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Neapolitan · 10-21-2017, 10:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart

I'd also add (I have Neapolitan on ignore but I see him quoted by you and would like to set the story straight on what he says I say about Genesis, the album) that any real ire I have (being from Ireland I do have a lot of ire - take that!)

is reserved for Abacab, which I consider a truly awful album and the nadir of what was then a pretty nosediving career anyway. But Genesis has some very good tracks. My main gripe is that it sort of straddled two camps, on one hand trying to remain in the "new pop" version of the band which they dipped their toes into with Duke, and on the other hand doing their best to remain true to the their old proggy fan base, and to my mind it fell between the stools. Abacab is, imo, an awful album but at least it's unashamedly pop and doesn't pretend to be anything else. Genesis fools you by kicking off with "Mama", so you think "Ah! The Genesis I know!" and then falls off a cliff as Collins sticks his hands in his pockets and comes whistling "That's all" (an apt title if ever there was one!) at you. You're still reeling from the shock of that when "Home By the Sea/Second Home By the Sea" reinstils the old faith in you, before Collins kicks you in the balls with the abysmal "Illegal Alien". The rest of the album is actually ok, but by then I've been so in shock that I'm unlikely to recover.

Invisible Touch went more or less back to the Abacab format, they got a little back to basics with We Can't Dance (though much of it is pure pop it's good pure pop, unlike the turd that is Abacab) and then Calling All Stations had its moment but was a poor shadow of albums like Duke and Wind and Wuthering, and it was probably best they gave it all up as a bad job at that point.

Tealdear: I hate Abacab much more than I hate Genesis, though

Oops, I was listening to the wrong album then.

I could paraphrase that and it would make my point about 90125. "My main gripe is that it sort of straddled two camps, on one hand trying to remain in the "new pop" version of the band which they dipped their toes into with Drama, and on the other hand doing their best to remain true to the their old proggy fan base, and to my mind it fell between the stools. 90125 is, imo, an awful album but at least it's unashamedly pop and doesn't pretend to be anything else."

See we are not that different. It is just we come from two different directions. I like Yes but TREY made me realize I am more of a Steve Howe fan than a fan of everything by Yes especially TREY. I love those two albums Abacab and Genesis, again it comes down to musicianship. I like Tony Banks more than Tony Kaye.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anteater

Hey boi I got a hand too. A pimp handddd

Alan Parsons Project - Turn Of A Friendly Card (1980)
King Crimson - Discipline (1981)
Zebra - Zebra (1983)
Yes - 90125 (1983)
It Bites - Once Around The World (1988)
Giraffe - The View From Here (1988)
Tears For Fears - The Seeds Of Love (1989)

I don't know who, what, where those albums would compete with the albums on my list. I have to listen to them. When I made my list I tried to stick as close as possible to the sound Yes was going for during TREY. I could have picked what I thought was the best of the 80s, but I didn't. I stayed away from bands that were futuristic synth minimal wave or New Wave, or Goth, or Post-Punk or guitar only bands. I didn't pick 70s or any album after 90125. It seems you have expanded the theater of operation. I might have to change my strategy.

I would pit ABBA - Vistor against Yes (really Cinema featuring Jon Anderson) - 90125. Rutger Gunnarsson versus Chris Squire, that seems like a good match. Jon Anderson high pitched voice versus Agnetha and Frida's. It would be fitting that a Prog band that leans to Pop should be counter-attacked by a Pop band that leans towards progressive ideas/Progressive Rock. ABBA will totally annihilate TREY aka "Cinema featuring Jon Anderson" proving that Prog shouldn't make excursions into Pop territory. This will free up Saga - Worlds Apart to attack the best album on your list. If you want to cue me in that would help. I am tempted to pit Foreigner - Foreigner against Zebra - Zebra.