Albums The Critics Got Wrong?

Melody Maker wasn't readily available in small town Davis, California, so I turned to Rolling Stone, the biggest mag at the time, and on newsstands. TFTO, of course, had many detractors, including RS (who liked "Leaves of Green", though). Relayer was even more savaged, although they faintly praised "To Be Over".

In fairness, they did love The Yes Album, Close To The Edge, and Going For The One, and liked Fragile and Yessongs. 90125 got a positive, though less effusive, review. They even found things to like in Talk, the last review they wrote. They were ho-hum about Yesterdays.

Besides the above, they also hated Tormato, Yesshows, ABWH, and Union. They didn't review Time And A Word or Drama.

HolyMoly wrote: 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. Just wondering, how did the suits interfere with and wreck Waiting for the Sun?  What would the un-interfered-with album have looked like?

Cristi wrote: HolyMoly wrote: 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. Just wondering, how did the suits interfere with and wreck Waiting for the Sun?  What would the un-interfered-with album have looked like? the band created the epic Celebration of the Lizard and the only bit of that song that got on the album was Not to Touch the Earth. Celebration... was played live though and it was a live favorite for a while.

I think it's about two or three years since Steve (HolyMoly) used this site

Blacksword wrote: I think Roger Waters said Animals got fairly bad reviews, one reviewer calling it 'warmed over heavy metal' Keith Emerson once said that ELP were referred to as a heavy metal band by one music hack. I think music journalists are generally to be ignored.

I wouldn't call "Animals" Heavy Metal, but in my opinion it certainly is a bad album

Funny how that works. Animals is my favourite Floyd album together with Ummagumma and Atom Heart Mother (and More actually although it isn't as "strong" of an album as the above mentioned...but it's a charming little bugger to these ears).

Logan wrote: ^^ Very well expressed, mechanicalflattery. ^ Interesting, Jean, why in your opinion is Animals certainly a bad album?

first of all Pink Floyd start repeating themselves; "Sheep" sounds just like "One of these Days". second they sound like BOFs that can't get their a**** off the seats anymore

^^ Same Cristi. I can appreciate that someone might not enjoy it, but to believe it to be a bad album (of its ilk) is another matter.

Guldbamsen wrote: Funny how that works. Animals is my favourite Floyd album together with Ummagumma and Atom Heart Mother (and More actually although it isn't as "strong" of an album as the above mentioned...but it's a charming little bugger to these ears).

Those are my favourites too, though I love every Floyd album up to and including The Wall.

BaldJean wrote: Logan wrote: ^^ Very well expressed, mechanicalflattery. ^ Interesting, Jean, why in your opinion is Animals certainly a bad album? first of all Pink Floyd start repeating themselves; "Sheep" sounds just like "One of these Days". second they sound like BOFs that can't get their a**** off the seats anymore

"Sheep" has similarities to "One of These Days", love the track, but it doesn't sound "just like" it. I have no problem with drawing inspiration from earlier material, and actually like many variations on the same theme, or re-worked themes by the same artist. One example would be Magma's Ëmëhntëhtt-Ré , which adapts themes from earlier material, but I think does it with a wonderful result.

I don't believe that Animals sounds that much like any former Pink Floyd album overall, and is hardly one that I would accuse of being derivative or lacking uniqueness in an oeuvre. I have known people who disliked it because it sounded too different from the popular Pink Floyd that they liked.

By BOF, do you mean birds of a feather? I don't get that can't get their arse off the seats impressions at all from the album, except perhaps as a lyrical reference to creeping malaise.

"Gotta stay awake, gotta try and shake off this creeping malaise.
If I don't stand my own ground, how can I find my way out of this
maze?"

Love to read a more detailed review of yours on the album, as I am interested in different perspectives, and to get a fuller picture of your thoughts.

EDiT: Cristi, I missed your last post as I was multitasking while preparing this, but I too find it a pretty unique album -- an unusually unique album in fact (I touched on that in this post and don't want it to seem that I am just "repeating" your notion).

Edited by Logan - September 17 2017 at 10:08

mechanicalflattery wrote: Reading through it, it's amazing how much of this thread got reduced to "critics didn't like my favorite album, therefore they're piggish and self-absorbed." Not referring to anyone recent (Saperlipoppete, your post on Hancock is much appreciated), but dissent and direspect are entirely separate. Christgau doesn't like prog? Well he must be pushing a narrative! Trying to suggest others abdicate from music he finds aesthetically displeasing and enjoy the music he does! The horror, the horror...

Haha well put - and thanks! However I stumbled over a seemingly well researched post at Yesfans: Rolling Stone magazine and Progressive Rock and the kind of attitude and lack of openess towards prog or just artistic ambition many of their journalists had back then kind of bugs me. 

Edited by Saperlipopette! - September 17 2017 at 13:10

"Flatulent quasisymphonies"! LMAO!

At our age, or mine at least, I AM a Fla-----

Um. Nvm.

Any recording that has generated the volume of debate and the extreme variance of opinion over as great a period of time almost by default must now be viewed as greatly underrated.

If not classic.

For such is TALES. Made for this thread.

Edited by Frankh - September 17 2017 at 18:28