Review - 12/27/12 - SoulenginE - Mind Colours

Artist:  SoulenginE
Album:  Mind Colours
Rating:  4 Stars
Link:  http://www.progstreaming.com/_wb/pages/play-album.php?activeAlbum=00294%20-%20SoulenginE%20-%20Mind%20Colours

Review:


Well this is a pleasant surprise.

So, I arrived at work this morning and wasn't sure what I was going to listen to, pulled up Progstreaming and saw an option for a band that I'd never heard.  The cover looked cool so I gave it a whirl.

Holy smokes, Mind Colours is fantastic. Five minutes into the album I realize that I've stumbled onto a gem.  Every musician in this band is top notch and the rhythm section melds together fantastically.  The first song, Polheim, has moments of Genesis interspersed with moments of Return to Forever.

Fabio Mancin is obviously a virtuoso keyboard player and has a fantastic sense of backing rhythm vs solo madness.  He can do both and the important thing, is that he knows the right one to play at any given time.  Ettore Salati's guitar blends perfectly with Mancin's keyboards.  I would describe his style as a combination of Carlos Santana, Steve Hackett and a modern shredder (sorry, no one comes to mind at the moment).

The rhythm section of Nando de Luca and Giacomo Pacin are firing on all cylinders and sound like they've been playing together for years.  Pacin, in particular is incredibly intricate, the cymbal work in No Rewarding made me sit up and say wow.

All in all, this is a great addition to anyone's collection.  It's a tight combination of Symphonic and Fusion with an amazing rhythm section to balance out a pair of vets on the lead instruments.

Review - 12/21/12 Perhaps

Well the good news is that the world didn't end today!  Here's my review of Boston's Perhaps:

Artist:  Perhaps
Album:  Volume 1
Rating:  2 stars

So I was asked to write a review of the album by the band, and honestly I struggled with the request for a week or two, mulling my thoughts and opinions. Honestly, I waffled, at times I thought that it would be better for all parties involved if I didn't write a review, other times I felt that I should write one. Finally, I decided that good or bad, I was going to give my feedback.

The production and sound of the album is very good, even more so when you consider that this was a live recording. I would have preferred that the bass was mixed a little hotter, but again, in a live setting, you often don't get everything that you want.

The musicianship is phenomenal and utterly chaotic. Major props to the chops (see what I did there) of drummer Don Taylor for playing the drums like he was in a knife fight. For the majority of the piece, he doesn't as much keep the beat as he augments the melody with one of the longest drum fills on record. Jim Haney and Sean McDermott are equally aggressive and chaotic on their various guitars.

For me though, this was a little too chaotic. With all three musicians synced up throughout the piece, there was very little to keep me grounded amid the waves of notes. There were parts that I started to enjoy, but just about when I latched onto them is exactly when something exploded and went off in a different direction.

I struggled with the rating but finally settled on two stars based on the guidelines of this site; 2 stars = Collectors / Fans only. The truth is that I'm not a huge fan of chaotic music and while this CD certainly has moments of amazing musicianship, it did not transcend the chaos and connect with me. If you're into Lark's Tongue and similar music, I recommend that you give it a whirl. For me though, it just wasn't my cup of tea.

12/20/12 Progstreaming

Intro:  So today I'm puling albums from www.progstreaming.com, this is a great site if you're looking to discover new Prog Bands.  I'm starting from the bottom and working my way up:

The Albums:

• Lost Kite - Lost Kite
• Epicloud - The Devin Townsend Project (Pulled this from Spotify so no link)
• One Eye on the Sunrise - Nine Stones Close

The Wrap Up:  


The Final Tally:

• Winner
• 
  
• Growers
• 
  
• Keepers
• 
  
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• 
  
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• 
  
• Bleh

12/19/12 Christmas Time is here

Intro:  Today is the first of three or four days of Christmas carols.  Yes, it's that time of year.  Without further ado, let's get the holiday season started!

The Albums:

• Progressive Rock Christmas - Various
• Barenaked for the Holidays - Barenaked Ladies
• The Best of Christmas - The Starlight Choir
• Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits - The Vince Guaraldi Trio
• Christmas - Manheim Steamroller
• The Christmas Attic - Trans Siberian Orchestra
• A Christmas Concert - The Vienna Symphony Orchestra
• Christmas Eve and Other Stories - Trans Siberian Orchestra
• Christmas Favorites - Nat King Cole

The Wrap Up:  


The Final Tally:

• Winner
• 
  
• Growers
• 
  
• Keepers
• 
  
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• 
  
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• 
  
• Bleh

Review 12/18/12 Ocnos

This is a placeholder page.  I listened to Ocnos yesterday (on the 18th) as part of my new Prog Archives responsibilities.  My plan is to write a review and include links to the band tonight, but didn't want to loose the place in line.

Also, I'm going to start reviewing for the site again.  As mentioned in my Phidaux story, I felt uncomfortable reviewing at the time as I wasn't a practicing musician, as I'm not actively in a band and writing music again, I feel I can review without feeling hypocritical.  The review posts will start with the title review while the daily music posts will keep their previous format.

12/17/12 Neoprog

Intro:  So I'm breaking away from my initial project for a while.  I've been nominated to become a member of the Neo Progressive Rock team at my favorite web site, www.progarchives.com, and I'm pretty excited about the honor.  In preparation, I'm immersing myself into the genre for the next couple of weeks (Christmas being the exception).  Assuming that the nomination goes through and I become part of the team, there will be frequent excursions from 'The Project' to keep more up to date on what is coming out.

The good news is that the blog isn't going away.  The better news, if you're here looking for recommendations on new music, there will be a larger focus on new prog rock as it comes out.  There will still be a focus on albums so I'm going to keep the format that I already have going for me.

There probably won't be a lot of 'moodies' as most of the moody albums are ones for a particular genre that I don't always listen to.  For instance, I need to be in the right mood to enjoy 70's funk  . . . no, bad example, I can always dig a little funk (can't we all), I guess 80's New Wave is a good example, loved it growing up and enjoy it these days when I'm feeling nostalgic.

By my initial calculations, The Project was going to be completed by May or June, I anticipate that we'll be going into the fall of next year now.  So, stick around, maybe we'll get some new folk in here.  Feel free to drop comments, I'll post just about everything that is sent.

So with that being, I'm starting the with the top rated Neo-Prog albums from The Prog Archives, I'm also sprinkling the most recent works by some of the luminaries of the field, Marillion, Arena, Magenta.

The Albums:

• All Rights Removed - Airbag
• Sounds That Can't be Made - Marillion
• The Seventh Degree of Separation - Arena
• Shooting Albatross - Abel Ganz
• Moonshine - Collage
• Elements - Introitus
• Misplaced Childhood - Marillion
• In the Last Waking Moments - Edison's Children
• Script for a Jester's Tear - Marillion

The Wrap Up:  

Sadly, I was too busy at work and didn't listen closely enough throughout the day to give proper ratings.

The Final Tally:

• Winner
• 
  
• Growers
• 
  
• Keepers
• 
  
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• 
  
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• 
  
• Bleh

12/13/12 Dreams of Dooooom!

Intro:  Ok, so I didn't quite get through Doomsday Afternoon yesterday (I listened to about five minutes of the first song) so we're starting the day off with it.  We're going to hit most of the 'Dream' albums today, interestingly enough, I think Dreams is the second most used word to start an album (not including 'the' and other small fries).  Black still wins, but there are apparently a lot of people out there that dream in black.

On a related note, both Robert Plant and Robert Miles have an album called Dreamland . . . who knew.

The Albums:

• Doomsday Afternoon - Phideaux
• Dosage - Collective Soul
• The Downward Spiral - Nine Inch Nails
• Dramarama - Agents of Mercy
• A Dramatic Turn of Events - Dream Theater
• Drastic Fantastic - KT Tunstall
• The Dream of the Blue Turtles - Sting
• The Dream Sequencer - Ayreon
• Dreamland - Robert Miles

The Wrap Up:  

So, it's a catch up kind of day.  I've sadly been remiss in updating the blog as of late.  Between work and my new duties with The Prog Archives, I'm a little behind.  With that being said, there really wasn't a big chance that anyone was going to beat Doomsday Afternoon.  Phideaux is a great artist and Doomsday is one of my two favorites by him.  If you're looking for melodic, brooding prog, you can't go wrong here, from the gentle, pained warblings of Crumble to the driving angry mood of "Thank You For the Evil" this remains one of my frequent go to albums.

I should probably include "A Dramatic Turn of Events" as a grower as I didn't turn it off once, it's growing on me.

Dramarama is the second release from "Agents of Mercy" an offshoot of one of my favorite bands, The Flower Kings.  The unfortunate reality is that they never quite hit their stride on this one.  Even with the addition of Lalle Larsson (one of the best keyboard players in prog) doesn't save Dramarama from the general meanderings of the CD.  It feels like it should go somewhere . . . it doesn't.

I think I've mentioned this before, I have a soft spot for Sting, I love a lot of his stuff and "The Dream of the Blue Turtles" is no exception.  This was his first solo release and he hit the mark on this one.  This one produced four solid hits; "Fortress Around Your Heart", "Russians", "If You Love Somebody, Set them Free" and "Love is the Seventh Wave".  Yeah, same album.  The beauty of it is, is that there are four other songs that are just as good if not better; "We Work the Black Seam" and "Moon Over Bourbon Street" both are on par with the hits.  The title track, however, is a one minute jazzy gem that just makes you smile.  My favorite track from the album is "Shadows in the Rain".  This is a four minute romp through insanity and excess with the formative lyrics:

Woke up in my clothes again this morning.  Don't know exactly where I am.
I should heed my doctor's warning, he does the best with me he can

Kenny Kirkland's electric piano solo is worth the price of admission on its own merit.  All in all, this CD could have easily been crowned the co-winner of the day.  (You know what, it's my blog, I'm doing it)

Also, an honorable mention for the Robert Miles CD, the song Children has such a haunting melody and the overall electronica / trancy feel warrants a keeper rating for this one.


The Final Tally:

• Winner
• Doomsday Afternoon - Phideaux
• The Dream of the Blue Turtles - Sting
• Growers
• The Dream Sequencer - Ayreon
• Keepers
• Dreamland - Robert Miles
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• A Dramatic Turn of Events - Dream Theater
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• Drastic Fantastic - KT Tunstall
• Bleh
• Dosage - Collective Soul
• The Downward Spiral - Nine Inch Nails
• Dramarama - Agents of Mercy

12/12/12 Dooooooom!

Intro:  

The Albums:

• Disciplined Breakdown - Collective Soul
• Discography:  The Complete Singles Collection - Pet Shop Boys
• Disintegration - The Cure
• The Distance to Here - Live
• Diva - Annie Lennox
• The Division Belle - Pink Floyd
• Dogman - King's X
• Dogs From Japan - Crack the Sky

The Wrap Up:  

I may have to listen to Disciplined Breakdown again.  I like what I heard but due to the ebb and flow of the work day, I didn't hear as much as I wanted to of it.  Both that and Diva by Anne Lennox get the grower award, I heard parts of Diva and I want to hear more of it.

Dogs from Japan was pretty awful, poor 80's rock production and, in my opinion, weak songwriting.

I had to weigh Dogman and The Division Bell for a few moments before finally anointing Dogman.  King's is such a fantastic band and they absolutely smoked both times I saw them live.

The Final Tally:

• Winner
• Dogman - King's X
• Growers
• Diva - Annie Lennox
• Keepers
• The Division Belle - Pink Floyd
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• The Distance to Here - Live
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• Disintegration - The Cure
• Discography:  The Complete Singles Collection - Pet Shop Boys
• Bleh
• Dogs From Japan - Crack the Sky

12/11/12 Big Big Blog

Intro:  So today I get to introduce you all to Big Big Train which is one of my new favorites.  Also, as a side note, I did the unthinkable, I skipped something entirely without listening to it.  Different Stages by Rush is one of the five live albums that I have by them.  Honestly, I didn't feel listening to Rush for the entire four hours of the release so I just gave it a 'Bleh' and skipped it.  No apologies.  The purpose of the blog is for me to listen to the obscure stuff on my hard drive . . . Rush is not obscure.

The Albums:

• Detours - Sheryl Crow
• The Difference Machine - Big Big Train
• Different Stages - Rush
• Dig Your Own Hole - The Chemical Brothers
• Dirt - Alice in Chains
• Dirty Epic / Cowgirl - Underworld
• Dirty Vegas - Dirty Vegas
• Discipline - King Crimson
• Disciplined Breakdown - Collective Soul

The Wrap Up:  


The Final Tally:

• Winner
• 
  
• Growers
• 
  
• Keepers
• 
  
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• 
  
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• 
  
• Bleh
• Different Stages - Rush

12/10/12 Bleh

Intro:  Damn, I'm really getting behind on the write ups here.

The Albums:

• Deconstruction - Devin Townsend
• Deep - Peter Murphy
• Deep Forest - Deep Forest
• Definitive Collection - Stevie Wonder
• Delirium (remixes) - Euphoria
• Deliverance - Sylvan
• Demon Days - Gorillaz
• Desireless - Eagle Eye Cherry

The Wrap Up:  

Bleh, it's a bleh kind of day.  Sorry, not much of a write up here, there were a few keepers from the day but nothing that stood out.  Demon Days is a grower in that I actually listened to it the whole way through.  Not my best of days musically.  The good news is that I'm actually doing a write up.  Starting next week, Christmas albums!.

The Final Tally:

• Winner
• 
  
• Growers
• Demon Days - Gorillaz
• Keepers
• Deep - Peter Murphy
• Deep Forest - Deep Forest
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• Deliverance - Sylvan
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• Definitive Collection - Stevie Wonder
• Bleh
• Deconstruction - Devin Townsend
• Delirium (remixes) - Euphoria
• Desireless - Eagle Eye Cherry

12/06/12 Darkness

Intro:  Darkness reigns . . . No seriously, the project has gone a bit better than I thought it would.  Next week, I'm going to start the Christmas music, but for today, we reach another milestone.  We've made the transition from C to D.  Yes, we're starting out with Michael Jackson and I was originally going to give today the title of "Jam" until I realized that there are a lot of great CD's coming today, all of which start with the word 'Dark'.

The Albums:

• Dangerous - Michael Jackson
• Dark Matter - IQ
• Dark Passion Play - Nightwish
• Dark Passion Play (Instrumental) - Nightwish
• Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd
• The Dark Third - Pure Reason Revolution
• Darwin - Banco del Mutuo Soccorso
• David Myers Plays Genesis - David Myers

The Wrap Up:  

It takes a pretty friggin amazing album to keep "Dark Side of the Moon" from winning.  "The Dark Third" by Pure Reason revolution is that album.  They kind of take the dark brooding atmospheres of gothic rock and overlay it with Pink Floyd psychedelics then top the whole thing off with not one lead singer, but what sounds like three part chamber singers, two sopranos and a tenor.  The combination is magnificent.  Sadly, the albums that come after this have replaced much of the atmosphere with poorly done electronica, but The Dark Third is not an album to miss.  The highest compliment that I can give any album is that 'it's been on the new iPod since I got it'.  I do a lot of moving stuff on and off, but The Dark Third is always there.

If you're reading this blog, if you like my recommendations then don't miss this one, go to Spotify now, play it as loud as you can get away with and enjoy.  Even if you don't like it, you'll appreciate the unique quality of this album . . . but you're going to like it.

The Final Tally:

• Winner
• The Dark Third - Pure Reason Revolution
• Growers
• 
  
• Keepers
• Dark Passion Play - Nightwish
• Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• Dark Matter - IQ
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• David Myers Plays Genesis - David Myers
• Bleh
• Dangerous - Michael Jackson
• Dark Passion Play (Instrumental) - Nightwish
• Darwin - Banco del Mutuo Soccorso

12/07/12 Remember

Intro:  

The Albums:

• Day for Night - Spock's Beard
• A Day Without Rain - Enya
• Days of the New (1) - Days of the New
• Days of the New (2) - Days of the New
• De-Loused in the Comatorium - The Mars Volta
• Deadwing - Porcupine Tree
• A Decade of Steely Dan - Steely Dan
• Decade:  Greatest Hits - Duran Duran

The Wrap Up:  


The Final Tally:

• Winner
• 
  
• Growers
• 
  
• Keepers
• 
  
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• 
  
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• 
  
• Bleh

12/05/12 Crash!

Intro:  So I think I'm going to start waiting until the end of the day to give the day a title.  A lot of times there's a story involved and I'm thinking that the name should be derived from the story.  Incidentally, I missed the last four tracks from Counterparts yesterday and I'm listening to them now. . . what a fantastic way to end an album and start a day off.  I don't think I'm allowed to give something the winning CD two days in a row but it's a thought.

On the bright side, I figured out what today's story will be so I'll give today's post a name right now.

The Albums:

• Cowboy's Back in Town - Trace Adkins
• Crack the Sky - Crack the Sky
• Crash - The Dave Matthews Band
• The Cross and the Crucible - Pallas
• The Cross of Change - Enigma
• The Cry - Arena
• Culture of Ascent - Glass Hammer
• The Cure - The Cure
• Cut the Cake - The Average White Band

The Wrap Up:  


The Final Tally:

• Winner
• Crash - The Dave Matthews Band
• Growers
• The Cross of Change - Enigma
• Culture of Ascent - Glass Hammer
• Keepers
• Crack the Sky - Crack the Sky
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• The Cross and the Crucible - Pallas
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• Cowboy's Back in Town - Trace Adkins
• Cut the Cake - The Average White Band
• Bleh
• The Cry - Arena
• The Cure - The Cure

12/04/12 (Insert witty name here)

Intro:  Kind of a crazy morn, should be an eclectic day musically.  We have 90's alt, Country, 70's rock, 80's pop, 00's pop and Rush.

The Albums:

• Continuum - John Mayer
• Contraband:  The Best of Men at Work - Men at Work
• Core - Stone Temple Pilots
• Counterparts - Rush

The Wrap Up:  

Well this ended up being a short musical day for some reason, sadly, I don't have a lot to write about.

Here is the one point of interest from yesterday, I'm giving Counterparts the win and a 'grower' tag.  On the last few releases by Rush, I've been unimpressed by Geddy's voice.  He sounds really good on Counterparts though.  I don't know if it's a mix or the result of a younger Geddy singing, but I caught a little of the magic of Rush again.  Don't get me wrong, I love Rush, I probably see them every other tour and give them props for continuing to do what they obviously love.  It was just a nice change to not have to apologize for Mr. Lee's voice (in my own head).  I get it, we all get older and degrade a little bit as we age, sadly nothing to be done about it.  I just really enjoyed hearing a younger Geddy Lee singing.

The Final Tally:

• Winner
• Counterparts - Rush
• Growers
• Counterparts - Rush
• Keepers
• Continuum - John Mayer
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• 
  
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• Contraband:  The Best of Men at Work - Men at Work
• Core - Stone Temple Pilots
• Bleh

12/3/12 Complex and Contagious Oxygene

Intro:  Today will be an interesting day musically, Oxygene 1 and 2 bundled together and two top twenty albums.  Don't get too frightened by the multiple contagions by Arena, the first one is the real album, the second two are related three song EP's.

The Albums:

• The Complete Depeche Mode (Excerpt) - Depeche Mode
• The Complete Oxygen - Jean-Michel Jarre
• The Complex - Blue Man Group
• The ConstruKction of Light - Kimg Crimson
• Contagion - Arena
• Contagious - Arena

The Wrap Up:  

So I declared a multiple winner day.  Both 'The Complex" and "Contagious" are all time favorites of mine.

I started my fascination with The Blue Man Group a few years ago, I think they were on a PBS concert and I was utterly impressed with their work.  I bought "The Complex" and absolutely loved it.  Highly innovative and imaginative with their music, their stage show and their instrumentation.  Marianne and I went to see them in concert and absolutely loved it.  Honestly, I can't wait for the chance to take Tori to go see them.  If you're interested in people that make their own instruments, these are the guys to see.  I've heard amazingly interesting things come out of PVC thanks to these guys.

Contagion is by a Neoprog band called Arena and tells the story of Earth after the population has been decimated by disease.  The real story here though is the music.  Clive Nolan truly shines on Keys, so much of this album is dominated by his work, if you want to hear a great 'keyboard feature' piece, check out "Riding the Tide".  For songwriting, try "Skin Game", the modulation from minor to major at the 2:41 mark is one of the key points and most spine tingling moments of the album.  If you like Neoprog, this album is a must have.

The Final Tally:

• Winner
• The Complex - Blue Man Group
• Contagion - Arena
• Growers
• 
  
• Keepers
• The Complete Oxygen - Jean-Michel Jarre
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• The ConstruKction of Light - Kimg Crimson
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• The Complete Depeche Mode (Excerpt) - Depeche Mode
• Bleh
• Contagious - Arena

11/30/12 Afternoon Delight

Intro:  So I spent the morning in a meeting and didn't listen to a blessed thing.  I have about three and a half hours today so it's going to be a short one.  I'm bumping 'The Complete Oxygene" to next week as it's a double album and wouldn't fit in the day's listening.

The Albums:

• Comm - The Tangent
• Communique - Dire Straits

The Wrap Up:  

Crazy day, I was only able to listen to two albums.  Communique was good if you're in the mood, you have to be in a bluesy low key kind of mood.  Comm was the winner, The Tangent has come a long way in my opinion.  A lot of their earlier stuff was a bit too far out there for me, but as I keep listening to them, either they're getting better or I'm more open to them.  Either way, The Tangent takes the trophy from an abbreviated day.

The Final Tally:

• Winner
• Comm - The Tangent
• Growers
• 
  
• Keepers
• 
  
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• 
  
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• Communique - Dire Straits
• Bleh

11/29/12 Colors

Intro:  I love Colors by Ken Nordine, hysterical, game changing CD.  I don't know if I can listen to it in one sitting.  We may skip it.  If we do, this means that we'll get to "Comm" by The Tangent.

The Albums:

• Clutching at Straws (Bonus Disc) - Marillion
• Collective Soul - Collective Soul
• Colors - Ken Nordine
• The Colour of Spring - Talk Talk
• Coma Divine - Porupine Tree
• Come Away With Me - Norah Jones
• Come Sail Away - The Styx Anthology
• Come With Us - The Chemical Brothers
• Comfort Eagle - Cake
• Comm - The Tangent

The Wrap Up:  

Anger . . . anger . . . Google Chrome crashed on me and apparently my work wasn't saved, so this is the second time I'm typing this.

I'm not a huge fan of Bonus Discs and despite my love of "Clutching at Straws", the bonus disc doesn't do much for me.

Cake was given to me by a friend with the words 'here, you'll like this'.  She is no longer my friend.  Cake is getting booted from the hard drive.  Cake is rhythmic whining.  (I'm being overly harsh for comedic purposes, I just really didn't care for them).

The main subject of the day is "Colors" by Ken Nordine.  A few years ago I realized that I had a bunch of songs named after elements; Silver by Juno Reactor, Carbon by Tori Amos, Neon by John Mayer, Mercury by The Clarks, Chrome by VNV Nation . . . and so on.  I did a search on the iTunes store for more and came across "Gold" by Ken Nordine.  I listened to the song and it was so weird, I immediately bought the entire album.

Ken Nordine does what is described as 'word jazz', basically he tells a somewhat bizarre / beatnik story over melodies played by jazzy musicians.  Sometimes the musicians play together, sometimes not, but it's really the stories that set this apart.  The album is a series of 2 minute pieces based on different colors and their personalities.  For example:

• Fuchsia is apparently a fuss budget and wants everything in the world to be colored fuchsia.
• Yellow was being picked on by Green, it was a bad scene until Blue came in and reminded Green that if Blue and Yellow got together, well they didn't need Green, a gentle threat.
• Gold wants everything to fight over it.

You get the hint.  I had a buddy of mine, Mike Marcus, come over and help me paint my basement.  I put this album, to his credit, it was about a half hour and a few beers of this before he finally threw something at me with the eternal question, 'wtf is this'.  No, he didn't use the acronym.


The Final Tally:

• Winner
• The Colour of Spring - Talk Talk
• Growers
• 
  
• Keepers
• Coma Divine - Porupine Tree
• Come Sail Away - The Styx Anthology
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• Collective Soul - Collective Soul
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• Colors - Ken Nordine
• Come Away With Me - Norah Jones
• Come With Us - The Chemical Brothers
• Bleh
• Clutching at Straws (Bonus Disc) - Marillion
• Comfort Eagle - Cake

11/28/12 Shine On

11/28/12 Shine On

Intro:  So I'm starting the day with "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd.  It's out of sequence and thus not in the lists for the day, but something that I wanted to play.  So here's what happened:

My alarm clock turned on this morning at 5:40 to the local rock station.  The timing was perfect such that the first thing I heard were the iconic four notes at the beginning of (the radio version) of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond".  What an amazing way to start the day.

The Albums:

• City Delirious - Lionrock
• City of Angels - Various
• Classics Regrooved - Various
• Clear Creek Road - The Nixon Clocks
• Clockwork Angels - Rush
• Close-Up - David Sanborn
• Close to the Edge - Yes
• Clutching at Straws - Marillion

The Wrap Up:  

Bring on the grief machine, yes I only rated "Close to the Edge" as a Wibbler. . . wait til I get to some of the other Yes albums and give them a 'Bleh' rating.  So yes, despite "Close to the Edge" being one ot the quintessential Prog Rock CD's, I just don't get it quite as much as the rest of the prog community thinks I should.  I will say this, after repeated listens, I finally appreciate it enough to rise it above the 'bleh' ranking.

Regarding "City of Angels" even fifteen years later, I still cringe every time I hear Iris.

Today's winner was "Clutching at Straws" which is my favorite Marillion album.  Much like Yes, Marillion is a band that I should like according to my other tastes, but at the same time, fails to connect with me on a day in day out basis.  "Clutching at Straws" though is easily my favorite album by them.  Fish is at his finest singing about the effects of a lifestyle rife with drugs and booze.

The Nixon Clocks were a local band that didn't make it far out of Pittsburgh.  Back in the 90's, they were a regular at Nick's Fat City and were a typical nineties rock band.  Good guys to talk to, and back in the day, they were a fun band to go see.  This CD always reminds me of Thursday Nights at Nick's, good beer, rather attractive waitresses (that wouldn't give me their number despite my best efforts) and also Jason Yaklich and Mike Marcus.  Ahh yes, now I'm waxing nostalgic, it's times like this that I really miss my hair.

Clockwork Angels is another album that I'm not feeling, I've given it a few listens and I don't know, I think the music is great, but Geddy Lee's voice is showing the ravages of time.  I'm certainly not one to suggest that he do anything other than what he loves, I don't know, maybe they should consider a different mix or effect set on his voice.  I just have trouble listening to it the whole way through.  I accept that there's a lot of great stuff on it, I just prefer not to listen to it.

The Final Tally:

• Winner
• Clutching at Straws - Marillion
• Growers
• City Delirious - Lionrock
• Keepers
• Clear Creek Road - The Nixon Clocks
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• Clockwork Angels - Rush
• Close to the Edge - Yes
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• Close-Up - David Sanborn
• Bleh
• City of Angels - Various
• Classics Regrooved - Various

11/27/12 Chupacabras

11/27/12  Today's Albums:  Chupacabras

Intro:  I don't think I've actually named a day after a song . . . until today.  I'm a little late in typing up my intro, I've listened to two albums already, but when I heard the opening notes of 'Okay', the prelude to 'Chupacabras' by Phideaux I got the proverbial tingle up my spine.  Go Phideaux!  In retrospect, I may have wanted to give a nod to Steely Dan as the box set will occupy the entire afternoon, but I'm sticking with the initial name.

The Albums:

• Chronologie - Jean-Michael Jarre
• Chronometree - Glass Hammer
• Chupacabras - Phideaux
• Citizen Steely Dan - Steely Dan (4 discs)

The Wrap Up:  

The day was dominated by Steely Dan, good stuff.  Chronologie was one of Jarre's lesser efforts, more on him at a later date.  The Glass Hammer CD was better than I remember so I'll count that as a grower.

On to the winner and a story of what this CD did for me.

A few years ago, I was getting ready to go to the 3 Rivers Prog Fest, a two day festival of some great prog acts, IQ, King's X, Crack the Sky, Glass Hammer, Singularity, a few others, but for the purposes of this story, Phideaux was the most important band of the festival.

To prepare for the festival, I spent a few weeks listening to the various artists and reviewing their albums for my main music site, The Prog Archives.  One of the CD's that I reviewed was Chupacabras by Phideaux (review here).

Let me tell you a bit about Phideaux, Phideaux Xavier is a Hollywood director, mostly of daytime soaps.  As best as I can figure out, once he had a few years of directing to his credit, he had a bit of disposable income that was funneled to his second passion and hobby, progressive rock.  He effectively did what every musician turned 'something other than musician' has dreamed about and 'got the band back together'.  He resurrected his old high school band, getting all of his friends together to make great music.  Phideaux is the labor of his love.  Not only is the music phenomenal,but it's obvious that everyone in the band, not only loves what they do, but really enjoys being with the rest of the band.

Phideaux himself is a very personable guy and also an active member of The Prog Archives.  We had exchanged a few messages back and forth on the site and he asked me to introduce myself to him at the prog festival.

So, as I said, I reviewed "Chubacabras" prior to the festival.  In the course of the review, I made a few disparaging comments about some of the lyrics in the title track.

When Phideaux played at the festival, they were fantastic and frankly, the song, "Chupacabras" was one of the highlights of the show.  Any lyrical issues that I had were quickly forgotten.  You could tell that Phideaux, the director, orchestrated the stage show.  If you were paying attention, you could see the energy flow from one point on the stage to another, focusing your attention on exactly where it needed to be at any given moment.  At one point, Valarie Gracious, one of the female leads, had a solo coming up, the energy was waning and slowly, subtly shifting to her.  The guitar player bent down to 'fix a pedal', the keyboard player bent over to adjust his set list, someone else knelt down to grab a drink of water . . . by the time Valarie's solo started, she was the only one that remained standing.  It was a mesmerizing show and, for me, the highlight of the festival.

So I came off the high of seeing this performance and now had a chance to meet the band.  As promised, I introduced myself to Phideaux and was honestly flattered that he immediately knew who I was and was very friendly, even gracious.  He did joke with me about the review, giving me grief for the comments on the lyrics but in an obviously joking manner.  As I said, I was truly flattered that he recognized me, but I honestly started to feel a little guilty about my lyric comments after the fact.  The show was fantastic, their music was fantastic, who was I to nitpick.

Regardless, I was still mostly flattered and shared the story of meeting Phideaux to anyone that would listen,one of which was my Dad.  Now Dad is still a practicing musician, whereas I had been on the shelf for about ten years at that point in my life.  I told him of the reviews that I'd been doing and how I met Phideaux.  My Dad was pleased to hear about the encounter but he made an off the cuff remark during the story that kind of changed my life.  He said something to the effect of 'wow, I've never given a lot of credence to journalists that wern't out there doing their own thing.  It's easy to write about other people's music, but so much more impressive to do your own'.

Well, I took his words to heart, I stopped reviewing and a few months later, bought myself a new keyboard and started 'doing' again.  Last year I played in a country band on the biggest stage I've been on in my life.  I've been working with a Styx / Journey tribute band for a few months now and we're just about ready to play out.  I'm writing originals again and generally playing more than I had for the past ten years, and generally happier for it.

So thanks Dad and thanks Phideaux for effectively pushing me to get off my ass and start playing again.

The Final Tally:

• Winner
• Chupacabras - Phideaux
• Growers
• Chronometree - Glass Hammer
• Keepers
• Citizen Steely Dan - Steely Dan (4 discs)
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• 
  
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• 
  
• Bleh
• Chronologie - Jean-Michael Jarre

PS:  Yes, I realize there's a certain amount of irony that I was writing the whole story about converting 'writing' into 'doing'.

11/26/12 Cyber Monday

11/26/12  Today's Albums:  Cyber Monday

Intro:  Not a holiday that I typically celebrate, though it seems like a good enough name for today's entry.  Let's see, I get an album by a friend of mine, the Chef Aid Soundtrack, Electronica, prog metal . . . it should be an eclectic day to say the least.

Update:  Sorry, I don't think I can listen to The South Park Soundtrack today at work.  I'm fairly certain that half of the songs would get me fired.  I'll just drop that into the 'moodies' category.  Added "Christ 0" by Vanden Plas to make up for the lost time, giving the day an added Prog Metal feel.

The Albums:

• Cascade - Peter Murphy
• Catch Without Arms - Dredg
• Catching Up With Depeche Mode - Depeche Mode
• Celestial Entrance - Pagan's Mind
• A Change of Season - Dream Theater
• Chapter V - Stained
• Chef Aid:  The South Park Album - Various
• Children - Robert Miles
• Chris Kleiner
• Christ 0 - Vanden Plas

The Wrap Up:  

I'll try to give a better write up later today, sadly, I'm pressed for time at the moment.

So there were a lot of short albums today not to mention the skipped album.

Back in 1993, I was in a band called ESP, we were 'avant garde' we were 'the next big thing' . . . you name it.  Regardless, we were pretty good, all four of us were really good musicians and able to jump genres at the drop of a hat, we could go from jazz to country to rock to blues with out dropping a beat . . . and we often did.  During the time that I played with ESP, my buddy Chris Kleiner played bass.  Anyways, as with most bands, it didn't last long enough and we all went our separate ways.  Chris recorded an album during his stint in the Air Force while stationed in Japan.  It's a great record, I'd classify it as a folksy / popish album with a lot of focus on the songs themselves.  Poignant at times, funny at other times, but always a good listen.

Celestial Entrance and Chapter V both had moments that made me go 'huh, I hadn't heard that before'.  I was kind of surprised at the Staind CD as I had pretty much written them off as 'something that my wife likes'.  No offense to my wife, she generally enjoys stuff that is harder than I prefer.  I'l be giving Stained another listen.

Chef Aid has a lot of funny songs, as I mentioned, not really anything I can listen to at work.  "Chocolate Salty Balls" doesn't cut it, no matter how you roll it.

The winner of the day was Christ 0 by Vanden Plas.  This is your basic "German Prog Metal Epic About a Murderer and the Cop That Searches for Him as Adapted From the Count of Monte Christo'".  I know, I know, it's easy to say 'if you've heard one of them, you've heard them all. . . . but this one's different.  Look up January Sun on Spotify or what ever and you get seven minutes of everything that German Prog Metal should be.  The epic vocal choirs, blistering keyboard solos intertwined with ripping guitar solos, a singer that  would be just as comfortable fronting Warrant as anything else.  This, ladies and gentlemen, is a masterpiece.

The Final Tally:

• Winner
• Christ 0 - Vanden Plas
• Growers
• Celestial Entrance - Pagan's Mind
• Chapter V - Stained
• Keepers
• Cascade - Peter Murphy
• Catch Without Arms - Dredg
• A Change of Season - Dream Theater
• Children - Robert Miles
• Chris Kleiner
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• 
  
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• Catching Up With Depeche Mode - Depeche Mode
• Chef Aid:  The South Park Album - Various
• Bleh

11/21/12 Bleak Wednesday

11/21/12  Today's Albums:  Bleak Wednesday

Intro:  It's the day before Thanksgiving and the few of us that are stuck here are relatively bored, thus Bleak Wednesday.  On the bright side, it's a short day.

The Albums:

• C'mon, C'mon - Sheryl Crow
• Calling All Stations - Genesis
• Caress of Steel - Rush
• The Cars / Candy-O - The Cars

The Wrap Up:  

It was a short day so there wasn't a lot of music to listen to.  The Cars was unmemorable, Calling All Stations and C'mon C'mon were the keepers with Sheryl Crow taking the win.  Caress of Steel was nice at times and gets a 'Grower' designation.  I didn't get a great listen, but I'll be paying more attention to The Necromancer next time.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all (John, Chris, Rob and Craig).

Tom

The Final Tally:

• Winner
• C'mon, C'mon - Sheryl Crow
• Growers
• Caress of Steel - Rush
• Keepers
• Calling All Stations - Genesis
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• The Cars / Candy-O - The Cars
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• 
  
• Bleh

11/20/12 Snore

11/20/12  Today's Albums:  Snore . . .

Intro:  This seems like it's going to be a crappy day, musically, Brothers in Arms is a great CD, Bunkka is pretty good, two Buddha Lounges in a row is going to be tedious.

The Albums:

• Brothers in Arms - Dire Straits
• Buddha Lounge - Various
• Buddha Lounge 3 - Various
• Bunkka - Paul Oakenfold
• Bushwack - Buskwack
• Busted Stuff - The Dave Matthew's Band

Summary:

Yeah, as I predicted, kind of a forgettable day.  I was in a world electronica phase, it was a brief phase, but during it, I picked up two CD's from the Buddha Lounge series.  At this point, it's tedious to listen to them back to back.  Good stuff if you're in to Indian Chanting with an electronic back beat.

Bushwack is a great find that I made thanks to the now defunct Rogues Gallery podcast.  Very atmospheric instrumental prog rock if that's your thing.  They have a great use of textures.

Bunkka has a lot of great electronica, Starry Eyed Surprise and Ready, Steady Go are both electronica classics and Zoo York has popped up in more soundtracks than Oh Yeah by Yello.

The winner for the day is Brothers in Arms, Dire Straits finest moments.  The Man's Too Strong remains one of the more powerful rock ballads, the acoustic / electric dynamic almost has a Porcupine Tree feel to it, only years prior.

The Final Tally:

• Winner
• Brothers in Arms - Dire Straits
• Growers
• 
  
• Keepers
• Bunkka - Paul Oakenfold
• Bushwack - Buskwack
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• Busted Stuff - The Dave Matthew's Band
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• 
  
• Bleh
• Buddha Lounge - Various
• Buddha Lounge 3 - Various

11/19/12

11/19/12  Today's Albums:

Intro:  What the hell is Carl Palmer doing at the 6 minute mark in Tocatto . . . really, timpani and sirens?  At a glance, I'll guess that the first streak is about to be established, Bring on the Night is a fantastic live CD by Sting and the early favorite for the day.  Sting may be the first to have the winner two days in a row.

The Albums:

• Brain Salad Surgery - Emerson, Lake and Palmer
• Brave (Bonus Disc) - Marillion
• Brave New Hope - Basia
• Bravo - Gazpacho
• Break - Enchant
• Bridge Across Forever - Transatlantic
• Bring on the Night - Sting
• Bringing Down the Horse - The Wallflowers

Summary:

What a mediocre day, Sting and Basia were the winners here, Basia was a nice, jazzy / pop thing, very well mixed and bright.

Today's winner, Bring on the Night was the recording of Sting's first concert after leaving The Police.  Here's an interesting side note, I used to have the associated documentary on VHS.  I learned a lot about the man through this documentary, there was a lot of nervousness over this concert, Sting and the band were pretty convinced that the remainder of his career would be determined by this one show.  It's a little strange to see someone as calm and confident as Sting is these days, almost panicking over this show.  Regardless of any fears he may have had, the show and the band absolutely rocked.  Branford Marsalis (sax), Kenny Kirkland (keys) and Omar Hakim (drums) shined in particular.

Bridge Across Forever is my favorite Transatlantic CD, though Transatlantic doesn't click with me quite as much as they should.  To the non progheads here, four of the current 'giants' in the symphonic vein of progressive rock are Marillion, The Flower Kings, Spock's Beard and Dream Theater  (three of these four are in my top ten favorite bands).  Transatlantic is composed of members of those four bands.  Transatlantic is a band that I go bananas over, unfortunately, I mostly don't like bananas and I mostly don't Transatlantic either.  I like the thirty minute epics as much as the next prog head, but the band has three albums and four epics that are close to 30 minutes.  Can I just have a ten minute song, truly, that's epic enough for me.  Still, Bridge Across Forever does have the two best epics by the band.

Brain Salad Surgery . . . I get it, this is another Prog classic . . . no wait, I don't get it.  There is some good stuff but give me Tarkus over Brain Salad any day.

Hey, the good news is that nothing got the ignominious 'bleh' rating.

The Final Tally:

• Winner
• Bring on the Night - Sting
• Growers
• Brave New Hope - Basia
• Keepers
• Bridge Across Forever - Transatlantic
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• Brain Salad Surgery - Emerson, Lake and Palmer
• Brave (Bonus Disc) - Marillion
• Bravo - Gazpacho
• Break - Enchant
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• Bringing Down the Horse - The Wallflowers
• Bleh

11/16/12 Jazzy

11/16/12  Jazzy!

Intro:  I did a little manipulation today.  Brave by Marillion (a double album) was scheduled for the last album of the day.  Unfortunately, I won't be able to listen to it in it's entirety, as such, I'm bumping it down to the lead off position on Monday and giving Brave New Hope the nod for the end of the day.  Other than that, we've got a good mix, two Jazzy CD's, something from my favorite band (Genesis), Some nineties stuff and one of the progressive rock classic CD's in Brain Salad Surgery.  First thought, I'm digging Deep Forest.

The Albums:

• Boheme - Deep Forest
• The Bohemians - Skywalk
• Boingo - Boingo
• Born on a Pirate Ship - Barenaked Ladies
• Boxset 1976-1982 - Genesis
• A Boy Named Goo - The Goo Goo Dolls
• Brand New Day - Sting
• Brain Salad Surgery - Emerson, Lake and Palmer
• Brave - Marillion

Summary:
I forgot to manipulate, that' ok, I got through the regular CD and missed the bonus CD.  It wasn't like breaking up an epic.  I am however giving Brain Salad Surgery another run today.  I don't remember what happened but I didn't hear it at all.  I'm leaving it out of the lists and will give it s apin on the 19th.

Boheme and Brave both got the 'grower' tag.  This basically means that this listen has changed my opinion of the CD for the positive.  Something that gets a 'grower' tag gets a playlist in iTunes and usually transferred to the iPod for further listening.  These are the real gems of the project.  A day that I find two things that I've got a better opinion of is a great day.

Boheme is a hybrid of New Age / Electronica / World Music and has a lot of catchy melodies to go along with the driving bass.  Brave is an album revered by the masses of Neoprog fans out there as one of the best.  Me, I too am a fan of Neoprog, but Marillion is one of those bands that I don't quite get as much as others do.  Brave is considered a modern classic for it's genre.  I don't want to say that I finally 'get it' referring to all of the hype surrounding the CD, I did enjoy it more than other times I've listened to it.

Love Sting and Brand New Day is one of the best, A Boy Named Goo is a great listen if you're in the mood for 80's hair metal turned 90's rock.  Brand New Day is the song that I use to test out car stereos, it is mixed beautifully with each and every piece crystal clear.  Within the first thirty seconds you get an incredibly low bass rumble and the clear, high end of the snare overtones.

The Bohemians is a great, 80's jazz CD that I ran into back in the day.  If you want to hear an absolutely beautiful song, look up The Torchbearers (yes, the blog is new and improved, now with links).

The Genesis Boxset contains a lot of rarities, if you're in to that type of thing, then this is the way to go.

Boingo is an interesting CD.  Back in the late 80's / early 90's, Oingo Boingo apparently had a fight of some sort, Danny Elfman (yes, that Danny Elfman) wanted the band to go in one direction, the rest of the band wanted to go elsewhere . . . so they fired him . . . and created a new band . . . called Oingo.  Well, I don't know if Oingo ever released anything but Elfman apparently  decided to one up them and release a CD by his new band, Boingo.  This is the result.  The first song, Insanity, kicks proverbial butt and leaves you wanting a whole heck of a lot more. . . sadly, this need is never met and the remainder of the CD is kind of bad jangly pop.

Regardless, it was a good day, 2 growers, some Genesis and the introduction of links in the Blog.  Sting for the win.

The Final Tally:

• Winner
• Brand New Day - Sting
• Growers
• Boheme - Deep Forest
• Brave - Marillion
• Keepers
• The Bohemians - Skywalk
• Boxset 1976-1982 - Genesis
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• Born on a Pirate Ship - Barenaked Ladies
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• A Boy Named Goo - The Goo Goo Dolls
• Bleh
• Boingo - Boingo

11/14/12 The Blackness Continues

11/14/12  Today's Albums:  The Blackness Continues

Intro:  So the real question of the day is 'how much of this am I going to get through'?  I'm on the second Opeth song and trying my hardest not to hit the 'skip the rest of this album' button.  Garbage didn't fare so well earlier this month, they may get skipped.  Drive by Truckers didn't impress me when I first picked it up from a friend.  This could be my second crappy day of music in a row.   (oh wait, the guy from Opeth is actually singing and not grunting like an angry beaver, this may save this album for another song at least).

The Albums:

• The Black Magic Show - Elefant
• Blackfield - Blackfield
• Blackwater Park - Opeth
• Bleed Like Me - Garbage
• Blender - Collective Soul
• A Blessing and a Curse - Drive-By Truckers
• Bloodletting - Concrete Blonde
• Blow by Blow - Jeff Beck
• Blue Album - Orbital

Summary:

So, it was an interesting day.  For the first time in the blog, a grower was also the winner of the day.  Drive By Truckers really impressed me and this is a good thing, the first time I listened to them, I was less than impressed.  Thanks to my buddy, Evan Verbanic for introducing me to them.

The Black Magic Show by Elefant was a CD that I got from my friend Kristie and it's catchy.  I'd classify them as 2000's darker pop, good focus on songs, good rifs, good hooks.  Blackfield is a project by Steven Wilson (of Porcupine Tree fame) and can be a little meloncholy, this is typically a good thing and it works for this album.

Blackwater Park brings me to Opeth, an enigma at best.  In the prog rock circles, Opeth is one of the more highly regarded bands, many people absolutely love them.  There is a second group that acknowledge that they're pretty damn good musically, but Mikel Akerfield's growling vocals, reminiscent of the worst Cookie Monster analogies that you can come up with make me (and many others no doubt) relive the recurring battle of 'do I delete this or listen to it again later and maybe I'll finally get it'.  After about three songs he stopped growling thus saving the CD from deletion.

Garbage and Collective Soul we both forgettable and I already sang my praises of Drive By Truckers.

Bloodletting is a classic in the gothic / 80's alternative scene with a series of fantastic songs that remain relevant today.  Johnette Napolitano's breathy alto is both soulful and stunning at the same time.  "Joey", "Caroline" and "Tomorrow Wendy" can all give me the proverbial goosebumps under the right circumstances.  The only problem that I have with this album is the mix, I have always bemoaned the relatively quiet mix on this CD, to really hear anything you've got to really crank up your speakers and let's face, not everything I have is a Bose, the Prius sound system is good, but to really hear this CD, you need to sit in a quiet room with no distractions and good headphones.  Having a five year old little girl, this is not only, inconvenient it's just about impossible.

Blow by Blow was good, though I want vocals after a while, the Blue Album was adequate background electronica.

The Final Tally:

• Winner
• A Blessing and a Curse - Drive-By Truckers
• Growers
• A Blessing and a Curse - Drive-By Truckers
• The Black Magic Show - Elefant
• Keepers
• Blackfield - Blackfield
• Bloodletting - Concrete Blonde
• Blow by Blow - Jeff Beck
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• Bleed Like Me - Garbage
• Blender - Collective Soul
• Blue Album - Orbital
• Blackwater Park - Opeth
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• 
  
• Bleh

11/13/12 Kristie's Day

11/13/12  Today's Albums:  Kristie's Day

Intro:  So the theme for the day is apparently Kristie's Day.  Two of the CD's were ones that I got from my friend Kristie, Black Gives Way to Blue and The Black Magic Show (apparently she's into Black).  All in all, it's a relatively eclectic mix, low on the electronica.

The Albums:

• Big Swing Face - Bruce Hornsby
• Billy the Kid / Rodeo - Aaron Copeland
• Birds of Pray - Live
• Black Celebration - Depeche Mode
• Black Clouds and Silver Linings - Dream Theater
• The Black Forest - Agents of Mercy
• Black Gives Way to Blue - Alice in Chains
• Black Like Sunday - King's X

Summary:

Wow, that was kind of a crappy day, nothing was quite worthy of getting 'winner' status.  The only one that I was really enjoying was Billy the Kid / Rodeo but even that didn't quite cut it.  Classical music is problematic in a cube farm / work environment due to the dynamics.  You either can't hear the soft parts or the loud parts merit you a visit from the VP who really isn't interested in the whole 'but I'm listening to my entire music catalog' defense.

Birds of Pray sucked, Black Gives Way to Blue sucked, Black Like Sunday almost sucked, they got the 'Wibbler' tag mostly on the band's reputation.

Big Swing Face was good, but again, not my favorite by Bruce.  Black Celebration was kind of fun, but obviously dated.  Black Clouds had winner consideration as well, sadly, the lyrics at times are horrendous and I just couldn't give them the award.

I had initially reported that I'd get to hear "The Black Magic Show" in the intro, sadly, that just didn't materialize.

On to tomorrow.

The Final Tally:

• Winner
• 
  
• Growers
• 
  
• Keepers
• Big Swing Face - Bruce Hornsby
• Billy the Kid / Rodeo - Aaron Copeland
• Black Clouds and Silver Linings - Dream Theater
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• The Black Forest - Agents of Mercy
• Black Like Sunday - King's X
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• Black Celebration - Depeche Mode
• Bleh
• Birds of Pray - Live
• Black Gives Way to Blue - Alice in Chains

11/12/12 Bearded Electronica

11/12/12  Today's Albums:  Intro of the Beard and a lot of Electronica

Intro (Ok, So I'm going to start adding my initial thoughts here):  Ladies and Gentlemen we're going to start the day off my introducing you all to one of my all time favorite bands, Spock's Beard.  In the grand scheme of things, they're probably a top five band for me.  Prog at its modern best.  RPWL is in my regular rotation at this point as it's both new and pretty damn good.  Then there's a whole bunch of electronica.  See you on the other side.

• Beware of Darkness - Spock's Beard
• Beyond Man and Time - RPWL
• Beyond the Infinite - Juno Reactor
• Bible of Dreams - Juno Reactor
• Bicycles and Tricycles - The Orb
• Big Blue Ball - Various
• Big Face - The D Project

Summary:

It was a decent day, a bit of prog, some electronica and some Peter Gabriel led world music.  As I mentioned in the intro, the first two were both great.  Beware of Darkness was one of my first Beard CD's, if you're looking for some good modern prog, Spock's Beard is a great place to go in my mind.  RPWL was a Pink Floyd tribute band before they made the transition to their own material.  They still have a Floyd sound to them, circa Division Belle.  This CD in particular is one of my favorites by them.  I would have to double check, but "Beyond Man and Time" is up there with "Banks of Eden" as my favorite releases of 2012.

We then hit a batch of electronica, two Juno Reactor CD's followed by The Orb.  Electronica was my primary listening preference for years, but at this point, it's a struggle to get through a big chunk of it unless I'm in the right mood.

Big Blue Ball was a compilation CD by Peter Gabriel and some of his artists on the WOMAD label.  If you like Gabriel and World Music, this is a great way to go.

Finally we ended with Big Face by The D Project.  I found these guys on Progstreaming.com and really enjoy them.  They're a relatively small artist that produces some good music.  You've probably heard this before but if you need a nice modern prog fix, go with these guys:

http://www.thedproject.com/index.html

All in all, it was a pretty good ay.

• Winner
• Beyond Man and Time - RPWL
• Growers
• Big Face - The D Project
• Keepers
• Beware of Darkness - Spock's Beard
• Beyond the Infinite - Juno Reactor
• Big Blue Ball - Various
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• 
  
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• Bible of Dreams - Juno Reactor
• Bicycles and Tricycles - The Orb
• Bleh

11/9/12 The Return of the Best of Days

12/9/12  Today's Albums:

• The Best of the Doobies - Doobie Brothers
• Best of the Muppets featuring the Muppets' Wizard of Oz
• The Best of the Rest (and then some) - Crack the Sky
• The Best of Threshold:  The Ravages of Time
• The Best That I Could Do - John Mellencamp
• Best:  1991-2004 - Seal
• Between Sunlight and Shadow - Singularity

Summary:  Thank goodness, I should finally make it out of the best of's at lunch time today.  First thought: I need to listen to the Doobies more often.  The Muppets brought a smile to my face as the sounds of MaNaMaNa echoed through the cube farm.  Crack the Sky featured a bunch of their music after they got out of their original contract . .  .all of the crappy stuff.  Threshold was a fun listen and Mellancamp was oddly enjoyable.  The Singularity CD doesn't live up to the follow up and just doesn't get a lot of air play in the Wright household.

As a side note, this is probably one of the most even distribution among the below categories.

• Winner
• The Best of the Doobies - Doobie Brothers
• Growers
• The Best That I Could Do - John Mellencamp
• Keepers
• Best of the Muppets featuring the Muppets' Wizard of Oz
• The Best of Threshold:  The Ravages of Time
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• 
  
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• Best:  1991-2004 - Seal
• Bleh
• The Best of the Rest (and then some) - Crack the Sky
• Between Sunlight and Shadow - Singularity

11/8/12 The Second Best of Days

11/8/12  Today's Albums:  The Best of Days (Part 2)

• The Best of New Order
• The Best of OMD
• The Best of The Alan Parson's Project

Summary:  It was kind of a short day for the project as I spent much of the morning listening to Quadrophenea bu The Who.  They're coming to town this weekend touring for the album and I wanted to give them a listen.  Good stuff, though I'm not shelling out the bucks for the show.

All three CD's that I listened to were pretty good and ones that I generally enjoy.  OMD and New Order are obviously from my rather extensive 80's new wave phase but I think I'll give the winners mantle to The Alan Parson's Project.  All three could have won.

• Winner
• The Best of The Alan Parson's Project
• Growers
• 
  
• Keepers
• The Best of New Order
• The Best of OMD
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• 
  
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• 
  
• Bleh

11/07/12 The Best of Days

11/07/12  Today's Albums:  The Best of Days!

• The Best of Cameo
• The Best of David Benoit
• The Best of Emerson, Lake and Palmer 
• The Best of Howard Jones
• The Best of It Bites
• The Best of Jethro Tull
• The Best of Kansas
• The Best of King's X
• The Best of Miami Vice - Jan Hammer

Summary:

Eh, Greatest Hit parades aren't my thing, usually it means a bunch of stuff from a band that I don't care enough about to get their individual CD's.  Cameo (funk), David Benoit (smooth jazz), Howard Jones (New Wave), It Bites (prog hair metal) and Jan Hammer (electronica) round out the quintet of 80's fun. None of which really stood out, but all of which are essential to my collection for those 'wow, I could really go for the Miami Vice soundtrack' moments.  These are the definition of the 'Moodies' category.

I still don't really like Jethro Tull.

King's X, ELP and Kansas are the winners with King's X getting the nod.

• Winner
• The Best of King's X
• Growers
• 
  
• Keepers
• The Best of Emerson, Lake and Palmer 
• The Best of Kansas
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• 
  
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• The Best of Cameo
• The Best of David Benoit
• The Best of Howard Jones
• The Best of It Bites
• The Best of Miami Vice - Jan Hammer
• Bleh
• The Best of Jethro Tull

11/01/12  Today's Albums:

• Band of Joy - Robert Plant
• Be - Pain of Salvation
• Beat - King Crimson
• Beautiful Garbage - Garbage
• Becoming X - Sneaker Pimps
• Before These Crowded Streets - The Dave Matthew's Band
• Believe - Pendragon
• The Best of Berlin
• The Best of Blondie

Summary:

Sorry, practically no time today, Beautiful Garbage was rough to listen to, I ended up skipping a bit.  Be is and always was a fantastic CD.

• Winner
• Be - Pain of Salvation
• Growers
• 
  
• Keepers
• Before These Crowded Streets - The Dave Matthew's Band
• Believe - Pendragon
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• Band of Joy - Robert Plant
• Becoming X - Sneaker Pimps
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• The Best of Berlin
• The Best of Blondie
• Bleh
• Beautiful Garbage - Garbage

10/30/12 Today's Albums, Baby Don't Get It

10/30/12  Today's Albums:

Baby Don't Get It - ESP
Back in the World of Adventures - The Flower Kings
Bad - Michael Jackson
Bad Hair Day - Weird Al Yankovich
Band of Joy - Robert Plant
Banks of Eden - The Flower Kings (woowoo, double FK day)
Basne - Collage
Batman: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - Danny Elfman
Bahaus:PeterMurphy:LoveAndRockets . . . - Various



Summary:

Well that was certainly a day of music wasn't it.  There were quite a few musical highlights here, a day with two albums from one of my favorite bands of all time (The Flower Kings), Bad and Basne.  We've also hit a milestone here, we are through the albums beginning with the letter A.

We kicked things off with "Coffee and a Doughnut" by ESP which is about as appropriate as you can get for the morning, lot's of good, original music on there.  Baby was put out before I joined the band, though during my time with them, I played just about everything on the tape at one point or another.  This is where you can here "The Cat in the Hat" to the tune of "Man in the Box", "Enter Sandman" has become "The Hokey Pokey Man" and the first mash up that I had heard of (they weren't called Mash-Up's back then, we called them airplanes, and they had wings, and you could use them to get from one city to another) . . . (but I digress), you haven't quite lived until you've heard "U Can't Touch This" rapped over "Smells Like Teen Spirit".

The Flower Kings are The Flower Kings, most people either love them, hate them or have no clue who they are.  Actually, most people don't know who they are.  . . . but those of us that do, either love them or hate them.  Back to the World of Adventures is early FK and not my favorite by them but it clicked a little more than usual, not the end of the world because we had Banks of Eden a few discs later which is, in fact, one of my favorites.

Bad was bad.  Smooth Criminal is great.  Seriously, that's the reason the CD is on my computer.  If I wasn't an annoying completionist, I'd delete the rest of the CD and save myself the horror of "Man in the Mirror" ever playing again.

Basne was difficult to listen to, there's only so much Polish prog (actually sung in Polish) that one man can take.  It was probably good, but I had had enough.  The Batman Soundtrack was a nice classical diversion and while I did enjoy the new version of "Coming Down Hard" from the Bauhaus and family CD, the whole thing was so so.  I'm adding "Bang of Joy to tomorrow's playlist as I missed it completely on Tuesday.

• Winner
• Banks of Eden - The Flower Kings (woowoo, double FK day)
• Growers
• Baby Don't Get It - ESP
• Back in the World of Adventures - The Flower Kings
• Keepers
• Bad Hair Day - Weird Al Yankovich
• Batman: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - Danny Elfman
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• Bahaus:PeterMurphy:LoveAndRockets . . . - Various
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• 
  
• Bleh
• Bad - Michael Jackson
• Basne - Collage

10/29/12  Today's Albums:

Auntie Aubery's Excursions Beyond the Call of Duty - The Orb
The Autobiography of Supertramp - Supertramp
Awake - Dream Theater
Awakening - The Reasoning
Babalu - Desi Arnaz and his Orchestra


Summary:

Well, an hour into it, we're off to a crappy start.  Auntie Aubery's extra curricular activities were really unnecessary, I skipped the last few songs in an effort to spare myself the agony.  It was ok, in kind of a mind numbing painful, repetitive crappy electronica kind of way . . . Sorry, wasn't feeling it, moved on to Supertramp.  You know, I never quite thought about the band name, Supertramp, I've decided that I want to meet the woman that inspired the name.  just out of curiosity.

Sadly, when I came back from lunch, I lost a bit of time as I got just so carried away working diligently that I missed an hour or two.  My list for the day was a bit abbreviated.  Awake is a favorite.  If you're looking for something new to check out (John Ciganik) this is a great way to start exploring progressive metal.  This is a favorite CD of mine, probably top ten all time, definitely top twenty and today's winner.  Awakening is a good CD as well, a bit mellower than DT, but good none the less, they have a great balance of male and female leads.

From there, we went to an old favorite, Babalu by Desi Arnaz . . . Yes, you heard right, Desi and his orchestra were rockin' the cube farm today.  I even got a 'you're an odd bird' out of the young lady in the next cube.  Did you know that Desi was rapping back in the fifties?

• Winner
• Awake - Dream Theater (really, this wasn't fair to the other albums)
• Growers
• 
  
• Keepers
• Awakening - The Reasoning
• Babalu - Desi Arnaz and his Orchestra
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• The Autobiography of Supertramp - Supertramp
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• 
  
• Bleh
• Auntie Aubery's Excursions Beyond the Call of Duty - The Orb

10/26/12  Today's Albums:

As the World - Echolyn
Asia - Asia
Astronaut - Duran Duren
At the Edge of Time - Blind Guardian
Atom Heart Mother - Pink Floyd
Audio - Blue Man Group
August and Everything After - The Counting Crows


Summary:

All in all it was somewhat of an uninspired musical day.  Echolyn started the day off decently, but then we got into Asia which was mostly background music.  Astronaut kicked things up a bit and Blind Guardian started off with a roar.  Sadly, after a few tracks, Blind Guardian made me feel kind of numb, it hurt me.  Atom Heart Mother had decent moments, but they only increased the numbness from before.  By Audio, which was rather uninspired, I had pretty much lost all muscle control and barely managed to contain myself from wallowing in a pool of my own drool.  August and Everything After was a noted improvement though not quite food enough to salvage the day.

• Winner
• Astronaut - Duran Duran
• Growers
• As the Workd - Echolyn
• Atom Heart Mother - Pink Floyd
• Keepers
• August and Everything After - The Counting Crows
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• At the Edge of Time - Blind Guardian
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• Asia - Asia
• Bleh
• Audio - Blue Man Group

10/24/12  Today's Albums:


Antics - Interpol
Apostrophe / Over-nite Sensation - Frank Zappa
Archive 1976-1992 - Genesis (discs 1 & 3)
Are They Still Pissing Anywhere - ESP
Are You Nervous - Rock Kills Kid
Arrows and Anchors - Fair to Midland
The Art of Navigating by the Stars - Siege's Even
Artificial Paradise - Sylvan

Summary:

Ok, my first thought, the first song off of the Interpol CD sucks. . . second thought, the second song on the Interpol CD sucks also.  Honestly, I don't know If I'm going to get through this one.  It may be the first CD that actually gets booted from the hard drive as the result of this exercise.  Ok, the third song has some redeeming qualities.  At the end of the CD, one or two tolerable songs barely saved this album from the creation of a new category 'Albums that were immediately deleted from my hard drive in the hopes of never having to listen to them again in my lifetime . . . ever'.  Luckily we followed this up with a few great ones, Apostrophe started out with the classic "Don't You Eat that Yellow Snow" and the chaos went from there.

ESP was a band I played for back in the early nineties.  After we split up, they went on with a new line up and did some great stuff, 'Are They Still Pissing Anywhere' is a compilation of two of their albums and features "Thirsty King Leprechaun" which actually made me laugh out loud.  I'll share the lyrics as best as I can remember them:

Thirsty King Leprechaun was riding on his dragon fly . . . frou de forrest
He wasn't felling good at all til he poked a monkey in the eye . . . then he ran away
I don't deserve to be in charge of all these Leprechauns, with their houses and kitchens and rooms
I always ask them for water and juice cause I'm thirsty . . . 

Pure silliness.

We ended the day with some solid favorites, Sieve's Even is fantastic German Prog Metal, Fair to Midland is one of my favorite new bands and Sylvan's "Artificial Paradise" has been in my regular listening rotation for more than a year now.

• Winner
• Are They Still Pissing Anywhere - ESP
• Growers
• 
  
• Keepers
• Apostrophe / Over-nite Sensation - Frank Zappa
• Are You Nervous - Rock Kills Kid
• Arrows and Anchors - Fair to Midland
• The Art of Navigating by the Stars - Siege's Even
• Artificial Paradise - Sylvan
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• 
  
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• Archive 1976-1992 - Genesis (discs 1 & 3)
• Bleh
• Antics - Interpol

10/23/12  Today's Albums:


Animals - Pink Floyd (encore performance)
Anno Domini High Definition
Ankoraphobia - Marillion
Anthology - The Beatles (excerpts)


Summary:

A kind of a bleh day for music, I didn't get to really listen to much of it, nothing to write home about.  The Riverside CD was fantastic as always, Animals was a good repeat listen.  If you haven't heard Riverside, they are highly recommended.

• Winner
• Anno Domini High Definition - Riverside
• Growers
• 
  
• Keepers
• 
  
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• Ankoraphobia - Marillion
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• Anthology - The Beatles
• Bleh
• 
  

10/18/12  Kick Ass playlist:



Summary:

Ampersand - IZZ (Make up from Yesterday)
Altered Beast - Matthew Sweet (Makeup from the 16th)
And the Glass Handed Kites - Mew
. . . And Then There Were Three - Genesis
Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe
Angel Dust - Faith No More
Animal Notes - Crack the Sky
Animals - Pink Floyd
Anno Domini High Definition - Riverside  (held until tomorrow)

Great day, high points throughout.  The Matthew Sweet one did almost nothing for me, Ampersand was a definite win.  Animals is a great CD and it's the clear cut winner since I listened to it again in the car that night and I'm doing an encore of it today (10/23)

• Winner
• Animals - Pink Floyd
• Growers
• Ampersand - IZZ
• Keepers
• And the Glass Handed Kites - Mew
• . . . And Then There Were Three - Genesis
• Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe
• Angel Dust - Faith No More
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• Animal Notes - Crack the Sky
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• 
  
• Bleh
• Altered Beast - Matthew Sweet

10/17/12  Short day

Ampersand - IZZ
The Analogue Theatre - CJ Bolland
. . . and Justice for All - Metallica

Summary:

I didn't have a lot of music time today, sadly only got through three albums and I don't remember the IZZ album so I'm queuing it up tomorrow also.  Honestly it was a crappy day as well.  This may hurt some to the core, but I really don't get into Metallica.  They're mostly on the computer for my wife's sake (and when I say 'mostly' I really mean 'entirely'.  It's kind of like Marianne's version of 'The Little Mermaid'.  One of those albums that I'd never listen to on my own, but there are times when we have to share the music with those that we love . . . The Analogue Theatre has a few good songs but it's too mechanical to pull it off over an entire album.

• Winner
• 
  
• Growers
• 
  
• Keepers
• 
  
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• Ampersand - IZZ (I didn't get a god listen to it, will try again.
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• 
  
• Bleh
• . . . and Justice for All - Metallica
• The Analogue Theatre - CJ Bolland

10/16/12  Today's Albums:

• Alive in America - Steely Dan
• All the Best - Paul McCartney
• All this Time - Sting
• Altered Beast - Matthew Sweet
• Alterno-Daze - 80's Survival of the Fittest
• Alterno-Daze - 90's Natural Selection
• The Altogether - Orbital
• American Man - Trace Adkins
• Amonia Avenue - The Alan Parson's Project
• Amor Vincit Omnia - Pire Reason Revolution

Summary:  I'm in a hurry today so I'll put the random notes in the list below.

• Winner
• Alive in America - Steely Dan (Good listen, I've been on a Steely Dan Kick lately)
• Growers
• 
  
• Keepers
• All This Time - Sting
• The Altogether Disc 1 - Orbital  (Disc 1 was pretty good)
• Amonia Avenue - The Alan Parson's Project
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• Altered Beast - Matthew Sweet  (Will have to listen to this again, I think I was on lunch when it played.
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• All the Best - Paul McCartney
• Alterno-Daze (both of them)
• American Man - Trace Adkins (I was in a country band last year and we played a lot of Trace.  I'm not claiming that I like country, I just don't hate it anymore)
• Bleh
• The Altogether, Disc 2 - Orbital  (Bleh!, mostly crappy remakes from The Middlw of No Where)

10/15/12

10/15/12  Today's Albums:

• Afraid of Sunlight - Marillion
• Afterwords - Collective Soul
• Against Reason - Credo
• Airdrawndagger - Sasha
• Alice in Chains - Alice in Chains
• 
  

Summary:

• Winner
• 
  
• Growers
• 
  
• Keepers
• 
  
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• 
  
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• 
  
• Bleh

10/12/12  Today's Albums:

Adam and Eve - The Flower Kings
Addicted - Devin Townsend
Aenima - Tool
Afraid of Sunlight - Marillion
Afterwords - Collective Soul


Summary:

• Winner
• 
  
• Growers
• 
  
• Keepers
• 
  
• Wibblers (no opinion one way or another)
• 
  
• Moodies (Albums for a certain mood)
• 
  
• Bleh

10/11/12:  Albums listened to

Across the Line - Ghost Circus
Act I:  The Lake South, The River North - The Dear Hunter
Act II:  The Meaning of, And All Things Regarding to Ms. Leading - The Dear Hunter
Act III:  Life and Death - The Dear Hunter
Active Lancer Soundtrack - Digital Droo
Actual Miles - Don Henley


It was a relatively short day.  I have a few meetings and didn't spend quite as much desk time as usual.  I absolutely love Across the Line which was the clear cut winner for the day.  The Deer Hunter trilogy was a bit much to listen to in a row.  I really enjoyed the first one but by the time I got to the third one, I was getting  really tired of them.  Digital Droo was a fun listen back from my electronica days.  Actual Miles was uninspiring but hey, there are times when you need to be able to pull up "The Boys of Summer" on a moment's notice.


Summary:

• Winner
• Across the Line - Ghost Circus
• Growers
• Act I - The Dear Hunter
• Keepers
• Active Lancer Soundtrack - Digital Droo
• Wibblers (No opinion one way or another)
• Act II, Act III - The Deer Hunter
• Actual Miles - Don Henley
• Moodies (Albums that require a certain mood)
• 
  
• Bleh
• 
  

10/09/12

Ok, so welcome to the music blog, this will be a year long project to listen through all of the albums on my computer.  I've sorted everything in order by album title enjoy and have fun.  Take a look at the albums, vote for your favorite, discuss, enjoy:

10/09/12 Today's albums:
Abacab - Genesis
Abba Gold: Greatest Hits - Abba

Abbey Road - The Beatles
Abraxas - Abraxas
Absolutely Free - Frank Zappa
Accelerated Evolution - Devin Townsend
Accelerator - The Future Sound of London
Achtung Baby - U2
Acquiring the Taste - Gentle Giant
X - Across the Line - Ghost Circus  - Didn't finish this one, will queue it up tomorrow.

It was a decent day musically, Abbey Road is certainly a classic, though I never quite appreciated The Beatles as much as I should have.  Absolutely Free and Abraxas didn't quite connect with me and Accelerated Evolution isn't my favorite Devin album.  Accelerator was a nice surprise, I really enjoyed that and will put it on my list of albums to circle back to.  My favorite album of the day however was Abacab by Genesis.  While it's probably my least favorite Genesis album (ok, it is my least favorite) it was still the winner of the day, beating out Accelerator.  To Abacab's favor.  I must have stepped out during 'Whodunnit' which is my absolute least favorite Genesis tune.  I don't remember hearing it at all so extra points for timing.

Summary:

• Winner
• Abacab - Genesis
• Growers
• Accelerator - The Future Sound of London
• Keepers
• Abbey Road - The Beatles
• Accelerated Evolution - Devin Townsend
• Achtung Baby - U2
• Wibblers (No opinion one way or another)
• Acquiring the Taste - Gentle Giant
• Moodies (Albums that require a certain mood)
• Abba Gold - Abba
• Bleh
• Abraxas
• Absolutely Free - Frank Zappa