2010 up: IQ, Marillion, Swans

IQ - The Road of Bones - Until The End. I love that song.

Swans—The Glowing Man.

Logan wrote: My choice is The Glowing Man. And to mention one track from it, as I hope others do for the album they vote for despite albums being better taken as a whole, I'll go with the longest. That is the title track which is rather more canny than uncanny if you know what I mean.

Edited by zwordser - March 17 2022 at 21:59

Marillion - Sounds That Can't Be Made (2012) - Gaza

The Road of Bones for me, and the title track blows me away. But off the double album, Constellations is absolutely incredible.

Duddick wrote: Glowing Man for me It seems that the votes in these polls re these three bands are firmly entrenched. I’ve voted for Swans in all three. I don’t mind later IQ but not Marillion (esp Fish era). Forgive me if I’m wrong but haven’t seen many people vote Swans in one and then IQ or Marillion in another? Or vice versa?

Not that many people have posted what they chose (despite the request). Some of those who voted in multiple poll shave voted differently. For instance, Manuel voted for Swans' The Glowing Man in this round, and a Marillion in the 1990s one. Zwordser voted for Swans' the Glowing Man in this round and Marillion in the 80s one.

I generally do notice that people are pretty entrenched in voting with a band no matter the albums its up against. I would expect many people who are fans of Marillion to be fans of IQ, and so they could bat both ways so to speak, but Swans is more of a different beast, but still voters of Swans in one poll have voted Marillion in others. I'm in the Swans camp here, and going with IQ and Marillion takes me out of my wheelhouse. That said, Swans is an eclectic band which could appeal to diverse audiences (folk, experimental rock, post-rock, post-punk, goth, countryish music, pop-rock, pop, industrial, hard rock, melodic, brutal, noisy and ethereal....).

What rather surprises me is that The Glowing has five votes and the other Swans' albums here (especially The Seer and To be Kind) have zero votes. The Glowing Man has a somewhat lower rating at PA than The Seer and To Be Kind and less ratings. In the Swans album poll I did not long ago, The Seer had five times the votes than The Glowing Man in the actual poll -- in other words five votes to one (that was an all time poll): http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=128493

Interesting to see the Glowing Man faring well with that IQ album (I know Swans is not as popular at PA than at some other places). Maybe some are voting a little strategically-minded? Instead of spreading out the votes for Swans... Of course The Glowing Man is my choice.

Saperlipopette! wrote: It has to be The Glowing Man for me as well and it's hard to come up with a better reason than the title track. Everything which makes this quartet of "comeback-albums" The Seer, To Be Kind, The Glowing Man & leaving meaning completely unique as a total experience is there. Somehow it manages to be as epic and catarthic assault on me as it's predecessors, but in way that makes me reach for it more often. I find myself ready for what is has to offer without having to check in with "how I'm feeling" first. Because it in itself sort of makes me feel good, better... uplifted

Beautifully expressed from my perspective.

Edited by Logan - March 18 2022 at 12:20

Road of Bones...Until the End.........but Resistance is a,lso very good......even though I'll take Dark Matter and Frequency over those two.

Hercules wrote: The Road of Bones for me, and the title track blows me away. But off the double album, Constellations is absolutely incredible. The whole album is just a fantastic listening experience. I like Sounds That Can't be Made and FEAR too, but The Swans do absolutely nothing for me.

Easily Road of Bones for me, but choosing a singular favourite track is a little bit harder.

It's interesting to see just how far ahead of all of the others that The Road of Bones is. If you look at RYM for these years, Swans seems far more popular than IQ or Marillion (at least for the modern albums). To Be Kind, which did not get one single vote in this poll, is the most rated at RYM with 21,778 ratings and 269 reviews with a 4.OO rating. The highest average rating there goes to Soundtracks for the Blind with 4.1 and 18,845. The Seer has 17,486 and 261 review with a 3.94. Of course when it comes to ratings only, I don't know how many of those are by people who actually really listened to the albums. There may be some bandwagon effect with people rating what seems to be "in" even if they haven't really listened, and albums like The Seer, To Be Kind, and The Glowing Man would not be easy listening to most. I now adore The Glowing Man album (my appreciation got deeper and deeper over the spins) but the length is daunting and of course there is repetition. To be Kind and The Seer especially were rather more challenging to me (I did not know Swans so well then).

IQ's The Road of Bones has 765 ratings and 15 reviews, so may below the Swans albums. If you look at PA ratings, then IQ is more popular, as one would expect from this poll.

I notice the "Swans do nothing for me" comment, and that always makes me wonder, how deeply have you explored the music? Are you referring to one period or all of it, and have you played albums multiple times? Not the kind of things I would say unless I was deeply familiar with the music methinks.

Swans is eclectic. Some of the music is very pop and accessible., some is brutal and dissonant, some is droning and incredible repetitious and long.... Some is I think beautiful folk, some is on the Krautrock side. Some is industrial. I think there's so much contrast, from album to album and even in albums. Comparing Filth, Children of God, The Great Annihilator, Soundtracks for the Blind, To Be Kind for instance is interesting -- not to mention the so-called sell-out album, Th Burning World compared to Cop. I do think a lot of Swans would require a lot of patience as they made some very long albums with very long repetitive pieces with quite unconventional music (easier if one is into Krautrock and post-rock). I do think most people who have even quite moderately eclectic tastes could find something to like in Swans discography. I likely would say the same of IQ and Marillion (I'm not into Neo-Prog and much related music, but I have found things to enjoy).

I was reading this review from the Guardian of F.E.A.R recently: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/sep/22/marillion-fear-review-prog-album Here is an excerpt

Tim Hall at the Guardian wrote: FEAR continues a late-career renaissance that began with 2004’s Marbles. It’s a totally uncompromising record; 68 minutes made up of just five lengthy songs with no obvious radio-friendly singles. Politically charged lyrics alternate between sadness and anger, and rich, layered instrumentation references common Marillion touchstones such as Pink Floyd and late-period Talk Talk, with the occasional hints of Van der Graaf Generator at their most grandiose and menacing.

"Totally uncompromising", kind of a typical hack reviewer phrase and quite hyperbolic perhaps, but I have seen very much the same sentiments for Swans, only except for it maybe being 60 or so minutes, it might be two hours or more of it. In fact, a different The Guardian reviewer when reviewing Swans' To Be Kind said "But To Be Kind is uncompromising to the point of overindulgence. It's a patience-testing two hours long". It was a less than very kind review. Much of that FEAR review could fit various Swans albums. Uncompromising, check. Lengthy songs, check. No obvious radio singles? Depends on the album and the radio station, I guess. Swans can be very friendly. "Sadness and anger", check. "Rich layered instrumentation." Check. "Grandiose and menacing"? Surely I think so.

I listened to the longest tracks off the three band's top voted albums here to compare, and still find myself liking "The Glowing Man' the most (not surprisingly as I love it), followed by Marillions "Gaza" and then IQ's "Without Walls".

Maybe I would need to acclimate to the IQ. The Glowing Man album is one that I have appreciated more and more with each listen. When it comes to listening, I do think one needs to be in the right headspace for maximum appreciation possibility. The length of various Swans albums would be intimidating to many (Soundtracks for the Blind is two and a half hours). Those Children of God up to Soundtracks period albums are the ones where I would recommend most to start.


Edited by Logan - March 22 2022 at 08:45