Thanks for the flashback to weeks of rainy commuting, trying and failing to get to grips with this. Listening back now with a couple of decade's worth of deepened taste behind me, I can't quite recall what it was that I struggled with. Perhaps just that while it's rarely actively bad, it's never *amazing*. The proggier songs build up but never really do anything. (Unlike, say La Femme D'Argent, not unprog in its own way, but where the payoff is everything).
"A criticism that is often levelled at prog rock is that it is pretentious and self indulgent. Which 10 000 Hz Legend very much is - but not in a bad way."
Spot on. That critique of 'pretentiousness' in art has been grinding my gears recently – as it's often just a disguise for saying, 'This goes over my head'. It rarely relates to the true meaning of the word – pretending there's something there that isn't (which can be fun too). So as soon as some pop critic writes a record is pretentious, I feel very much intrigued.
Thanks for the flashback to weeks of rainy commuting, trying and failing to get to grips with this. Listening back now with a couple of decade's worth of deepened taste behind me, I can't quite recall what it was that I struggled with. Perhaps just that while it's rarely actively bad, it's never *amazing*. The proggier songs build up but never really do anything. (Unlike, say La Femme D'Argent, not unprog in its own way, but where the payoff is everything).
ooooh for me Electronic Performers and How Does it Make You Feel are definitely amazing!
"A criticism that is often levelled at prog rock is that it is pretentious and self indulgent. Which 10 000 Hz Legend very much is - but not in a bad way."
Spot on. That critique of 'pretentiousness' in art has been grinding my gears recently – as it's often just a disguise for saying, 'This goes over my head'. It rarely relates to the true meaning of the word – pretending there's something there that isn't (which can be fun too). So as soon as some pop critic writes a record is pretentious, I feel very much intrigued.
To say that something is pretentious is a very cheap criticism that doesn't really mean anything, in my opinion.
agree - always liked that album