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Most Pretentious Over The Top Album That You Love!
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Dellinger View Drop Down
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    Posted: February 06 2022 at 23:50
Most pretentious album that I love? I guess Myths and Legends of King Arthur, by Rick Wakeman.
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omphaloskepsis View Drop Down
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Originally posted by richardh richardh wrote:

Another contender maybe. Orchestra and each band member has a side. One is devoted to a piano concerto devised by a rock musician. No one is having any fun on this album , especially the listener Wink



See the source image

I'm having fun. Especially on Greg Lake's side. "Hallowed Be Thy Name" is seriously underrated. 
When it comes to over the top, happy prog, it's hard to beat Moon Safari's "Blumljud". Over a hundred minutes of "flowers bloom like madness in the Spring". 







Edited by omphaloskepsis - February 05 2022 at 02:13
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Originally posted by Rednight Rednight wrote:

In the progressive electronic world, Kraftwerk's Autobahn. Pretentious, yes, but still a journey.
If something like Autobahn qualifies, I probably love loads. I think of it as ambitious, but not without their wonderfully German sense of humor (present on all their classic albums), which provides an endearing human warmth to their "cold soundscapes"... Which aren't really that cold.

...Ralf had a kind of German idea in mind,” Flür recalls. “Germany also needed something like The Beach Boys...

...The seven-line nursery rhyme describes the view over a sunlit valley, the colours of the grey road with its green-edged white stripes, and the sound of a car radio which plays the song’s refrain back to itself. A droll, self-referential feedback loop. But of course, the lyric mostly consists of the single childlike chant “Wir fahren fahren fahren auf der Autobahn” (“We drive drive drive on the motorway”) repeated over and over. Anglophone listeners were quick to make phonetic connection with the refrains in “Fun Fun Fun” and “Barbara Ann” by The Beach Boys. But although Kraftwerk were fans of their car-loving California cousins, Hütter insists “Autobahn” is not a sly homage....

...In the case of The Beach Boys, ‘Fun Fun Fun’ is about a T-Bird,” Hütter explains. “But ours is about a Volkswagen or Mercedes..
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Saga 1981 World's Apart album.
Well, there it is. (Amadeus)
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In the progressive electronic world, Kraftwerk's Autobahn. Pretentious, yes, but still a journey.
"It just has none of the qualities of your work that I find interesting. Abandon [?] it." - Eno
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I would probably say Rush’s “Caress of Steel”. There seems to be a lot of self-indulgence on this album, but because this pretentiousness was probably for the positive purpose of being daring and risky, I’ve always enjoyed it while most people pan it. Plus, I love the chord strum on Bastille Day, the bassline in The Necromancer, the chords in Fountain of Lamneth. Also, I think No One at the Bridge is one of the best early Rush songs because of the heartfelt lyrics just fitting the overall mood of the song.
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Not the biggest fan of "pomp", but this sort of qualifies:

Magma - Mëkanïk Dëstruktïẁ Kömmandöh

-but I do not think Christan Vander was "attempting to impress by affecting greater importance", which is what pretentious means - so not really.
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Originally posted by BaldFriede BaldFriede wrote:

Originally posted by richardh richardh wrote:

Originally posted by chopper chopper wrote:

Can you get more pretentious and OTT than Tales From Topographic Oceans?



I never liked "Brain Salad Surgery", or "Bull S**t S**t", as I call it, and not because of "Benny the Bouncer" (I actually like that song). What I dislike the most is that they split up "Karn Evil 9"; that really pisses me off. But the whole overall sound is bland and the musical colours used are dull and repetitive, unlike their other albums.



I may have missed this comment when it first got posted so addressing it now:

The splitting of KE9 was essential because they couldn't have released it as Vinyl and Cassette editions with a 15 minute Side One and 30 minute Side Two. CD (and MP3) re-issues have sorted this so it's not a problem anymore.

The bland sound is largely down to the production. Eddy Offord was no longer working with ELP and it shows badly. I do love the synths on Trilogy way more than BSS but the latter is still much the superior album in my book. It flows better and Carl Palmer was at his very peak , and the drums are probably what really makes it for me. For what its worth I would recommend the live triple version to you as it's a bit more 'meaty' sounding.
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The Wall, A Passion Play, and Tales From Topographical Oceans.
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nice thread
bump 
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Originally posted by moshkito moshkito wrote:

Originally posted by Lewian Lewian wrote:

Originally posted by Frenetic Zetetic Frenetic Zetetic wrote:

Originally posted by chopper chopper wrote:


Can you get more pretentious and OTT than Tales From Topographic Oceans?


Nope! It's my first pick coming into this thread. No reservations, no shame, that album is the pinnacle of what everyone despised about prog rock, and for that reason alone it's an artistic gem worthy of praise! Yes took it all the way. Those boys knew their power.

It's still boring as hell though. Cool


Hi,

Well, so is Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and all that nazz ... so what else is knew? Did the sun come up? Embarrassed


Morning has broken...
Perhaps finding the happy medium is harder than we know.
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Originally posted by miamiscot miamiscot wrote:

OTT Prog is my favorite Prog!!!

(Tales and The Lamb are my two favorite LP's ever...)

OOT prog all day, son! Go big or go home! I love the lines we draw in the sand though it's super interesting!

Originally posted by satanellus satanellus wrote:

Originally posted by Frenetic Zetetic Frenetic Zetetic wrote:

Originally posted by Lewian Lewian wrote:

Originally posted by Frenetic Zetetic Frenetic Zetetic wrote:

Originally posted by chopper chopper wrote:

Can you get more pretentious and OTT than Tales From Topographic Oceans?

Nope! It's my first pick coming into this thread. No reservations, no shame, that album is the pinnacle of what everyone despised about prog rock, and for that reason alone it's an artistic gem worthy of praise! Yes took it all the way. Those boys knew their power.
 
It's still boring as hell though. Cool

Nah it's just more Yes music for my ears, I love it all Wink.

Fantastic for driving long distances lol.
 

It's really sh*t for driving short distances though.

"Just leaving home now. I'll be there in 5 minutes."

"Where the f**k have you been? You said you'd be here an hour and a quarter ago!"

"I'm gonna loop the block, I still have 3:54 left of "Revealing Science of God."" Cool

"I am so prog, I listen to concept albums on shuffle." -KMac2021
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Yes good points. Mike Oldfield may well  have got so immersed in recording 'Incantations' and not realised that there was an assault on Prog going on . The whole rise of Punk and New Wave  was probably more of an issue for new Prog bands starting out and lesser known bands then Mike Oldfield-just looking at Britain. 
Possibly the 'pushing it as far as it could go'  album must be ELP 'Works Volume 1' complete with a piano concerto . Not a release that I love ,but admire the sheer brashness of the band. 


Originally posted by richardh richardh wrote:

[]

Oldifeld locked himself away for 9 months to record this so was probably not that 'brave' and may not even have realised that music was changing. He certainly 'rectified' that on Platinum. Incantations is a desert island disc for me. I love it but he was certainly pushing it as far as it could go. That was probably the last really OTT album of the seventies (well until The Wall)
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Originally posted by Raff Raff wrote:

I know they aren't a lot of people's cup of tea, but I am surprised no one mentioned The Mars Volta's Frances the Mute. Yes, it IS pretentious and OTT as hell, but it is also the album that made me fall in love with the band.

Good call! Not the biggest fan of the voice, but otherwise indeed, pretentious and cool.
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anything in the last 12 years by Nightwish, perhaps Imaginearum being the best
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OTT Prog is my favorite Prog!!!

(Tales and The Lamb are my two favorite LP's ever...)
The Prog Corner
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Originally posted by Droxford Droxford wrote:

Mike Oldfield's 'Incantations' .....There are some great ideas spread a bit too thin for a double album, but I wouldn't change it. And having Maddy Prior singing  a piece based on  Longfellow's 'The Song of Hiawatha' and a choir singing the Ben Johnson poem 'Diana' with an orchestra featured throughout seems a brave move in 1978 when there was a backlash against Prog.  Sections of  the album  have a subdued almost type disco beat, particularly in part one.  Very fond of this album 

Oldifeld locked himself away for 9 months to record this so was probably not that 'brave' and may not even have realised that music was changing. He certainly 'rectified' that on Platinum. Incantations is a desert island disc for me. I love it but he was certainly pushing it as far as it could go. That was probably the last really OTT album of the seventies (well until The Wall)


Edited by richardh - July 05 2020 at 23:50
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I quess Wigwam´s Fairyport is also pretentious if Trout is too...

Edited by Mortte - July 05 2020 at 23:30
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Mike Oldfield's 'Incantations' .....There are some great ideas spread a bit too thin for a double album, but I wouldn't change it. And having Maddy Prior singing  a piece based on  Longfellow's 'The Song of Hiawatha' and a choir singing the Ben Johnson poem 'Diana' with an orchestra featured throughout seems a brave move in 1978 when there was a backlash against Prog.  Sections of  the album  have a subdued almost type disco beat, particularly in part one.  Very fond of this album 
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I know they aren't a lot of people's cup of tea, but I am surprised no one mentioned The Mars Volta's Frances the Mute. Yes, it IS pretentious and OTT as hell, but it is also the album that made me fall in love with the band.
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