The Rainbow starts out strongly. The Threshold song starts out well (I like a mix of powerful guitar and keyboards). The other two songs begin boring and that's the end for me. I think non-prog rock should be exempt from my claim about long songs not starting "nicely," since electric guitar played by a professional almost always is decent (to anyone who likes electric guitar) and that's how most rock songs start. But a long song needs much more than respectable guitar to be good, and too much guitar can be grating. A long song probably needs better playing and often more instruments to be as enjoyable a listen as a shorter song.
As for "formulaic," I didn't say I like songs that are particularly formulaic. Of the songs I love, 4:30 probably is about their average length - it seems to allow for experimentation without getting too far from the formula of what's pleasing to the human ear.
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