r/progrockmusic • u/witcgmm7 • 1d ago

Poll Best of these 1994 albums?

75 votes, 1d left
Awake (Dream Theater)
Brave (Marillion)
0 Upvotes

38% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

1

u/Loquis 1d ago

Classic Rock magazine had Brave in the top 10 albums of the 90s

1

u/olethefirst 1d ago

Awake has 1 good song on it, Brave has 1 bad song on it...

1

u/witcgmm7 1d ago

what are the songs? curious

1

u/olethefirst 1d ago

Space-Dye Vest is probably Dream Theater's best song, but the rest of Awake is already a major step down after Images and Words.

On Brave, only Goodbye to All That is a bit too much meandering with little ideas for a 12 minutes long epic, the rest is peak post-progressive.

1

u/Forgotten_Son 14h ago

6:00 is a solid opener, too. Beyond that I struggle to remember any of the songs from Awake. It has been a fair while since I gave it a spin though. I always rememebr it being quite a scattergun record.

I'd have picked Hard As Love or Paper Lies as being the "bad" songs on Brave. I'm usually not a big fan of Marillion doing straight up rock songs. Hooks In You and Univinvited Guest are my least favourite tracks on Seasons End for similar reasons.

I get why you think Goodbye to All That is meandering, as it is quite spacey and, on the surface, a little focusless. However I'm a sucker for that ambience, and think it's perfect continuation of atmosphere developed across the previous 3 tracks. The way it builds from the middle toward the end, full of echoing string slides and harmonics; and then the repeating, muted guitar motif interpersed with Hogarth's ethereal, lyricless vocal all building in intensity is one of the highlights of the album to me. Their performance of it one the Brave Live 2002 DVD really helped my appreciate it, to the point where I consider it one of their better epics.

1

u/olethefirst 13h ago

I love that sort of ambience, it's just the rest of the record does it better for my ears. Also, if Hard As Love and Paper Lies looked a bit odd on the first listen, over time I understood how much they bring diversity to the record. 1995 Brave movie lacks Paper Lies and it feels like a hole, something taken away from it.

1

u/Pure-Friendship1678 8h ago

I find it all works in the context of the album, but I am always bemused by how often they pull out the Wave/Mad section to play live when there are SOOO many better tracks to play (whether just considering from Brave or the rest of the catalogue!).