Prog-ress Report, Part II: Yes - Close To The Edge

Another week of Prog has come and gone, and well, I am really quite glad that I can put this week’s album down for a spell.  

Just to reiterate the theme of this series, which to date has no name, every week I will listen to an album suggested by friends or readers of this blog, day in and day out, during my commute to work and back home.  The first month or so though, I am dedicating to the genre of Progressive rock, also known more commonly as Prog.

Suggested by my wife’s college roommate, significant other of the individual who suggested the previous week’s album, and all around food goddess, Sarah, I have spent last week listening to Close To the Edge by the formidable talents of Yes.  

When you tell someone that you can start an album as you leave your house and get to work before the first  ends you would be giving the impression of a quick commute. However, much like the opening track of the last album I reviewed for this series, if that song is the title track of Close to the edge, you have a 20 minute or so commute, which is not so great (well, actually in Atlanta it is something to boast about, but that is another article). While sharing the length and the honor of occupying the side of an LP by itself, Close to the Edge differ in similarity to its Rush counterpart, Cygnus X-1 Book II, in that while the listener can recognize the different parts of the song, it does not  feel like three or four songs just kind of crammed  under one track. There is an obvious progression and transition that bind instead of separate the elements of the song.  Also, still comparing it to the Rush counterpart as mentioned above, with the exception of a discord fest in the introduction, Yes seems more focused on creating a digestible, more pop sensible, work. This is opposed to showing off musical complexity and virtuosity (which they do exhibit) for its own sake.

As well as being better at crafting music that is easier to digest, the lyrics on the initial listening, while exhibiting all the better aspects of bad poetry, do not go as so far to make me laugh, like that of Trees by Rush, or are so apparent to make me object to listening to the music in principal, as inspired the entire Doors catalog.

On the initial listening I found myself enjoying the funk/rock phrasing, and the semi folk harmonizing that somewhat reminded me of a synthesizer heavy Crosby, Stills, and Nash (And I and You was the worst/best with this).  

Honestly, after the first listen I was really enjoying the album. I had a few critiques about how some of the more extended synthesizer parts reminded me of the background music to 8 bit video games, but I truly enjoyed looking forward to the second and third days of listening to the album.

Now, that being said, I had many moments where I wish I could get the little lyrical hooks peppered in the album. It would invade my thoughts when at work, and I found myself phrasing the things I said to music from the three tracks that make up the original album. As I write this, I am looking forward to not having to “get up” and “get down” to this album for a while. I will though come back to this album. 

The only question now is, where to go next?

Pope Crisco

Sorry For The Typos #1 (March/Spring 2011)

Happy Fat Tuesday for all of my readers (or reader, whatever the case might be).

This will be a reoccurring segment just to let you all know what Mr. Crisco has in the works for the upcoming month or so. As well, I will have a “call for content” where I will ask for the readers to suggest things they would like to see (although I am always willing to take suggestions for any new content you might like). So without Further ado…

Beer, beer, and beer:

With Lent coming up I have decided that I need to reduce the amount of alcohol that I intake on a given night. So starting this week I will begin limiting myself to just two beers a night, with at most 12 beers a week. While this will reduce the amount of beer that I consume, obviously, because I am not concerned with quantity I can focus on quality. So expect 2 beer reviews per week over the next 40 days and nights. Penance was never so tasty!

Also, later today I will be making full advantage of Fat Tuesday with 2 Big Beer (as in big bottles) reviews, as well as other content.

And finally, for more outward looking, I will hopefully begin brewing my own beer later in spring/summer. Of course I’ll bring you along for the trip.

The Prog-ress report:

Already began early this month, I have started to take suggestions for albums of groups and genres of music that I am not familiar with to listen to for a solid week, and then reviewing , with the object of expanding my musical horizons. This month, to kick things off, will be Prog rock related. Feel free to suggest next month’s theme or an album by either commenting on this post or emailing me at popecrisco@gmail.com!

As always I will be doing reviews of comic books, food stuffs, and other forms of diversion.

Calls For Content:

Have a beer you would like reviewed? Want to suggest your favorite reggae, dub, death metal, trance album? Please let me know! Leave a comment! Email me! I want to service you!

Pope Crisco

Prog-ress Report, Part I:Rush Hemispheres

So, a little preface for anyone reading this blog, I am not the biggest fan of Prog Rock’s pantheon, and personally, prior to last week, I found the genre somewhat questionable.  Perhaps I still keep the general idea, but there has been ground gained by at least one of the Prog Gods.
 One of my friends, a bassist and boyfriend to one of my wife’s college friends, has been a large proponent of both bass chords and of this genre. He has on occasion attempted to bestow the virtues of prog rock on the ears of the non believers, and being in a mood to expand my own musical perspectives, I accepted the word of Prog (amen!) into my heart and asked him to suggest an album that anyone could listen to for a week and emerge a fan.

And that my friends, brings us to this review. Now I don’t  pretend that I am a music critic. I just listen to a lot of varied music. I can’t even say I’ve ever read a formal, critical review of an album ever in my life.

So, upon the first listen one thing that was apparent is that these people can play their instruments, and play them well. The timing seems tight, and the pieces are composed as opposed to just thrown together as a vehicle for lyrics. However, again with the first listen, I get the impression that like Cream’s Disraeli Gears, while the musical chops are tops, the lyrical content and imagery are somewhat not on par. The primary case in point would be the imagery used in The Trees, where a conflict between oak and maple trees serves as a vehicle for a pro union ballad.  In context, this is kind of the opposite problem the Beatles exhibit, being excellent pop lyricists and excellent pop composers, but, for the most part, only good musicians, in my opinion of course.

The compositions of the songs, upon the first listen, ranged from “just okay” on the album’s 3 shorter, more rock/pop friendly pieces, to the awkward 18 minute, and somewhat jumbled, Cygnus X-1 Book Ii. The later often sounded like three songs that were kind of thrown together to create a kind of musical Frankenstein’s monster.

With the first listening under my belt, as I plodded to and from work, I listened to the album about 2 and half times a day, over the course of the work week.

Quickly I discovered why my initial listening was somewhat mediocre: I was trying listening to it as a pop/rock album. When not trying to compare it to others in the pop genre, and just listening to the album, I found a quality, not unlike that of progressive jazz, that kind of superseded the rock genre. The work is not trying to be the easily digestible three to four minute pop song. As I write this review, while I I am not disputing that my initial critique of the songs are much, if any different, I am smitten by the gestalt of the album, and find it a purely enjoyable collection of songs. I can say that, without question, I am at the very least a fan of this album.

Perhaps though, it’s like acquiring a taste for Diet Coke; once the cancer sets in, it is all you want.
Pope Crisco