| Adrianne Lenker Bright Future | 4.0 |
| Paul McCartney Ram | 4.5 |
| Adrianne Lenker I Won’t Let Go of Your Hand | 4.0 |
| Andrew Bird Inside Problems | 3.5 |
| There is a lot of space on this Afro-Jazz-influenced album ; the focus is on grooves and atmosphere more than melody, often for entrancing results (Underlands, Stop n'Shop, Eight) though at times it falls flat (Lone Didion) or becomes repetitive. There is not a lot of guitar here: the sparse arrangements mostly center violin, bass, drums and vocal harmonies. Pleasant and groovy, but ultimately suffers from the inclusion of a few unremarkable songs and a slight lack of energy. 3.7/5 |
| Courtney Marie Andrews Old Flowers | 4.0 |
| Courtney Marie Andrews Loose Future | 4.0 |
| Jeff Rosenstock HELLMODE | 3.5 |
| Julia Holter Have You In My Wilderness | 4.0 |
| The Beths Expert in a Dying Field | 4.5 |
| Buck Meek Haunted Mountain | 3.5 |
| Joni Mitchell Ladies of the Canyon | 4.0 |
| Natalia Lafourcade De Todas las Flores | 5.0 |
| The Tallest Man on Earth Henry St. | 4.0 |
| Big Thief Demos Vol. 1 - Topanga Canyon, CA - Feb 2018 | 4.0 |
| Jeff Rosenstock WORRY. | 4.0 |
| Lucinda Williams Sweet Old World | 3.5 |
| Lucinda Williams Car Wheels on a Gravel Road | 4.0 |
| Lucinda Williams Lucinda Williams | 4.0 |
| Big Thief Live At The Bunker Studio | 4.0 |
| Julia Jacklin Crushing | 3.5 |
| Soccer Mommy Clean | 3.5 |
| The Magnetic Fields 69 Love Songs | 4.5 |
| Jorge Ben Samba Esquema Novo | 4.0 |
| Big Thief Capacity | 4.0 |
| Belle and Sebastian If You're Feeling Sinister | 4.5 |
| Angel Olsen Big Time | 3.5 |
| Taylor Swift Folklore | 3.0 |
| ABBA The Visitors | 4.5 |
| Buck Meek Two Saviors | 4.5 |
| Big Thief Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You | 4.5 |
| Bedouine Waysides | 4.0 |
| Bedouine Bedouine | 4.0 |
| Chick Corea and Return To Forever Light as a Feather | 4.5 |
| Big Thief Masterpiece | 4.0 |
| Big Thief U.F.O.F. | 4.0 |
| Big Thief Two Hands | 4.5 |
| Adrianne Lenker Songs | 5.0 |
| Nubya Garcia When We Are | 3.5 |
| Nubya Garcia SOURCE | 4.0 |
| Joni Mitchell For the Roses | 4.0 |
| The Tallest Man on Earth Shallow Grave | 4.0 |
| The Tallest Man on Earth I Love You. It's a Fever Dream. | 4.5 |
| The Tallest Man on Earth Dark Bird Is Home | 3.0 |
| The Tallest Man on Earth Sometimes The Blues Is Just A Passing Bird | 3.0 |
| The Tallest Man on Earth There's No Leaving Now | 3.5 |
| Keith Jarrett The Melody at Night, With You | 4.0 |
| Charles Mingus Mingus Ah Um | 4.5 |
| Steven Wilson The Future Bites | 3.0 |
| Thelonious Monk Thelonious Himself | 3.5 |
| Thelonious Monk Misterioso | 4.5 |
| Thelonious Monk Straight, No Chaser | 4.5 |
| Joni Mitchell Mingus | 4.0 |
| Herbie Hancock Dis Is Da Drum | 3.0 |
| Miles Davis My Funny Valentine: Miles Davis in Concert | 4.0 |
| Vince Guaraldi Trio A Charlie Brown Christmas | 4.5 |
| Robert Plant and Alison Krauss Raising Sand | 3.5 |
| Wolfgang Muthspiel Where the River Goes | 4.0 |
| Bill Evans Trio 65 | 4.0 |
| Bill Evans The Bill Evans Album | 3.5 |
| Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate In the Heart of the Moon | 4.0 |
| Anouar Brahem The Astounding Eyes of Rita | 4.0 |
| Anouar Brahem Blue Maqams | 4.5 |
| Toumani Diabate Toumani & Sidiki | 4.0 |
| Toumani Diabate The Mande Variations | 4.5 |
| HAIM Women In Music, Pt. III | 3.0 |
| Vijay Iyer Sextet Far from Over | 4.0 |
| Leyla McCalla A Day for the Hunter, A Day for the Prey | 3.5 |
| Natalia Lafourcade Musas Vol. 2 | 3.5 |
| Natalia Lafourcade Musas | 3.5 |
| Andrew Bird HARK! | 3.5 |
| John Coltrane Crescent | 4.5 |
| Nick Drake Bryter Layter | 4.0 |
| Tom Waits Closing Time | 4.0 |
| Patrick Watson Wave | 4.5 |
| Lianne La Havas Lianne La Havas | 3.5 |
| Brad Mehldau After Bach | 4.0 |
| Brad Mehldau Trio Seymour Reads The Constitution! | 4.0 |
| Haley Heynderickx I Need to Start a Garden | 4.0 |
| Sibylle Baier Colour Green | 3.5 |
| Oliver Nelson The Blues and the Abstract Truth | 4.5 |
| John Coltrane Impressions | 4.0 |
| McCoy Tyner Nights of Ballads and Blues | 4.0 |
| Bill Evans Moon Beams | 4.0 |
| Keith Jarrett Solo Concerts: Bremen/Lausanne | 4.0 |
| Cannonball Adderley Somethin' Else | 4.5 |
| Andrew Bird My Finest Work Yet | 4.5 |
| Courtney Marie Andrews Honest Life | 4.5 |
| John Coltrane Transition | 3.5 |
| Cecil Taylor Unit Structures | 4.0 |
| Ornette Coleman Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation | 4.0 |
| McCoy Tyner The Real McCoy | 4.0 |
| John Coltrane A Love Supreme | 5.0 |
| Sun Ra My Brother the Wind, Vol. 2 | 3.5 |
| Walking on the Moon is among the most unsettling pieces of music I've ever heard. |
| Melissa Aldana Visions | 4.0 |
| The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground & Nico | 3.5 |
| The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground | 4.5 |
| The Decemberists I’ll Be Your Girl | 2.5 |
| Nina Simone Emergency Ward | 3.5 |
| Nina Simone Nina Simone and Piano | 3.5 |
| Nina Simone Black Gold | 4.0 |
| Nina Simone 'Nuff Said | 4.5 |
| Leonard Cohen Recent Songs | 4.0 |
| Leonard Cohen I'm Your Man | 3.5 |
| Leonard Cohen Thanks for the Dance | 4.0 |
| Lorde Melodrama | 3.0 |
| Carole King Tapestry | 4.0 |
| Against Me! Transgender Dysphoria Blues | 3.5 |
| Grant Green Idle Moments | 3.5 |
| John Coltrane Africa/Brass | 4.5 |
| John Coltrane My Favorite Things | 4.5 |
| Vijay Iyer Trio Break Stuff | 4.0 |
| Herbie Hancock Head Hunters | 3.5 |
| Allen Toussaint The Bright Mississippi | 4.0 |
| Bill Evans Explorations | 4.0 |
| Bill Evans You Must Believe In Spring | 5.0 |
| Bill Evans Portrait in Jazz | 4.5 |
| Wayne Shorter Juju | 4.0 |
| Wayne Shorter Speak No Evil | 5.0 |
| There is beauty in ambiguity: to write tunes such as these, where there is enough room for both melody and experimentation, is remarkable. Abundant chromaticism and tonal/modal ambiguity go almost unnoticed. There is delicacy, sorrow, and uncertainty here, sometimes all at once. The music flows like the late-night confession of a person who takes their time to go into as many digressions as they want without ever losing focus. |
| Nickel Creek A Dotted Line | 3.0 |
| Leyla McCalla The Capitalist Blues | 4.0 |
| The Be Good Tanyas A Collection (2000-2012) | 4.0 |
| Lou Reed Transformer | 4.5 |
| Herbie Hancock Maiden Voyage | 4.5 |
| Sufjan Stevens Carrie and Lowell | 4.0 |
| Nick Drake Five Leaves Left | 4.5 |
| Andrew Bird Things Are Really Great Here, Sort Of... | 4.0 |
| Leonard Cohen Songs From a Room | 4.0 |
| Tom Waits Nighthawks At The Diner | 3.5 |
| Steven Wilson To the Bone | 3.0 |
| Swans Love of Life | 3.5 |
| Tigran Hamasyan An Ancient Observer | 4.0 |
| John Coltrane Blue Train | 4.0 |
| Leo Ferre Et... Basta ! | 4.0 |
| Scott Walker Scott Walker Sings Jacques Brel | 3.5 |
| Blackfield Blackfield V | 3.5 |
| Joni Mitchell Clouds | 4.0 |
| Brad Mehldau Trio Songs: The Art of the Trio, Vol. 3 | 4.5 |
| The Cure Three Imaginary Boys | 3.0 |
| Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau | 4.0 |
| Ibrahim Maalouf Kalthoum | 4.0 |
| Brad Mehldau Live In Tokyo | 4.0 |
| Swans Various Failures | 4.0 |
| Joni Mitchell Hejira | 5.0 |
| Brad Mehldau 10 Years Solo Live | 4.5 |
| Dead Obies Montreal Sud | 3.0 |
| Dead Obies Gesamtkunstwerk | 2.5 |
| Bob Dylan John Wesley Harding | 4.0 |
| Bob Dylan Blood on the Tracks | 4.0 |
| Leonard Cohen New Skin for the Old Ceremony | 3.5 |
| Leonard Cohen Death of a Ladies' Man | 3.0 |
| Genesis Seconds Out | 4.5 |
| Cristobal Tapia de Veer Utopia OST | 3.5 |
| Andrew Bird Hands of Glory | 3.5 |
| Andrew Bird Break It Yourself | 3.5 |
| The Pineapple Thief Your Wilderness | 3.5 |
| Pat Metheny Unity Group The Unity Sessions | 4.0 |
| Leonard Cohen You Want It Darker | 4.0 |
| Agnes Obel Citizen Of Glass | 3.5 |
| Tom Waits Swordfishtrombones | 4.0 |
| Tom Waits Foreign Affairs | 3.5 |
| Wilco Schmilco | 3.0 |
| the first three songs are excellent... from there it kind of dwindles into various degrees of forgettable. |
| The Doors The Doors | 4.0 |
| The Doors Strange Days | 4.0 |
| Bill Evans and Jim Hall Undercurrent | 3.5 |
| Herbie Hancock Empyrean Isles | 4.0 |
| Andrew Bird Are You Serious | 3.0 |
| Florence and the Machine How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful | 3.0 |
| Sun Kil Moon Benji | 3.5 |
| The Decemberists We All Raise Our Voices to the Air | 4.0 |
| The Decemberists Her Majesty the Decemberists | 4.0 |
| Holderlin Holderlins Traum | 3.5 |
| Joni Mitchell Both Sides Now | 4.0 |
| Joni Mitchell The Hissing of Summer Lawns | 3.5 |
| Joni Mitchell Court and Spark | 4.0 |
| Joni Mitchell Blue | 5.0 |
| David Bowie Blackstar | 3.5 |
| Andrew Bird Armchair Apocrypha | 4.0 |
| Andrew Bird I Want to See Pulaski at Night | 4.0 |
| Tom Waits The Heart of Saturday Night | 3.5 |
| Simon and Garfunkel Bookends | 4.5 |
| Simon and Garfunkel Bridge Over Troubled Water | 3.5 |
| Kate Bush 50 Words for Snow | 4.0 |
| The Hotelier Goodness | 4.5 |
| Peter Gabriel Security | 4.0 |
| Radiohead A Moon Shaped Pool | 4.5 |
| Agnes Obel Philharmonics | 3.5 |
| Juha Kujanpää Kivenpyörittäjä (Tales And Travels) | 3.5 |
| Louis-Jean Cormier Les Grandes Artères | 3.5 |
| The Decemberists The Tain | 4.0 |
| Landberk One Man Tells Another | 4.0 |
| Phoenix (ROM) Cantofabule | 3.5 |
| Pererin Haul Ar Yr Eira | 4.5 |
| Blue Effect Modry Efekt & Radim Hladik | 3.5 |
| Utopia Todd Rundgren's Utopia | 4.0 |
| Alan Sorrenti Aria | 3.5 |
| Cressida Asylum | 3.5 |
| Karkwa Les Tremblements s'immobilisent | 4.0 |
| Gutbucket Dance | 4.0 |
| Pascal Duffard Dieu est Fou | 4.0 |
| Renaissance A Song for All Seasons | 4.0 |
| Stark Naked Stark Naked | 3.5 |
| Julian Jay Savarin Waiters on the dance | 3.5 |
| Czeslaw Niemen Aerolit | 3.5 |
| The Mars Volta Frances the Mute | 4.0 |
| Steven Wilson 4 1/2 | 4.0 |
| Punch Brothers The Phosphorescent Blues | 3.0 |
| Sting If On A Winter's Night... | 4.0 |
| Andrew Bird The Mysterious Production Of Eggs | 4.5 |
| Magma Mekanïk Destruktïẁ Kommandöh | 4.0 |
| King Crimson Starless and Bible Black | 4.0 |
| Jacques Brel Brel (Les Marquises) | 4.0 |
| Leo Ferre L'Été 68 | 4.5 |
| Leo Ferre Il N'y a Plus Rien | 4.5 |
| Franz Ferdinand Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action | 3.5 |
| Mark Hollis Mark Hollis | 4.0 |
| Bark Psychosis Hex | 3.5 |
| Renaissance Ashes Are Burning | 4.0 |
| Renaissance Turn of the Cards | 4.0 |
| Gazpacho Molok | 4.0 |
| George Harrison All Things Must Pass | 4.0 |
| The Decemberists Florasongs | 3.0 |
| Billy Bragg Workers Playtime | 4.0 |
| Chick Corea The Vigil | 3.5 |
| Scott Walker Scott 3 | 4.5 |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada | 4.0 |
| Van der Graaf Generator Pawn Hearts | 4.0 |
| Van der Graaf Generator The Least We Can Do Is Wave to... | 3.5 |
| Scale the Summit V | 3.5 |
| Riverside Love, Fear and the Time Machine | 3.0 |
| The Dear Hunter Act IV: Rebirth in Reprise | 4.0 |
| The Beach Boys Pet Sounds | 3.5 |
| Iron Maiden The Book of Souls | 3.5 |
| Goggi & Orri Circe | 3.5 |
| Bruford Levin Upper Extremities Bruford Levin Upper Extremities | 3.5 |
| Tim Bowness Stupid Things That Mean The World | 3.5 |
| Wilco Star Wars | 3.5 |
| Samla Mammas Manna Maltid | 4.0 |
| Ragnarok (SWE) Ragnarok | 4.0 |
| Gentle Giant Acquiring the Taste | 4.0 |
| Novalis Sommerabend | 3.5 |
| Trettioariga Kriget Elden Av Ar | 3.5 |
| Schicke, Fuhrs & Frohling Symphonic Pictures | 3.5 |
| Can Tago Mago | 4.5 |
| Pierrot Lunaire (ITA) Pierrot Lunaire | 3.5 |
| iamthemorning Belighted | 3.5 |
| Anathema We're Here Because We're Here | 3.5 |
| The Alan Parsons Project Tales of Mystery and Imagination | 3.5 |
| Lunatic Soul Walking on a Flashlight Beam | 4.0 |
| The Beatles A Hard Day's Night | 3.5 |
| All Over Everywhere Inner Firmaments Decay | 3.5 |
| Bjork Vulnicura | 4.0 |
| A Formal Horse Morning Jigsaw | 3.0 |
| A Formal Horse A Formal Horse | 3.0 |
| Can Ege Bamyasi | 4.0 |
| Jethro Tull A Passion Play | 4.0 |
| Radiohead Kid A | 4.0 |
| Leprous The Congregation | 3.5 |
| The Dear Hunter Act II: The Meaning of, & All Things Regarding Ms. Leading | 4.0 |
| Ornette Coleman Science Fiction | 4.0 |
| Paul Simon The Rhythm of the Saints | 4.5 |
| Mugstar ...Sun, Broken... | 3.0 |
| Sun Kil Moon Universal Themes | 3.5 |
| Gazpacho Night of the Demon | 4.0 |
| Bill Bruford's Earthworks Random Acts of Happiness | 4.0 |
| A Winged Victory for the Sullen A Winged Victory for the Sullen | 3.5 |
| Thank You Scientist Maps of Non-Existent Places | 3.5 |
| Frank Zappa Apostrophe | 4.0 |
| Frank Zappa Hot Rats | 4.0 |
| Porcupine Tree Transmission IV | 3.0 |
| Tigran Hamasyan Mockroot | 4.5 |
| Patrick Watson Love Songs for Robots | 4.0 |
| Marillion Fugazi | 3.5 |
| Marillion Script for a Jester's Tear | 3.5 |
| Les Cowboys Fringants La Grand Messe | 3.5 |
| Marco Minnemann EEPS | 4.0 |
| Iron Maiden Somewhere in Time | 4.0 |
| Cat Stevens Teaser and the Firecat | 3.5 |
| And So I Watch You From Afar Heirs | 3.0 |
| While I didn't thoroughly enjoy All Hail Bright Futures, some of the ideas it developed were rundeniably very interesting and refreshing. Hearing the first singles released for this album rearlier this year, I was starting to acknowledge the fact that their songwriting had become runinspired. The same boisterous, cerebral riffs and buoyant group vocals - still charming as ralways, but lacking any sense of renewal and refreshment. I was, fortunately, wrong, for the most rpart. This, while still not quite reaching the heights of their first two albums, is definitely a rmature evolution, perfectly blending the anthemic vocals and occasional atmospheric and electronic relements explored in the previous album to the band's trademark sound. The result is a rsurprisingly cohesive and lush piece of work. Its only issue: despite the success in expanding the rband's sound, it is at its core that the songwriting is, at times, lackluster. The very cerebral rmath-rock songwriting can be extremely engaging and interesting, but its heart and essence have to rbe "redesigned a million times", and not only by simply adding more elements to the mix, for it to rkeep our interest. |
| Sigur Ros Valtari | 3.5 |
| Miles Davis Jack Johnson | 4.0 |
| Dylan Howe Subterranean - New Designs on Bowie's Berlin | 3.5 |
| Arachnoid Arachnoid | 4.0 |
| Island (CHE) Pictures | 4.0 |
| Tonton Macoute (UK) Tonton Macoute | 3.5 |
| ISIS In the Absence of Truth | 3.5 |
| Art Zoyd Symphonie pour le jour ou bruleront les cites | 4.0 |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor 'Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress' | 4.0 |
| Art Zoyd Berlin | 4.0 |
| Simon and Garfunkel Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. | 3.5 |
| Simon and Garfunkel Sounds of Silence | 4.0 |
| AKKU Quintet Molecules | 3.5 |
| Tom Waits Small Change | 4.5 |
| Tim Bowness Abandoned Dancehall Dreams | 4.0 |
| Gong Camembert Electrique | 4.0 |
| Soft Machine Fourth | 4.0 |
| Soft Machine Third | 4.5 |
| Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe | 3.5 |
| Plini Trilogy | 4.0 |
| Bjork Homogenic | 4.0 |
| King Crimson In the Wake of Poseidon | 4.5 |
| Anekdoten Gravity | 3.0 |
| Rush Moving Pictures | 3.5 |
| U.K. U.K. | 3.5 |
| Plini The End of Everything | 4.0 |
| Pierre Lapointe Les Callas | 3.5 |
| Gazpacho Firebird | 3.5 |
| Yes Like It Is: Yes at the Bristol Hippodrome | 3.5 |
| Bon Iver Bon Iver, Bon Iver | 3.5 |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor Yanqui U.X.O. | 4.0 |
| Keith Jarrett Up for it | 4.0 |
| Tigers on Trains Antarctica In Color | 3.5 |
| Jean Leloup À Paradis City | 3.5 |
| Pearl Jam Ten | 3.0 |
| Gazpacho When Earth Lets Go | 3.0 |
| Bela Bartok Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta, Sz. 106 | 4.5 |
| Igor Stravinsky Le Sacre du Printemps | 4.5 |
| The Decemberists Picaresque | 4.5 |
| The Decemberists What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World | 4.0 |
| Radiohead In Rainbows Disk 2 | 3.5 |
| The Decemberists Castaways and Cutouts | 3.5 |
| McLuhan Anomaly | 4.0 |
| Triumvirat Illusions On A Double Dimple | 4.0 |
| Vince Guaraldi Trio Oaxaca | 3.5 |
| Land Of Kush Against The Day | 4.0 |
| Malajube Trompe-l'oeil | 4.0 |
| Camel Moonmadness | 3.5 |
| Leonard Cohen Songs of Love and Hate | 5.0 |
| Anubis Hitchhiking to Byzantium | 3.0 |
| Guthrie Govan Erotic Cakes | 4.0 |
| East of Eden Mercator Projected | 3.5 |
| Radiohead Hail to the Thief | 4.0 |
| The Enid Something Wicked This Way Comes | 3.5 |
| Mike Oldfield Crises | 3.0 |
| Asia Minor Between Flesh And Divine | 4.0 |
| Greenslade Bedside Manners Are Extra | 3.5 |
| Leonard Cohen Old Ideas | 3.5 |
| Talk Talk Spirit of Eden | 4.0 |
| Foo Fighters Sonic Highways | 3.0 |
| Gnidrolog Lady Lake | 4.0 |
| Modest Mussorgsky A Night on Bald Mountain | 4.5 |
| Tom Waits Blue Valentine | 4.0 |
| Pat Metheny Group The Way Up | 4.5 |
| Stephen Bennett Music From Tsenacommacah | 4.0 |
| Codona Codona 3 | 4.0 |
| Genesis ...And Then There Were Three... | 3.5 |
| Keith Jarrett La Scala | 4.0 |
| Opeth Deliverance | 3.0 |
| Gentle Giant In a Glass House | 4.5 |
| Radiohead The Bends | 3.5 |
| John Lennon Mind Games | 3.5 |
| Paul Simon Surprise | 3.5 |
| Radiohead OK Computer | 5.0 |
| Marillion Brave | 3.5 |
| Supertramp Breakfast in America | 4.0 |
| Deluge Grander August In The Urals | 4.0 |
| Spring Spring | 4.0 |
| Jon Anderson Olias Of Sunhillow | 4.0 |
| The Beatles Help! | 4.0 |
| Pat Metheny Unity Group Kin <--> | 4.5 |
| Cathedral (US) Stained Glass Stories | 3.5 |
| The decline of the genre in Europe had just started when the prog wave hit the American continent, and with it came all the clich?s that new bands would need to re-interpret to create a sound of their own. Few bands like Rush and Kansas succeeded in appropriating themselves the prog sound, while many others, like Cathedral, suffered from having their influences written on their forehead. Walking from clich? to clich?, they weren't able to really develop any original ideas, but, nonetheless, created a very enjoyable listening experience for anyone asking for more Peter Gabriel-era Genesis albums. |
| Pink Floyd The Endless River | 3.0 |
| Renaissance Scheherazade and Other Stories | 4.5 |
| Transatlantic Kaleidoscope | 3.0 |
| Pink Floyd Ummagumma | 3.5 |
| Cat Stevens Tea for the Tillerman | 4.5 |
| My Chemical Romance Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys | 2.5 |
| Tom Waits Rain Dogs | 4.5 |
| Half Moon Run Dark Eyes | 3.0 |
| No-Man Schoolyard Ghosts | 4.0 |
| Pink Floyd Meddle | 4.5 |
| Beardfish The Void | 3.5 |
| Spock's Beard The Light | 3.5 |
| Krokodil An Invisible World Revealed | 3.5 |
| Birds And Buildings Multipurpose Trap | 4.0 |
| Nordic Giants Build Seas | 3.5 |
| Bruce Soord with Jonas Renkse Wisdom of Crowds | 3.0 |
| North Atlantic Oscillation The Third Day | 3.5 |
| Jordan Rudess Explorations | 3.5 |
| Camel Rajaz | 4.0 |
| Billy Bragg Between the Wars | 4.0 |
| Al di Meola/John McLaughlin/Paco de Lucia Friday Night in San Francisco | 3.5 |
| Leonard Cohen Songs of Leonard Cohen | 4.5 |
| Ramases Glass Top Coffin | 3.5 |
| Jonesy Keeping Up | 3.5 |
| Hawkwind Warrior on the Edge of Time | 3.5 |
| Flying Colors Second Nature | 3.0 |
| Kayo Dot Coffins on Io | 4.0 |
| Nektar A Tab in the Ocean | 4.0 |
| Jan Dukes de Grey Mice and Rats in the Loft | 4.0 |
| Samurai (UK) Samurai | 3.5 |
| Tigers on Trains Grandfather | 3.5 |
| Green Day 21st Century Breakdown | 2.5 |
| Philip Glass Metamorphosis I-V, for piano | 4.0 |
| Arcade Fire The Suburbs | 3.0 |
| Arcade Fire Reflektor | 2.5 |
| Rush Signals | 3.5 |
| Rush Grace Under Pressure | 3.5 |
| Rush Permanent Waves | 3.5 |
| Rush A Farewell to Kings | 3.5 |
| Rush Hemispheres | 4.0 |
| Coldplay A Rush of Blood to the Head | 3.5 |
| Philip Glass Etudes for Piano, Vol. 1 | 4.0 |
| Massive Attack Mezzanine | 3.5 |
| Les Colocs Atrocetomique | 3.0 |
| The Decemberists The King Is Dead | 4.5 |
| Les Colocs Les Colocs Live 1993-1998 | 3.5 |
| The Pineapple Thief Magnolia | 3.5 |
| Complete Freedom Inner Thoughts | 3.5 |
| Oregon 45th Parallel | 3.5 |
| Oregon Out of the Woods | 3.5 |
| Oregon Winter Light | 4.0 |
| Iron And Wine Our Endless Numbered Days | 3.5 |
| Caravan In the Land of Grey and Pink | 3.5 |
| Florence and the Machine Lungs | 3.5 |
| Lana Del Rey Ultraviolence | 3.5 |
| David Torn Cloud About Mercury | 4.5 |
| Pat Metheny Group Travels | 4.0 |
| Oregon Oregon | 3.5 |
| Oregon Ecotopia | 3.5 |
| Oregon Roots in the Sky | 3.5 |
| Tom Waits Real Gone | 4.5 |
| Traffic John Barleycorn Must Die | 3.5 |
| Caravan For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night | 4.0 |
| Tool Lateralus | 4.5 |
| Jethro Tull Too Old To Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young To Die! | 3.5 |
| Jethro Tull Heavy Horses | 4.0 |
| Jethro Tull Minstrel in the Gallery | 4.0 |
| The Pineapple Thief Variations on a Dream | 3.5 |
| Groenland The chase | 3.0 |
| Babe Ruth First Base | 3.5 |
| Pink Floyd Obscured by Clouds | 3.5 |
| Camel Mirage | 4.0 |
| Black Ox Orkestar Nisht Azoy | 3.0 |
| Opeth Pale Communion | 3.0 |
| Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago | 4.0 |
| Sigur Ros Takk... | 4.0 |
| Engineers Always Returning | 3.5 |
| Paul Simon Graceland | 4.0 |
| David Bowie Space Oddity | 3.5 |
| North Atlantic Oscillation Fog Electric | 3.5 |
| The Cure Disintegration | 3.5 |
| Haken The Mountain | 3.5 |
| King Crimson Red | 4.5 |
| King Crimson Islands | 4.0 |
| Nick Drake Pink Moon | 5.0 |
| Steven Wilson Drive Home | 4.0 |
| The Tallest Man on Earth The Wild Hunt | 4.5 |
| David Bowie The Man Who Sold the World | 3.5 |
| David Bowie The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars | 4.0 |
| Leprous Bilateral | 3.5 |
| System of a Down Toxicity | 3.0 |
| Miles Davis Tutu | 3.5 |
| Yes Magnification | 3.0 |
| Yes Drama | 4.0 |
"Video Killed the Radio Star" certainly stands among the most unpleasant and unbearable hits of
the 1970s; however, Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes - The Buggles - were at the time experiencing
huge worldwide success. Yes, on their side, were still trying to recover from the first misstep in
their career, but the situation was made all the more discouraging as they were abandoned by two
of their key members, Anderson and Wakeman. An unusual collaboration imposed itself, while Downes
and Horn joined Yes in 1980. Unusual, yet very surprising, this collaboration appeared as
fruitful; new-wave, applied reasonably to the band's music proved to be tolerable. And even more:
enjoyable. This new hard rock edge doubled by a fondness for synthpop, although frightening in
perspective, seemed to bring a newfound freshness to the band that, barely two years earlier, had
sounded so tired and lifeless on Tormato. And with Drama yet again, it is virtually impossible to
defend the record as successful on the compositional aspect; this new sonic exploration and this
unprecedented field of experimentation is in fact what saved Drama from falling into
insignificance. And it did make quite a nice record. |
| Yes Tormato | 3.0 |
| Yes Time and a Word | 3.5 |
| Time and a Word has a great value really only when its role is considered within the development of the band. If it?s rarely truly interesting, it perfectly marks a transition to the golden age of their career. Songs like Then, Astral Traveller and, especially, the title-track, show early signs of the band?s melody/complexity duality which would later become emblematic of their sound. Many ideas throughout the record have an undeniable potential, but are developed in a clumsy, unskillful manner, and longer songs, The Prophet and Everydays, in which are thrown many ideas, seem, in the end, kind of incoherent. The use of a studio orchestra is, similarly, sometimes interesting, but rarely well-developed, to the point where the strings generally seem out of place. In sum, Time and a Word is among those albums from which you need to identify the highlights - there's still quite a few of them - and come back only to them. |
| Yes Relayer | 4.5 |
If several guiding lights of the prog scene were at the time pulling structural influences from
classical music, a significant portion of the genre's leading - and more obscure - artists
preferred borrowing for jazz. Yes was undeniably part of the former category - although it would
be ignorant to separate the scene into two categories - Close to the Edge, a perfect example,
being constructed in a way so often compared to the structure of a sonata. However, was it the
arrival of the brilliant Patrick Moraz, or anything else, Relayer sees Yes experimenting with
brand new refreshing ideas borrowed to the jazz-fusion movement that was flourishing at the time.
And the result is a nothing less than a sonic explosion, one that is rather hard to absorb after
only the first few listens. Getting used to it, you nevertheless begin to discern the lushness and
depth of the music, of which new subtleties are discovered at every subsequent listen. The
contrast game played between complex and heavy jazzy passages and soft lyrical divagations reveals
itself as especially effective; transitions which originally seemed clumsy start making sense;
everything is set to form one of the band's most interesting works. And Yes seem more sonically
united than ever - additionally, Alan White, whose playing can sometimes be rather uninteresting
when compared to Bruford?s, proves himself here as being more than brilliant. |
| Riverside Shrine Of New Generation Slaves | 3.5 |
| Riverside Anno Domini High Definition | 4.0 |
| Bernard Adamus N°2 | 3.5 |
| Riverside Second Life Syndrome | 4.0 |
| Pierre Lapointe Seul au Piano | 4.0 |
| Opeth Watershed | 3.5 |
| iamthemorning ~ | 3.5 |
| Bela Bartok Mikrokosmos Sz. 107, BB 105 | 4.5 |
| Arcade Fire Her | 4.0 |
| Henry Fool Men Singing | 3.5 |
| Sand (Sam Healy) Sand | 3.0 |
| Mothlite Máthair | 3.0 |
| Pink Floyd The Piper at the Gates of Dawn | 4.0 |
| Queens of the Stone Age Rated R | 3.5 |
| Queens of the Stone Age Songs for the Deaf | 4.0 |
| Chuck Mangione Feels So Good | 3.0 |
| Joy Division Closer | 4.0 |
| Gazpacho Tick Tock | 4.5 |
| Opeth Orchid | 3.0 |
| Musk Ox Woodfall | 4.0 |
| Dream Theater Falling Into Infinity Demos | 3.0 |
| Supertramp Brother Where You Bound | 3.5 |
| Elliott Smith Either/Or | 3.5 |
| Jethro Tull Songs from the Wood | 4.0 |
| Bernard Adamus Brun | 4.0 |
| Every Time I Die From Parts Unknown | 2.5 |
| Les Colocs Les Colocs | 3.5 |
| Les Colocs Dehors Novembre | 3.5 |
| Opeth My Arms, Your Hearse | 3.0 |
| Saor Aura | 4.0 |
| Mastodon Once More 'Round the Sun | 3.5 |
| Muse Black Holes & Revelations | 3.5 |
| Coldplay Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends | 3.0 |
| Fiori-Seguin Deux Cents Nuits A L'Heure | 4.0 |
| Yes Yes | 3.5 |
Yes having been formed by Squire and Anderson as a result of their shared passion for the vocal
harmonies of Simon & Garfunkel and the blend of various musical influences, it is understandable
that this debut album appears as a sort of sonic amalgam and an oscillating search of identity.
With songs like the surprisingly jazzy and sufficiently excellent I See You, the powerful and
charming Before & Beyond and the sublime Everydays, we often find ourselves much closer to the
psychedelic movement than to the progressive scene that was still barely entering the dawn of its
development at the time. And that psychedelic pop twist is a rather interesting one, as Yes offer
us their own - and quite interesting - approach to the genre. Indeed, in this record are hiding
many wonderful 60s pop jewels, which, although sadly lacking proper production, are perfectly
authentic and beautifully built. Of course, it has mainly nothing to do with the brilliance they
would later spawn, and probably covers a bit too much ground for its own good, but it makes for
such a fun, refreshing and lovely listen. |
| Yes 90125 | 3.0 |
| Katatonia Dethroned & Uncrowned | 3.5 |
| Brand New The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me | 3.5 |
| Anathema Distant Satellites | 3.5 |
| Jean Leloup Les Fourmis | 3.5 |
| Jean Leloup La vallée des réputations | 4.0 |
| Gazpacho Night | 4.0 |
| Arcade Fire Funeral | 3.5 |
| Platypus (US) When Pus Comes To Shove | 3.5 |
| Porcupine Tree In Absentia | 3.5 |
| Iron Maiden Powerslave | 3.5 |
| Levin Minnemann Rudess Levin Minnemann Rudess | 3.5 |
| St. Vincent St. Vincent | 3.0 |
| Messenger Illusory Blues | 4.0 |
| The Pineapple Thief What We Have Sown | 4.0 |
| The Pineapple Thief Little Man | 4.0 |
| Cosmograf Capacitor | 3.5 |
| OSI Blood | 3.5 |
| Hypnos 69 Legacy | 3.5 |
| The Beatles Revolver | 4.5 |
| The Beatles Rubber Soul | 4.0 |
| Pink Floyd The Division Bell | 4.0 |
| Se Delan The Fall | 3.5 |
| The Winery Dogs The Winery Dogs | 3.0 |
| Chevelle La Gárgola | 3.0 |
| The Black Keys Turn Blue | 2.5 |
| Casualties of Cool Casualties of Cool | 3.5 |
| The Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound When Sweet Sleep Returned | 3.5 |
| Methadone Skies Enter The Void | 3.5 |
| Modest Mouse Good News for People Who Love Bad News | 3.5 |
| Modest Mouse The Moon & Antarctica | 3.5 |
| Coldplay Ghost Stories | 2.5 |
| Tuomas Holopainen Music Inspired by the Life and Times of Scrooge | 3.0 |
| Birds And Buildings Bantam To Behemoth | 4.0 |
| The Aristocrats Culture Clash | 4.0 |
| The Hotelier Home, Like NoPlace Is There | 5.0 |
| Culpeper's Orchard Culpeper's Orchard | 4.0 |
| T2 It'll All Work Out in Boomland | 4.0 |
| Billy Bragg Talking With the Taxman About Poetry | 3.5 |
| Billy Bragg Life's a Riot With Spy vs. Spy | 4.5 |
| Monogrenade Tantale | 4.0 |
| Supertramp Some Things Never Change | 3.0 |
| Porcupine Tree Up the Downstair | 3.5 |
| Supertramp Crisis? What Crisis? | 4.0 |
| Supertramp Supertramp | 3.5 |
| Scale the Summit The Migration | 4.0 |
| Patrick Watson Waterproof9 | 3.0 |
| Paul Simon So Beautiful or So What | 3.5 |
| Patrick Watson Just Another Ordinary Day | 3.5 |
| H.P. Lovecraft H.P. Lovecraft II | 3.5 |
| No-Man Returning Jesus | 4.0 |
| No-Man Heaven Taste | 3.5 |
| No-Man Flowermouth | 3.5 |
| No-Man Wild Opera | 3.5 |
| No-Man Together We're Stranger | 4.0 |
| BADBADNOTGOOD III | 3.0 |
| BADBADNOTGOOD BBNG2 | 3.0 |
| Swans To Be Kind | 4.0 |
| Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light on Everything | 4.0 |
| Nothing Guilty of Everything | 3.5 |
| The Dillinger Escape Plan One of Us Is the Killer | 3.5 |
| The Decemberists The Hazards of Love | 3.5 |
| The Beatles Please Please Me | 3.0 |
| The Beatles With the Beatles | 3.0 |
| Philip Glass Glassworks | 4.5 |
| Porcupine Tree The Sky Moves Sideways | 3.5 |
| Porcupine Tree Nil Recurring | 4.5 |
| Van der Graaf Generator Godbluff | 4.0 |
| Pierre Lapointe Les vertiges d'en haut | 3.0 |
| Queensryche Operation: Mindcrime | 3.0 |
| Pierre Lapointe Sentiments humains | 4.0 |
| A Perfect Circle eMOTIVe | 2.5 |
| Al di Meola/John McLaughlin/Paco de Lucia The Guitar Trio | 3.5 |
| Blackfield Welcome To My DNA | 3.0 |
| Peter Gabriel Scratch | 3.5 |
| Egonon Risveglio | 4.0 |
| Genesis The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway | 4.5 |
| Genesis Nursery Cryme | 4.0 |
| Genesis Selling England by the Pound | 4.5 |
| Pallas (UK) The Sentinel | 3.5 |
| Yes Big Generator | 2.0 |
| There Will Be Fireworks The Dark, Dark Bright | 3.5 |
| Yonin Bayashi Ishoku-Sokuhatsu | 4.0 |
| Goblin Roller | 3.5 |
| Nirvana MTV Unplugged in New York | 4.0 |
| Nirvana Nevermind | 3.5 |
| Nirvana In Utero | 4.0 |
| Animals As Leaders Animals as Leaders | 3.0 |
| Porcupine Tree Signify | 3.5 |
| Animals As Leaders The Joy of Motion | 3.0 |
| Dysrhythmia Test Of Submission | 3.0 |
| Sebastian Hardie Four Moments | 3.5 |
| Druid Toward the Sun | 3.5 |
| The Odious That Night a Forest Grew | 3.0 |
| Queens of the Stone Age ...Like Clockwork | 4.5 |
| Avenged Sevenfold Waking the Fallen | 2.5 |
| Yes Tales from Topographic Oceans | 4.5 |
Tales is a strange album. In 1973, inspired by the four "sacred books" of Hinduism, Anderson
guided the group through his idea of an album consisting of four "large-scale compositions"
interlocking and complementing each other. In perspective, this may appear as an excessively
ambitious concept, and the result does indeed seem to reflect this idea. Disjointed, way too
adventurous at the expense of its cohesion, Tales covers a huge, imperfect ground (see, isn't that
very topographic?), but between the superfluous and dispensable passages, some of the band?s most
glorious and monumental moments are scattered here and there (take, for instance, the a cappella
introduction to The Revealing Science of God - and the fifteen minutes that follow - or The
Remembering's central section). However, if that doesn't seem convincing, I shall say that many of
the less striking passages end up making sense, as they contribute to the album's overall richness
and incredible depth. Thus, my perspective of the album has changed; I have come to set it apart
from every other Yes work, as I think it was intended as a rather unorthodox experiment. Tales is,
I think, intended to be listened to as an experience, as a sequence of indirectly related ideas
forming a whole, rather than as an album in the conventional sense. This may or may not justify
lack of attention and rigor that spawned many flaws and some less significant passages, but it
certainly qualifies the record as an interesting approach to the structure and format in which
popular music is presented. But Tales stays, indeed, a somewhat strange album. |
| The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour | 4.0 |
| The Beatles Let It Be | 4.5 |
| Miles Davis Bitches Brew | 4.5 |
| Beyond the Bridge The Old Man and The Spirit | 2.5 |
| The Jelly Jam The Jelly Jam | 3.5 |
| King Crimson Lizard | 4.0 |
| King Crimson Three of a Perfect Pair | 3.5 |
| The Pineapple Thief Someone Here Is Missing | 3.5 |
| Nosound Afterthoughts | 4.0 |
| Gentle Giant Octopus | 4.5 |
| Maneige Les Porches | 4.0 |
| Univers Zero Heresie | 4.0 |
| Harmonium Les Cinq Saisons | 4.5 |
| James LaBrie Impermanent Resonance | 3.0 |
| Lines Taking Shape Tabula Rasa | 3.5 |
| Iron Maiden Brave New World | 3.5 |
| Iron Maiden Seventh Son of a Seventh Son | 4.0 |
| Iron Maiden The Final Frontier | 4.0 |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven | 3.5 |
| A Perfect Circle Mer de Noms | 3.0 |
| A Perfect Circle Thirteenth Step | 3.0 |
| Terminal Sound System Tour EP | 3.0 |
| Blackfield Blackfield II | 3.5 |
| Swans The Seer | 4.0 |
| Opeth Morningrise | 3.0 |
| Young the Giant Young the Giant | 2.5 |
| Flying Colors Flying Colors | 3.5 |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor F♯ A♯ ∞ | 4.5 |
| Patrick Watson Close To Paradise | 4.0 |
| Genesis Foxtrot | 4.0 |
| Genesis Trespass | 3.5 |
| Miles Davis Kind of Blue | 4.5 |
| Octobre Octobre | 3.5 |
| Owel Owel | 3.5 |
| Katatonia Dead End Kings | 3.5 |
| Triumvirat Spartacus | 3.5 |
| Serge Fiori Serge Fiori | 3.5 |
C'est clairement tres loin des sommets atteints par Harmonium dans les annees 70, mais, considerant son age et ses 30 annees d'inactivite, je ne pense pas qu'il aurait pu faire mieux.
Sommes toutes, l'album est une jolie collection de chansons penchant vers un style folk-blues. Ceux qui ont aime les paroles au penchant parfois politique et satirique d'Harmonium ne seront pas decus ici ("Le Monde est Virtuel" et "Crampe au Cerveau" en sont de bons exemples). Il y a tout de meme bon nombre de chansons aux paroles plutot pathetiques qui rendent ennuyant le milieu de l'album...
Bref, meme si Fiori a pris de l'age, son retour n'en est tout de meme pas decevant, et reste un "must" pour tout fan d'Harmonium.
|
| Harmonium Harmonium | 4.5 |
| Gazpacho Demon | 3.5 |
| Talk Talk Laughing Stock | 4.5 |
| Avenged Sevenfold City of Evil | 3.0 |
| The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band | 4.5 |
| The Beatles The Beatles | 4.0 |
| Peter Gabriel Melt | 4.0 |
| Peter Gabriel So | 4.0 |
| Peter Gabriel Car | 3.5 |
| Peter Gabriel New Blood | 3.5 |
| Louis-Jean Cormier Le Treizième Étage | 3.0 |
| The Decemberists The Crane Wife | 4.0 |
| Mumford and Sons Babel | 3.0 |
| Elton John Goodbye Yellow Brick Road | 3.5 |
| Joy Division Unknown Pleasures | 4.0 |
| Nightwish Dark Passion Play | 3.5 |
| The Pineapple Thief 10 Stories Down | 3.0 |
| Sigur Ros Agætis byrjun | 4.0 |
| Sigur Ros ( ) | 4.5 |
| Gazpacho Missa Atropos | 3.5 |
| Pink Floyd The Final Cut | 3.5 |
| Porcupine Tree On the Sunday of Life | 3.0 |
| Tantalus Cement Love | 3.0 |
| Dream Theater When Dream and Day Unite | 2.5 |
| Muse The 2nd Law | 2.5 |
| Marco Minnemann Symbolic Fox | 3.5 |
| Marco Minnemann Evidence of Humanity | 3.5 |
| Marco Minnemann Broken Orange | 3.5 |
| Sigur Ros Med Sud i Eyrum vid Spilum Endalaust | 4.0 |
| It sure is different from the band's other albums, but it has some of the most interesting and intriguing pop songs I've ever heard. |
| Plini Sweet Nothings | 4.0 |
| Radiohead In Rainbows | 4.5 |
| Avenged Sevenfold Avenged Sevenfold | 2.5 |
| Avenged Sevenfold Nightmare | 3.0 |
| Avenged Sevenfold Hail to the King | 1.5 |
| Karkwa Karkwa Live | 4.0 |
| Karkwa Les Chemins de Verre | 4.0 |
| Monogrenade Composite | 3.5 |
| My Chemical Romance The Black Parade | 3.5 |
| Jean Leloup Le Dôme | 4.5 |
| Incredible Expanding Mindfuck Complete I.E.M. | 4.0 |
| Steven Wilson Cover Version | 4.0 |
| Gazpacho March of Ghosts | 3.5 |
| Dream Theater Awake | 4.0 |
| Dream Theater Falling into Infinity | 3.0 |
| Tigran Hamasyan Arratha Rebirth: Red Hail | 4.0 |
| Tigran Hamasyan Shadow Theater | 4.0 |
| Tigran Hamasyan A Fable | 4.0 |
| A wonderful album, filled with very creative jazz/Armenian folk piano tunes, and with deep, complex and emotional moments. Highlights are A Fable and The Legend of the Moon. |
| Pat Metheny Unity Group Unity Band | 4.0 |
| Sigur Ros Kveikur | 4.0 |
| Jordan Rudess Notes on a Dream | 3.5 |
| Steven Wilson Get All You Deserve | 4.5 |
| Rush Working Men | 3.5 |
| Muse Absolution | 3.5 |
| Rush Clockwork Angels | 3.5 |
| Nightwish Imaginaerum | 3.5 |
| Supertramp Crime of the Century | 4.5 |
| Supertramp Even In the Quietest Moments | 4.5 |
| Chick Corea Children's Songs | 4.5 |
| Yes Close to the Edge | 4.0 |
The detractors of progressive rock will speak of pretention, excess of virtuosity, pointless
intellectualization of music. Close to the Edge is the perfect counter-example to such criticism.
What Yes and early progressive musicians are attempting to achieve is to make "serious", musically
dense and interesting stuff, out of rock music. In that sense, CttE represents, to me, the
quintessence of everything the classic era of progressive rock was about: a very organic fusion of
musicality and complexity. Ostentation and self-indulgence are part of the game of innovation: you
need to believe in the quality and significance of what you're doing. |
| Yes The Yes Album | 4.5 |
| It is only recently that I realized it was actually The Yes Album which, for me, could rival Close rto the Edge. Establishing the archetypal symphonic prog sound that would define the band's golden ryears, building on what Time and a Word had partly accomplished, this album, in my opinion, beats rFragile in that it has a deeper warmth and immediacy. Where Fragile can get a bit lost in its own rambition, The Yes Album always innovates, while retaining a small part of this charming melodic rpop of the late 60s that had characterized the beginnings of the group. The rich harmonies - that rhave always been present in Yes's music - are often at the forefront here, and the group succeeds rmore than ever to marry them with the complexity and the incredible energy of certain passages, rgiving birth to some classic and timeless pieces such as Starship Trooper, I've Seen All Good rPeople, Yours Is No Disgrace and Perpetual Change. Musical performance is also impeccable; this rline-up of Yes might actually be my favorite. As much as I generally appreciate Wakeman?s playing ron subsequent albums, the absence of his virtuosic and sometimes pompous style may serve as an rasset to The Yes Album. But then again, Patrick Moraz also existed. |
| Yes Going for the One | 3.5 |
| After three albums consisting solely of epic tracks lasting more than 9 minutes, and a growing rfondness for experimentation which earned them some harsh reviews, Yes is again joined in 1977 by rWakeman, and aims for a return to its rather "classic rock" roots. When compared to the esoteric rand ambitious collection Tales from Topographic Ocean and the chaotic jazz-infused rocker Relayer, rGoing for the One perhaps shows the first signs of the subsequent mainstream turn the group would rtake a few years later. Indeed, we are generally done with long, complex instrumental moments ; rthe quality of the composition rather ranks on the side of the weaving of great melodies, the rvoice again being at the forefront. We found songs lasting between 3 and 8 minutes - with one rexception - yet written in a completely different fashion than on the band's first few albums. But rit still is a return to their roots - for lack of a better term - and a well-handled one. Between rthe rock 'n' roll influences of the title-song and Parallels, the calm acoustic tracks and the rinteresting but slightly pompous Awaken, we are still certainly within the Yes universe, but with ra newfound melodic focus and a more instant character. In the end, although not nearly as bold and rinteresting as its predecessors, Going for the One is rewarding in its sturdy songwriting, and roffers us some of Yes's most melodically endearing pieces and genuinely heartfelt moments. |
| Yes Fly from Here | 3.0 |
We could spend quite some time criticizing Yes's recent career; for a long time, the group has
been constantly oscillating between touring the world revisiting past hits note for note, and
producing uninspired and nostalgic music that looked with too much nostalgia at the band's golden
years. That is unless their most recent work, Heaven and Earth, can be considered as "moving
forward." Still, with Fly From Here in 2011, Yes had perhaps found the right formula to fit their
current situation; reusing pieces composed in more prolific years, and reworking them with a
slight modern touch. Such an idea might seem to abound in nostalgia, but if nostalgia is the way
the group has decided to take - which is perfectly legitimate, given their status as veterans -
why not accept it completely? While some compositions here have a new wave touch that sounds dated
to me at least, we are left with a Fly From Here with great melodic sensibilities bringing us back
to the more accessible but still interesting side that 1980's Drama unashamedly bore. Plus, Benoit
David does quite a job at emulating Anderson while actually maintaining his own musical identity. |
| John Petrucci An Evening With John Petrucci & Jordan Rudess | 3.5 |
| Dream Theater Greatest Hit | 2.5 |
| Dream Theater Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence | 3.5 |
| Explosions in the Sky The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place | 4.0 |
| Mike Oldfield Tubular Bells | 3.5 |
| Opeth Still Life | 4.0 |
| Opeth Ghost Reveries | 4.0 |
| Unexpect Fables of the Sleepless Empire | 3.0 |
| Plini Other Things | 3.5 |
| Pink Floyd The Wall | 4.0 |
| Pink Floyd Atom Heart Mother | 4.0 |
| Pink Floyd The Dark Side of the Moon | 4.5 |
| Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here | 4.5 |
| Karkwa Le Volume du Vent | 4.5 |
| King Crimson Larks' Tongues in Aspic | 4.5 |
| King Crimson In the Court of the Crimson King | 4.5 |
| Liquid Tension Experiment Liquid Tension Experiment 2 | 4.0 |
| Dream Theater Train of Thought | 3.0 |
| Dream Theater Octavarium | 3.5 |
| Dream Theater Systematic Chaos | 3.0 |
| Dream Theater Black Clouds and Silver Linings | 3.0 |
| Opeth Blackwater Park | 3.5 |
| Opeth Damnation | 4.0 |
| Opeth Heritage | 4.0 |
While I do understand what could repel a few, I think this is simply a proof of the band's own
versatility; every single element of Opeth's musical atmosphere and melodic identity is present,
in the end it's merely a different interpretation. To me, this is Opeth at their absolute creative
peak |
| Harmonium L'heptade | 4.0 |
| Porcupine Tree Recordings | 4.0 |
| Storm Corrosion Storm Corrosion | 4.5 |
| Porcupine Tree Lightbulb Sun | 3.5 |
| Steven Wilson Insurgentes | 4.0 |
| Steven Wilson Grace for Drowning | 4.5 |
| Steven Wilson The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories) | 4.5 |
| Blackfield Blackfield IV | 2.5 |
| Pills and the few satisfying, well-written tunes like Springtime and Jupiter are the only rtracks really worthy of the project's potential. The interest that was generated on the duo's rfirst two records was the sort of quintessential merging of prog and pop rock that Aviv Geffen rseemingly chose to sacrifice here. Without their slightly experimental edge, the songs blatantly rloose their appeal to me, many of them lacking in texture and emotion. |
| Blackfield Blackfield | 3.5 |
| Coldplay Parachutes | 3.5 |
| Gentle Giant Three Friends | 4.0 |
| Keith Jarrett The Köln Concert | 4.5 |
| Out of every experimentation Jarrett has made, with countless different arrangements and rinteresting ideas, what ultimately reveals itself as perhaps the best formula for his music was rstripping down to the most minimal jazz instrumentation - the piano. Throughout this one-hour - rand partly improvised - solo, he walks between themes with such incredible agility, flow and rcohesion. The concert, of course, showcases great virtuosic talent, but it is, above all, for me rat least, a work of timeless beauty, authenticity and sheer brilliance. In the end, The Kln rConcert might actually be the most impressive and poignant jazz performance on the piano ever rrecorded. |
| Tool Ænima | 4.5 |
| The Dave Brubeck Quartet Time Out | 4.5 |
| Gutbucket Flock | 4.0 |
| Pierre Lapointe Pierre Lapointe | 4.0 |
| Pierre Lapointe Punkt | 4.0 |
| Pierre Lapointe La forêt des mal-aimés | 4.5 |
| Anathema Weather Systems | 3.5 |
| The Pineapple Thief All the Wars | 4.0 |
| Rush 2112 | 3.0 |
| 2112 is one of progressive rock's most overrated albums ever, and definitely the band's weakest reffort of its classic era ('76-'81). It has, indeed, a pretty fucking great epic. That being said, rproportionally to its length, 2112 also has some awful fillers, which is quite rare in prog. The ralbum can't possibly be a classic for me, as it still sees the band developping its sound, and is rnowhere near the heights they'd reach on their six following albums |
| Pink Floyd A Saucerful of Secrets | 3.5 |
| Jethro Tull Thick as a Brick | 4.5 |
| Genesis A Trick of the Tail | 4.5 |
| Yes Fragile | 4.0 |
| The Aristocrats The Aristocrats | 4.0 |
| Mumford and Sons Sigh No More | 3.0 |
| Pink Floyd Animals | 4.5 |
| Patrick Watson Wooden Arms | 4.0 |
| Patrick Watson Adventures in Your Own Backyard | 4.5 |
| The Smashing Pumpkins Oceania | 3.0 |
| And So I Watch You From Afar Gangs | 4.0 |
| And So I Watch You From Afar All Hail Bright Futures | 3.5 |
| And So I Watch You From Afar And So I Watch You From Afar | 3.5 |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! | 4.5 |
| Muse Origin of Symmetry | 4.0 |
| Muse The Resistance | 3.0 |
| Porcupine Tree Stupid Dream | 4.5 |
| Porcupine Tree Deadwing | 4.0 |
| Porcupine Tree Fear of a Blank Planet | 4.0 |
| Porcupine Tree The Incident | 3.0 |
| Dream Theater Score | 4.0 |
| Dream Theater Dream Theater | 3.0 |
| Dream Theater Images and Words | 3.5 |
| Dream Theater Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory | 3.5 |
| Dream Theater A Dramatic Turn of Events | 4.0 |
