"To Keep From Crying" or "The Night We Died"

Sorry, there is no "Eliphas Levi" or "Children of the Universe" option in this poll, though I think I did that one years ago (or something similar).

These poll options are the final songs off the much reviled Merci by Magma and To Keep From Crying by Comus albums (I like both albums). There is a minute long track after the "To Keep From Crying" song called "After the Dream," but it's an instrumental rather than specifically a song.

There are two tracks that tend to get most positively reviewed off the Magma and Comus albums, and those are "Eliphas Levi" off Merci and "Children of the Universe" off To Keep From Crying. Neither the "To Keep From Crying" title track, nor "The Night We Died" have seemed to get as much attention from my experience, so I thought it might be fun to shine a spotlight on these tracks. I would imagine that the rocky Comus will get more votes, and it will be my choice, but the Magma one is beautiful.

Here are the videos for those that don't know both, or need reminding. Unfortunately, I cannot find the individual song for Comus to embed (there is one on youtube but it is blocked from my country), so I have tried to timestamp the video to play at the right time. If that doesn't work, start playing at about 34:42. Done both with hyperlinks, since I was having some problems embedding one.

Magma - "The Night We Died"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSsptss3piM

Comus - "To Keep From Crying"

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x23hyho?start=2082

Edited by Logan - August 09 2018 at 15:24

Mortte wrote: I go with "To Keep From Crying". Excellent track from the really underrated album, I like also Merci.

I like Merci, especially for the excellent "Eliphas Levi", but I do like "The Night We Died", which reminds me of the softness of some Offering and Félicité Thösz) very much too.

As for "To Keep From Crying," it may be rather generic, but I really love this track.

I feel that the album To Keep From Crying is unfairly maligned by lovers of First Utterance and unfairly ignored by those who dislike First Utterance. To the Comus haters who dislike First Utterance's dark concept, To Keep From Crying never (or rarely) seems to factor into their opinion of the band. I enjoy the album a great deal on its own merits.

It's interesting that the compilation album Song To Comus - The Complete Collection (incomplete now, of course) commonly gets great reviews despite having all of To Keep From Crying on it -- mind you, aside from having First Utterance on it, it has fantastic extra tracks. That is my favourite Comus album. I like the contrasts, and "Winter is a Coloured Bird" may be favourite song, also really love "All the Colours of Darkness", as well as "In the Lost Queen's Eyes".

Mortte wrote: Logan wrote: Mortte wrote: I go with "To Keep From Crying". Excellent track from the really underrated album, I like also Merci. I like Merci, especially for the excellent "Eliphas Levi", but I do like "The Night We Died", which reminds me of the softness of some Offering and Félicité Thösz) very much too. As for "To Keep From Crying," it may be rather generic, but I really love this track. I feel that the album To Keep From Crying is unfairly maligned by lovers of First Utterance and unfairly ignored by those who dislike First Utterance. To the Comus haters who dislike First Utterance's dark concept, To Keep From Crying never (or rarely) seems to factor into their opinion of the band. I enjoy the album a great deal on its own merits. It's interesting that the compilation album Song To Comus - The Complete Collection (incomplete now, of course) commonly gets great reviews despite having all of To Keep From Crying on it -- mind you, aside from having First Utterance on it, it has fantastic extra tracks. That is my favourite Comus album. I like the contrasts, and "Winter is a Coloured Bird" may be favourite song, also really love "All the Colours of Darkness", as well as "In the Lost Queen's Eyes". I love all three Comus albums, although to me also First Utterance is their greatest and only masterpiece.

I Like all three too, and I consider First Utterance to be their masterpiece and only truly "great" album.   I also think that it's a masterpiece of acid folk and I consider it to be one of the greatest albums in PA. If I could put one album in top spot in Prog Archives's Prog Folk, then I do believe that I would put First Utterance in top spot (I personally think having Jethro Tull in the top three spots looks off, but to me he's more Eclectic Prog than the Folkies that I love such as Comus, Spirogyra and many others, but I digress - lol).

Mortte wrote: Logan wrote: Mortte wrote: Logan wrote: Mortte wrote: I go with "To Keep From Crying". Excellent track from the really underrated album, I like also Merci. I like Merci, especially for the excellent "Eliphas Levi", but I do like "The Night We Died", which reminds me of the softness of some Offering and Félicité Thösz) very much too. As for "To Keep From Crying," it may be rather generic, but I really love this track. I feel that the album To Keep From Crying is unfairly maligned by lovers of First Utterance and unfairly ignored by those who dislike First Utterance. To the Comus haters who dislike First Utterance's dark concept, To Keep From Crying never (or rarely) seems to factor into their opinion of the band. I enjoy the album a great deal on its own merits. It's interesting that the compilation album Song To Comus - The Complete Collection (incomplete now, of course) commonly gets great reviews despite having all of To Keep From Crying on it -- mind you, aside from having First Utterance on it, it has fantastic extra tracks. That is my favourite Comus album. I like the contrasts, and "Winter is a Coloured Bird" may be favourite song, also really love "All the Colours of Darkness", as well as "In the Lost Queen's Eyes". I love all three Comus albums, although to me also First Utterance is their greatest and only masterpiece. I Like all three too, and I consider First Utterance to be their masterpiece and only truly "great" album.   I also think that it's a masterpiece of acid folk and I consider it to be one of the greatest albums in PA. If I could put one album in top spot in Prog Archives's Prog Folk, then I do believe that I would put First Utterance in top spot (I personally think having Jethro Tull in the top three spots looks off, but to me he's more Eclectic Prog than the Folkies that I love such as Comus, Spirogyra and many others, but I digress - lol). Well, if I now make top20 albums of all time, I believe First Utterance will be there (absolutely top 50 list). I started to listen it about year ago (I have known about it really long, but never seen any physical copy anywhere, also it still isn´t in spotify, which I think is one of the biggest lacks there, I found it finally from youtube) really it has been one of my biggest favourites among with some Faust, Judy Dyble, Tim Buckley & Roy Harper lately of last year. To me Comus goes much more over Pentangle or Spirogyra or Strawbs, although like them too, Fairport Convention has some albums that I think at least almost as great as First Utterance.

Like all you've mentioned except Judy Dyble because I didn't know her. But thanks to the wonders of the modern age, listening now on youtube and enjoying (I also have a Spotify account). As for Comus, I got a physical copy of Song to Comus which includes First Utterance in maybe 2006, which I ripped.
I hardly ever listen to CDs or vinyl anymore (I do like to collect vinyl, but it's often not so much about listening to it).

I'll go with The Night We Died.