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Trollheart View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Topic: The Last Chance Saloon
    Posted: November 21 2016 at 12:02
Here's a thought: pick some album you have tried to get into for a long time but never managed it. Tell us why you feel you can't get into it. Try it one more time perhaps and report on whether this has changed your mind, or whether the album is forever lost to you. I'm going to kick off with this one. No matter how many times I play it I just feel totally bored by it, but I do love Peter Gabriel and all his work, and it upsets me that I can't get the enjoyment out of this that I have out of Us, So, Ovo and all the self-titled albums.


Up - Peter Gabriel - 2002

Mind you, I didn't like those two orchestral albums he did, and I had really expected to. Is this the end for my relationship with the big G? I hope not. I'll report back in a day or two.

Anyone who wishes to post their own "ungetintoable" (new word created by me) album, feel free.
Trollheart: as Irish as losing a 3-0 lead in a must-win fixture!
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dave-the-rave View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 21 2016 at 12:21
Good threadstarter.

My ungetintoable album is 'The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.' I have tried it several times and some years apart, but it persists in doing nothing but boring me. I love 'Selling England by the Pound,' (and Yes' Tales, if that matters), and I know that many proggers consider 'Lamb' a masterpiece, but alas, not for me.


Edited by dave-the-rave - November 21 2016 at 12:22
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 21 2016 at 12:30
I'm probably alone in this but: Triumverat - Sparticus. I've tried over and over. I just don't get it.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 21 2016 at 14:48
Originally posted by dave-the-rave dave-the-rave wrote:

Good threadstarter.

My ungetintoable album is 'The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.' I have tried it several times and some years apart, but it persists in doing nothing but boring me. I love 'Selling England by the Pound,' (and Yes' Tales, if that matters), and I know that many proggers consider 'Lamb' a masterpiece, but alas, not for me.

Getting into The Lamb really depends on whether you're a classic Genesis fan. If you like Trespass, Nursery and Foxy then you probably should be able to get into it, but I'd be the first to admit it's a big bloated confusing slab of vinyl and I can definitely see how it would be beyond the capabilities of some people to enjoy it. I actually don't think The Lamb is a "grower": I think you're either into it first time (as I was) or you never will be. Its being a double album doesn't encourage multiple listens either. But I do love it. I can see how others might not.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 23 2016 at 15:02
'GODBLUFF'
I tried a few times from beginning to end and it just doesn't resonate well with me ):
most VanDerGraaf for that matter... but i wanted to start with this one so its the one ive listened to most..
something with hammil's singing just doesn't work for me ):
(Haven't listened to it for a couple of years though... maybe i should give it another shot?)

Lamb i can understand why some people wouldn't like it, i love it thought needed to grow on it for sure...


Edited by Phailman - November 23 2016 at 15:03
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 23 2016 at 16:05
not many albums to be honest.. if I think it is sh*t.. it likely is and don't waste time with it...  I do have a highly trained ear for knowing what I like and don't.. what is good.. and what is not hahah.

the one that stands out that I had pegged as not worth my adolation.. or respect.. but felt the need to try to 'get' since so many thought this album was not merely half as good as the greatest of prog albums.. but thought it belonged with them.


The Lamb.. be it the 1st listen... or the 30th.. it still sucked....
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 23 2016 at 16:26
I'm a Can fan and I can't get my head around the fact that Future Days of all of their albums is the one that has the highest rating on PA.

In the beginning I didn't get it at all, now, >30 years after having heard it for the first time, I think it has something special and is kind of OK, so there may be hope. Still I can't see myself ever rating it remotely as high as Monster Movie, Tago Mago, Ege Bamyasi, Soon Over Babaluma and even Saw Delight. Probably its atmosphere is just not for me. (Godbluff is a similar story, by the way.)
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 23 2016 at 21:53
I've got a few. 

The Lamb, as a few others have mentioned. I can appreciate the amount of work and creativity that Gabriel channelled into this one, but I think that's where the problem with it lies; it's Gabriel's project. There are hardly any good passages (if any) where the band can truly shine as instrumentalists like they had on earlier albums. Having said that, I still put it on from time to time to see if it strikes any new chords with me. Not much luck so far, though.

Pawn Hearts. This is understandable, as I'm sure that even Van der Graaf Generator fans would concede that it's a difficult release. Even though I've started to come to terms with Hammill's voice, I still have a few problems with this album. I know that it's supposed to be disjointed and chaotic, but most of the time it just seems to disjointed and chaotic for me to get any emotional connection out of the music. It also doesn't help that Hammill runs the show most of the time, so the band doesn't have as many interesting instrumental moments as on, say H To He (Hmm, I think I've found a bit of a theme among these!). Again, this is one that I still put on from time to time, and I seem to dislike it a little bit less every time I do, so I'll keep up with it. Maybe one day I'll even start to (gasp) like it. 

I think these are the main two albums that I haven't gotten into that I haven't just given up on. There have been quite a few albums that I hated at first where sticking through it turned out to the be the right choice in the end, as they're now among my favourites:
  • King Crimson - Islands
  • King Crimson - Red 
  • Gentle Giant - Octopus (thought this was excessive, overly convoluted noise the first time around; now I realize that that really describes The Power and The Glory Tongue)
  • Island - Pictures 
  • Yes - Relayer
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 24 2016 at 13:18
Originally posted by Magnum Vaeltaja Magnum Vaeltaja wrote:

I've got a few. 

The Lamb, as a few others have mentioned. I can appreciate the amount of work and creativity that Gabriel channelled into this one, but I think that's where the problem with it lies; it's Gabriel's project. There are hardly any good passages (if any) where the band can truly shine as instrumentalists like they had on earlier albums. Having said that, I still put it on from time to time to see if it strikes any new chords with me. Not much luck so far, though.

Pawn Hearts. This is understandable, as I'm sure that even Van der Graaf Generator fans would concede that it's a difficult release. Even though I've started to come to terms with Hammill's voice, I still have a few problems with this album. I know that it's supposed to be disjointed and chaotic, but most of the time it just seems to disjointed and chaotic for me to get any emotional connection out of the music. It also doesn't help that Hammill runs the show most of the time, so the band doesn't have as many interesting instrumental moments as on, say H To He (Hmm, I think I've found a bit of a theme among these!). Again, this is one that I still put on from time to time, and I seem to dislike it a little bit less every time I do, so I'll keep up with it. Maybe one day I'll even start to (gasp) like it. 

I think these are the main two albums that I haven't gotten into that I haven't just given up on. There have been quite a few albums that I hated at first where sticking through it turned out to the be the right choice in the end, as they're now among my favourites:
  • King Crimson - Islands
  • King Crimson - Red 
  • Gentle Giant - Octopus (thought this was excessive, overly convoluted noise the first time around; now I realize that that really describes The Power and The Glory Tongue)
  • Island - Pictures 
  • Yes - Relayer

As to the Lamb not having great instrumental moments: surely you remember the aching "Silent sorrow in empty boats"? And then there's the instrumental intro to "Slippermen" to say nothing of the closing passages (is it "In the rapids"? "riding the scree"? I forget. One of them anyway). I think there are some really good instrumental parts on that album, though I would agree it's almost a PG solo album tryout.

Pawn Hearts: Well I love "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers", but I can't really remember too much else of the album. I'm not a huge VDGG fan so there is that.
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uduwudu View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 26 2016 at 04:24
Perhaps if Lamb was viewed as a slightly dark comedy this might work. I mean where else do yo get some poor geezer chasing after a bird (of the feathered variety) whose nicked off with his manhood. I thought it a fine album of music.

I tried with Gabriel's albums and have pretty much given up. Thing is that Rutherford and Banks had so much input into Genesis (surprise) that Gabriel's abstractions have an impassive quality that defeats me. I respect them but nothing really connects.

But just because I do not connect with some music does not mean it is; just that something is not for me. If I don't and should connect then I work out why.

Or try to do so anyway.


Edited by uduwudu - November 26 2016 at 04:25
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