Quote:
Originally Posted by sidewinder
I disagree. The songwriting isn't nearly as interesting, some tracks sound too much like generic blues rock ("Jail Bait" bleh), and overall doesn't inspire the emotional reaction that Argus does for me. I should still give it another listen soon, but I'd place Argus, Wishbone Ash, and There's the Rub ahead of it, even though There's the Rub also has a couple of not-so-good tracks, the strong ones are stronger than those on Pilgrimage. It is better than Wishbone Four though.  |
I don't find the songwriting more interesting on Argus, just slicker - ie with more epic direction and purpose. It's like they tamed the wild beast of Pilgrimage, and that taming to me is a weakness.
The debut is much weaker by far - you definitely need to re-listen to Pilgrimage, as it's one of those that's easy to write off as "generic blues rock", as you put it.
I need to relisten to "There's The Rub", as I find it almost unlistenable wallpaper after Argus - but then I only added it to my collection recently, so haven't had a chance to familiarise myself with it.
The beauty of Pilgrimage lies not so much in the songwriting, but in the gut musicianship - the pure rock and roll animalicity of the album. It lacks the pretension of epic songs like "Warrior", but therein lies the charm to my ears... or in this case, my gut.
Here are some reviews I wrote on the first 3 - maybe you'll find them interesting (Obviously, I can't post proper URLs yet);
hxxp://progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=211967
hxxp://progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=212568
hxxp://progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=212203