The Prog Rock Album Club

Ninetales · 12-02-2013, 12:32 PM

War and Peace & Other Short Stories by Sean Filkins

Aight let's do this biz. I should preface this by saying that kind of like dj i am in no way a veteran at prog listening. I wouldnt say i actively dislike it or anything, but i would rarely find myself pining for prog sans a few choice favorites. Thats probably the reason i wanted to join this club; it's a way for me to expand my tastes so to speak.

Anyway on to the album at hand. This album actually surprised me quite a bit. I have this strange habit of predicting how much i will like an album based solely on its cover and and like i said previously, I dont think this one is very good (Is that Ron Jeremy sitting on the bench?!). But, well, I dont think this is album is bad. The first half of The English Eccentric reminds of Genesis (something from Selling England by the Pound maybe??) and may be my favorite part of the whole album. It's extremely catchy and the vocals came it at the perfect time to compliment it. One of the biggest criticisms I have of this and prog in general is that it has a tendency to drag on too long. I am a fan of long songs, many of my fav songs are 10+ minutes, but I found that a lot of Filkins' songs seemed to veer off in a whole bunch of directions without much closure before a new song started. Both The English Eccentric and Prisoner of Conscience (i did like the beginning of walking through leaves with birds chirping tho) end on these guitar solos that wouldve rathered not be there and Epitaph had this long grandiose intro that was haulted by the awkward transition to his vocals. That being said, the rest of Epitaph was very good. I actually quite like how the album ended too. A very mellow ending to an album full of excitement.

I found myself liking the vocal parts of this album more than the instrumental parts, which is odd since I usually find myself latching onto the latter. The only track I didnt really like was Prisoner of Conscience pt 2. It sounded eerily similar to Dont Stop Believing by Journey *shudders*. Still this album did exceed my expectations and maybe I should stop judging a book by its cover (unlikely though haha). Id probably give it a 7/10 if forced to rate it.

12-02-2013, 12:32 PM	#10 (permalink)
Ninetales Music Addict Join Date: Jun 2013 Location: livin wild Posts: 2,179	War and Peace & Other Short Stories by Sean Filkins Aight let's do this biz. I should preface this by saying that kind of like dj i am in no way a veteran at prog listening. I wouldnt say i actively dislike it or anything, but i would rarely find myself pining for prog sans a few choice favorites. Thats probably the reason i wanted to join this club; it's a way for me to expand my tastes so to speak. Anyway on to the album at hand. This album actually surprised me quite a bit. I have this strange habit of predicting how much i will like an album based solely on its cover and and like i said previously, I dont think this one is very good (Is that Ron Jeremy sitting on the bench?!). But, well, I dont think this is album is bad. The first half of The English Eccentric reminds of Genesis (something from Selling England by the Pound maybe??) and may be my favorite part of the whole album. It's extremely catchy and the vocals came it at the perfect time to compliment it. One of the biggest criticisms I have of this and prog in general is that it has a tendency to drag on too long. I am a fan of long songs, many of my fav songs are 10+ minutes, but I found that a lot of Filkins' songs seemed to veer off in a whole bunch of directions without much closure before a new song started. Both The English Eccentric and Prisoner of Conscience (i did like the beginning of walking through leaves with birds chirping tho) end on these guitar solos that wouldve rathered not be there and Epitaph had this long grandiose intro that was haulted by the awkward transition to his vocals. That being said, the rest of Epitaph was very good. I actually quite like how the album ended too. A very mellow ending to an album full of excitement. I found myself liking the vocal parts of this album more than the instrumental parts, which is odd since I usually find myself latching onto the latter. The only track I didnt really like was Prisoner of Conscience pt 2. It sounded eerily similar to Dont Stop Believing by Journey shudders. Still this album did exceed my expectations and maybe I should stop judging a book by its cover (unlikely though haha). Id probably give it a 7/10 if forced to rate it.