The Album Review Club - Christmas Break Until 8th January

[chesterbells]

You should, assuming you can get through it. (your words, not mine! :-)

Moving Pictures comes in at a tight 40 minutes has no filler, and any perceived self-indulgence was found on prior albums, but this one came in very nicely as the band focused their sound to these gems. I'd argue they first did this the album prior on Permanent Waves, but I digress. Even the nearly 11 minute "The Camera Eye" I'd argue is the BEST song on the album. Consider your 10/10 as my MIA pile-on representation in abstentia in not being around to review it when it came up.

And am I talking about Rush so I don't have to start listening to this week's selection which BTW I have not as of yet? Maybe yes, perhaps no.

All in the ear of the beholder.

I’m a huge Rush fan and I’d call The Camera Eye pure filler, and the weakest song on the album by far. It was the last long track they ever release (for a very long time anyway) and there’s a reason for that. Thoroughly underwhelming song, lacking any memorable or high points at all. It’s no Xanadu, and that’s being incredibly generous.

 

[threespires]

The Streets made a couple of ground breaking albums in its genre, unfairly tarnished on here imo.

Mate, just leave it, just leave it
It's not worth it, mate, just leave it.

 

[BlueHammer85]

Mate, just leave it, just leave it
It's not worth it, mate, just leave it.

Oi oi, leave it out, leave ouuuut.

 

[mrbelfry]

I don’t think it was a huge success because it fails at everything it tries to do.

Commercial success is no sign of quality. Lots of people support united. Doesn't make I have to think they are any good :)

I'm offering an opinion of how it made me feel. It didn't once make me feel apprehensive or gloomy which it should have done. It instead made me feel happiness and joy which is the opposite of what i assume it was going for. Using disco as the main driver to convey doom and fear is just making your job unnecessarily hard. I tried to explain why and where I thought it failed for me rather than just say I didn't like it. I employed a large dose of hyperbole in my reply to foggy but I did use quotes from the album as a display of my admiration and enjoyment of. I apologise for any annoyance my glibness caused.

When forced to pick between my score of 3 or 8 I gave it an 8 not because it made me uneasy but because I love how it sounds. The sound of the heat ray is fun to me. It's not scary like it should be.

I've even listened to it this evening for fun after posting my review and been humming bits of it all night. Your post scared me more

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

I don’t think it was a huge success because it fails at everything it tries to do.

It was a huge success because Brits have periodic blind spots in which they confuse the grandiose and pompous with the important and the profound. Americans do too, as do Canadians, but it’s a more common affliction in Brits. Prog isn’t uniquely British, but your island is the Wuhan lab equivalent.

It’s okay. Black-clad, small-framed-glasses-wearing skinny Americans think any music that originated below 44th in Manhattan is automatically entitled to be considered groundbreaking.

 

[LGWIO]

Besides the opening track I don't think I had ever listened to this before. So my journey home from work yesterday morning was filled with Dicky Burton & doom.
Enjoyable but I was left with the feeling that this album really needs to be listened to sat back in a large room on a good system. Certainly felt "too big" for the car journey.
I shall stick it on whilst doing some cooking this weekend, volume up as it deserves I think.
Obviously ground breaking of its time but as others have said, perhaps not as good as it could have been due to the limited technology of the time.
..And after the initial write up I couldn't help wondering whether the opening tracks would have been spoilt by the sound of car keys being dropped into the bowl in the "good room".

 

[Saddleworth2]

Commercial success is no sign of quality. Lots of people support united. Doesn't make I have to think they are any good :)

I'm offering an opinion of how it made me feel. It didn't once make me feel apprehensive or gloomy which it should have done. It instead made me feel happiness and joy which is the opposite of what i assume it was going for. Using disco as the main driver to convey doom and fear is just making your job unnecessarily hard. I tried to explain why and where I thought it failed for me rather than just say I didn't like it. I employed a large dose of hyperbole in my reply to foggy but I did use quotes from the album as a display of my admiration and enjoyment of. I apologise for any annoyance my glibness caused.

When forced to pick between my score of 3 or 8 I gave it an 8 not because it made me uneasy but because I love how it sounds. The sound of the heat ray is fun to me. It's not scary like it should be.

I've even listened to it this evening for fun after posting my review and been humming bits of it all night. Your post scared me more

Having listened to some of it a thought sprung to mind which illustrates your point. I get what you are saying. You are as likely to don a shiny silver suite and start throwing Travolta moves behind the couch listening to this than hide behind it. Contrast that to a piece of classical music like Holst ‘Mars the bringer of war’ which used to scare the bejesus out of me when I was a nipper.

 

[threespires]

It was a huge success because Brits have periodic blind spots in which they confuse the grandiose and pompous with the important and the profound. Americans do too, as do Canadians, but it’s a more common affliction in Brits. Prog isn’t uniquely British, but your island is the Wuhan lab equivalent.

It’s okay. Black-clad, small-framed-glasses-wearing skinny Americans think any music that originated below 44th in Manhattan is automatically entitled to be considered groundbreaking.

Skinny Americans, who dey?

There aren't really any because Americans have a blind spot where they confuse mechanically reclaimed meat in a patty as a cuisine. Brits do too, as do Canadians, but it's a more common affliction in Yanks. Inventing ways to become lardy bloaters isn't uniquely American, but your super sized country is the Wuhan lab equivalent.

It's okay. Shirtless nutters in the North East of England think a large Parmo and chips in each hand forms a balanced diet.

;-)

You're not wrong though :-)

 

[RobMCFC]

I saw ET three times in the week t was released.

I saw Return of the Jedi twice on the day it was released.

I won’t Play WotW three times because I don’t need to but I have played it twice since yesterday.

Funnily enough I stopped short of saying that I saw Return of the Jedi three times in its opening week or so.

At the time, I thought it was the greatest thing I'd ever seen. I think I was dazzled by a few outstanding set pieces. But I quickly came to realise that it still wasn't as good as Raiders of the Last Ark and over time agreed that it was by far the weakest of the original trilogy. And of course I have seen far better films over the years since.

However, it seems that this measured analysis and contextualising as the years go by doesn't apply for some when it comes to this week's album!

 

[mrbelfry]

Having listened to some of it a thought sprung to mind which illustrates your point. I get what you are saying. You are as likely to don a shiny silver suite and start throwing Travolta moves behind the couch listening to this than hide behind it. Contrast that to a piece of classical music like Holst ‘Mars the bringer of war’ which used to scare the bejesus out of me when I was a nipper.

Kind of but I wouldn't don a shiny suit because it's not camp or mockable in that way. For example listen to A Fifth of Beethoven which appeared on the Saturday Night Fever album - it's easy to enjoy that as some kind of fun, novelty, throwaway thing that you'd wear a shiny suit and a powdered wig for. War of the Worlds isn't giving me that vibe. I'm not enjoying it ironically