Sleep, Deep in the Derp

Tired. God, a lot happened today.

Now I'm just kicking back in bed, heart as warm as a submissive boy's heart can get...

Oh, and to throw out yet another prog ramble, Coheed & Cambria's "The Willing Well" is one of my all-time favourite songs ever. I always completely forget to mention it, but it's a downright classic. The title movement, From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness, is in all possible ways a progressive master..movementpiece. It's taken me quite a while to get used to the follow-up epic, "The End Complete," but that one's also grown on me. They're structured differently, and the former is quite a tad longer than the latter, but they're both classics in their own ways.

All in all, the collective Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV would have been one HELL of a double album. They should release it as one. With Volume One's cover art. Seriously, that shit's great. Or maybe they could throw on the promotional Willing Well art that's on the back of Volume One's case? That'd make for a gorgeous cover.

Oh, but while I'm on the subject, do you want to know my literally only major complaint about "The Willing Well?" At the end of the final movement (The Final Cut), as the keyboard solo ends absolutely brilliantly, we suddenly hear the silence broken by none other than a little child's muttering. This continues for several seconds before he shuts up and the keyboard finishes up its final notes. Claudio, the one who put the voices on there, said there was honestly no reason to put them on, so he just wanted to. I.. I just.. fuck, man. The little baby voice had absolutely nothing to do with the plot, nothing to do with the music (besides being a relation to you, sure), and it just killed the ending.

So I hereby recommend that, if the collective Good Apollo is ever released as a single double-album, the baby voice should be completely removed from "The Willing Well." Then we shall have the single most beautiful thing to come out of Coheed & Cambria. Ever.

...wow, I'm tired.

Quickie update

Huh. We've got water coming in through the ceiling, mum says.

We're so ghetto. <___<

My video camera sucks.

So, um.. I went to the house again.

I took my video camera this time. Please excuse my clunkiness. It's seriously a shitty camera; it needs SD cards to film shit, and I don't have SD cards, so I had to freaking keep it plugged into my laptop. That's right, I lugged my laptop with me. Please don't ask how, oh god. Then again, I've done clunkier.

So here's the video.

Yeah, my laptop's battery fucked up at the end. There was nothing back there in that yard, though.

..do you guys think that was Sam? D:

Fish, Man?

Just got an email from someone calling themselves Gabriel Colin. Apparently, the story of Progression Enhanced reminded them of another blog, one from quite a while ago. It was up for a while but got taken down. Blog called Fish, Man!

No screenshots were provided. I'll look into this. Maybe someone else has records of it.

On Gorgeous Proggasmic Musical Nirvana Segments

I noticed that how much I like an album depends heavily on how many sections of the music I truly love. Y'know. Musical nirvana. Proggasms. That little section in a song that fucking blows your mind every time?

Between the Buried and Me's Colors has so many of these, which is still surprising as hell considering I haven't had the album that long. On my first listening, I could list about four or five proggasmic sections. Now that I've heard it a hundred times, I can list at least one per track.

"Foam Born" has the intro, of course. The Backtrack is like beauty in the form of one whole song. Though it's only beauty when you listen to the entire album. "Informal Gluttony" has the opening "rebuild" section and the chorus, with the ghost-like synths during the reprisal. Fuckin' beauty. "Sun of Nothing..." every single part of those ten minutes, man. Especially the acoustic-to-electric chorus section towards the end. "Ants of the Sky" has the various instrumental sections throughout it, including the famous random hoedown and following classical chorus. "Prequel to the Sequel..." that intro, man. Just listen to that intro. Fucking gorgeous. The entire latter three minutes, starting just before the polka-esque waltz, are even more beauty. When the song hits the epic reprisal right at the end? Fuckin'-A, man. "Viridian." Just yes. Entire song. "White Walls." Oh god yes yes yes yes yes. >W< The first time I listened to this album, do you know how much I fuckin' came during the outro? That's the best way to end an album, everything after the final chorus ("WHIIIITE WAAAALL" and such). The exact thoughts that went through my mind during that epic riff, the riff before the end solo, the exact thoughts were "This is Colors. This is the definitive sound of Colors."

Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (Dream Theater) has tons of gorgeous sections, at least one per track.

"The Glass Prison." .....fjudvn0ghv rdfuewfjd. >W< The 'chorus' that plays at the start and after the first movement. That little chorus there is one of my top three favourite melodies ever. The heavy riff to the first movement, the nice time signature fuck at the start of the second movement, and the entire third movement, those are all gorgeous. I'll never forget them for as long as I live. .w. "Blind Faith," ah yes. We have the entire intro, the entire melody throughout the song, the choruses, the entire instrumental section, that piano interlude... just yeah. "Misunderstood," the ghastly intro, choruses, "from a thief to a beggar" bridges, the amazing ending with the heavy guitar distortion.. leading into "The Great Debate." Dude, I love "The Great Debate." The entire intro is another one of my all-time favourite intros ever. The second verse plus "Are you justified" bridges, the real bridge, the choruses, the instrumental section, the solos, the fucking outro.. yeeees. "Disappear.." the chorus is unforgettable. That bridge, too. Then we get to the title track, hoo boy! "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence." 1) The entire overture, 2) the melody of About to Crash, 3) the reprisals of the main theme throughout, 4) the second chorus to War Inside My Head, 5) the entirety of The Test that Stumped Them All, 6) the entire instrumental section to Goodnight Kiss, 7) most of Solitary Shell, 8) every part of the reprisal of About to Crash, especially that killer intro and gorgeous outro, 9) the entirety of Losing Time, and 10) the epic Grand Finale.

See that? The title track has ten (off the top of my head) gorgeous proggasmic musical nirvana sections, alone. That's how much I love Dream Theater.

How 'bout The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway? Let's give it a try.

Title track. 1) That intro. friaefgjdsg09es YEEESSSSS, that intro. >W< 2) "And the laaaaaaaamb... lies dooooowwwn... on Broaaaadwaaay!" 3) All the lyrics. All the sounds. All tehrrejf esgj0dsgrgj0igs aEe.. 4) THE BRIDGE. 5) ALL THE FUCKING LYRICS, I quote them so much. .W. 6) That ending. "Fly on a Windshield." 1) The entire start. 2) The entire solo. ..so the whole song. xD "Broadway Melody of 1974." 1) THE ENTIRE GODDAMN SONG. 2) The entire outro. Oh god, that's memorable. "Cuckoo Cuccoon." 1) Melody! 2) Flute solos! "In the Cage." 1) Entire intro! 2) Keyboard ostintato in 12/8! 3) EVERYTHING. 4) SOLO OH GOD YES THAT SOLO. 5) BRIDGE OH GOD YES THAT BRIDGE. 6, 7, 8, 9) "Outside the cage, I see my brother John. He turns his head so slowly 'round. I cry out 'HELP' before he can be gone, and he looks at me without a sound. And I shout out 'John, please help me' but he does not even want to try to speak. I'm helpless in my violent rage. A silent tear of blood dribbles down his cheek, and I watch him turn again and leave the cage. My little runaway!" Best. Lyrics. Ever. Takes up four spots. 10) Spinning round and roundsajifdgg0h. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15) The outro interlude. Most people don't even mention this damn thing, but it's my favourite part of the fucking song! It's just ei9tgjigd9igh9gqg8jgw and the j0efisnfiung but it's so ghoulish and creepy, solemn, quiet, ominous, mysterious, GENIUS! Takes up five spots. .w.

...I'm not doing this. xD This'll take all day. I think I might see if I can't check out Sam's place again.

Call me stupid..

..but I think I want to go back to that house. It's weird. It's like a craving I want to satisfy. I can't stop thinking of Sam, what might have happened to her. Besides. Maybe she just wasn't in that day.

I intend on checking again.

Wait, what?

So this is gonna sound weird.. but there's a video on my computer I don't remember. I watched it, and it's pretty strange. Here, I'll upload it.

All I recognize is the music, which sounds like some Emerson, Lake & Palmer piece.

Sam's House? Pictures

The lead I got was vague. Just a specific address, with the caption "Sam." It was in an e-mail from someone calling themselves "Skye Blue." I followed it and took some pictures.

This is the neighborhood in which I found the house. Thought I'd take a picture for reference.

The house in question. This is what I found at the address provided by Skye Blue.

I decided to take a look in the window. Yes, I was wearing white gloves. And yes, that's an iPhone. It's my brother's.

Second picture of the front of the house.

Second picture of inside the window. Things seem darker. o.o

Final picture taken out front.

I could've sworn I did more than just look out front and in the window. I think I saved more photos, but this damn iPhone saved them all over the place. Dammit, Apple.

..wait, how could this be Sam's house if she's not British?

New lead?

I think I've found something. An address. Will keep you guys updated.

Bah. Here are some hearts. ..never mind, it breaks the HTML.

I sleep too much. Y'know, I really should look into looking for Sam. Besides, she sounds like a totally fun person to talk to. :3 ..but just as a friend, of course. I already have someone. Who's totally the funnest to talk to. >w<

Y'know what's fun? Going online and seeing kind words directed at you. This is why I try to randomly be nice to people when I get the chance. :D I want people to enjoy their lives. I want people to have fun. This is also why I like to serve. ...but only girls, though. Female supremacy is a weird thing. >w>

I'm rambling now. Y'know, I think me and this blog are gonna get along juuuust fine. .w. It's waited, what, three or possibly four years now for someone to use it! D: The poor thing! Well.. I'm finally using it. And boy, am I using it a lot.

Almost forgot!

Among the screenshots of the entries, wiseaufan had also sent a bigger picture of Sam's drawing of the "(Epping) AquaTarkus."

Last Screenshot

Told you I'd get it up.

Random banter 6.


Sam goes to see Doctor Telmac and perfects the name of the creature in her dreams. Yeah, that's another thing. Sam's a girl. I've been calling her a guy all this time! That's incredibly embarrassing. ^^; Sorry, ma'am.

So yeah, we have a name for that there.. creature thing. Whoo. Epping AquaTarkus. ..hey, that spells EAT! :D That's cool. I like that. I like that a lot.

Oh, and there's that comment there, too. "The Camper." Sounds kinda like a troll.



So there you have it! Those are all the screenshots provided to me by wiseaufan01. If we take his word for it, then that is the last entry of Progression Enhanced. Now the blog is unavailable; it has to have been removed. I have no idea why. All we're left with are these screenshots showing some kinda odd events happening.

I'll keep looking into what might have happened to Sam, the possibility of any more entries, whatnot. In the meantime, that's it.

Some real progress.

We're approaching the end of the screenshots. I went ahead and looked through these in advance. They're.. well. Odd? I dunno. I'll let you decide.

Random CHRISTMAS banter 5.

Sam keeps talking about that "Aquatarkus" character from ELP's "Tarkus" suite. I tried looking up what the original Aquatarkus might have supposed to look like, but the only pictures out there relate to the original Tarkus beast.

Telling the Secrets of Silent Earth

Sam analyses In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3, by Coheed & Cambria! ..though this analysis seems pretty lackluster. It sounds like Sam's starting to get distracted. And note that comment there. "Guitar." This person claims he or she can provide Sam with a scanner. There were no further comments on this entry after Sam asked for contact info.

The Aquatarkus

This is where things get strange. First of all, the "Guitar" commenter from the previous entry has most likely actually provided Sam with a scanner. This person somehow knew Sam's last name. Anyway, uh.. so the creature from Sam's dreams was drawn and scanned. Take note of the three.. shapes to the right of the tentacle.

Comments to "The Aquatarkus."

Here we have a random commenter asking about the shapes, and Sam explaining their relevance: Sam always sees that face during dreams featuring the Aquatarkus. Rather eerie. And then we have a Doctor Telmac asking to meet Sam by the pond the following day to discuss Sam's developing "obsession." I think I know what the Doctor's talking about; it's that obsession with the Aquatarkus thing. Note how the comments end after Sam asks for a designated meet-up time.

..dammit. Blogger won't let me upload the last screenshot. I'll keep trying. In the meantime, I'll post this. If I get the last screenshot up, I'll post it.

Venturing into the unknown screenshots

So here we go. Let's see what Sam did while I was gone.

Random banter 1.
Sam mentions a pond nearby. I remember him mentioning something like that in the comments to me.

Escaping from this Octavarium
Oh hell yes, Sam analyzes Dream Theater's Octavarium! Hell of an album, that is. ..though this analysis doesn't seem quite that.. in-depth. That's entry-level information gives, nothing much deeper. Though I didn't realize "Dream" had 5 letters and "Theater" had 8; that's awesome.

Random banter 2.


Sam talks about a dream. Something in the pond? Reminds me of the promotional ARG to Bioshock 2, "There's Something in the Sea." And there we have a comment from some "Trumpet" dude.

Random banter 3.


It would seem Sam's got some health problems. o.o And hey! It's wiseaufan! So he did frequent this blog.

More albums, random banter 4!


Sam's got some new albums-- Coheed & Cambria's second and fourth ones, and King Crimson's In the Court of the Crimson King. Solid music here. I like Sam's taste.

Will continue in next post. God, I'm distracted tonight.

Expect Updates

I was able to plug my laptop into a separate monitor; I extracted everything I wanted off of it. Less than 3 gigs. I didn't really do much. o_o

Bottom line is, I got the screenshots. I'll be uploading them soon.

By the way, wiseaufan hasn't responded to my emails for a while. It's odd.

This is quite pesky.

Yeah, I can't seem to find that wiseaufan guy now. He won't reply to my messages.

I guess I'll keep trying, but.. damn. I really wanted to know what other albums Sam listened to.

Laptop Problems.

Yeah, sorry about these delays. My laptop's gone overboard. Seems to have adapted a horrible collection of colours to the screen. I can't use it anymore.

I'll have to talk to that wiseaufan guy about getting those screenshots again. We were just getting somewhere, I'm sure.

This internet sucks at uploading pictures.

Continued from previous post. And screw dates; you can read the dates for yourself. I'm too lazy.

New albums!


Sam now has Genesis' Selling England by the Pound and ELP's Tarkus. Includes comments.

Buying England Back by the Dollar.


Sam analyzes Selling England by the Pound. He doesn't seem to like it anywhere near as much as I do. Shame, too. It's a classic album.

Comments for "Buying England Back by the Dollar."


By this point, my brother and his girlfriend are coming within a week-ish, so I let Sam know I won't be frequenting the blog in a week. Yeah, sorry, Sam. I kinda.. forgot all about Progression Enhanced. D:

Defeating Tarkus.


Sam attempts to analyze Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Tarkus. I admit, this seemed a little odd. He only really listened to the title track, and it seems he really liked it. A lot. Now, since having frequented this blog and then stopped, I've since listened to "Tarkus." I like it. The last movement, Aquatarkus, is really catchy. But I don't like it as much as Sam apparently does.

The comments to "Defeating Tarkus."


Sam mentions that he won't spoil the ending to "Tarkus." However, I will. So the armadillo/tank is defeated by the manticore, right? Then, in the final movement, Aquatarkus, Tarkus is reborn in the sea. ..that's it. I don't see what's so cryptic about that.

From here on, I have no idea what the future entries are. I stopped frequenting the blog around then. So let's do this!

Whaddya know, got some leads.

I was just contacted by someone called "wiseaufan01." He said he used to frequent Progression Enhanced, as well, but he took screenshots of every entry. I asked him why, but he wouldn't say. Anyway, he's giving me the screenshots.

You'll have to click it to read it.
Prelude to the Blog Entries. Monday, November 22nd, 2010.


Sam's a prog fan, much like me. Here we have the first entry, giving a better explanation as to what the hell "progressive rock" is than I ever could. If you'll look back, I did try to explain what prog was in an earlier entry, but my god, I suck. xD

Tearing Down The Wall, same day.


Sam breaks down Pink Floyd's The Wall for us. I like this stuff. I mean, seriously. Sam's a wise dude, but some of his facts seem incorrect. Luckily, this is where I came in! xD

The comments to "Tearing Down The Wall." See that? That's me. :D Like I said, I used to frequent this blog.

Waking Up The Lamb, November 29th, 2010.

Holy crap, it's my favourite album. :D The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, by Genesis. It doesn't seem like Sam likes it as much as I do.

The comments to "Waking Up The Lamb."
Here we have me showing my inner prog fan, as well as some garbled spam!

Will continue this in a separate entry.

What the heck?

So the other day, I mentioned an old blog I used to frequent. A prog blog that analyzed and "broke down" prog pieces. Well, today I remembered it. It was called Progression Enhanced, and.. shit, I'm still following it.

It's allegedly at http://progend.blogspot.com/ but no longer. I checked out the URL to see what I've missed since I stopped frequenting it in December, and...

It has been removed.

This surprises me. Progression Enhanced was a fucking awesome blog, and its blogger, some bloke by the name of Sam.. Sam was a cool dude!

RIP Progression Enhanced. You were a great blog, a testament to prog  blogs everywhere.

I'm gonna do some more research on this.

My Favourite Band Touches Me Invisibly

Can you hear me?
Can you see?


I've been listening to a lot of Phil Collins-era Genesis lately. Shit, how does anyone not like these guys? They're so amazing, no matter who's the frontman.

It was only a little while ago that I realized Invisible Touch has all the makings of a classic album. I know I said I'd do some track-by-track analyses on my favourite albums, but.. I think I'll do one of this.

- Invisible Touch, the title track, is the definitive 80s pop song to me. "Abacab" is a close second. Sure, it's a huuuuuge change from their earlier work, but at the same time, it proves Genesis is ultimately progressive. They progressed from being a prog band to being a big radio hit, while still doing the occasional prog classic!

- Tonight, Tonight, Tonight has one of the greatest extended instrumental sections I've ever heard. The lyrics intrigue me, as well.

- Land of Confusion is a classic classic. xD It's the definitive 80s rock song to me. Thanks to Disturbed and the wonders of the internet, this has even become a personal meme of mine. "That's not Land of Confusion! That's not Disturbed!" And here's a hipster saying if there ever was one: I liked "Land of Confusion" before I even knew Disturbed covered it. >w> I'm not even mentioning the epic music video.

- In Too Deep... just shit, man. One of the three songs of the album I don't actually listen to. I just stick it on in the background. Yet when the chorus comes along, I sometimes sing along.

- Anything She Does has a great rhythm. That's all I know about it.

- Domino. Fuck yes. "Domino" is an amazing song, one of the aforementioned prog classics. In the Glow of the Night starts the piece off with your average 80s Genesis song, yet the lyrics hint at something still to come. The Last Domino expands on these lyrics and just absolutely.. kicks it up to eleven. In every way. Anyone who says Phil Collins isn't metal has never heard these goddamn lyrics. Take a look at the mountains! Take a look at the beautiful river of blood. I don't even need to say anything further. That's fucking metal. The rhythm going on at this point of the song is one of the most epic sounds I've ever heard, especially in an 80s song. And I mean "epic" in the "Something really fucking huge is going on right now" sense. Then the song progresses a bit, and it all comes together in the exciting finale, which is like a completely separate 80s song. xD In a way, "Domino" is like what would happen if someone were to ask "What happens between every 80s song?" I'll tell you what. Prog happens.

- Throwing it all Away. ..I don't remember this song. Maybe it's an easter egg. Maybe if I listen to it again, I'll hear some Satanic message telling me the Operator is coming to get me or something.

- The Brazilian completely fucked. My. Mind. Up. I played it for my completely metal, METAL, and MOAR METAAAAL friend, and it fucked HIS mind up. "The Brazilian" is everything an instrumental should be (except for LONG. It should be LONGER THAN THIS. And more progressive.). It's catchy, it's beautiful, it's an epic closer, and it.. just... rocks.

So yeah. Genesis, man. I love Genesis. So much. .w. Phil Collins' voice soothes me. Peter Gabriel's voice takes me back to my childhood. I think I'll do more of these track-by-track analyses sometime.

Don't you hear me?
Don't you see?

On "Supper's Ready"

Blogging about prog reminded me of a blog I once found a number of months ago, a blog that 'broke down' prog pieces, analyzing them whilst offering while they may not be that good. I liked that blog a lot. I frequented it. I don't know what happened to it, though. I'll take a look for it sometime.

IN THE MEANTIME (Spacehog), I realized I had most of a ramble on one of my favourite songs saved as a draft here. So here, I finished it and it's being published! I don't talk much about how it could be improved ('cause I love it too much for that!), but it's still a prog ramble, and.. I like those.

Now, throughout the various songs I have heard in my time, I think "Supper's Ready," by Genesis, is objectively one of the more epic pieces. I shall elaborate... when I'm done listening to this stunning solo. ^___^
Don't get me wrong. I've heard plenty of songs. I've loved and hated various ones multiple times. I often hate songs I play too much, though Genesis never gets on my nerves. I always get lost in the music. "In the Presence of Enemies" is another song I can never hate, though by Dream Theater. ItPoE, coincidentally, is another truly epic piece, though I will explain why I feel Supper's Ready surpasses it.
(Note: This elaboration is nothing like a musical analysis; it won't involve any fancy terms or even that good of an explanation. Frankly, it's gonna suck. But I'm just rambling about one of my favourite songs.)
How about we start at a section of the piece that is not even a part of the song? Track five off of Foxtrot, "Horizons" is a small little guitar prelude, beginning with a classical style and progressing to be much more baroque. If a song's description includes the words "guitar," "prelude," "classical," "progressing," and "baroque" in it, then you can bet I'll be sold. =D To put it with a bit more perspective, "Horizons" is a nice break following a series of rather intense, rather proggy songs. It calms you down and mellows the mood a bit to get you ready for the upcoming epic. You could even say it makes the album seem almost...... boring. In a good way. You begin to think the album won't be going anywhere. Then...
..bam. No, not "bam." Just.. "Welcome." The word is not said, but you just get the feeling of being welcomed into a quiet little love song. "A Lover's Leap" is the introduction to Genesis' longest song, and the piece may not stand out with ultra progginess, but it certainly sets the stage with the recurring theme of love, souls, and the recurring musical theme that will show up again later. Peter Gabriel's soothing voice welcomes you into the song, just as he welcomes the lover to his arms. The piece then drifts off on a little musical tangent before the lovers' journey begins.
Actually, the lovers' journey had begun during the musical tangent. The protagonists gaze into each others' eyes and drift off to some sort of mythical wonderland. By the time "The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man" slams in to our speakers, it feels as if it's been playing this whole time. Apparently, this piece tells us about the dangers of science. Normally, I would feel offended about that. I then realize that this is a mythical song with tons of mythical elements in it, emphasis on "mythical." Either way, the protagonists find themselves lost in a strange world, watching strange characters give out strange potions. SUDDENLY
BAM. A skirmish among odd creatures has broken out. "Ikhnaton And Itsacon And Their Band Of Merry Men" has begun. There is conflict everywhere we look as the lyrics turn to onomatopoeias and a sense of rush. Steve Hackett has his fun on his guitar, and we are treated to some quite entertaining musical tangents, and hey! One side has won the battle. The commotion dies down, almost to pure silence. "How Dare I Be So Beautiful?" is a much, much, much more mellow piece. Most of what is heard is just gentle chords fading in and out, as the lovers walk past the former battlefield. They come upon the Greek myth Narcissus, who is then turned into a flower. Hey, a flower? That reminds me of...
"Willow Farm!" Hey! Now THIS sounds like prog. Quirky, sudden, and almost nonsensical. It appears the lovers have come across a farm.. filled with magic that turns people into ducks, ducks into weblogs, and weblogs into cassette tapes. This is arguably where the song picks up and becomes rather magical, though I tend to zone out at this point. >_> I haven't given this particular part a proper listening to in a while. How about we move on? This section ends about as unexpectedly as it begun, with an extended sustain note becoming almost.. unfamiliar. They actually manage to make a sustained note progress. One note. Seriously. It progresses into a flute solo before you even notice anything's changed. Then we move on to a gentle guitar interlude until the drums come marchin' in, hinting that maybe we're about to enter..
"Apocalypse in 9/8!" This... well. I will not even begin to describe this movement. Okay? I cannot begin to describe it. It is quite possibly my ALL-TIME favourite movement of anything EVER. I'm not mentioning the lyrics, the instruments, the sound, nor the truly unforgettable keyboard solo.
"As Sure as Eggs is Eggs (Aching Men's Feet)," finally, is where it all comes together. The whole song has progressed more times than is even possible. Now we've progressed so much.. that we're back where we started. The lovers have concluded their journey and are now back, their love burning brighter than ever before. Every single recurring theme in the song so far comes back in beautiful harmony for this movement, and we're treated to the most disappointing part of the song-- the ending. ..as in, it fades out. >_> I hate it when songs fade out. But whatever!

..this has been my ramble on Genesis' "Supper's Ready." Give it a listen sometime, will ya?

On Favourite Albums, one: Overture

The other day, I mentioned my Big Four favourite albums. Lemme explain!

You see, when I'm asked for my favourite album of all time, my answer always varied. After some time, I started to realize my answer was always one of four. So I started saying I have four favourite albums. Of all time. I call them my "Big Four."

My Big Four has been, ever since naming them in the first place:

- Genesis' The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

- Genesis' Selling England by the Pound

- Dream Theater's Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

- Dream Theater's Metropolis, part two: Scenes from a Memory

So yeah! I really love Genesis and Dream Theater. >_> But y'know what? I think, in all honesty, I can list both Dream Theater entries under The Dream Theater Meta-Album, as well as two other DT classics, so there!

But at the same time, I'm starting to think about what other albums may be classified as my favourites.

- Between the Buried and Me's Colors is a definite contender. Definitely.

- Pearl Jam's Ten? A big "possibly."

- Radiohead's Kid A? I mean.. maybe?

- I'm sure, once I've listened to Yes' Tales from Topographic Oceans even more, that'll be on the list. It's a work of art in itself.

..well. My intention was to make a track-by-track analysis of why I love my Big Four. Perhaps I should do one of the Big Four, plus the new contenders...

..let's do it!

DJay32's "Big Four" Favourite Albums, plus four contenders for MORE Favourites.

To be analyzed in entries to come.

On the Theory of Music Fame Relativity

Every now and again, I like to look at my massive, steadily-increasing music collection (consisting mainly of proper physical CD-based albums, though I also have four Genesis cassettes, dozens of vinyls, and even an EP or two-- bottom line is, I never purchase downloaded music) and ponder things about relative music popularity as a whole.

So if you look back at the earlier music, we can see a bit of a clear pattern. For the 50s and earlier pieces, anything we hear is a classic, as anything else has died off due to unpopularity. Natural selection of music. In the 60s, you mainly hear about the big acts, such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Doors, The Beach Boys, all that jazz. Much like the earlier stuff, these have been carefully selected by us (we 'select' the music in such a way that reminds me of hive minds, collective consciousnesses) as being truly classic, while if you look hard enough, you can start to find some of the less 'classic' pieces (such as Genesis' From Genesis to Revelation, or literally everything made by Led Zeppelin!) (..I'm teasing).

Then, as the years go on, we start to get exponentially more music to choose from, but we can still easily tell which are the 'classics.' In the 70s, these are such bands as Rush, Yes, David Bowie, (perhaps Pink Floyd, if your standards are low enough,) AC/DC, ..and.. other bands from the seventies (I'm sorry, I can't easily name the years of many bands)! In the 80s, we get such classics as Metallica, Megadeth, Judas Priest, Genesis (their pop years were 'classic!' ..shut up!), Billy Joel (if you're into him), Meat Loaf, INXS, Tears for Fears, Talking Heads... you get a lot of bands, basically, with still even more non-classics!

Then we get to the 90s. For a long time, the nineties weren't exactly associated with good music, you see. But yet now we look back and we can see some true 'classics' such as Depeche Mode, Dream Theater (their early work), Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Radiohead, U2, Oasis, The Prodigy... and loads more than that, no doubt.

So now we have the 00s. The nowties, if you will. ..noughties. 00s. It doesn't seem like too many amazing pieces of art were released recently, but that's just the nostalgia filter talking. Here we get to the point I've been trying to get to for a while.

What bands, what albums, what sub-genres and whole genres that were focused on in the 00s will we look back on in the future and regard as true 'classics?'

Looking back now, I can already name a few of my own personal taste.

Coldplay's Parachutes is a classic-- it certainly is to me. Even if Coldplay, themselves, hate the album. Every song sounds carefully chosen, carefully crafted; it's one hell of a debut album.

Radiohead's Kid A, for sure. Now don't get me wrong! I'm a strict prog guy most of the time! Radiohead is way too mainstream for me usually, but.. Kid A, much like Parachutes, just.. tugs at my emotions in strange ways. Plus, I already made a blog post describing my love for it.

Muse's Origins of Symmetry.. I mean, even the album, itself, has a rather famous backstory, showing the band being held back by their record companies or.. whatnot. And then the songs, themselves, are fantastic-- especially when compared to the tracks of Showbiz.

Oh god yes. Dream Theater's Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. Now.. yes, I'm a Dream Theater fan at heart-- my views are biased. But this might possibly be the one DT album on the list. Six Degrees is everything one could ask for in a prog album-- six songs revolving around a set concept (in this case, inner turbulence, or mental unrest), with the shortest song being just over six minutes long (oh hey six 8D) and the longest, the sixth, being forty-two minutes (six times seven 8D) and revolving around six specific cases of mental problems. The songs, themselves, vary in sound from the heaviness of "The Glass Prison" to the eerie gaps of silence in "Misunderstood."

(..to put it simply, Six Degrees is one of the very, very, very, very few albums that gets to be referred to as one of my "big four" favourite albums. I'll talk more about them later.)

Possibly Queens of the Stone Age's Songs for the Deaf. Possibly.

Now, this is most likely just my opinion.. but Coheed & Cambria's collective Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV is one of the finer classics out there, storywise (lyrics and otherwise), structurally, and in some ways sound-wise. Of course, this is only when Volumes One and Two are counted as one single double-album. Alone, they.. are lacking. Considerably. Together, they make for a rather diverse (for punk) trip into the meta and sci-fi worlds, even managing to accurately pull off Through the Eyes of Madness (a feat admirable on its own). Now... I will admit that one of the biggest reasons I adore Good Apollo is because the story of the Writing Writer is so uncannily similar to my own.

Mastodon's Blood Mountain.... well... maybe. Consider this entry as just simply saying that I, myself, prefer Blood Mountain by far above Crack the Skye. xD So just ignore this entry.

Muse's Black Holes & Revelations is another maybe.

Oh, here's a definite classic: Between the Buried & Me's Colors. Here's an album that shows, above all else, unbelievable potential and true diversity in sound. Really, though, don't get me wrong. I, like many others, have a strong distaste for growling vocals. They are easily the low-point of Colors for me. Yet still, this 64-minute progressive trip into the cityscape (the same one that burns brighter by the hour) absolutely astonishes upon merely the first listening. Every consecutive listening only strengthens my love for it. It is, structurally, an absolutely insane in every definition of the word... masterpiece. It is, lyrically, a cryptically poetic, a poetically cryptic, a divine and deep beyond imagination... masterpiece. It is, in terms of instrumentation, an intense exercise on your expectations, a masterpiece that starts off brutally beating the shit out of your ears, leaving you wondering where the hell the "art" is in this unforgiving sound.. but as it progresses, you begin to discover exactly where the colors lay in this beauty... this loving and always-forgiving (all together now...).... masterpiece.

...loljk it sucks n BtBaM are fags

But yeah. >_> I love Colors, and I intend on following Between the Buried & Me, listening to each and every consecutive album of theirs from now until they disband (hopefully not for a long time).

Muse's The Resistance... musically, it's catchy and beautiful in a couple of ways. Lyrically.. a tiny bit lacking. Structurally, it's uncannily similar to 1984, albeit with the extra "Exogenesis Symphony" (which, by the way, is my favourite Muse song by far). Now, frontman Matthew Bellamy claims the album is not a retelling of 1984, which disappoints me. You see, if it's not a retelling, then it is one of the most unoriginal albums ever made. If it is, it's pretty damn genius, with the aforementioned "Exogenesis Symphony" being a proposed 'solution' to the horrible Orwellian dystopia.

Finally, quite possibly the last album you'd expect from me, Plan B's The Defamation of Strickland Banks. This is an R&B/Soul album by British rapper Plan B. But.. you see, it just so happens to be a concept album. It tells the rock opera of eponymous Strickland Banks, soul singer who is accused of rape and unjustly imprisoned. I've gotta say, I was hardly expecting this album to be anywhere near good.. but holy shit. It's powerful, it's catchy as hell, it's just the kind of story I'm interested in, and it has a rather ambiguous ending. Now, once again I say don't get me wrong. I hate ambiguous endings more than anything else. The end to The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway was quite possibly the ONLY part of the narrative I disliked, as well as the ending to Inception. But.. I mean, it actually fit in Defamation. It relies on the instability and risk of the court system, after all. Just.... bah! Defamation.. just about every part of it clicks with me in all the right ways.

..so yeah! These are just my personal 'classics.' I hope at least a couple of these will turn out to be popularized as such in the future.