Ryth
is one to watch around this place
*insert meme here*

Aww, thank you, that's really sweet of you. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas too!

Originally Posted by Ryth

Most of Ayreon's albums are rock operas. Human Equation being the only one that isn't sci-fi related.

Well, now you've further convinced me to get Lambs. I'll definitely get it when possible. I heard Nursery Cryme wasn't that great, I also hear Foxtrot is another one of Genesis' greats.

When I listened to my download of Nursery Cryme I thought it was pretty good, average Genesis album; not bad, but not excellent. "The Magic Box" was quite good for example, and you can hear that on the prog site if you want (most prog band listings have a couple of free streaming songs on the site; it's quite impressive for a free site, because some of the songs they have are 20 minute monsters).

Here is Genesis' link (just scroll down until you see a box with a play button and click which song you want). There are some great Genesis classics there, and one track from Lamb.

Btw I've added you to my buddy list since we've been having such a great conversation about prog. I'm really happy to find a prog fan to talk to.

Awwww..... Pimp Master Ryth mesay loves you so much your funny and smart and pimpin and sexy. Not to mention most people would be like who the hell is this girl PMing me and why won't she shut up but instead you were kind to me and became me friend. Plus your totaly sexy when you say "ah, I see" on aim. Mesay shall love you forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever! Thankyou for existing Pimp Master Brennan!

I sexually harrased you and your pimpiness all the time and all you get is this lousy usernote.

Hello there little boy.

I've been listening to a lot of the Human Equation album (at least, the parts that I could download), and I must say they are the most impressing. It seems like a concept album from what I've heard, and I always like good concept albums.

I would definitely consider buying the album, from what I've listened to. So far it's great, and I like how it has several re-emerging themes.

I also downloaded a couple of Genesis albums from Limewire, which were luckily avaialalble in full album format (it's much easier to listen to than setting up LPs). I listened to all of Nursery Cryme and some of Selling England by the Pound, and, though they were quite good, they confirmed my opinion that Lamb Lies Down is still superior.

Furthermore, because you liked Human Equation, I'm almost positive you'll like Lamb. It has a similar concept, several re-emerging themes, a similar sound in some aspects, and it's a double album. The first CD is actually quite a bit better (it has better songs and less filler) but the second CD is still quite good. I reccomend that, if you do buy it, that you get a more recent remastering, because that always helps the sound.

I like Rush. Their sound is fairly heavy, and certainly closer to commercial prog like Pink Floyd or Supertramp; not as exprimental. Despite that, their songs are very tight and catchy, with great vocals, guitar, and drums (Neil Peart is actually one of my favourite drummers, though Carl Palmer from ELP is better IMO). I don't really like them enough to buy more than their best of, though ("Retrospective 1" I think the collection was called).

That material is wonderful, but on the prog site I noticed that each album tends to be under 35 minutes (which is a bit of a ripoff) and when I did download some of the other tracks not on "Retrospective 1" I wasn't really impressed. So between buying other albums from better bands like Yes, King Crimson, Frank Zappa etc., and the short albums (whose best material I've got on the best of collection), I haven't bought any other of their main albums.

If I were to get some of their actual albums, which would you suggest?

Also, which songs by Ayreon do you reccomend? Because I've just downloaded a bunch of them off Limewire, but I need to know what represents some of their better material. All I need is the song titles, and if I have some of the ones you recommend, I'll tell you what I think after. So far I find they have a newer, heavier sound, and they also pay great attention to production, so there's a lot of synths, guitar soloes, and altered voices. I listened to "2084" and "My House on Mars" which I found too heavy for my tastes, but "And the Druids Turn to Stone" was actually quite impressive.

The way I interpret early Floyd is this:

The first album, for its time, was actually a quite early psychadelic version of proto-prog (which basically means the early introduction of prog elements prefacing real prog) and it really did work well due to Syd Barret's leadership. (At the time he was the lead vocalist and guitarist, before Gilmour replaced him.)

Though very different than usual Floyd and much less musically mature, it still is a good listen once you get used to the huge difference from the band that made Dark Side of the Moon.

Afterwards, a transition point began. Syd started to become mentally ill due to heavy drug consumption (a very sad story actually) and Gilmour was brought in to "play like Syd." This changed albums later, with Gilmour developing his own, more mature style, but for the next few albums Gilmour would be trying his best to sound like Syd, even though he started to diverge away from this.

Basically, the band became worse over time; Syd still had some influence in Saucerful of Secrets, but the band was also developing in other, better ways. Still, this album is actually pretty boring. As Syd left and the band lacked his leadership, they made two really bad albums, "More" and "Ummagumma." The latter, a double album, was the worst, except for its live sections, which actually once again showed the band maturing like in "Saucerful."

It wasn't until Atom Heart Mother that the band did a 180, and suddenly were miles ahead whereas before they were in a downward spiral of bad music. They were still improving, but now half-assed expiriments and attempts at new sounds were a thing of the past, with the band fully prepared to play their usual masterful music.

I can make pretty long post too. See some of the long post I made here.

Originally Posted by Ryth

I figured the early work would've been better, it usually is.

Eww commericial rock.

Petered off? Peter Gabriel? Do I smell a pun?

I heard teh same thing about their first album.

Well, England got better reviews than Lambs, so I'm kind of stuck all over again, aren't I?

Yes, albums early in a prog band or artist's career are almost always infinetly better than later offerings, but there are exceptions, like Pink Floyd, whose first few albums before Atom Heart Mother were terrible.

And yes, I hate commercial rock.

As for the pun, that was totally unintended actually, but it is a funny coincidence.

As for which is better, I doubt Selling England by the Pound could be better than Lamb, which was awesome. Sometimes the site has pretty wierd ratings; ocassionally I really disagree with them. I'm not completely sure, but... Lamb was a masterpeice.