Disapointing epics

 

I actually quite like Gates and Supper's Ready has some good parts, but yes, I think they are overrated.

 

 

Their later epics are another matter; the ABWH album has not aged at all well, but more importantly, I find a lot of the longer tracks on that to be weak and even cheesy ('Teakbois', 'Order Of The Universe'). 'That That Is' from 'Keys To Ascension' I found to be monumentally disappointing as well. It starts off really well but dovetails into nothing, IMHO. Unfortunately that nothing is about 20 minutes long though. I love 'Mind Drive', 'Homeworld' and 'In The Presence Of', though, so they can still do it.

 

Marillion's 'Grendel' is kind of an 'amateur hour' equivalent of a prog epic, IMHO. It's very dated, IMHO, and the band seem to be ashamed of it these days! There was a great bit in the Fish concert I saw not so long ago where there was an introductory film that made fun of the constant calls for 'Grendel' that he still gets.

 

Rush's 'Hemispheres' I find to be overstuffed, personally. I know some think it's their best album and fair enough, but I don't think that track coheres very well despite some good moments. There's too much going on, IMHO.

 

Keith Emerson's 'Piano Concerto' doesn't do it for me at all. The band were often criticised for having pretentions to being classical musicians and this is the clearest indication of that criticism. At least 'Pictures At An Exhibition' is adventurous and exciting (I love it), but I find this concerto to be as dull as ditchwater. Having said that, I did see a version of it Keith did with his band and it was really excellent. Perhaps it's the orchestrations I have a problem with.

 

As for IQ, I generally love their work (I will say I find the 'neo' bands to be much better at songwriting and constructing epics than they are given credit for, especially on their more modern albums) but 'Subterranea' as an album doesn't click with me fully. I think there's some excellent material on it but a lot of padding too, IMHO. If it was one disc I'm sure I'd like it a lot more than I do.

 

Then we get to Glass Hammer...I know some absolutely swear by 'The Inconsolable Secret' but I find almost every epic on there to be poorly written, appearing 'piecemeal' in construction. It's all very well pandering to fans who love a good epic (as I do myself) and indeed, I have no problem with bands writing songs in the 70s style, but please, have some good songwriting skills rather than piecing together sections randomly without coherence. I have this issue with some Flower Kings epics; 'Driver's Seat' springs to mind. There's a bit in that where it just stops completely dead and heads somewhere else. And I struggle to accept 'Devil's Playground' as a coherent epic as well.

 

 

I'll get the Monty Python foot crashing down on me for this, but I felt both discs of Kate Bush's Aerial needed a decent edit.   If I want to hear someone burbling on about their child, I'll listen to my sister!