with them towards the end. The album's accomplished and was certainly a breath of fresh air with its more pragmatic prog than the overtly and pointless kind of prog heard of the ELP album. Overall this is a strong album though, but could've done with being around 20 mins shorter, but then again I have this issue with a lot of modern albums as they try to give the public more value for their money!

Rating: 4.0 (Hate to put the same mark as everybody else, but even before I'd seen the other reviews this was the mark I had in my head)

As I said to you by mail, this is all just interactive fun and writing a quick review doesn't need to be taken seriously! The whole point of the club is to review what's on the list whether you like it or not and that's where the rating system comes in. If you hate an album just why in a few lines and give the rating.

As Trollheart said, if you don't want to review an album then there is no need to actually say so and this is not an opt in opt out club. We have just three core members that are required to review, that could grow of course but for anybody else like yourself come and go as you please and remember bad reviews are just as important as good ones;)

As for the Area album I'm looking forward to this and see that it's Italian Prog from the early 70s, which threw me as the album name is in German!

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Album title: Arbeit macht frei
Artiste: Area
Nationality: Italian
Year: 1973
Subgenre: Rock Progressivo Italiano, though I would say more jazz fusion (ugh)
Player(s): Demetrio Stratos (Vocals, Organ, Steel Drum), Giampaolo Tofani (Guitars, Synth), Patrick Djivas (Bass)Guilio Capiozzo (Drums), Eddie Busnello (Sax), Patrizio Faraselli (Piano)
Familiarity: None at all
Favourite track(s): None at all
Why? I hate this album
Least favourite track(s): Everything, though the closer really annoys me
Why? Led Zepellin? No wonder they were fired when they played this at a local club instead of the requested “Whole lotta love”!!
Any preconceptions prior to listening, whether good or bad? Did not expect this much jazz and experimentalism. I mean, I have a lot of RPI albums lined up in my queue in the Progarchives Top 100, and some of them are a bit annoying but none come anywhere close to as teeth-grindingly pissing me off as this.
Factoids you'd like to share? Nah
End impression: Bloody awful
Comments: To paraphrase Marvin the Paranoid Android from “Hitch-hiker's guide to the galaxy”, the first time I heard this album was awful. And the second. The third I didn't enjoy at all. After that I went into something of a decline. I mean, bloody hell! It starts off with some woman talking in what I assume is Italian and ends with what is laughingly termed some sort of cover of or tribute to Zep, which sounds nothing like the band I know. There are only six tracks on it, which is a blessing, and none of them too long, but holy crap! I do not like jazz as you all know and this reeks of it. Ant probably loves it.

If there's one thing that sets my teeth on edge more than a fork scraping another fork it's the sound of a horn going on at top octave for minutes, and this has that in spades. I've listened to it four times now and I still couldn't pick out anything I like or could even tolerate. The annoying moans and screams, the ghostlike vocal passages, the opening diatribe. And then the title, which put me off from the beginning, being the legend wrought above the infamous concentration camp Auschwitz, the tragically ironic “work makes you free”, which always chills me. Knowing they were Italian did not put me off but this is like listening to Aphrodite's Child, which is not an experience I ever wish to repeat. Nor, indeed, is this album. Terrible, just terrible.

Rating: Sorry, can only muster a lowly 1.5 (And even that's pushing it!) :(

If the title is Arbeit Macht Frei then the title is a reference to the sign Nazis posted above the entrance to concentration camps. It would be a phrase known to non-German speakers from general knowledge of events that took place during WWII. I would highly doubt if a German band would use such an album title.

A point I made in my review. I guess it's like someone using the phrase "Liberte, egalite, fraternite" but not necessarily being French. As you say, it's a phrase recognised (and shunned, for its connotations) around the world.

I'd never heard of it and asked a few people today and they hadn't either.

Wow! That really surprises me! Were these older or younger people? Almost everyone I know --- hmm, come to think of it maybe not --- but it is a very well-known phrase in connection with WWII... Maybe you have to watch those programmes on History.... ;)

Would it be in bad taste for me to say I'd rather be in one of those camps than listen to this album again? Yes. Yes, I think it would...

I'm pretty big on history but that one has slipped me by! Anyway I'm now even more excited over hearing this album than even before as I've seen that you given it just 1.5. I'm not going to read your review until I'm actually listening to the album:finger:

I had a feeling you were, for some unknown reason.

I listen to the album, read some stuff about them and decided once again to opt out of the review. If it wasn't for certain things about them that I read and again what TH brought up, I would probably would had done a review.