Losing Hope In PA's Top Album Lists

Apparently there are only 8 new PR/MR releases for 2015

Edited by rushfan4 - June 24 2015 at 21:08

Can't you just ignore what you dislike? I mean, if you're trying to find new music, then you shouldn't think that "one thing can't be considered better than that another thing I already know". It's just a list, not a competition in which the artists have to prove the worth of being in the top. Many of that new albums will drop little by little because people will lose interest in them and keep giving scores to the more famous ones, so it's bad anyway.

Also, you already found a bunch of new music here, I suppose. Naturally, you exhausted most of the source limited by your interests.

I usually filter it out for my tastes. If I want some prog from late 70s with scores around 100-400 I search for that.

Edited by fudgenuts64 - June 25 2015 at 00:03

Horizons wrote: I don't want to gloomy or like i'm complaining. I just wanted to share my current thoughts on a previously very impactful part of my PA experience.  tldr; I wish i could discover new music easier, but some of the tools are just unhelpful.  I'm sure a lot of this is a personal issue. But i was just curious how others felt about the site's usefulness as time has passed - how they are finding more progressive music?

I jumped on board here back in 2006, yet as you can see my posts are not in the thousands but I still keep coming back here when I can, more perusing than posting.  I still believe its the best Prog site and source and its always been "Prog-Home" for me. But like everything in life there's the good years, the great years and inevitably the not so good ones, the ups and downs. Fortunately I have to say I've had more ups and good years here at PA. At the same time I have to agrre with the sentiments expressed in this thread in re to Top Album Lists. I'm glad I'm not the only one that felt the same.

Top Album Lists to me are fun to read comparing them to what mine were. Unfortunately they weren't necessarily very helpful in helping me discover new music, new progressive music. The progressive rock music universe is so vast and varied I found it overwhelming at times. In the very least PA has always pointed me in the right direction.

I don't know if there is an easier way to discover new progressive music, or that maybe its time for PA to do a revamping of the site, more user friendly (?), a different page layout, etc. And I realize its easy for me to say these things, but in no way taking away from all the great people here who have made it (still) the best prog rock site.



  

Oh and I listened to that Northlands album too, Austin, and found it extremely sleep inducing. I wouldn't rate it above To be Kind or Twilight Cinema either, but I think a lot of peeps on here would. Another thing worth mentioning is that neither of the latter two albums sound like classic prog rock....Northlands does. I think a lot of PA members got their hands on To be Kind after having read all those wonderful reviews, only to feel cheated when they first played it 'That's not prog momma!!!!!' WTF!?!?!?!!!'....which then translates into bad ratings. On the other hand, it seems like the members who bought Northlands knew what they were getting into.

Major Parkinson and Swans are divisive acts just like Can is. Took me a long time to understand why Tago Mago didn't feature in our top 100, but it came to me eventually: when music starts veering too far away from the symph prog mold you are going to get very scattered opinions.

For a more interesting way to make lists (which I also do), then experiment with the filters. I often use the one that deals with the amount of ratings and set it to maximum 50 or 20 ratings. A whole new world opens up.



Edited by Guldbamsen - June 25 2015 at 04:56

In this case its all about the "super user"'s taste, counting a lot more that all the ratings.

Edited by tamijo - June 25 2015 at 06:05

tboyd1802 wrote: Raff wrote: I wouldn't take any list too seriously, if I were you. My own tastes diverge significantly from the majority of prog fans, and, though I've never shied away from expressing my views, I am well aware that they won't stop Steven Wilson or IQ from making it to the top of a typical Best of X Year list. Every year I vote in DPRP's album poll, knowing full well that my selections stand no chance whatsoever of making it to the top 10 (or even the top 100, to be perfectly honest). Do I lose sleep over it? You bet I don't. I keep on supporting the music I like, and don't get upset if most of the albums in any given year's top 10/20/50/100 list put me to sleep. While still being a fan of Steven Wilson (oh the horror), I did visit the blogspot pointed to in your signature line. Checking out a few of the offerings, and I gotta say, I'm really liking what I hear from "Ni." Thanks for sharing this little gem

You are very welcome, and thank you for the kind words! The whole point of that weekly feature is to turn people on to bands that would otherwise fly under the radar, and I am glad every time someone discovers new music through our work.

ehh...  the lists serve one purpose... it is a guide for newbies as to popular albums.  Useful really for those who woke up from a coma and needed to know that Genesis prog album are completely overrated and their pop albums underrated And that Tull should have called it quits after Aqualung.

hahhaha...  good one brother.. . I gave them one album benefit of the doubt! As at least Aqualung had some good songs on it.

Angelo wrote: Horizons wrote: I understand it is the algorithm that PA uses that calculates rakings and whatnot.  But for my sanity, what in the hell is this http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=48965, 47 ranks higher than To Be Kind? Or 61 ranks above Major Parkinson? Perfect Beings? Univers Zero? I don't understand how any visitor to the site can see our lists as credible or helpful. I mean, my whole point is that i've even stopped using it because of the content.  Hmmm... the Northlands album is not that bad, but it may be more accessible, or at least appealing to a broader audience than the examples you mention. That will influence ratings as well as number of ratings. It's just a list after all, and you have to possibility to filter out the genres you like or don't like if you take the effort to not just look at the overall list.