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Postby Corky Romano » 2012.06.07 (20:38)

Hi dude!! Sorry it took so long to write this!

Sol Niger Within by Fredrik Thordendal's Special Defects [via RandomDigits]

Man! This album was a rush (heh heh). The sound FX were rad... and I ADORED how the tracks all blended into one another! It all had a very angry feeling though; I was sorta astonished! The guitar sounds were cool and neat-O in a way that made me want to go out in the rain and beat people up. For metal, it was surprisingly catchy. IT had a whole bunch of crazy jazz-like sequences which FOR REALS blew my mind! Most of the melodies were really unique too, and definitely *not* generic-- if you know what I mean!! Now I'm not one to listen to music like this often, but I've got to say, it was quite the enjoyable album!! My favorite tracks would have to be On a Crater's Verge and Missing Time.

Thanks RD for being so cool and not recommending a bad album! Can't wait for next round!
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Postby Tunco » 2012.06.07 (20:56)

That is one of the best reviews so far honestly
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Postby unoriginal name » 2012.06.08 (05:20)

holy shit music for dead brains is fucking brutal oh my god

i'll write i real review tomorrow when i'ts ot late

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Postby aids » 2012.06.08 (19:40)


round x

  • Aidiera >> Stephen
  • gloomp >> kuri
  • kuri >> Ardee
  • mediate >> xwd
  • Ardee >> Sen
  • Sen >> mediate
  • Stephen >> gloomp
  • Tunco >> Aidiera
  • xwd >> Tunco

Aidera >> Stephen >> gloomp >> kuri >> Ardee >> Sen >> mediate >> xwd >> Tunco >> Aidiera
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Postby unoriginal name » 2012.06.08 (21:07)

More awake now.

DeathShow by Mörder Machine [rec'd by Tunc]

Alright. Here is something that's up my alley. I knew that going in, because Tunc is like me, except focused totally on grim, noisy shit. And yes, believe it or not, something called "DeathShow" is grim as fuck. A textbook slab of 90s Italian industrial, by the guy who write the book, one Marco Corbelli, better known as Atrax Morgue. I've never actually listened to Atrax Morgue, but he's been on my radar a very long time. I'll definitely have to remedy that shortly. DeathShow is more or less what I was expecting; twisted, primitive electronics and barely-decipherable ritualistic vocals. The utter technological crudeness of the whole affair often serves as a boon, atmospherically, but also can be an issue, with songs dulled by a lack of variety. That said, the final track of the album, "Music for Dead Brains", while the simplest of the whole bunch, is also the strongest. Twelve minutes of a relentless, unchanging "beat", if you can even call it that, flickering above a constant low hum. It's minimalism of a brutality shared only by the likes of Orthrelm's OV, or Tony Conrad's Fantastic Glissando.

Save for that track, though, DeathShow isn't really anything more than good. Really something for those already familiar with the genre. Newcomers would probably mostly be bored. DeathShow sounds like something made in a damp basement by someone who wishes he could be a serial killer, but just doesn't have the guts for it. If that description doesn't sound appealing to you, look elsewhere first.

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Postby Tanner » 2012.06.08 (22:27)

Good review, gloomp.
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Postby unoriginal name » 2012.06.09 (06:41)

Duchess of Awesome wrote:Good review, gloomp.
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Postby mediate » 2012.06.11 (23:41)

Ooh, boy! 2 albums to review this week! Lets start with the first request I got:

Gamma Knife by Kayo Dot [Rec'd by RandomDigits]

... uh ... what? Weird compositions for sure ... very ... um ... what? I'd classify this as some kind of atmospheric rock album by the first song, atmospheric black metal by the second, blackened rock by third song, insanity by fourth and more atmospheric by fifth. This is ... a very strange album. There's aspects of everything that wikipedia lists as genres for Kayo Dot. Definitely has some metal, some avant-garde rock, some prog, and some chamber music. But ... such strange arangements. Everything mixes so awkwardly, it's awesome, beautiful, and confusing at the same time. The first and last track are brilliant as sleeper tracks, whereas the middle ones are great to draw your attention and wake you. I'll give it a 7.5/10. It's weird, yet somehow awesome at the same time.

Link: Listen Here!

************************************************************************************************************

... and late as all hell, here's part 2!

And the Glass Handed Kites by Mew [Rec'd by Sen]

I usually don't listen to indie. Personally, I have no patience for it. So when I saw this album as a request, I was slightly wary. But, I also saw prog and shoegaze as other genres to describe it, so I was interested in seeing what they can do with that and what kind of a sound they'll be having. So I listened to it ... and I'm pleasantly surprised. The entire album sounded like one long track and the prog elements shined through much more than the indie elements, thus I enjoyed it. This is very useful as background music, as I can imagine myself sleeping while this is on. It's not too loud or heavy that it will be noticeable and not too soft and bland that it will put you to sleep. I definitely can hear and understand the shoegaze elements going on and I like it. I've listened to Alcest before, and this is a less-heavy version of that kind of music, if you can imagine it. 8.5/10. I enjoyed it for what it is and I recommend it as well.
Last edited by mediate on 2012.06.18 (21:14), edited 1 time in total.

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Postby aids » 2012.06.14 (17:02)

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Postby xwd » 2012.06.14 (19:15)

Consign to Oblivion by Epica [via mediate]

I'd like to start off by mentioning that I don't really know all that much about metal, other than it can be very complex and very demanding and very awesome and also very cheesy. My prior experience pretty much consists of this and this. (If you think the second link is normal skip ahead 30 seconds.) I'm aware of its long history, and that it apparently stimulates the brain in a way similar to classical music. So you can imagine my excitement when I learned Epica isn't just any metal band, but an orchestral power metal band! You get to maximize the complexity and stuff. It'll totally rule.

Anyway, this album kicks off with an orchestral number in the most epic of all time signatures, 6/8. It's a good trick, a calm before the storm, something to ease you into the mood of the album. And then the metal stuff kicks in and I'm already feeling really silly listening to this, I picked today to wear my Animal Style t-shirt, and it's just not awesome enough for me to get over myself yet. It all feels too light, too soft, too slow, not hard enough. I can understand there's all these complex parts involved in there, and it's all very impressive and cool to listen to (I'm a sucker for those parts where the orchestra and the metal trade riffs), but it kind of feels silly, like I said. I guess they're trying hard, but not quite trying hard enough. It's good but I wouldn't want to go into battle while listening to it. It doesn't get my blood pumping. (I later found out this was because I hadn't turned my subwoofer up loud enough.)

Of course, this all changes once Epica decides to stop messing around, step up the tempo, and break out the blast beats and growling. Seriously, that goes great with the orchestra. This first shows up on Force of the Shore, then again on Mother of Light, after which the album stops pulling any punches. Yes, even on the orchestral track Trois Vierges which is there to give you a breather and show off the orchestra and some operatic singing. And then everything goes all-out in the epic closer and title track Consign to Oblivion, which mediate tells me closes all their shows. Yeah. It's pretty much the entire album in ten minutes, starting with some orchestral stuff and gradually building to a complete release of all that tension. It's totally worth the rest of the album leading up to it. Great feeling.

This album has its low points where things aren't intense enough and its high points where the intensity finally gets high enough and everything rules. Make sure you have the bass turned up high enough or you won't be able to enjoy the ride.

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Postby Tunco » 2012.06.15 (11:18)

Reign Of Terror by Sleigh Bells (rec'd by xwd)

I was hoping something along the lines of this noise pop duo's first album, Treats; pop rhythms built by noise guitar and concomitant tools resulting in a pop-y and surprisingly noisy album, where the latter compensates for the former and vice versa. It was abruptly great, I was glad that I've found a really happy sounding pop album which I could enjoy; it would be better only if they didn't give up their pace.

They've apparently had some negative criticism from people that could not enjoy the noisy aspects, people unlike me; unfortunately the noisy aspect is very miniscule in this album and unlike Treats (which had repetetive, almost onomatopoeic vocals), it occured me midway throughout the album to pay attention to the lyrics as it didn't seem the usual love-me-baby fiasco that is so prevalent in pop stuff. I was glad that I did; the lyrics are about suicide and sadness however cheerful they might sound, the contrast between the lyrical context and the mood of the songs were enjoyable. (that is, if you're like me [this album will be quite mediocre])
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Postby unoriginal name » 2012.06.20 (00:25)

Viscera by Jenny Hval [rec'd by Ste "Rincewind" phen]

Sorry, Stephen. I'm about to disappoint you.

Viscera came with very high praise. Having been placed at number one on Stephen's top 50 2011 albums list, obviously no small achievement, I was hoping to be blown away, or at least very impressed. Unfortunately, what I got was a very wispy 40ish minutes of little intrigue and less excitement. Maybe this is a flaw of my listening method, which favors general impressions and divided attention over close analysis and complete focus. Maybe there's some fantastic stanzas dropped over the sparse, subtle instrumentation that just passed me by, but I don't really believe a work can be carried on lyrics alone anyway. As it stands, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to launch into that all-to-common refrain: I mean it's okay I guess probably a lot of people would like it and I don't hate it but (say it with me now) it's not really my thing.

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Postby RandomDigits » 2012.06.20 (00:37)

Chasin' Rainbows by R. Crumb And His Cheap Suit Serenaders (rec'd by kuri)

So this week my rec was Chasin' Rainbows by R. Crumb And His Cheap Suit Serenaders. Robert Crumb seems to be a well-known underground cartoonist who is also the front-man of an old-timey, ragtime, western swing, country blues string band (according to Wikipedia).

I have little experience with this kind of music. I remember hearing this while hanging out with friends whose parents liked this sort of music. I've also heard it played at some summer gatherings in the rural s[place]le where I live. The Beatles also experimented with this style in a few of their songs. I confess I never really pursued this type of music because I've always thought it sounded kind of trivial. With all that said, I was curious to listen to this because, you know, it's a full album of this type of music (and therefore the first of its kind I've heard).

Chasin' Rainbows is filled with fun, happy and carefree sounding music. This is not a mood I often look for in music, which makes my likelihood of enjoying it lower. It sounds like something many people I know would enjoy, but I don't think I'll listen to it much more than once or twice a year. It's certainly well played music and I can appreciate it intellectually. I guess it's just not my thing

Thank you kuri for giving me something to expand my musical horizons!

(P.S. It's just now occured to me that perhaps I should look up the lyrics, because I pretty much just payed attention to the music and sound of the album.)
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Postby 乳头的早餐谷物 » 2012.06.20 (15:54)

As I understand it, xwd is now going to be running this? I think I was supposed to transfer ownership of the topic over but that did not end up happening. In any case with the leaving of Aidiera I just want to make sure that this thing keeps going because it's pretty cool. I remain committed, despite my two long-pending reviews, and I'll get back into it in a week when this semester is finally fucking over.
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Postby xwd » 2012.06.21 (03:29)

Yeah, I'm in charge for now. I've updated the blog with the most recent reviews, and I guess I'll post the next string now. Since having an alphabetically sorted list and a string was apparently too much, we're just gonna have the string. Hit me up on irc://irc.mountai.net/#music or via PM if you have any questions. I made the assumption that Sen wanted in on this round (if he doesn't then Tunc gets miasmata), Stephen missed 2 reviews so he's not in, and Donfuy promised me he'd get up one or two of those missing reviews up so he gets to join in on the fun again!
round xi
xwd >> kuri >> Tunco >> Sen >> miasmata >> mediate >> gloomp >> Donfuy >> Ardee >> xwd

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Postby Stephen » 2012.06.21 (11:53)

Hey I only missed one (sorry, coming soon), but you can drop me in next time

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Postby Seneschal » 2012.06.21 (16:29)

urrgh, yeah I am in this and am writing my review of RandomDigits' rec right now.

EDIT: Done.

Signify by Porcupine Tree [via 2357692756710476850387]

At the end of the spoken word introduction that begins ‘Signify’ a female voice intones the name of the album and all pretence of a relaxed, wispy hour of ambient soundscapes are rudely abandoned as vigorous, pounding guitars blast their way through the title track which, quite frankly, fucking rocks.

Nothing else on the album hits quite as hard as ‘Signify’ and the rest of the songs tend to opt instead for a darker, more expansive tone. Porcupine Tree are as comfortable with lyrics as they are without, with roughly half of the tracks dispensing with words and focusing on creating lush soundscapes that never outstay their welcome. Aside from the aforementioned eponymous track, my favourite cut from the album has to be the delirious ‘Idiot Prayer’, which ambles along enjoyably before the band takes it to the next level with a very funky bassline that drives the song forward mercilessly. Just when its voice samples are dying down and the music is dying away, the bass line triumphantly returns, bigger and louder than before and reminds you just how awesome it is.

I wouldn’t call this a perfect album – it’s overly reliant on audio samples, the relevance of which escape me, though they do sound cool. As a fellow Brit I feel weird saying this, but the vocalist’s English accent comes across quite strongly in a couple of places and it sounds a bit weird considering the awesome, vast-sounding instrumentation it’s contrasted with (see the final track, Dark Matter). These trivial complaints aside, I have to admit that this album rocks my socks. I’ve been listening to a fair amount of prog-rock recently and this is one of the best of the bunch. It combines the slightly “out-there” conceptual stuff that makes the genre (in)famous but is also much more tuneful and focused than the genre’s forerunners, never careening off into an electric violin and organ duet or whatever it is that classic prog bands always felt compelled to do back in the genre’s heyday to fill out their 20 minute epics. In short, I really like this, and am definitely going to explore Porcupine Tree’s discography further.

Verdict: A

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Postby Tunco » 2012.06.25 (15:11)

I'm Breathless by Madonna (rec'd by kuri)

Knowing this would be exactly opposite of what I would have wanted as a rec, I have prepared myself for a terrible ~50 minutes but this doesn't sound like Madonna's latest work at all; I don't know much about it but from my impression of radio and mainstream music distributers, pop music is on a asymptotical path, closing more and more into irreconcilable numbing specious-egregious-depressive mindlessness; in which I am very despondent to, in which I can't find enough negative adjectives to describe.

Thankfully, the experience wasn't vertiginous as I've expected. It didn't feel like it was diligent to be extra-fashionable, ..or it was! Maybe; just because I -or my generation of young people- was subjected to far more conceited, pompous media, this doesn't seem much of a fiasco. I would attribute that aspect to the fact that this album was released in 1990; it has a (if you're under 20) retro feeling you would have in '80s or '90s movies. Not surprisingly, this album was inspired by a film called "Dick Tracy" (there's also a comic strip featuring a super-detective under the same title) as it is mentioned in the title of this release.

I like the 'retro' feeling and I especially like the song "Cry Baby". This was better than expected, even better than mediocre. Not my thing, but motivated me to listen to more stuff from this bloc of music, which is even better.
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Postby unoriginal name » 2012.06.27 (04:56)

Tunc, if you can get behind the nihilism in Vomir's work, I don't see why you can't appreciate it in that of, say, Ke$ha.

Anyway.

Panzerfaust by Darkthrone [rec'd by mediate]
Sigh. What an utterly mediocre record. Can I just say that and be done with it?

No?

Well, fuck. Right then. Darkthrone. Classic black metal band, instrumental (har har) in developing the style. After an initial offering of death, they put out a trio of black LPs which are considered absolute essential listening for anyone interested in the style, and I've heard... none of them. I know, I know, I find it kind of inexplicable as well. The point I'm trying to convey is I went into this album being very familiar with Darkthrone's history, but not with their music. So, lucky me, my introduction to what they sound like is their first black metal album that isn't necessarily all that great, based upon my (light) reading.

My reading steered me well, because yeah, Panzerfaust isn't that great. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad, really, but mostly it just didn't leave much of an impression. Seven tracks of scratchy black metal with nothing much to them beyond that. This might, of course, be a bit of an Elvis situation, but they're four albums in, they aren't getting extra points for originality anymore. Still, though, I don't want to sound too harsh. It's an okay black metal album. There's just not really much to it to distinguish it from the fifty million other "okay black metal album"s out there. This would be the part where I say it's not really my thing, but I really like black metal, so, yeah, no cop out for you, Panzerfaust. You're mediocre and that's all there is to it.

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Postby mediate » 2012.06.28 (01:52)

Well, I'm in a terrible mood now so why not write a review for this?

Pastures by Halcyon [rec'd by miasmata]

All I hear is jazz influences and a reminder of Animals As Leaders. Lots of riffs and soloing mixed in with moments of acoustic playing and heaviness. There's definitely a djent vibe going through it. I love this album, the music is great. All of the tracks are instrumentals, which just makes it much better IMO. If you love AAL, you'll prolly like/love this album as well. Love it, will listen to it again and again. Listen here!

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Postby Donfuy » 2012.06.28 (11:59)

Insatiable by The Stick Men
rec'd by glmox

Hm, basically, it's a silly album. Most of the silliness is bad, but the few exceptions are actually pretty good - it's when they don't go overboard with the silly shit. Here are the exceptions (5 out of 19):
Tall Dragger(the most sane song of the album, probably; teh most normal, therefore normal with stick men sounds, makes for a pretty interesting song);
Funky Hayride(cause it's listenable funky);
Crash My Dome(best song of the album - great guitar riff, good rhythm and stuff and organized songs (that's a plus for a stick men song));
Double Checker (the reasons are mostly the same as on Crash My Dome; it's the 2nd best song);
Duraflame Dog(wtf i shouldn't like this but that riff is catchy).

I don't think I'm gonna come back for this album for other reason other than Crash My Dome.

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edit: so i gotta review total by sebastian

total by sebastian
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Total sounds like a mix of Daft Punk and Digitalism, but stronger and harsher. And that's not a bad thing. This album is like several strong kicks in the back...but the kicker is huh wearing cotton sandals. Point is it's a kind of softened harshness. it sounds totally stupid but the piercing sound waves mixed with the smooth and swift basslines make me feel like that.
Kindercut and Motor are the highlights for me. They are great and kitchsy and strong and stuff.

I just compared an album to a tranny kicking you in the back with fluffy cotton sandals.
Also, scale of harsh - softness:
ow >:D|--x---|------|aw <:3

edit#2: oh yeah, right, the album is great :)

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Postby Stephen » 2012.07.01 (11:19)

Starfucker - Starfucker (rec'd by Aidiera)

Starfucker have a lazy approach to pop - their lyrics are barely distinguishable and they don't really give their songs enough of a climax to create much of a payoff. They remind me a bit of their labelmates of Montreal's pre-Hissing Fauna work, but in the differences it's clear where the problems with Starfucker lie - of Montreal's vocals are clear and the lyrics are thoughtful and funny, and their songs are a lot catchier. There's still some nice interplay between funky basslines and keys in Starfucker, and it's pleasant, but it could've been much more.

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Postby xwd » 2012.07.02 (01:23)

round xii
xwd >> miasmata >> Ardee >> gloomp >> Stephen >> Tunco >> kuri >> Sen >> Donfuy >> bobaganuesh_2 >> xwd
kuri, RandomDigits, Sen, Tunco, miasmata, and that lazy asshole xwd, I'd like to put your reviews up on the blog when you get them done. Let's see how many pages we can get the blog to go up to!

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Postby Seneschal » 2012.07.02 (10:19)

Here you go.


Airut: Aamujen by Tenhi [via Tunco]

So this is a ‘dark folk’ album, which as far as I’m aware is not an old racist slang term from the fifties but is in fact a real genre of music. I know extremely little about folk music so I wasn’t really sure how this was going to sound before I started listening to it. Turns out that dark folk (at least on this album) relies heavily on the piano, which is by far the most prominent instrument on the album, with the guitar mostly relegated to a supporting role, when it appears at all, which is not often. It’s also almost wholly acoustic as far as I can make out, though I think that there’s some electronic whirring in the background of some of the songs.

The first and shortest track is the soft yet foreboding piano intro ‘Saapuminen’ which sets the tone for the album: not at all cheerful, but not completely melancholic, either. On third track ‘Lävitseni kaikkeen’ the vocals are more urgent than sad, and the accompanying piano melody gives the song more momentum. The drumming is surprisingly forceful, despite being relatively quiet: at times it sounds like it’s been borrowed from a metal album. ‘Kuvajainen’ is probably the best example of this, which, when combined with its repeated and insistent piano part, makes it feel like the intro to a particularly massive metal epic which never gets beyond the intro stage; more on this effect later.

Despite never being outright difficult to listen to, the album does suffer from being a bit overblown in places: the tracks are generally quite long, which can be a little tiresome. The vocals are also problematic: the main vocalist talks rather than sings, which often sounds intrusive and out of place, such as on ‘Oikea sointi’, which starts off as a gentle piano ballad before the croaking vocal comes in, and ‘Hiensynty’, where the burbling at the beginning is extremely off-putting. Because of the way the songs are structured, they really need a strong central part to hold them together, and the scratchy warbling of the main vocalist (I think his name is Tyko Saarikko) doesn’t really cut it for me.

My last general criticism is that the album is very formulaic: nearly every song essentially boils down to piano + drums + dry vocals, with minimal variation. In fact, linking in with my earlier comment, it seems like the thought process behind making this album was something like: “Let’s make a metal album, except let’s leave out all the actual metal parts and just keep the acoustic interludes in between the face-melting guitar shredding”. At times it sounds really cool, but more often than not I’m left waiting for a climax which never comes, or even just waiting for something exciting to happen, which coupled with the aforementioned issue of length means that many songs drag on for minutes in the same vein without really getting anywhere. The worst offender is probably ‘Kahluu’, which, despite not being a bad song, is essentially the same low-key melodic pattern needlessly stretched over eight minutes.

Airut: Aamujen is never really unlistenable, and there are a fair few strong moments scattered throughout its running time, but they’re too often obscured by the album’s flaws.

Verdict: C+

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Postby 乳头的早餐谷物 » 2012.07.02 (17:35)

Only a month late! Include me in the next swap 吧.

Leftoverture by Kansas [via Rose]

The first track (Carry On Wayward Son) is where it's at, really. The refrain is catchy (though I'm still not sure how much I really like it) and the main riff gets better every time you hear it, especially when it leads into a cheesy but awesome hard rock bit which could have lasted longer. Though at one point there's the threat of a keyboard solo (seriously, there's a reason people make fun of prog), it turns out to be as short as it deserves to be. There's a lot of variety packed into this song and it does a lot of things right with its blend of prog and hard rock. The rest of the album, not so much. There are too many wanky yet gutless solos that just don't do it for me, while the ballad-ish portions tend to be pretty awful (worst offender: the plodding and overwrought The Wall). The best bits are when the band really lets loose, like as mentioned on the first track or at the end of Miracles Out of Nowhere or in parts of Magnum Opus, and there's just not enough of them.

While I love a lot of music with progressive elements to it, I'm not especially fond of--or familiar with--classic seventies prog. My knowledge is pretty much limited to Pink Floyd and Yes, and of those two, Kansas is a obviously lot closer to Yes in style (though still very different). My feelings towards this album are similar to some of mine towards Yes, in that my favourite parts are the ones that really rock out, and that there are often too few of these. To be honest, though, I like Yes a lot better. Yes has groove. And Siberian Khatru.

Still, Carry On Wayward Son is pretty good.
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