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lazland 
Prog Reviewer
Joined: October 28 2008
Location: Wales
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Points: 13886
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 Topic: A massive disappointment
Posted: April 24 2012 at 14:22 |
So, you have favourite bands, those who can really do no wrong. Even when they release a "sub-standard" album, you can still find merit in it, certainly enough to award a three star review on Prog Archives.
However, even our favourites have the capacity to really disappoint and to make you want to weep at the sheer unfairness of releasing a new album you really looked forward to, but hated upon first listen, and this continued for listens well after that.
So, lists please of bands and albums that you felt let down by, with reasons why. You are most welcome to completely trash my own personal choices:
Marillion. Holidays In Eden,. Still my least favourite release by my favourite band. Following the exceptional Season's End, this incoherent mixture of commercial and prog almost made me give up. Then they released Brave..... 
Rush. Snakes & Ladders. No, it's not an awful album. They are incapable of doing that, but I really don't find this album enjoyable at all. I find Lee's vocals grating for a start, and this is the only album I find this to be so. It doesn't flow well to these ears, and seems to be Rush "by numbers", and they are capable of so much better.
Spock's Beard. X. Simply a very poor imitation of a classic symphonic band. If ever there was an outfit which missed their inspiration...............
Supertramp. Free As A Bird. The fall of a once great songwriter and vocalist into petty and trite nonsense. Even the excellent title track cannot rescue this from oblivion.
VDGG. Present. Loved some of the first disc, and though the second was an incoherent mess. The start of a fallout between me and one of my classic favourites, because the subsequent two releases have done nothing for me at all.
Transatlantic. Bridge Across Forever. I loved the debut, but thought that the second tried to do the over the top epic a bit to much for enjoyment. Redeemed themselves with the last one, though.
Richard Wright. Broken China. I always found Waters at his darkest to be inspirational and spoke to me at a very conscious level. This just depressed me unutterably.
Rainbow. Difficult To Cure. I loved Down To Earth, and didn't mind the more commercial direction at all. This, however, marked the descent into stadium rock blandness, the excellent instrumentals aside.
Pink Floyd. The Division Bell. Simply shocking. Simply not Floyd.
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Snow Dog
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Posted: April 24 2012 at 14:24 |
Almost totally disagree with your choices.
X for example is the best Beard album for many years...including Meal Morse beard.
Bridge acroos forever also better than debut, Holidays in Eden preferable to the dreary Seasons end.
Edited by Snow Dog - April 24 2012 at 14:26
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lazland
Prog Reviewer
Joined: October 28 2008
Location: Wales
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Points: 13886
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Posted: April 24 2012 at 14:25 |
 Snow Dog wrote:
Almost totally disagree with your choices. |
Fine - reasons, and what are yours?
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Enhance your life. Get down to www.lazland.org
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Snow Dog
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Posted: April 24 2012 at 14:28 |
lazland wrote:
Snow Dog wrote:
Almost totally disagree with your choices. |
Fine - reasons, and what are yours? |
Read my edit. I don't have any I can think of. I suppose Love Beach at the time but since I have grown to like it, it doesn't count.
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darkshade
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Posted: April 24 2012 at 14:30 |
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Spock's Beard - Snow
The Mars Volta - Octahedron
Dream Theater - Systematic Chaos (I actually liked this one when it first came out, then quickly loathed it; years later, I now I enjoy it for what it is)
There's more, but I can't think of what they are right now.
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Snow Dog
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Posted: April 24 2012 at 14:31 |
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Dream Theater..the new one..what's it called?There I thought of one.
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lazland
Prog Reviewer
Joined: October 28 2008
Location: Wales
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Points: 13886
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Posted: April 24 2012 at 14:31 |
^^ I never liked Love Beach, but, then again, I was never a big ELP fan, so it was not a disappointment as such.
Season's End dreary?? 
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Enhance your life. Get down to www.lazland.org
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Snow Dog
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Posted: April 24 2012 at 14:33 |
lazland wrote:
^^ I never liked Love Beach, but, then again, I was never a big ELP fan, so it was not a disappointment as such.
Season's End dreary??
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Very.
Sorry mate.
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tszirmay
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Posted: April 24 2012 at 14:44 |
I think he meant "dairy"! 
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I never post anything anywhere without doing more than basic research, often in depth.
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tamijo
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Posted: April 24 2012 at 14:46 |
lazland wrote:
Pink Floyd. The Division Bell. Simply shocking. Simply not Floyd. |
Even though i got the vinyl version - bought right after release - and was fine with "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason"
Dont think i made it all the way trough, more then the first time.
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Prog is whatevey you want it to be. So dont diss other peoples prog, and they wont diss yours
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tamijo
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Posted: April 24 2012 at 14:54 |
David Bowie - Tonight
Lets dance was overly commercial, but at the same time very well done, within its own right.
Tonight was horrible
(on a side note, isnt PA working very slow tonight ?)
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Prog is whatevey you want it to be. So dont diss other peoples prog, and they wont diss yours
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Horizons
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Posted: April 24 2012 at 15:01 |
^ Does seem to be sluggish. Took me 5 minutes to access the forum page.
Snakes and Arrows, in my opinion, was a great album. I loved the acoustic guitar focus and i found Geddy's vocals great. The two instrumentals are a real return to form.
Pearl Jam's Riot Act - After a flawless string of 6 albums, this was the first that i truly disliked. The political touches are kind of annoying too. Porcupine Tree's The Incident - Boring, weak, predictable, etc.
Edited by Horizons - April 24 2012 at 15:03
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Crushed like a rose in the riverflow.
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Sagichim
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Posted: April 24 2012 at 15:04 |
tamijo wrote:
lazland wrote:
Pink Floyd. The Division Bell. Simply shocking. Simply not Floyd. |
Even though i got the vinyl version - bought right after release - and was fine with "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason"
Dont think i made it all the way trough, more then the first time. |
Wow really? division bell? I prefer this one over a lot of Floyd's albums, some great songwriting there. Sometimes it's amazing how opinions can defer.
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Logan
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Posted: April 24 2012 at 15:25 |
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Sorry going off on a tangent:
I can't remember a notable disappointment with an album by a band I was already really into. Instead I've been very pleasantly surprised by albums that don't have a high reputation by bands I love. Magma's Merci I did Sl*g very early on when I hadn't listened to it at all properly, but when I did return to it and actually listened, I loved it. Much the same happened to me with the Magma offshoot Offering, not that I was yet a fan of Offering, but I love the Offering albums (more than Merci actually).
There are cases where I heard an album I never grew to love by a band/ artist first, but became a fan afterwards for other albums, but that's different.
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Watching while most appreciating a sunset in the moment need not diminish all the glorious sunsets I have observed before. It can be much like that with music for me.
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richardh
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Posted: April 24 2012 at 15:32 |
Seasons End is brilliant , one of the best neo prog albums. However I quite like Holidays In Eden as well  . Where I lost it with Marillion was The Strange Engine. Sorry not for me.
Abacab (too obvious)
In The Hot Seat. What a stinker to bow out on. Love Beach was at least recognisable as ELP to my ears
90125 - Don't like the cleaness of it. Totally anti-septic and over produced (but I do like some later Yes albums especially Talk and the recent one)
Tangerine Dream - Melrose. TD going through the motions. It did get better eventually though.
IQ - Nomzamo . Massive disappointment after what had gone before.IQ trying to be Dire Straits but achieving the first bit only.
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HolyMoly
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Posted: April 24 2012 at 15:47 |
lazland wrote:
Supertramp. Free As A Bird. The fall of a once great songwriter and vocalist into petty and trite nonsense. Even the excellent title track cannot rescue this from oblivion. |
Totally agree here. I was a big fan and was excited when this came out, but it was barely recognizable as Supertramp, even as the "new" post-Hodgson Supertramp - the songs were just not there. I've even been hesitant to buy their subsequent album(s) because of this. Need I worry? Others for me: Genesis - Calling all Stations -- I've always had a soft spot for latter-era Genesis. Abacab was the album that got me into them as a teenager, and I think time and critical opinion have unfairly recast this period of the band as the crappy sell-out period, when in fact they were making some of the best intelligent pop music around. This album, however, was uncalled for. Having lived under a rock for most of the 90s (my "lost weekend"), I was unaware that Phil Collins was no longer in the band. So that was shock right there. And then the songs... oh god were they miserable... The Clash - Cut the Crap --- I'm not as big on the Clash anymore, but at the time, I thought Combat Rock was the bee's knees (it's still my favorite). Very creative and just had a sound all its own. So I had every reason to expect this follow-up to be good. Even the loss of Mick Jones shouldn't have hurt the band this bad. Joe Strummer was strong enough to man the ship himself. But something went terribly wrong. Mostly chalked up to cluttery production and an ill-advised dumbing down of the songwriting (to reconnect with their punk roots, dontcha know). And I really only remember liking one song (not the single, either). Jethro Tull - Rock Island -- I guess this is the point at which I got off the Tull Train. Not openly horrible, but just so dang ordinary. Despite good reviews of later stuff, I haven't even taken much time to give them a fighting chance, just because I've convinced myself that at this point, Ian was out of interesting ideas. The Kinks - Think Visual -- Kind of the same deal as Tull, except even their fans think the albums from here on out are pretty bad.
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Ivan_Melgar_M
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Posted: April 24 2012 at 16:01 |
- And then there Were Three: This was the first album Genesis released in Perú, I waited for it since 6:00 am in the door of the record shop, so I was the first to buy it in Perú. Ran to my house (skipped school), listened it a lot of times and hated it more on each new listen. This wasn't what i expected, not emotely.
- Going for the One/Tormato: If I'm not wrong GFTO this was the first famous Prog album that was able to buy when released, and with Rick Wakeman, back, sorry but never could listen any of them more than once each several years.
- Vinyl Confessions: Bought it without previous listen just because it was Kansas (A band I had lost the race for a couple of years), but at the first listen discovered it was anything except Kansas
Iván
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Guldbamsen
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Posted: April 24 2012 at 16:08 |
David Bowie - Young Americans. This one truly boggles the mind, mostly because it is surrounded by brilliant and imaginative releases. Diamond Dogs on one side and Station to Station on the other. WTF happened there?  I am guessing that he watched a fair deal of American soap operas at the time and then recorded this shijt whilst sleepwalking at night.
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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.”
- Douglas Adams
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lazland
Prog Reviewer
Joined: October 28 2008
Location: Wales
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Posted: April 24 2012 at 16:13 |
HolyMoly wrote:
lazland wrote:
Supertramp. Free As A Bird. The fall of a once great songwriter and vocalist into petty and trite nonsense. Even the excellent title track cannot rescue this from oblivion. |
Totally agree here. I was a big fan and was excited when this came out, but it was barely recognizable as Supertramp, even as the "new" post-Hodgson Supertramp - the songs were just not there. I've even been hesitant to buy their subsequent album(s) because of this. Need I worry?
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No. Sadly, they are all very ordinary, and I say this as a huge fan of Davies when he collaborated with Hodgson.
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Enhance your life. Get down to www.lazland.org
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wilmon91
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Posted: April 24 2012 at 16:49 |
I've been "subscribing" to very few artists, I'm not the "collector" sort of fan. There are even 2-3 somewhat disappointing Saga-albums released in the 2000's that I don't own (I'm a bit ashamed of that though). I listened to my brother's copies.
Steve Hackett is the only one I've been subscribing to since the end of the 90's. And though I felt that "To Watch the Storms" was a mixed bag , it didn't feel like a letdown. I had problems with the "dedicational" style of some of the songs. Through the years it has weakened...but it is still entertaining.
Saga's "Steel Umbrellas" (1996 ?) was a big disappointment. But it's a band whose sound can change a lot between albums. They had released the ambitious concept album Generation 13 in -95. The next relöease was Steel Umbrellas which had an almost opposite approach. Very straightforward , didn't seem like an honest effort. In later years I've discovered that it isn't all that bad, if you just ignore the weak tracks. And every song has a great guitar solo. But at the time it felt almost like a joke.
Edited by wilmon91 - April 24 2012 at 16:51
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A massive disappointment
