Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of The Worlds:
Disc 2
1. "The Red Weed (Part 1)" 5:51: This ambient intro with the flutes, horns, and Theramin is actually pretty creepy and atmospheric. It's still B-rate sci-fi, but the song legitimately works like it's supposed to this time.
2. "The Spirit of Man" 11:45: Wait, so is some Martian plant killing people? LOL.
Maybe a prog fan could distinguish different songs on this album, but after an hour of this, they're all starting to run together. And when prog starts to run together, then it becomes background music. Still fun, but I'm starting to fade.
Who the **** are these terrible singers? I think the guy is Phil Lynott from Thin Lizzy, but he sounds cartoonishly overwrought singing over disco video game music. I don't even give a **** about finding out who the chick is.
This song is way too mellow. Cheese shouldn't try to sound heavy. It just becomes tedious. Someone get me some drugs. Oh god, they keep going on about "the spirit of man" in a way that I assume is supposed to be profound (I'm only half paying attention TBH). Stop singing, please.
3. "The Red Weed (Part 2)" 6:19: ****ing Phil Lynott is still going on, and he's talking about praying the Martians away. He's
supposed to be an idiot, but he's still annoying.
Yay! The Martians killed him!
It feels like the cheesy disco prog of the first disc is being replaced by overblown prog, backed by an orchestra, and while it's more atmospheric, it's also kind of boring. I don't think this second album is going to be half as fun as the first. At least they killed Phil Lynott, though.
It's also more story-based. Most of the dialogue was the old British guy narrating, but now there are other characters, and they have scenes and dialogue, and I don't have the attention span to really pay attention to what they're saying half the time. It's the same reason why I don't listen to books on tape.
4. "Brave New World" 12:36: Oh god damn it. They kill one guy who sounds like **** singing on this album, only to replace him with another one. I don't care if this dude is famous too, cause he just sounds awful here. I guess it's an improvement over the harmony singing, but only because it's actually part of the story, and not just out of place nonsense.
It's possible I might come to appreciate this more, when I take in more of the story on subsequent listens, but the singing will remain forever lame. "All over a-GAIN!!! All over a-GAIN!!!"
Holy ****, the song totally changed without me noticing, and now it's almost over. I had to cut and paste the last two paragraphs to put them with the right song.
5. "Dead London" 8:36: Boring synths? Check. Lack of fun disco? Check. Cliched intro of desolate wind? Check. This song will clearly save this album for me. Thankfully, after this song there's just the epilogue.
Fading fast now. Waiting for this to be over. At least the other annoying singer is gone. I think he led a bunch of survivors underground to live in an isolated utopia or something. I hope there's a cave in. I don't want them to be crushed, I just hope that they have to wait for hours as their air slowly runs out.
Alright, the orchestra is just ripping off Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 now- hey, there's a fun disco beat! It's a retread from the first album, but it's still an improvement over the tediousness of the rest of this one. It's too little too late at this point, but at least I'll be able to get something else out of this before it ends.
6. "Epilogue" 4:35: Home stretch. Here we go... oh yeah, the Martians are dead now. I'm sure everybody on Earth knows it was disease that killed them, so... SPOILER ALERT!
Some actual cool drumming, but those horns are just a tad too overblown for their own good, and the synths are nothing to write home about. Maybe I'm just too fatigued to give this a fair shake, but I'm just waiting for it to end ATM.
And with a foreboding outro/intro from years in the future, implying a second Martian attack, the album ends and I am free. First disc: stupid, but fun. Second disc: stupid, but tedious. Might give it another shot one of these days, but I'm not tripping over my own feet to listen to it again.
Final verdict:
/10