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Topic ClosedFree Hand - a 1* album

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Poll Question: Is Free Hand a 1* album?
Poll Choice Votes Poll Statistics
18 [19.15%]
76 [80.85%]
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Snow Dog View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 01 2013 at 09:47
Originally posted by Padraic Padraic wrote:

Originally posted by Snow Dog Snow Dog wrote:

No idea what review and without the common courtesy of providing a link I  never will.

This.

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 01 2013 at 10:37
I personally like free hand a lot, but I respect other's opinions, which is what happens with these reviews. Most of us don't have any musical training, so we rely mainly on what we like, on our taste. I know a lot of people don't agree with this, but is a whole different thing when you know about composition, scales, progressions, etc. Is like commenting on sports when you've never been on the field, easy to judge, but hard to understand or to have a clue of what it takes.  
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 01 2013 at 10:40
Is Free Hand a 1* album?
Not to me personally, but I respect others who feel it is. I rather like the review in question, even if I don't agree with it.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 01 2013 at 10:58
I would be less generous. I think any prog fan who gives it one star is an idiot and unlike the post above  I would  never respect that opinion or  the  person giving it.

Edited by Snow Dog - April 01 2013 at 10:59
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 01 2013 at 11:45
I don't think Free Hand is a one star album, I'd rather say five. But if this is the reviewer's opinion, then so be it. As a review it is good enough, like it or not, agree with it or not, and I don't feel tempted to report it.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 01 2013 at 11:47
This is an April Fools jokeLOL
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 01 2013 at 11:49
Originally posted by twosteves twosteves wrote:

This is an April Fools jokeLOL
You may be right... Ermm
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 01 2013 at 11:58
4.5*
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 01 2013 at 12:04
Good review, by someone who knows his prog and with pertinent comments in his track by track analysis.
I like when people don't follow the majority and express objectively their views on an album.


I also never understood the appeal for Gentle Giant.

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 01 2013 at 12:05
I think the review itself is not bad neither offensive (a bit for the band, maybe) but he demonstrates to know what he's writing about and has the rights to dislike it.

It's a GG album that I don't have so I can't tell if he's right or wrong, but just today I've seen this sentence in a post:

"Floyd are far from top 10 material. Not overly talented musicians and average composers. Dark side is pretty boring"

The writer has the right to think so even if I can't disagree more.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 01 2013 at 12:23

Every popular album listed on this site deserves (requires!) a contrary opinion, but is it really possible to argue that every opinion is valid, just because it's subjective? Food for thought...

Personally, I find it silly to criticize an almost 40-year old album for its "very dated-sounding keyboards", and this album in particular for its "repetitive riffery" and lack of "melodic variation or recapitulation" (I'd love to read this reviewer's comments about Tony Conrad's Outside the Dream Syndicate).
 
Consider too the possibility of a deliberate prank: how else to explain the observation that the song Time to Kill is "literally about a guy who has time, takes it, and goes places!" I smell a troll, with his tongue somewhat in cheek.
 
The number of stars we award any album really says more about us than the music itself, which isn't affected one way or the other. Yes: opinions are like a****les, so maybe it's better to just look the other way when someone insists on showing us his soiled underwear...
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 01 2013 at 12:36
Originally posted by Neu!mann Neu!mann wrote:

Every popular album listed on this site deserves (requires!) a contrary opinion, but is it really possible to argue that every opinion is valid, just because it's subjective? Food for thought...

Personally, I find it silly to criticize an almost 40-year old album for its "very dated-sounding keyboards", and this album in particular for its "repetitive riffery" and lack of "melodic variation or recapitulation" (I'd love to read this reviewer's comments about Tony Conrad's Outside the Dream Syndicate).
 
Consider too the possibility of a deliberate prank: how else to explain the observation that the song Time to Kill is "literally about a guy who has time, takes it, and goes places!" I smell a troll, with his tongue somewhat in cheek.
 
The number of stars we award any album really says more about us than the music itself, which isn't affected one way or the other. Yes: opinions are like a****les, so maybe it's better to just look the other way when someone insists on showing us his soiled underwear...
A guy with two 5-stars ratings to VDGG and one 1-star review is not a troll. Not the most trustable reviewer of the site, but not a troll.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 01 2013 at 15:25
Originally posted by Hercules Hercules wrote:

Originally posted by The Mystical The Mystical wrote:

If this review gets taken down, I am leaving ProgArchives.
 
I completely agree with you. He has a perfect right to express his views and I have a perfect right to (vehemently)disagree with him.
 
Two years ago, I would have rated most VDGG albums (which he seems to love) as 1/2* because i really don't like their music. Now I would rate most of them 3* because they are just not to my taste rather than awful music.
 
 

Me, too, (though the VDGG appreciation occurred for me about a year ago).
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 01 2013 at 15:26
Nope
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 01 2013 at 15:33
Found the freaking review (it's the latest as of the time of this writing, hehe): http://www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=937841

Haven't read it yet, though I'll take some time to read it tonight.

A one-star album?

By the way, what is this "emotional intelligence" he is referring to?


Edited by Dayvenkirq - April 01 2013 at 15:34
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 01 2013 at 15:39
What's this? Someone doesn't like something I like? THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 01 2013 at 20:31
Originally posted by HolyMoly HolyMoly wrote:

I think it's a great review, and I disagree with everything in the review.  The two are different things. No vote.


His review reads like about a 2.5* to me though

1* means it has no redeeming features
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 01 2013 at 20:32
^ Not sure if having two-three decent moments on an album counts as redeeming features.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 01 2013 at 23:40
While I feel that my review of Free Hand should stand on its own merits, I also feel compelled at the moment to defend its stance. @twosteves and @HolyMoly, my entry was not an April Fool's joke. Actually, I tried to be as serious and objective as my highly opinionated nature would permit, simultaneously expressing my honest views. @Hercules, I do not quite understand the reasons for your offense at the critique in question; I can't say of a certainty, but I have a hunch that neither you nor a member of your household wrote or even played on Free Hand, therefore it is not your 'accomplishment' (if it can be so called) of which to be proud. Remember: a lot of folks don't realize that an offense (real or imagined) 'committed' against their sensibilities is THEIR problem. @Neu!mann The keyboards on the record are indeed dated-sounding, regardless of the time at which it was recorded. Let's take Tony Bank's palette on The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway; they're infinitely more advanced and expressive than anything I hear on modern mainstream radio. Or listen to the keyboard introduction to Yes' Face to Face from the Ladder. It has a very similar tone to the riff of LMFAO's Sexy and I Know It, yet preceded that abomination by 12 years and, honestly, is far more virtuoso and engaging. Furthermore, are you implying that sharing my views in such manner as I did present them is tantamount to publicly soiling myself? I think your manners are questionable. @Triceratopsoil and @Dayvenkirq, let me pose a question for you: Is listening to 35 minutes of rap really worth hearing 30 seconds of a sampled edit of 21st Century Schizoid Man? I don't believe so. @Snow Dog, that's fine, but you'll not receive my respect in return for the 'favor'. By the way, you might feel more inclined to restrain your enthusiasm for certain albums, if you would take care of what I'll guess is an unfortunate cocaine problem, SNOW Dog. I can be funny when I want. @The Mystical and many others: I'll conclude with thanks for all your support. Reviewers shouldn't be discouraged from writing genuine and (hopefully) helpful entries on this website, or anywhere else for that matter. This should be every critic's intention, and provide the measure of his success. Take some advice from another poor prog-related song: "Be yourself, give your free will a chance - you've got to want to succeed." 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 01 2013 at 23:43
^ That's really hardcore.
Originally posted by Tubes Tubes wrote:

@Triceratopsoil and @Dayvenkirq, let me pose a question for you: Is listening to 35 minutes of rap really worth hearing 30 seconds of a sampled edit of 21st Century Schizoid Man? I don't believe so.
I don't understand how that's relevant ... not to mention that your question doesn't make much sense.

Edited by Dayvenkirq - April 01 2013 at 23:45
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