Divisive Prog Albums

Negoba wrote: siLLy puPPy wrote: Negoba wrote: I also dislike Tago Mago. Are you assuming I can't understand or process it? Ash Ra Tempel's debut is one of my favorite all time albums, BTW. Yes. That's exactly what i'm presuming. I didn't like it either at first until i invested a great deal of time in unlocking its secrets. I've spent a fair bit of time with it as well. It just doesn't connect with me. Which is fine. There are so many factors that go into what resonates with one individual and what doesn't. Maybe I'm missing some sarcasm.

Lewian wrote: I have a clear majority of 4 star reviews (and I don't rate much without review) but this rather means that I'm more motivated to review an album I love; it doesn't mean that half of the existing prog music is worth 4 stars for me.

Univers Zero The Hard Quest is an album that fans are generally not fond of. There is speculation developed over the years as such that the band were not active for a stretch of time and that alone being attributed to the lame album.

Additionally several fans complained about the music not being as complex . They weren't concerned about theories...they were letdown by its content. The predecessor was Heatwave which contained more of a muscular...gymnastic style of playing.

I believe that The Hard Quest is an interesting album. Whenever I feel like hearing a different side to Univers Zero I play it. Aside from that ..the album has a different kind of flow. It is dark and atmospheric in certain ways and listening to The Hard Quest in its entirety leaves an impression on me and so I don't personally don't find it to be a bad album...a lame release.

I also acknowledge Daniel Denis as a composer and it's typical for a composer to be driven by a specific sound and further proceed in writing music which is inspired..however differs from the rest of their catalog. Maybe it's the way he wanted to write during that time and consequently little to do with the group disbanding for years and returning with a dud. Who knows?

Lewian wrote: The most divisive album I have found is Trout Mask Replica, which collects 40% 5 stars against 20% 1/2 stars. That's quite something. Dream Theater's The Astonishing clocks in at 22% 5 stars, 32% 1 or 2 - in fact 22% 5 stars is quite astonishing with 32% negatives. A View From the Top of The World scores 31:12 (but doesn't have that many ratings), Octavarium 26:11. Dream Theater are pretty divisive indeed, if not Awake. Later Mars Volta's Bedlam in Goliath qualifies with 24:15. Amarok just about makes the cut with 42:11. Zeit is indeed pretty divisive with 30:12. Not quite up there but still in is one of my favourites, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (30:10). Looking at Zappa, Jazz From Hell misses by an inch with 19:11, other than that I didn't find any that came close to qualifying (occasionally 8% negative for generally appreciated albums). Neither get Gentle Giant in, nor Genesis (far too few negatives up to Wind and Wuthering, far too few 5 stars after), nor Camel (I think of Breathless as divisive, but just 10% 5 stars are not enough for this game).    Rush has Power Windows at 22:13 (I don't know that one), otherwise they are not quite as divisive. Let's look at Swans, The Seer has 36:13, To Be Kind 33:15, very divisive! There are more, but they have fewer than 100 ratings; even The Seer and To Be Kind have quite a bit fewer ratings than most other albums I mention here.

Gerinski wrote: I quite like DT's The Astonishing, undoubtedly a divisive album.

Gentle Giant's "The Missing Piece" comes to mind. Personally, I think it's a great album.

Jacob Schoolcraft wrote: Univers Zero The Hard Quest is an album that fans are generally not fond of. There is speculation developed over the years as such that the band were not active for a stretch of time and that alone being attributed to the lame album. Additionally several fans complained about the music not being as complex . They weren't concerned about theories...they were letdown by its content. The predecessor was Heatwave which contained more of a muscular...gymnastic style of playing. I believe that The Hard Quest is an interesting album. Whenever I feel like hearing a different side to Univers Zero I play it. Aside from that ..the album has a different kind of flow. It is dark and atmospheric in certain ways and listening to The Hard Quest in its entirety leaves an impression on me and so I don't personally don't find it to be a bad album...a lame release. I also acknowledge Daniel Denis as a composer and it's typical for a composer to be driven by a specific sound and further proceed in writing music which is inspired..however differs from the rest of their catalog. Maybe it's the way he wanted to write during that time and consequently little to do with the group disbanding for years and returning with a dud. Who knows?

Tales From Topographic Oceans is the most obvious one imo. Maybe also stuff like the Flower Kings, Transatlantic, Marillion and neo-prog in general. On the other side of the fence we have Magma, Univers Zero and VDGG. Maybe Henry Cow too and RIO in general.

Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - May 09 2023 at 14:02

Frets N Worries wrote: I tend to like more divisive albums, for whatever reason, and I'm relatively new to prog, (I listened to DSOTM less than a year ago) so I'm interested in hearing more, besides, it gets discussion going, and I can listen in on ones people talk about, and check the band out, in my ever growing spotify playlist of 'Songs I want to Listen to Later' Most of which are ridiculously long epics