Another "not actually bad albums" poll

Obviously not as progressive as most of their previous albums, but Gentle Giant's "Civilian" is a solid set of songs and very well played. I saw them perform on the 1980 tour for this album, and they were still in peak form and mixed both new and old pieces seamlessly.  It a shame that this band was not a success financially, because they were unique, talented, and very tuneful.

Steve Wyzard wrote: Second vote for the Emerson, Lake, and Powell album. Nothing against Carl Palmer, but this album is one of my all-time favorites. My second choice from this list would be Manfred Mann's Criminal Tango. It's not as good as Watch or Chance, but it's still a very solid album, especially "Side One".

More is clearly the outlier here 

Duddick wrote: I too wasn’t aware More was classified as a bad album. I love it, hence my vote.

I don't feel qualifed to vote, and I don't feel like doing an effort to qualify as there's a handul of albums here that I suspect will be a huge waste of listening time - and my life really. But isn't More kind of great? I Can See You're House From Here is mostly very nice as well.

Saperlipopette! wrote: I don't feel qualifed to vote, and I don't feel like doing an effort to qualify as there's a handul of albums here that I suspect will be a huge waste of listening time - and my life really. But isn't More kind of great? I Can See You're House From Here is mostly very nice as well.

Edited by Cristi - May 31 2022 at 17:11

More is on the bottom of my PF studio albums ranking, but still pretty good. However, About Face gets my vote. In the context of a "not actually bad year", this is an outstanding album,

ELPowell - great album - put it against what their contemporaries were doing in the 80s...

I voted Rush: Presto, purely because I don't think it is a bad album at all. Admittedly, it was when their love affair with synthesisers was at a height, which dates it to a specific period, but a lot of the songs are great.

Edited by Jared - June 01 2022 at 01:59

As some don't understand why More even qualifies to be listed here, I say that although I have no problems with that album, I indeed don't think it's particularly strong as an overall listen. There are some four or so tracks on it that I really like, but overall it has this "soundtrack effect" with quite a bit of stuff that serves the soundtrack purpose in the first place (I've never seen that film so I don't know how well it works there), but is not (at least for me) particularly interesting or worthwhile as a standalone listen. If an album has 50-60% of such stuff, it's no reason really to criticise it (it's OK for soundtracks to be like that), but it will be nowhere near the better albums of that band in my personal appreciation.