Albums The Critics Got Wrong? - Progressive Rock Music Forum

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ole-the-first View Drop Down

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Posted: November 27 2013 at 03:53

Underrated:
-Black Sabbath's 'Born Again'. I never could get what was so bad in that album all the critics were sh*tthrowing about?
-'Queen II' was met pretty cold by critics.

Overrated:
-Just look at this: http://www.allmusic.com/album/believe-mw0002357910

Edited by ole-the-first - November 27 2013 at 03:54

This night wounds time.

jude111

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Posted: November 27 2013 at 07:48

ole-the-first wrote:

Underrated:
-Black Sabbath's 'Born Again'. I never could get what was so bad in that album all the critics were sh*tthrowing about?
-'Queen II' was met pretty cold by critics.

Overrated:
-Just look at this: http://www.allmusic.com/album/believe-mw0002357910

Snob.

Seriosly, millions of (pre?)teenage girls would disagree with you. And why isn't their appreciation valid, or our appreciation for prog or a macho band like Black Sabbath more valid than theirs? We certainly don't have the high ground, considering the bollocking that prog music gets.

I have to say, in the last decade or so I've really become much more aware of how hegemonic we males are when it comes to critical discourse about popular music. Music that females tend to listen to gets vilified and pilloried not just by the press (esp. the "cool" critics & zines), but by most males, whether it's Justin Bieber or a band like Keane. Even my own inclination at one time was to scoff at the mere mention of singers/bands as those. We're still far from gender equality when music women like tends to be so easily dismissed and ridiculed.

I like AllMusic because it doesn't champion one genre over another. If you like Bieber, then its rating systems should reflect what is generally considered to be his best, and worst, albums... It's much better than the snobbery of, say, "Rolling Stone Record Guide," which was insufferable.

Edited by jude111 - November 27 2013 at 07:52

kenethlevine View Drop Down

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Posted: November 27 2013 at 08:15

jude111 wrote:

Snob. LOL

great points all round. Agreed especially about all music guide vs Rolling Stone

JellySucker View Drop Down

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Posted: November 27 2013 at 09:23

iluvmarillion wrote:

Metalmarsh89 wrote:

LA Woman by the Doors is a good album, but there's a popular ratings site out there (I forget which one) that has it rated as the best album on the website. I find that surprising and think it's inaccurate.

"Strange Days" is easily the best album The Doors made. "Waiting For The Sun" would have surpassed it had not the suits in studio interfered with it and wrecked it. The Doors were never the same band afterwards. LA Woman contains a good collection of songs but no thought went into working the songs into a cohesive whole.

Why not their debut album?

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dr wu23

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Posted: November 27 2013 at 09:54

Don;t have any ratings links to share except the wiki ratings from various rock sources, but I have always thought that Bruce Springsteen in general is overrated.

The critics seem to think this guy can do no wrong......and he usually gets 4 and 5 stars .

I never connected to what he's saying...and playing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Springsteen

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Guldbamsen View Drop Down

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Posted: November 27 2013 at 10:13

^Maybe you're like me? Without a driver's license. Most of his songs seem to be about driving - or some kind of road LOL

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alienshore View Drop Down

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Posted: November 27 2013 at 10:36

my favourite band Toto is the most hated band in the world, and the critics gave them poor ratings and classified them as a boring and uninteresting band ...
very sad and i think also funny, because these critics don't know to play on instruments like Mr. Paich or Mr. Lukather, they only hated their music and this is really amateurish and unconstructive approach

rating on album Mindfields from Allmusic is terrible from my point of view

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfields

dr wu23

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Posted: November 27 2013 at 10:56

Guldbamsen wrote:

^Maybe you're like me? Without a driver's license. Most of his songs seem to be about driving - or some kind of road LOL

I have a drivers license being old school , ....but many of his songs are about the American scene and the working class, and their struggle, which is fine but it simply doesn't interest me.

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ole-the-first View Drop Down

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Posted: November 27 2013 at 11:00

jude111 wrote:

Snob. LOL

Yes, I am

jude111 wrote:

Seriosly, millions of (pre?)teenage girls would disagree with you. And why isn't their appreciation valid, or our appreciation for prog or a macho band like Black Sabbath more valid than theirs? We certainly don't have the high ground, considering the bollocking that prog music gets.

Well, I wouldn't mind if someone is listening to Coldplay or Avril Lavigne or any other easy-listening pop/rock. But when it come to Bieber, it really looks like those girls are more amazed with his appearance than with music actually.

jude111 wrote:

We're still far from gender equality when music women like tends to be so easily dismissed and ridiculed.

Agreed. Maybe, some sexual context is hidden here? I mean, maybe males are subconciously tend to take those guys the girls are mad about as their personal rivals?

jude111 wrote:

I like AllMusic because it doesn't champion one genre over another

Yeah, this is one of the better sides of AllMusic.

This night wounds time.

Guldbamsen View Drop Down

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Posted: November 27 2013 at 11:03

dr wu23 wrote:

Guldbamsen wrote:

^Maybe you're like me? Without a driver's license. Most of his songs seem to be about driving - or some kind of road LOL

I have a drivers license being old school , ....but many of his songs are about the American scene and the working class, and their struggle, which is fine but it simply doesn't interest me.

I used to be a big fan back when I was 10, but I never got around to purchasing anything from him. Didn't stick.

“The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”

- Douglas Adams

jude111

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Posted: November 27 2013 at 11:08

Guldbamsen wrote:

^Maybe you're like me? Without a driver's license. Most of his songs seem to be about driving - or some kind of road LOL

It's probably something only (some) Americans (not me! :-) find appealing. Springsteen, the guy from New Jersey who lived a little too close for comfort to the mean old NY City "jungleland," and wanting to find freedom by jumping into his Chevy, hitting the highway and not stopping till hitting "Nebraska." Probably his music is more a critique than a celebration of this migration out of the cities. Much of America, or at least white America, made the same trek to the suburbs and exurbs to try to escape (blacks) er cities. JP Sartre wrote some essays about his visit to America, and he wrote that Americans really live in their cars, and abandon their homes on the slightest pretext. (His essay on Detroit as a shiny new city birthed overnight and likely to be abandoned at some point seem esp. poignant considering its postapocalyptic decline and bankruptcy. Expect Cheney's Halliburton to come swooping in from their headquarters in Qatar to help oversee its "reconstruction.") Marshall McLuhan wrote, "America's contribution to Architecture is the Highway." I guess Springsteen's music charts this to some extent. The hopes and dreams of his protagonists are victims of these historical and economic processes, but given ideological coatings as "yearning for freedom and the American Dream" bull****... Okay I'll shut up now, haha.

Edited by jude111 - November 27 2013 at 11:10

Guldbamsen View Drop Down

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Posted: November 27 2013 at 11:14

No I like people who get caught up in a stream of thinking Smile

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“The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”

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The.Crimson.King View Drop Down

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Posted: November 27 2013 at 11:38

dr wu23 wrote:

Guldbamsen wrote:

^Maybe you're like me? Without a driver's license. Most of his songs seem to be about driving - or some kind of road LOL

I have a drivers license being old school , ....but many of his songs are about the American scene and the working class, and their struggle, which is fine but it simply doesn't interest me.

Same for me. My wife bought me a biography of him last Christmas and I just started reading it last week. After a few nights I gave up halfway through because I just couldn't relate to him and what he was all about. The book was strange, as a teenager they claimed he was a Jeff Beck skill level guitar player then he got his 1st recording contract as a Bob Dylan singer-songwriter unaccompanied acoustic player kind of guy, then he brought his old buddies in and that became the horn based rocking E Street band and he was "The Boss". That's when I decided I'd rather play I-pad Scrabble than read this silliness LOL

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Bitterblogger View Drop Down

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Posted: January 25 2014 at 11:04

Emerson, Lake & Powell got slammed back in the day.
Not long ago, my msn homepage had a "biggest surprise winner" type of story regarding the Grammys, and they mentioned Tull's "Crest of a Knave" as undeserving next to "And Justice For All".

Actually I think they got it right.

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Posted: January 25 2014 at 11:24

Yeah! I love Born Again too!! Awesome work-out album. Headbanger

KingCrInuYasha View Drop Down

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Posted: January 25 2014 at 12:46

The New Rolling Stone Album Guide with the Moody Blues 1967 - 1972 period.

He looks at this world and wants it all... so he strikes, like Thunderball!

dr wu23

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Posted: January 25 2014 at 13:01

KingCrInuYasha wrote:

The New Rolling Stone Album Guide with the Moody Blues 1967 - 1972 period.

don't have the book....do they pan them or praise them..?

One does nothing yet nothing is left undone.
Haquin

KingCrInuYasha View Drop Down

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Posted: January 25 2014 at 13:08

Panned them, and how. With the exception of Days, none of their classic albums made it to the 2/5 or higher range.

He looks at this world and wants it all... so he strikes, like Thunderball!

Earthmover View Drop Down

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Posted: January 26 2014 at 05:32

alienshore wrote:

my favourite band Toto is the most hated band in the world, and the critics gave them poor ratings and classified them as a boring and uninteresting band ...
very sad and i think also funny, because these critics don't know to play on instruments like Mr. Paich or Mr. Lukather, they only hated their music and this is really amateurish and unconstructive approach

rating on album Mindfields from Allmusic is terrible from my point of view

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfields

you shouldn't be that mad about it

also, "because these critics don't know to play on instruments" is not really a valid argument

prog4evr

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Posted: January 26 2014 at 08:51

Blacksword wrote:

I think the last time I read a music review in a magazine was in the 80's. All reviews are subjective of course, but I'd take more notice of the opinions of someone on Progarchives, then some pretentious pr!ck at the Guardian who's probably more concerned with appearing to be cool than trying to be objective about the music.

It was the mid-1970s for me. That dumbass with the LA Times who thought Bruce Springsteen was God's gift to music, and that any fictitious named bands (e.g., all prog groups) were to be avoided like the plague, was my reason to never trust a mass-media music reviewer of prog every again...