Anteater

Album title: Gentle Giant
Artiste: Gentle Giant
Nationality: British
Year: 1970
Subgenre: Progressive Rock
Player(s): Gary Green (Lead Guitar), Kerry Minnear (Keys), Derek Shulman (Lead Vox), Martin Shulman (Brass and woodwinds), Ray Shulman (Bass, Guitars, Violin), Martin Smith (Percussion)
Familiarity: I have all their top albums, so that has to count for something as proghead.
Favourite track(s): 'Funny Ways' and 'Nothing At All"
Why? 'Nothing At All' was the song that got me into progressive rock (as I talked about on my journal) and 'Funny Ways' is an interesting,rhythmically propulsive song that hints at just how out-of-the-box the Shulman brothers and co. would become on later records.
Least favourite track(s): “The Queen”
Why? See everyone else's comments. Seems unnecessary.
Any preconceptions prior to listening, whether good or bad?
None really, and unless you were aware at just how unique these guys were before you heard their music as far as reputation goes, I don't see how anyone would be prepared for them.
Factoids you'd like to share? Derek Shulman (the lead singer and eldest Shulman brother) went on to have a GIGANTIC career as a record executive from the 80's onwards after GG's disbanding, signing or overseeing the signing of a lot of superstar bands on several labels, including Dream Theater, Pantera...hell, even Nickelback and Bon Jovi!
End impression: 1969-1970 was a watershed year for the-then nascent progressive movement, and this album is right up there with anything Yes or King Crimson were doing at the time as far as standing out from the crowd goes.
Comments: A promising beginning from a band who would go on to become one of the most distinctive and forward-thinking groups to ever exist in progressive rock's golden decade. Its not a perfect record by any means, and besides 'Nothing At All' I'm not in love with any of the songs here, but this was 1970 and a debut album: nobody besides King Crimson completely knocked it out of the park their first go-around, not even Yes or Genesis. These guys were on to something special, and you can just hear the creative electricity sizzle from note to note here. The true depths of this potential would not start revealing itself until '71's Acquiring The Taste, but the signs of greatness are heir apparent.

Rating: 3.5 Not the first album I'd recommend to people for GG, but its got some great moments.

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Anteater's 21 Fav Albums Of 2020

Anteater's Daily Tune Roulette

Paul Smeenus

Well as regards Genesis, I assume you would agree with me that Nursery Cryme was a significant leap forward, and Foxtrot yet another leap to a plateau that they maintained through the remainder of the Gabriel era into the early Collins era. This is kinda like that. The first GG album has moments but they had a lot of development in front of them. I'm just saying not to give up on Giant until you've heard their fully developed music.

If you haven't done so yet, Trollheart, I encourage you to read my review of Three Friends that I linked to in my review on this thread. That was the beginning of their greatness

I understand the premise of this thread demands reviewing the listed albums.

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Gentle Giant Catalog Review

The entire Ditty Bops catalog reviewed

Trollheart

Well this is frustrating! Time to choose a new album so I spin and I get .. wait for it ...
1!
And think hell yeah! Top of the list!
Problem is, he hasn't decided what his alltime greatest favourite bestest most classic prog album ever is yet! So no number one! GAAAHHH!

So after a nice cup of tea and a Snack wafer I hit spin again. This time I get
183

But
It's not there either! God-damn it! Why do people publish unfinished lists???

Third time lucky then...
211
For one sickening moment I thought we had done that already but no. Here it is...

Timeless --- The Watch

Never heard of them. Could be interesting. A 2011 album so may be great, may be crap. Anyway as usual all reviews in for counting by Sunday for all Core Members and I guess Sunday week for Standard Members.

Edit: Not on Spotify or Grooveshark, but I think YouTube may have it...

By the way, can anyone except Ant and US contact me and let me know how you want your membership? You want fries with that?

Until I hear otherwise, everyone other than Neapolitan, Moss and Paul Smeenus are going in as Standard. If you want to change up or down let me know, but until then anyone who's put in as a Standard Member but fails to fulfill the criteria, ie review every album in the time allotted will be notified by PM that they are going to be downgraded to Associate Membership. They can then appeal this to myself, Anteater or Unknown Soldier, if they care.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

Album title: Timeless
Artiste: The Watch
Nationality: Italian
Year: 1970, I mean 2011!
Subgenre: RPI, but more like Genesis clones
Player(s): Simone Rossetti (vocals, flute), Marco Fabbri (Drums), Giorgio Gabriel (No, I'm serious!) (Guitars), Valerio De Vittorio (Keyboards), Stefano Castrucci (Bass, Guitars)
Familiarity: Zero, didn't even know they existed outside of a Terry Pratchett novel!
Favourite track(s): “End of the road”
Why? I say favourite but I really mean least hated, and I only choose it because it at least has some sense of originality about it and doesn't sound like a bad Genesis rip-off.
Least favourite track(s): Title I think
Why? Because it's so much a rip off of Genesis's “In the wilderness”. Their audacity in then covering that song could make anyone not familiar with Genesis think that the opener is just an intro to a song they wrote, as in, “In the wilderness” and I think that's very disingenuous.
Any preconceptions prior to listening, whether good or bad? Reading about them it says they play Genesis like music, so I had expected to enjoy this. I was soon to be proven wrong.
Factoids you'd like to share?
End impression: Jesus wept! If I want to listen to Genesis I'll listen to Genesis., not some poor clone ripoff who can't even disguise this as tribute music!
Comments: Having selected this album from the list and never heard of the band I went in search of information. This is what Wiki says: ”Their music is inspired by classic progressive rock style of the 1970s and in particular by the music of Genesis “. Okay so that should be fine, yes? But the moment I hit play I heard Genesis. Not someone playing music LIKE Genesis, but a band playing Genesis. Even the singer emulates Gabriel to an embarrassing degree. Not to mention that this is 1969 Genesis we're talking about, with even a cover from the debut album. So then I thought “Ah! Timleless! It's either a tribute to Genesis or to classic prog rock songs!”

But no, that is not the case at all; it's supposed to be an original album. Fair enough then, but the opening track “The Watch” is nothing more than the main melody from “In the wilderness” (which they later cover, just to rub salt in) with a few embellishments, but they don't call it a cover. Oh no. It's their song. The cover is decent enough and I actually like the version they do, plus they do an okay version of “Stagnation”, but come on: if I want Genesis I listen to Genesis. Big Big Train are Genesis influenced, as are Willowglass, but neither sound EXACTLY like Genesis!

When it gets down to it though, their own music I found well played but too deriviative. The only one that even made me sit up and take notice was “End of the road”, which showed a lot of promise and its own identity. “Exit” is just a reprise of the opener (itself a badly-disguised cover/ripoff/you decide) and the rest just sounded like stuff the Genesis of 1969 might have recorded but not decided to put on the debut album. As for the singer? Why try to sound EXACTLY like Peter Gabriel? Marillion, in their formative years, were always compared to Genesis and did not like it, Fish making his voice as unlike Gabriel's as could be. Nobody tries consciously to emulate the legend, especially if you're also playing exactly the same kind of music, even cover versions for god's sake! Oh yeah, and he plays the flute too. Can you say obvious?

Very very disappointed, and it only took me two listens to decide this album was not worth giving a further chance. These guys need to find their own voice. Maybe on later albums they did. But they've left me wanting to hear no more of their music, which is quite a surprise to me as I was expecting much better. Some of you will probably think I'm being overly harsh on The Watch here, and maybe I am, but the blatant mimicry here, presented as their own music, just makes my blood boil. You can love, admire, respect and try to emulate a band without copying them almost note for note.

Rating: Sorry, can only muster a 2.5 and that's only because the musicianship is good and the singer is competent, also they made we want to dig out my old copy of "From Genesis to Revelation", but the Genesis clone effect and their disingenuity in claiming songs as theirs which are plainly copied from Genesis ones loses them massive points.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

The current rankings, up to the last album reviewed. No change at the top but some albums share the second slot, three in fact. Mind you, at the moment only three people are putting in regular reviews so all scores are being divided by three. If we had more contributors, maybe the balance of power (hah!) would change...

In descending order then, so far:

Ian Anderson --- Divinities: Twelve dances with God ---- 3.0
Area --- Arbeit macht frei --- 3.0
Emerson, Lake and Palmer --- Brain salad surgery --- 3.38
Gentle Giant --- Gentle Giant --- 3.66
Genesis --- Seconds out --- 4.0
Marillion --- Sounds that can't be made --- 4.0
Ozric Tentacles --- Erpland --- 4.0
Genesis --- Selling England by the pound --- 5.0

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

Four days left guys. If anyone needs the album it's on YouTube as I said or if you need a PM hit me.
Thanks
TH

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Moss

Album title: Timeless
Artiste: The Watch
Year: 2011

Familiarity: Never heard of them, wish I never had.
Favourite track(s): The best of the worst? Maybe "Let us now make love?"
Why?: The ridiculous name of the song kicks it a notch above the others.
Least favourite track(s): All of them, seriously. But if I have to choose I'll go with "soaring On".
Why? Sounds like some horrible ELP/Genesis mash up. Horrible harpsichord sounding guitar or keyboard or whatever it was. 0 melody
Any preconceptions prior to listening, whether good or bad? No preconceptions at all other than I thought the album cover looked kind of promising.
End impression: Awful
Comments: I actually didn't even hear the last 3 songs as I could not find them on Youtube but I was ok with that. I think I got enough of a feel for the album. I really disliked the vocals. Seems like they took the worst parts of Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins and combined them somehow. Too much cliche acoustic guitar arpeggios with flute on top. I hate to be too harsh about any band but this is just something I will never revisit and I hope there are no more of their albums on the list. Loved Gentle Giant and this was a disappointing plummet for me. They sound like they are probably decent on their instruments (wanted to end on a positive).

Rating: 2.0 and I'm being generous. Trollheart, you were not overly harsh and I'm surprised you gave it a 2nd spin.
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Trollheart

Thanks Moss. It really is a terrible rip-off effort, isn't it? Timeless? More like clueless!!

Ant, US, where are you guys? Today is the last day for your reviews and I'm putting up the new album later today. Can you let me know if there's a reason you won't be able to do your slot this week, if not can you please post them before the end of today?

Thanks
TH

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Unknown Soldier

Been very busy but will put up tonight, so don't put new album up till tomorrow

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Trollheart

Okey dokey, will give you a one-day extension. Mind you, you'll only need five minutes to realise how crappy this album is...

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018