PA Top 9 - Out Of Order (Part 3)

Red!

Historically, WYWH. Lately, probably Red.

Close to the edge.

1 Close To The Edge

Yes

It was close (to the edge)
Wish you were here to help me make my choice
Red with embarrassment at being so indecisive.

Went with Yes because it is fabulous from first to last moment.
Floyd second only because Have a Cigar is just a bit too commercial for my tastes
Red is third as the most uneven of the three albums, although it has my favorite song of any of the three: Starless, which might just have the most awesome conclusion to any song ever!

1. Red
2. WYWH
3. CttE

For me, these are all the best albums of these band's careers.  It then comes down to which is my favorite band out of the three.  It's Yes, with much reservation.

From my review of CTTE:

"Speaking of Offord, he is almost the sixth member here. He basically took a bunch of half-finished ideas and edited them into the title track. The first 8 minutes of said title track is some of the greatest 8 minutes in all prog ..... This was also the last album with Bruford(for a very long time). His drumming is missed on future Yes albums"

From my review of WYWH:

"On this album Mason only uses one kick/bass drum. He was one of the first rock drummers to use a double-bass drumkit. On WYWH he could have been replaced by a drum machine. Like DSOTM there is some sax and female backup vocals. The sax playing here is awful. It sounds like an intrusion, it doesn't compliment the music at all. The female vocals are almost pointless and don't add anything like they do on DSOTM.

The lyrics may be some of Waters' best, like the classic line: "The band is just fantastic, that is really what I think/Oh by the way, which one's Pink?" But the music is some of the most uninteresting they had done up to this point. Most of the time they sound like they are on auto-pilot. Just going through the motions. Before this album they attempted to make an album called Household Objects. All the instruments would be...household objects. That concept sounds more interesting than almost anything here. At the beginning of "Shine On" you can hear some wine glasses recorded for the aborted album"

From my review of Red:

"Featuring possibly the lamest album cover in Crimson's entire discography, this is a very heavy album for the mid-70s. David Cross is now gone and the band are left as a "power trio". Fripp ended the band after this was recorded but before it was released. Oddly enough, some former members of Crimson appear here as if the whole thing was planned as a swan song to begin with. Crimson co-founder Ian McDonald plays sax and in fact wanted to rejoin the group and continue without Fripp. Wetton and Bruford wanted to continue as well, but Fripp decided there would be no KC without him. Bruford would be a session musician for a few years; Wetton joined Uriah Heep; and McDonald ended up in Foreigner.

Besides McDonald, Mel Collins also plays some sax. In addition, some of the reed players from the Sinfield-era are present as well. Not only do some of the guest musicians recall earlier Crimson, but Red has some similarities to ITCOTKC as well. Both have 5 songs, one of them being a pointless improvisation. The first tracks on both albums are also the most rocking. The second songs on both albums are ballads. The last songs on both albums are the most varied. On Red, Bruford is getting more interesting as a drummer and Wetton's singing is improving"

I voted for Close To The Edge

Edited by zravkapt - February 26 2015 at 11:11

The Bearded Bard wrote: 1. Red 2. WYWH 3. CttE