Octavarium. . .  I remember just sitting there waiting for it t get interesting. too bad it took an entire disc before the last sng came on. VERY dissapointing effort.
Amputecture. . . well i skipped Frances the Mute on this list only because i found this one to be much more dissapointing. FtM had its moments this one just seemed uninspired not that there arnt any good. too bad deloused was their first CD.
10000 Days. . . I like the wings duo and a sampling of other songs but vicarious threw me off right away. overall lack of standouts, lack of progress in the music. not bad but deffinately a dissapointing follow-up to Laturalus.

Very long post alert, and this is sort of a cathartic blog-post.  It does refer to points in former posts (just in case anyone bothers to read this).

It's so wonderful that we can have different opinions, cultures, beliefs, attitudes and personalities yet come together as a community where we can engage each other in thoughtful, provocative, and irreverent discussion.  The diversity of views, tastes, and attitudes is fabulous.  So even though I see things in a rather different way than some, I'm pleased to see people sharing their passions and points of view.  We don't need to like the same music, have the same experiences, or generally hold the same opinions to be tolerant of other's tastes and means of expression (though we may not like those tastes, opinions, and means of expression... ha-ha).  Vive la difference.

Regarding various comments that have been made in this thread (on negativity, the idea of the mp3s being representative of a band and people not doing enough research so that they get disappointed, and comments on what it means to be "most disappointed" and more inspirational musings -- inspired this boggy blog after all).

I almost wish that one day we could have a forum for people who enjoy bashing (a band deprecation forum to complement the appreciation one).  It would be a place where people who dislike such talk could avoid (but I wouldn't really recommend having it as it would be very unprofessional, off-putting to musicians/bands and promote negativity too much... it would be bad for the site, and bad for prog methinks.  Might be better suited at another Prog site -- perhaps dedicated to it.  There's an idea...).  In the meantime, clearly labeling negative threads as negative should help warn those who are bothered by such topics (though just the sight of them may bother some people, and some people who don't enjoy them just can't resist them -- personally, I find this thread pretty innocuous).  Some people do indeed enjoy bashing, and some like to share their negative views (for me that's part of my musical passion and I love to share our likes and dislikes -- not only do I not mind someone saying they they don't like a band that I like, I appreciate differences of opinion.  I like honesty and directness, but I went into this in my last posts).  I'm not for segregation (as I like a balance -- I like to know what people like and don't like), and even bashing can be cathartic.  It's all a matter of taste, and that is something that some people forget.  If I were to say something is bad, that is likely to mean that it's bad for me (I actually do believe in poor art and better art, as I suppose most do, so it's not totally subjective for me -- one can point out real flaws in execution and compositional limitations)  Another's five star review might be my, subjectively speaking, one star album. Perhaps negative, and generally nonconstructive, posts are increasing in the forums.  Plenty of vacuous posts that praise and condemn.

Regarding the albums that were listed before and the mp3s at this site:

I, as a 13 year old or thereabouts, was quite disappointed in Close to the Edge.  Did I hate it, no, but I was expecting an album that would appeal to me much more because I loved Fragile.  I remember a good friend who knew me well saying, if you think Fragile is good, you're going to love Close to the Edge.  At least I loved the title track.  Now I notice that the mp3 at this site is  "Close to the Edge" -- oh, oh, I would've been in trouble if I'd used that as a representative sample.

If an album from a "genre" I love, especially by a band I love, is not critically acclaimed/ highly praised as an essential masterpiece then its rather less likely that I will have such high expectations.  Of course the biggest names have the biggest buzz.  I have been disappointed in lesser-known albums too where I may have followed the advice of someone whose tastes I seem to share.  By this stage I know many reviewers and raters who have similar tastes to my own, and others have completely different tastes.  I actually find some whose tastes I don't share very useful to know what to avoid.  I don't trust reviews though, I trust my own ears and, to an extent, certain people who I know have similar tastes and so they can help guide me (bearing in mind that that's many people because my tastes run across most of the categories).

Regarding "Selling England by the Pound" -- I found that album rather unsatisfying on the whole when I first got it (now it's considerably less listenable -- haha).  If this hadn't been many years ago and I had first listened to the sample song in the archives, that being "Cinema Show," I would have been disappointed in the album because that is my favourite track off the album ("Firth of Fifth" also being terrific, in my opinion).  Either of those tracks could easily ensnare the unspuspecting n00b.   Course "Dancing with the Moonlight Knight" is pretty good too.  But part of it is that I'd already been wowed by Lambchop's Broadway Snooze (sic), and this didn't quite live up to that in my opinion at the time.

As for Wish You Were Here, this was my second favourite album for a long time -- my favourite being Animals.  Now, if I had judged it by the mp3 at this site (but again I first heard it long before the internet), I would have thought it much better than expected.  "Welcome to the Machine" is a weaker track for me, but "Shine on you Crazy Diamond" blew me away when I was about ten.
Did I buy the album at first? No, someone played it for me, and I bought it later.  This was not my first Pink Floyd album -- and I heard Animals later than that.  I was a kid at the time and I did not purchase the album before I heard it).

Jethro's Tull's Thick as a Brick, again, a friend played it for me when I first heard it, but I was underwhelmed.  Similar story to Yes and at about the same time, I loved Aqualung and so I had higher hopes.  There is no track from this album in the archives.

ELP's Trilogy and Tarkus -- more albums from my youth.  Again, I loved Trilogy already (especially for Trilogy , but found Tarkus a bit of a let down.  I had higher hopes).  As for the samples in the archives: Love the Tarkus one ("Iconoclast", but the Trilogy one ("Hoedown") is a stinker, at least to my nose. Judging from those I would prefer "Tarkus" to "Trilogy." 

When one spends good money on albums (and one has little money and makes sacrifices), one can expect to be more upset about a disappointing purchase.  I was lucky to have friends and brothers with Prog albums (so my impressions on these ones from my youth are not so relevant to the topic; though my experiences do relate back to earlier posts).

What I've found, and I have extensively used the mp3 at this site to find albums that will appeal (in coordination with reviews, and amazon samples, band sites, myspace, other review sites etc. -- I try to be informed) is that I have quite often not found the mp3 here to be terribly representative of the overall sound or quality, but generally I have grown to like the albums whose samples I heard and liked.  The thing with prog is that one often can expect great variety on albums.  What else, I was exposed to all of those listed in my youth.  Seeing my comments it seems likely that there was a general tendency for me to like the first album I heard of a band of a band the most.  Actually, this was often not the case.  But if the first album of a band really got me by the bollocks, it was hard for the next one i got by the same band to compete with it.  That's what happened with Fragile, Aqualung, and Tarkus.  With Gentle Giant, my favourite of the ones that were listed, Acquiring the Taste was my first full album by them, and is my favourite, but I loved each of the first eight albums.  The mp3s are pretty good here (though not my favourite songs of theirs).  Sometimes I've just got the wrong album at the wrong time (depending on what I'm into at any given time) but noticing a tape or record in a store that I usually don't go to or see in other stores has tempted me based on name recognition and hearing good things about it.

Anyway, I've largely gone off all of these bands mentioned (even GG), as happens when one gets into other things (at least to me), but was a big fan of each at one time in my Prog journey, and they layed the foundations for much of the music I listen to now.

Incidentally, when I was younger (before the internet), I used to commonly buy records (later from used record stores), cassettes, and then CDs without having heard anything off it, or very little (a song) simply because I loved something that that artist had done.  I know we're supposed to be discussing Prog, but one of the biggest letdowns I've had was a Bauhaus CD in about '90 -- expensive too.  I was a big fan of the movie The Hunger. and there was song I really liked off it called "Bela Lugosi's Dead" by Bauhaus, so I bought the CD that had it, and thought the rest pretty terrible.  It was terribly disappointing.  Did I hate it, no, I quite liked it, but it is still one of the more disappointing albums I have bought as it wasn't quite what i expected (it was alright, i still played it a lot and then whena friend offered to pay me the cost of the CD to burn the thing, I refused -- and burn as in set to flame if you don't know). I've never bought an album that I really loathed and was expecting great things from, so most of my disappointing albums have been okay, but still disappointing.  It's costly, and I tend to do my research, so when my expectations come up short, I'm not only disappointed in the album, I'm disappointed in myself.

These days, I very rarely buy an album that will disappoint me, as I seem to have acquired the knack of finding albums that will not disappoint me (samples from across the net when available, and, according to my tastes, reliable sources).

So, and of course we're talking Prog.  it is possible for your most disappointing album purchase to not be that disappointing at all.  Depends on how careful you are.  My most disappointing purchases of the last two years have only been mildly disappointing (hoped for a little more), and sometimes those albums that one is originally disappointed with, or not enthralled with, we grow to love!

There have been a number of albums that I haven't been that keen on at first listen that I grew to like very much (though i can usually tell from the first play if this something that i will grow to love).  There are more albums that I originally loved and then palled (but I'm not disappointed in myself for having ever really liked it).

So that's my bog post.


Edited by Logan - December 07 2007 at 21:47

ELP - Love Beach
Genesis - Calling all stations
Gentle Giant - Giant for a day
Yes - Union
GTR - GTR, how could Howe and Hackett put their names on this CD?

how can you put Jethro Tull- Thick As A Brick, on that list? It was probably the best Jethro album that was ever released. 

Peter wrote: So, among the "most disappointing" prog albums folks here have encountered are:   Close to the Edge Selling England by the Pound Wish You Were Here Thick as a Brick Trilogy Tarkus (presumably all) Gentle Giant   Yeah, lots of absolutely horrible music there -- God help some of you if you ever encounter any truly bad music!   As far as I know, representative sample tracks from all of the above albums (or at least the artists) are easily accessible here. Thus, this thread would seem to attract not only a lot of habitual "everything sucks"-type whiners, but also those who don't even have the common sense (in these days of the internet) to sample before buying).       Again, I have to wonder what some folks are expecting from a popular, classic album praised by many prog fans. A religious, life-transforming experience? Blue bolts of pure ecstasy from the heavens? To me, words as strong as "most disappointing" should be reserved for albums you truly can't stand -- not just albums which somehow failed to live up to your unrealistic expectations or your cynical, quick to condemn, too high, "everything I don't like sucks" standards.   You don't need to insult the Archives, its members and reviewers, and an album's fans to say why you don't like an album. This nasty, immature, thoughtless behavior really makes it hard to be a reviewer. It's very de-motivating.   Sorry, but this is (overall) a nasty thread which seems oddly out of place on a site dedicated to prog rock fandom. It's tailor made to offend, inflame and hurt.   Honestly, threads like this make me seriously consider leaving, as the dominant forum membership seems more and more immature, thoughtless and inconsiderate.

Edited by ES335 - December 17 2007 at 22:49

Tapfret wrote: But boy was I disappointed when I heard that first riff of Owner of a Lonely Heart.

When one has a small collection of Prog albums, it's not really surprising that the most disappointing of those might be merely mildly disappointing.  An idea I touched upon in my last post too.

Edited by Logan - December 18 2007 at 20:49

^ Fine, "E" --  My main problem here, if you read back, is more with the posts which suggest that the favourable reviews and posts of other are only so much "hype," and that somehow disappointment is the "fault" of those who do like the music (and only say so).

Edited by Peter - December 18 2007 at 22:05

Stripes is a classic! I saw it in the movie theatre as a kid.  I was pretty big on John Candy then because of SCTV (wasn't a fan of Ramis in SCTV).  SCTV's quality went south after the show went south I seem to remember thinking before.

fastrewind wrote: Stripes (1981) A fter the success of the 1979 Canadian film "Meatballs", Bill Murray and director Ivan Reitman reunited for "Stripes", a film that focuses on lazy Army recruits. The main characters are John Winger (Murray) and his buddy Russell Ziske (Harold Ramis). John has just lost everything, including his job, his girlfriend and his apartment. Russell has just become a school teacher teaching a group of students who speak very little english. When John sees a campaign for the US Army on the TV, he decides he wants to join and convinces Russell to join too, hoping to get some chicks. But after signing up, John and Russell get more than they bargained for when they meet Sgt. Hulka (Warren Oates). They also meet recruits such as Ox (John Candy), who has joined just to lose weight, and Psycho, who is so selfish that he’ll kill anyone, even his fellow recruits, who bothers him. All of Hulka’s men, including John, are among the wildest, stupidest recruits that have ever enlisted in the Army....

Psycho: The name's Francis Sawyer, but everybody calls me Psycho. Any of you guys call me Francis, and I'll kill you.
Leon: Ooooooh.
Psycho: You just made the list, buddy. Also, I don't like no one touching my stuff. So just keep your meat-hooks off. If I catch any of you guys in my stuff, I'll kill you. And I don't like nobody touching me. Any of you homos touch me, and I'll kill you.
Sergeant Hulka: Lighten up, Francis.

Ah, sorry for the digression. ES, I've been disappointed with album purchases from many genres, but especially Classical music.  The reason being because the version (conductor, orchestra/ musicians, recording quality) has not seemed as good as other ones I've heard.  When it comes to classical, music there are so many CDs made of the same compositions, and it can sound very different.  Love Beethoven's 9th and Vivaldi's Four Seasons, but the performances on the CDs I have of those do nothing for me.

I have a ton of Prog CDs, but as I said in another post, I rarely get disappointed in purchases now (one needn't even have very high expectations, but when one is spending one's money one hopes to really like it).  But not long after getting back into Prog, I had some big disappointments.  I already had lots of classic Prog, but I felt that I should try to modernise my tastes.  Anyway, the first album modern prog album I got I found in a CD store in downtown Vancouver (I very rarely go downtown and where I live there is less selection -- internet purchases are better for me) and it had been highly praised here so I bought it.  Not only was I disappointed that I'd just wasted my money, but I was also disappointed that one of the highly praised modern Prog albums seemed so poor next to my classic Prog (that was also highly praised here).  Luckily I tried more modern prog and researched better and found much stuff that I love.  Just because something is popular doesn't mean one's going to find it good, of course.


Edited by Logan - December 18 2007 at 23:29

I've been lucky in my prog purchases... However, the first time I tried to get into Genesis and I thought that I had just purchased their first album...