*NEW* DPRP Review

[johninblack]

Yes you are quite correct that it is their site and they are entitled to their opinion but it doesn't stop the DPRP being a bunch of blinkered "stick in the muds" who are very very sadly living in the past where a song or band can only be "Prog" if it sounds like this or that...( insert you favourite classic prog bands name here), and if the song is this ( again insert a long time period, probably over 8 mins) long. It's opinions and attitudes like theirs that have given and still to this day give anything though of as PROG a bad name. I have had many run ins with people such as these and I know how up their own arses about what is prog and what isn't they really are, and to be honest, they sicken me. These are the people who don't want a NEW album from TULL, YES, GENESIS, RUSH etc,etc. What they want is an OLD album because they just aren't interested in anything NEW ( you know it's just not 2112 or TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS is it?)
Why do they find it so hard to embrace the new? to LISTEN WITHOUT PREJUDICE to anything?
If you don't like something then that is fine, and of course you can say so, but they just don't like it because it doesn't sound OLD. Saddos the lot ot 'em! The sooner they piss of back to Middle Earth the better for music I say! 8-)

Good rant, I fully agree with you. These people are not really prog fans they are fans of a very few select groups that  Split up years ago or progressed to a new sound, of course once they "progressed" they were "not being true to their sound". Middle earth is not really far enough away for these small minded tossers.

[Gandalf1986]

Yes you are quite correct that it is their site and they are entitled to their opinion but it doesn't stop the DPRP being a bunch of blinkered "stick in the muds" who are very very sadly living in the past where a song or band can only be "Prog" if it sounds like this or that...( insert you favourite classic prog bands name here), and if the song is this ( again insert a long time period, probably over 8 mins) long. It's opinions and attitudes like theirs that have given and still to this day give anything though of as PROG a bad name. I have had many run ins with people such as these and I know how up their own arses about what is prog and what isn't they really are, and to be honest, they sicken me. These are the people who don't want a NEW album from TULL, YES, GENESIS, RUSH etc,etc. What they want is an OLD album because they just aren't interested in anything NEW ( you know it's just not 2112 or TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS is it?)
Why do they find it so hard to embrace the new? to LISTEN WITHOUT PREJUDICE to anything?
If you don't like something then that is fine, and of course you can say so, but they just don't like it because it doesn't sound OLD. Saddos the lot ot 'em! The sooner they piss of back to Middle Earth the better for music I say! 8-)

Good rant, I fully agree with you. These people are not really prog fans they are fans of a very few select groups that  Split up years ago or progressed to a new sound, of course once they "progressed" they were "not being true to their sound". Middle earth is not really far enough away for these small minded tossers.

I agree! Progressive should be something that changes continuously, not something that stops to e.g. widdly minimoogs and mellotrons. This is why i love Frost, they give a whole new perspective about what prog should be about!

[Gedfaz]

I actually think this is a very generous review and DPRP are actually being very 'modern' in their thinking. I have grown off this album quite a lot over the last couple of weeks. Clumsiness like the lumping together of DDD with falling down and that stupid buzz during saline do contribute (for me) to the fact that EIMA just isnt as good in any way as Milliontown (Production, Content, Performance, Writing) and I dont think anyone should kiss ass just to appear popular to be honest. I dont think any track really develops significantly to leave any lasting satisfactory taste in the mouth (with the possible exception of Saline)... but its 'catchy'. Toys is a very strong bouncy track and actually one of the high points on the album. Pocket Sun too, though not particularly developmental is full of hooks and is very enjoyable.

A lot of the DPRP points were valid and for people here to claim it as a 'great' prog album shows an unbelievable lack of understanding. Yes it is a brave album. In my opinion it's poor prog value for money and roots itself closer to pop than prog. It is a prog album but a weak one. 100% valid performance and composition wise I just feel that its 40% prog and 60% contempory pop/rock.

In listening I got to like the rhythms... I think the drums are great and the few standout Guitar bits that are allowed to Mr Mitchell/whoever are great but as a prog album it is characterless and shallow. I also agree with the attempt to back off keyboards in favour of the other instruments just hasnt worked as it sounds far more keyboardy than Milliontown. The excellent Mr Jowitt has also been largely hidden on the album. With the exception of Mr Edwards, the album wasnt a great showcase of anybodys abilities when compared with Milliontown and the members respective main bands.

As an 'Experiment in mass appeal' it may well work... as does Pink... as do Sugarbabes.... as do Coldplay.... As a Prog experiment it fails masively for me. DDD sounds cramped in its time limit and though I dont advocate that a song has to be long to be a prog song (hence the stupid hobbit calls) I think it needs to develop. Toys is 3 mins and works far better as a track... DDD has too much for its 6 mins and is truly difficult to enjoy because of it.

To hear people lambasting DPRP when they clearly do a great job and have done for the last so many years is disgraceful. I agree Barts stupid comments were well out of line after hearing 30 seconds, but having heard the album about 50 times now myself, it has to go down as the most dissapointing album of 2008 (as an anticipated album). I'd have given it between 5 and 6. 7.5 is generous and 8 borders on hysteria as far as I'm concerned.

This message board doesnt work if people just slag off people who are respected individuals in their field because they are 'outside of the club'. Its not a church! Its not a place to come worship the band and deny all other religions.

Mines for sale on Amazon... but I'll be looking for the next release and hoping that the direction taken by Jem next time moves on in a way thats' more lastingly satisfying to me' and if it does... You betcha I'll be buying Frost again!

[LivingForever]

I don't think anyone here claimed that EIMA was a great 'prog' album.

It's a great album, no more no less. And if you don't enjoy it because it doesn't fit into some kind of bucket you'd like it to fit in and you feel uncomfortable about enjoying anything that you consider "60% Pop/Rock" then that's a shame.

[LivingForever]

Also, having just gone back over all the Frost* reports on the DVD, Jem set out his stall pretty clearly right from the start in terms of what this album would be like, and nothing from anything that he said, or any of the music clips that I heard during the reports would have led me to expect an album different than the one we got. So I don't know why it disappointed you so much?

[Dave M]

gedfez if memory serves me correctly you didn't like it on first listen, the booklet was rubbish / a waste of paper, the DVD wasn't upto scratch, you don't like drum machines, TBE is the biggest loss to the group as he is the MOST talented (given the collective that's quite a statement), you seem to like old fashioned long songs, don't like harmony vocals ... whilst I appreciate everyone has a view /opinion etc it does seem you may be in the wrong forum .. Don't be surprised if people act like it's the church of Frost here, and non beleivers are stoned  :lol:  ... Afterall this is the Frost forum , generally frequented by Frost fans ( and obviously a few wums too )

Reviewers are entitled to their opinions , but as JIB said it's a shame they always diss the day job, and it seems to colour their views. You have to admit parts of the review are laughable (see my earlier comments), but overall their tone is positive, and I guess you can't expect more of the middle earth dwellers !

[Rick]

A new review from Progressive archives, where you are going to get perhaps the most unbiased reviews, kind of neutral parties if you like.



"Experiments in Mass Appeal is fantastic. I just wanted to get that out there.

Dear Dead Days is amazing and illustrates how a keyboard is supposed to sound. The tone of the synth patch along with the virtuosity of Jem's playing is one of the highlights of the album. Saline, followed by Dear Dead Days which is in turn segued into 'Falling Down represents the highlight suite of the album if you will. Fantastic set of songs.

Toys is fantastic as well. Good song, great riff, great rocking track.

Honestly, I don't quite understand 'Wonderland' it's not really an epic, just two songs put together, I guess to fit in with the prog scene, you need to have at least one song in excess of ten minutes or something, as I said, I don't understand the rationale behind combining both songs into one. With that being said, the first Wonderland is pretty good, the second is great. Wonderland two is a nice laid back ending to the album, lots of nice soundscapes and a really good mix in my opinion.

You and I is a minute long pretty interlude piece. Nothing remarkable.

The first two songs are enigmas. Both have a lot of contrasting loud and quiet sections, either the quiet sections are too quiet or the loud sections are too loud but still, the extreme volume difference between the sections does detract from the pair.

I waffled on whether to give this a four or a five star rating to this album. I finally settled on five for two reasons. Given a scale of 1-10 I'd give it a 9, no, it's not a perfect album, but close. Since we're on a five star rating, I'll round up. The second reason is that I gave Milliiontown a five star rating as well and relatively speaking this one is better than Milliontown.

Enjoy,"

Sounds nicely balanced to me :-)

[johninblack]

Gedfaz, that was a very brave post. I don't think your opinion will be popular here, however you are entitled to it and to express it. I sincerely hope you don't get too much stick for it.

[J Jonah Jameson]

Let's face it, if we were bothered by what people thought of what we did, we wouldn't be playing prog.  

One thing that's amazed me is the positive response it's getting from hard rock magazines(!)   Inside Out have just told us about a review from a French rock hard mag scoring 8 out of 10 and album of the month of two rock hard journalists!

It's just music.  It's good if you like it, bad if you don't.

Me? I like it, obviously  

[AnsOnkruid]

One thing that's amazed me is the positive response it's getting from hard rock magazines(!)   Inside Out have just told us about a review from a French rock hard mag scoring 8 out of 10 and album of the month of two rock hard journalists!

That reminds me... A Dutch rock/metal magazine gives EIMA 90 out of 100. And that's the highest score this month

[gr8gonzo]

two rock hard journalists!

They must've really liked it.  

[Gandalf1986]

two rock hard journalists!

They must've really liked it.  

WORD! :lol:

[sawtooth]

Gedfaz, that was a very brave post. I don't think your opinion will be popular here, however you are entitled to it and to express it. I sincerely hope you don't get too much stick for it.

Good point John. I may not agree with 99.9% of Gedfaz' criticisms, but I'd rather have a balanced set of opinions on here, so long as comments are constructive and not insulting, cos its a shame when opinions get heated and the mud slinging starts as on the It Bites forum recently.

I'm deadly passionate about music, but in the end it's only a collection of a few notes and bangs and crashes, not an excuse for a food fight. That'd be a complete waste of biscuits.

[tomskerous]

Gedfaz, while I'm happy for you to have your opinions, I'd be a bit careful about stuff like this:

Clumsiness like the lumping together of DDD with falling down and that stupid buzz during saline do contribute (for me) to the fact that EIMA just isnt as good in any way as Milliontown (Production, Content, Performance, Writing) and I dont think anyone should kiss ass just to appear popular to be honest.

Just because we don't agree with you doesn't mean it's appropriate to insult us.

[JoeHiYo]

Jem makes his music the way he wants it, opinions of everyone be damned. If that's not prog...