she/her
The 90's US One-Hit Wonders Rate: WINNER REVEALED - Goodbye, farewell and amen
- Thread starter Ironheade
- Start date
he/him
I want to be upset at this elimination because I don't hate the song, but...I'm weirdly fine with it? I always kinda felt Better Than Ezra did their whole thing better (hit-wise, they certainly did!)
Also, Dave Matthews Band are decent in terms of output and apparently exceptional live performers. They're another one of those bands where I don't really go out of my way to listen to them, but they've got some great singles.
Also, Dave Matthews Band are decent in terms of output and apparently exceptional live performers. They're another one of those bands where I don't really go out of my way to listen to them, but they've got some great singles.
Sorry for the delay, guys! Had to do a bit more research here, including a bit more of that fun Internet detective work.
Anyway. Here's a song that certainly has seen better days!
59. BETTER DAYS (AND THE BOTTOM DROPS OUT)
Average score: 5.161
Highest scores: 1 x 10 (@Andy French )
Lowest scores: 3 x 0 (@2014 , @Daniel_O )
Chart positions: #25 Hot 100, #31 Radio Songs, #11 Mainstream Top 40, #10 Adult Top 40, #3 Modern Rock
Year-End Hot 100: #96 (1999)
Who? Oh yeah, them...
Oof. So, yeah, let me spill some tea about the next elimination up on the list. And let me tell you, I am not happy about it. #58 is probably going to be the first really marathon one (*everyone groans in pain at the thought of the wait*), and if you can guess what band it's for... well, you'll know why, knowing my tastes. Anyway, let's polish off Citizen King, another nice quick one with not all that much to really say about it.
Citizen King, first came together in Milwaukee in 1992, with most of the founding members coming from a local ska band called Wild Kingdom, and if they were indeed named after Louis-Philippe of France, who was known as the “Citizen King”, I can find no confirmation of that fact (sorry, history fans). They had more of an eclectic sound than the members' alma mater, incorporating elements of ska, funk, hip-hop and punk-infused alternative, along with heavy use of turntablism, which won them a strong following in their local area. However, a 1994 deal with MCA fell through for them, so it was back to the drawing board.
Like many musicians before them, it was the benediction of an established artist which first got them on the road to fame. That benefactor was Speech, the leading man of Afrocentric alternative rap group Arrested Development – unfortunately for him, his group's second album Zingalamaduni, released in 1994, had failed to repeat the blockbuster success of 3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life of..., and with the group on hiatus, I guess he might have been looking for something else to occupy his time. Anyway, Speech produced a number of songs on their debut album, 1995's Brown Bag, and they followed up with an EP entitled Count the Days. They toured heavily around Wisconsin and the rest of the Upper Midwest, and after an executive from Warner Bros. saw them performing at SXSW, they got signed. “Better Days” soon became a big hit, thanks to how well it played to the summery pop-rock trends of its day. A little too well, considering that half the world, and all the old file-sharing networks, seem to think that this song is by Sublime! (One wonders... if Sublime were still around, would this song have got big? Food for thought there.)
As a nice little addendum, I found a blog talking about the state of Milwaukee's music scene in 1999, and how Citizen King really took off. I don't want to quote and reproduce basically the entire thing here, so here's a link. I have not listened to Mobile Estates, but this definitely sounds like it's describing a weirder sound than that of “Better Days”... so I guess that might be worth confirming?
What a hairstyle, Matt Sims!
Also, yeah. The video for this song is basically just everything from 1999 all at once. I kind of love it.
So what do I think?
6! Noticing a pattern with what kind of scores of mine are dropping at this point? Again, “Better Days” is yet another song that I can't really say is bad at all, but is ultimately little more than a boilerplate tune playing to the general Sugar Ray trends of its day. “Better Days” certainly has a catchy hook on it, with that distorted “and the bottom drops out” tagline being the most distinctive element there. I also like the middle eight, with the tremolo guitar line and spoken vocal samples (taken from some old blues records apparently). But the melodic instrumentation feels a bit too stripped-back and simple, with little beyond a fairly dated drum loop and guitar arpeggios, Matt Sims' vocals are decent but unspectacular tonally and don't convey much in the way of feeling, and it's too breezy and lightweight for my tastes both lyrically and musically. Honestly, the whole thing just feels like it's waiting for some killer X factor that never shows up. Listenable, but really not much more than that.
Where Are They Now?™
Mobile Estates produced two more singles, “Under the Influence” and “Long Walk Home”. Neither of them charted anywhere, and failed so comprehensively that they aren't even included as singles on their RateYourMusic page (Discogs has them both listed though). Apparently, a video for “Long Walk Home” was shot, and then shelved. With the lack of promotion on further singles, it might be no surprise that sales of Mobile Estates stalled at barely 100,000 copies, which would have been good for an indie band, but for a major-label artist, it was a great disappointment. Citizen King did their best to push the record, touring constantly behind it, but it did no good; according to their manager Jeff Castelaz, Warner Bros. offered Citizen King a “massive” advance for their next album, which they were already writing and recording, but let's be real, another hit was not coming. If chances of further success looked remote, they became nonexistent when Citizen King broke up in 2002. I'm not quite sure why, but from what little I can gather, it looks to be the usual combination of personal differences and the band members' lives not being in a good place by the time 1999 rolled around; by the time “Better Days” became a hit, the writing was probably already on the wall. Two of the members have remained notably active in music, however, and it is two very different paths in their respective careers that they followed.
So what's the force feedback like on that thing?
Matt Sims would relocate to Berlin, and changed his artistic name to Mount Sims (later Mt. Sims), and with the name change came quite a radical shift in his musical direction. For his solo work, he adopted a retro-synthpop electroclash style, later incorporating elements of post-punk and darkwave; not to my taste really, but it's barely recognizable as the same guy who did “Better Days”, so anybody who's into that kind of thing might want to give one of his four solo albums a whirl. Actually, if there's any fans of The Knife here, they might already recognize his name, because he collaborated with them and Planningtorock on their 2010 avant-garde opera Tomorrow, In a Year. Under his belt, you can also find a remix of Madonna's “Nobody Knows Me”, and contributing vocals to experimental electronic artist Leila's 2012 album U&I. However, he pretty much drops off the musical radar after that, with the most recent reference I can find to him doing anything musical being performing DJ sets in Berlin in 2014. By all appearances, he is occupied with other job... as an English teacher! I found this page through Google, and that is clearly him in the picture – it appears that he has been teaching English for quite some time, even while Citizen King were active, and also got a degree in analytical philosophy from the University of London in 2016. A rather intriguing career path, certainly, even if he would not reach the commercial heights of “Better Days” again.
Ever wondered how this sounds so well-engineered? Wonder no more!
And finally, allow us to attend to the band's keyboardist Dave Cooley, who re-trained as a mastering engineer, founding the Los Angeles studio Elysian Masters in 2001. So what's he worked on that you might have heard? Quite a lot. Who enjoyed Paramore's After Laughter? Or is M83's Hurry Up, We're Dreaming more your speed? Perhaps Blood Orange's Freetown Sound or Wolf Alice's Visions of a Life? Yeah, you can thank him for the mastering on all of those, and many more besides. He's also a producer, whose work includes the first two Silversun Pickups albums, and is the in-house engineer for the alternative hip-hop label Stones Throw Records, overseeing the mastering on such legendary records as Madvillainy and J Dilla's Donuts. All in all, it's a seriously impressive discography for anybody to have worked on. And to think, Dave Cooley's resume got its start with this modest little song right here. It does the heart proud, it really does.
OVER TO THE PEANUT GALLERY
I wish they could see better days
Seventeen Days (6): I could have sworn this band had at least a couple of tracks? Maybe they got a little more play in my area. Anyway, this one was alright I guess. (You were in Idaho, right? Probably an Upper Midwest thing.)
4Roses (5): Nice production. (Cheers, Dave!)
pop3blow2 (7.5): Charmingly passable to hear on the radio at the time, but doesn’t hold up now. Sorry Citizen King, but I hope things are well for you. (Pretty damn good by all appearances. See above.)
Ganache (9): Slacker Anthem! Good groove.
DJHazey (8): Feel good bop, nothing else to say.
WowWowWowWow (9): Another song that no one in my life ever seems to remember, which means I get to feel holier-than-thou about it. The reign of Citizen King wasn’t very long, though, was it? ("It was eighteen years, I'll have you know!" - Louis-Philippe I, King of France 1830-1848)
iheartpoptarts (7): My old old iPod definitely said this was Everclear. Oops. (File-sharing mislabeling strikes again?)
Andy French (10): I thought this was a Sublime song for the longest time for some reason, and believe it or not that's a compliment. (I should bloody well hope so! - Ed.) I also think it's hilarious that the guy behind this project went on to do electroclash and do remixes for Madonna. Queen/king!
The bottom was never in in the first place
unnameable (4): Forgettable.
ModeRed (4): Boring describes this really.
Empty Shoebox (3): I don't care what kind of days you've seen, just stop singing this drivel.
berserkboi (4.4): Not for me. (Wow, a score like that from you??? That's like a -10 from anyone else!)
DominoDancing (5): Not very memorable. Sugar Ray did the same thing better on 14:59, and I am not a huge Sugar Ray fan. ("Every Morning" is a bop teebs. Funnily enough, "Fly" got a 6 from me in the #1's rate too... make of that what you will.)
əʊæ (1): It's like they invented Nickelback, bleh. (Eh... don't really see the resemblance myself.)
Auntie Beryl (4.9): Speaking off Beck, here’s an Odelay out-take. What do you mean, it isn’t him? (Matt Sims and Gibby Haynes really should compare notes sometime.)
chanex (6): I want to love it more but I just don't.
CorgiCorgiCorgi (5): I've heard better songs. (Won't be hanging round too long. I've heard better songs... AND THE BOTTOM DROPS OUT)
Anyway. Here's a song that certainly has seen better days!
59. BETTER DAYS (AND THE BOTTOM DROPS OUT)
Average score: 5.161
Highest scores: 1 x 10 (@Andy French )
Lowest scores: 3 x 0 (@2014 , @Daniel_O )
Chart positions: #25 Hot 100, #31 Radio Songs, #11 Mainstream Top 40, #10 Adult Top 40, #3 Modern Rock
Year-End Hot 100: #96 (1999)
Who? Oh yeah, them...
Oof. So, yeah, let me spill some tea about the next elimination up on the list. And let me tell you, I am not happy about it. #58 is probably going to be the first really marathon one (*everyone groans in pain at the thought of the wait*), and if you can guess what band it's for... well, you'll know why, knowing my tastes. Anyway, let's polish off Citizen King, another nice quick one with not all that much to really say about it.
Citizen King, first came together in Milwaukee in 1992, with most of the founding members coming from a local ska band called Wild Kingdom, and if they were indeed named after Louis-Philippe of France, who was known as the “Citizen King”, I can find no confirmation of that fact (sorry, history fans). They had more of an eclectic sound than the members' alma mater, incorporating elements of ska, funk, hip-hop and punk-infused alternative, along with heavy use of turntablism, which won them a strong following in their local area. However, a 1994 deal with MCA fell through for them, so it was back to the drawing board.
Like many musicians before them, it was the benediction of an established artist which first got them on the road to fame. That benefactor was Speech, the leading man of Afrocentric alternative rap group Arrested Development – unfortunately for him, his group's second album Zingalamaduni, released in 1994, had failed to repeat the blockbuster success of 3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life of..., and with the group on hiatus, I guess he might have been looking for something else to occupy his time. Anyway, Speech produced a number of songs on their debut album, 1995's Brown Bag, and they followed up with an EP entitled Count the Days. They toured heavily around Wisconsin and the rest of the Upper Midwest, and after an executive from Warner Bros. saw them performing at SXSW, they got signed. “Better Days” soon became a big hit, thanks to how well it played to the summery pop-rock trends of its day. A little too well, considering that half the world, and all the old file-sharing networks, seem to think that this song is by Sublime! (One wonders... if Sublime were still around, would this song have got big? Food for thought there.)
As a nice little addendum, I found a blog talking about the state of Milwaukee's music scene in 1999, and how Citizen King really took off. I don't want to quote and reproduce basically the entire thing here, so here's a link. I have not listened to Mobile Estates, but this definitely sounds like it's describing a weirder sound than that of “Better Days”... so I guess that might be worth confirming?
What a hairstyle, Matt Sims!
Also, yeah. The video for this song is basically just everything from 1999 all at once. I kind of love it.
So what do I think?
6! Noticing a pattern with what kind of scores of mine are dropping at this point? Again, “Better Days” is yet another song that I can't really say is bad at all, but is ultimately little more than a boilerplate tune playing to the general Sugar Ray trends of its day. “Better Days” certainly has a catchy hook on it, with that distorted “and the bottom drops out” tagline being the most distinctive element there. I also like the middle eight, with the tremolo guitar line and spoken vocal samples (taken from some old blues records apparently). But the melodic instrumentation feels a bit too stripped-back and simple, with little beyond a fairly dated drum loop and guitar arpeggios, Matt Sims' vocals are decent but unspectacular tonally and don't convey much in the way of feeling, and it's too breezy and lightweight for my tastes both lyrically and musically. Honestly, the whole thing just feels like it's waiting for some killer X factor that never shows up. Listenable, but really not much more than that.
Where Are They Now?™
Mobile Estates produced two more singles, “Under the Influence” and “Long Walk Home”. Neither of them charted anywhere, and failed so comprehensively that they aren't even included as singles on their RateYourMusic page (Discogs has them both listed though). Apparently, a video for “Long Walk Home” was shot, and then shelved. With the lack of promotion on further singles, it might be no surprise that sales of Mobile Estates stalled at barely 100,000 copies, which would have been good for an indie band, but for a major-label artist, it was a great disappointment. Citizen King did their best to push the record, touring constantly behind it, but it did no good; according to their manager Jeff Castelaz, Warner Bros. offered Citizen King a “massive” advance for their next album, which they were already writing and recording, but let's be real, another hit was not coming. If chances of further success looked remote, they became nonexistent when Citizen King broke up in 2002. I'm not quite sure why, but from what little I can gather, it looks to be the usual combination of personal differences and the band members' lives not being in a good place by the time 1999 rolled around; by the time “Better Days” became a hit, the writing was probably already on the wall. Two of the members have remained notably active in music, however, and it is two very different paths in their respective careers that they followed.
So what's the force feedback like on that thing?
Matt Sims would relocate to Berlin, and changed his artistic name to Mount Sims (later Mt. Sims), and with the name change came quite a radical shift in his musical direction. For his solo work, he adopted a retro-synthpop electroclash style, later incorporating elements of post-punk and darkwave; not to my taste really, but it's barely recognizable as the same guy who did “Better Days”, so anybody who's into that kind of thing might want to give one of his four solo albums a whirl. Actually, if there's any fans of The Knife here, they might already recognize his name, because he collaborated with them and Planningtorock on their 2010 avant-garde opera Tomorrow, In a Year. Under his belt, you can also find a remix of Madonna's “Nobody Knows Me”, and contributing vocals to experimental electronic artist Leila's 2012 album U&I. However, he pretty much drops off the musical radar after that, with the most recent reference I can find to him doing anything musical being performing DJ sets in Berlin in 2014. By all appearances, he is occupied with other job... as an English teacher! I found this page through Google, and that is clearly him in the picture – it appears that he has been teaching English for quite some time, even while Citizen King were active, and also got a degree in analytical philosophy from the University of London in 2016. A rather intriguing career path, certainly, even if he would not reach the commercial heights of “Better Days” again.
Ever wondered how this sounds so well-engineered? Wonder no more!
And finally, allow us to attend to the band's keyboardist Dave Cooley, who re-trained as a mastering engineer, founding the Los Angeles studio Elysian Masters in 2001. So what's he worked on that you might have heard? Quite a lot. Who enjoyed Paramore's After Laughter? Or is M83's Hurry Up, We're Dreaming more your speed? Perhaps Blood Orange's Freetown Sound or Wolf Alice's Visions of a Life? Yeah, you can thank him for the mastering on all of those, and many more besides. He's also a producer, whose work includes the first two Silversun Pickups albums, and is the in-house engineer for the alternative hip-hop label Stones Throw Records, overseeing the mastering on such legendary records as Madvillainy and J Dilla's Donuts. All in all, it's a seriously impressive discography for anybody to have worked on. And to think, Dave Cooley's resume got its start with this modest little song right here. It does the heart proud, it really does.
OVER TO THE PEANUT GALLERY
I wish they could see better days
Seventeen Days (6): I could have sworn this band had at least a couple of tracks? Maybe they got a little more play in my area. Anyway, this one was alright I guess. (You were in Idaho, right? Probably an Upper Midwest thing.)
4Roses (5): Nice production. (Cheers, Dave!)
pop3blow2 (7.5): Charmingly passable to hear on the radio at the time, but doesn’t hold up now. Sorry Citizen King, but I hope things are well for you. (Pretty damn good by all appearances. See above.)
Ganache (9): Slacker Anthem! Good groove.
DJHazey (8): Feel good bop, nothing else to say.
WowWowWowWow (9): Another song that no one in my life ever seems to remember, which means I get to feel holier-than-thou about it. The reign of Citizen King wasn’t very long, though, was it? ("It was eighteen years, I'll have you know!" - Louis-Philippe I, King of France 1830-1848)
iheartpoptarts (7): My old old iPod definitely said this was Everclear. Oops. (File-sharing mislabeling strikes again?)
Andy French (10): I thought this was a Sublime song for the longest time for some reason, and believe it or not that's a compliment. (I should bloody well hope so! - Ed.) I also think it's hilarious that the guy behind this project went on to do electroclash and do remixes for Madonna. Queen/king!
The bottom was never in in the first place
unnameable (4): Forgettable.
ModeRed (4): Boring describes this really.
Empty Shoebox (3): I don't care what kind of days you've seen, just stop singing this drivel.
berserkboi (4.4): Not for me. (Wow, a score like that from you??? That's like a -10 from anyone else!)
DominoDancing (5): Not very memorable. Sugar Ray did the same thing better on 14:59, and I am not a huge Sugar Ray fan. ("Every Morning" is a bop teebs. Funnily enough, "Fly" got a 6 from me in the #1's rate too... make of that what you will.)
əʊæ (1): It's like they invented Nickelback, bleh. (Eh... don't really see the resemblance myself.)
Auntie Beryl (4.9): Speaking off Beck, here’s an Odelay out-take. What do you mean, it isn’t him? (Matt Sims and Gibby Haynes really should compare notes sometime.)
chanex (6): I want to love it more but I just don't.
CorgiCorgiCorgi (5): I've heard better songs. (Won't be hanging round too long. I've heard better songs... AND THE BOTTOM DROPS OUT)
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he/him
WHAT THE SHIT.
she/her
Perfect timing! One of my favorite 90s one-hit wonders (I guess they were two-hit wonders, technically?) just came up on Spotify.
I wonder where The Way would've fallen in this rate? I feel like it'd be somewhere around #13 or #14. (It would deserve top 5, honestly.)
I wonder where The Way would've fallen in this rate? I feel like it'd be somewhere around #13 or #14. (It would deserve top 5, honestly.)
Yeah, two-hit wonders for "The Way" and "Out of My Head", hence why they're not here. I'd be hoping for a Top 20 placing... then probably watch as it crashes out low in the Top 40 because this rate is fucking mental.
(I have to say, I really had no idea, besides a few obvious ones, what would do well in this and what the placings would look like at the end, especially because it involves a lot of styles that don't tend to crop up in rates here. It was pretty fun going into the rate with no preconceptions like that!)
A coworker burned a Mount Sims CD for me at work like 8 or so years ago? I guess I wasn’t too impressed cause I never downloaded any of it to my iTunes, but if memory serves it did seem worlds apart from Better Days! Another fascinating deep dive @Ironheade xoxo
There's still plenty left that's worse than those two so hopefully you're wrong.
Why you gotta do that, man?
...Hey, it didn't get any zeroes, so I guess that's something?
58. SILENT LUCIDITY
Average score: 5.191
Highest scores: 2 x 10 (@Auntie Beryl , @AshleyKerwin )
Lowest scores: 1 x 1 (@DJHazey )
Chart positions: #9 Hot 100, #34 Radio Songs, #1 Mainstream Rock
Year-End Hot 100: #82 (1991)
Who? Oh yeah, them...
So, I'm not really pissed about this one at all. Because, hey, I knew “Silent Lucidity” didn't have a snowball's chance going into this thing, so I can't get mad about it, it's like, “what did you expect?” And they band behind it are not quite one-hit wonders either, if I'm honest. But, hey... I love Queensryche, and when am I going to get another chance to rate them on this forum? Never, I reckon. So sit back and relax, and let me fill your face with MOTHERFUCKING WALLS OF TEXT... as I always do when I get an opportunity to pontificate about metal on here, of course.
Anyhow, Queensryche were formed in Bellevue, WA in 1980, as a heavy metal cover band called The Mob, and the core instrumental lineup was the same as that which would bring them fame in the coming years: Chris DeGarmo and Michael Wilton on guitars, Eddie Jackson on bass, and Scott Rockenfield on drums. Eventually moving onto original material, they recorded a demo with Geoff Tate, the singer of a local progressive rock outfit called Myth, providing vocals on a session basis as he was committed to his original band; it was then that they had to change their name, as “The Mob” was already in use, and settled on Queensryche (taken from one of their early songs, “Queen of the Reich”). The demo eventually got put out as a self-titled EP in 1983, and with its high sales for a small independent release, it caught the attention of EMI, who signed Queensryche quickly. It was only then that Geoff Tate joined them as their permanent lead vocalist... and a legend was born.
This song will give you chest hair you could lose a hand in.
The EP was a masterclass in the relatively raw, NWOBHM-inspired material, owing a heavy debt to Iron Maiden, that made up the burgeoning American power metal scene at the time, but their debut LP The Warning, released a year later, was a bit of a different beast, a more mature and classy effort with surprising twists and turns taken in the songwriting. If the EP was good, then The Warning was a classic: it would be hard for it not to be, when the engine of the band were the best twin lead guitar team since Murray and Smith in Iron Maiden, and in Geoff Tate they had a frontman who was simply unmatchable in his prime as a metal vocalist, capable of terrifyingly powerful operatic highs and passionate theatrical delivery, combined with equally potent lows that were showcased more and more as his career went on. As far as US power metal bands of the early 80's go, only Manilla Road and Savatage do the style better in my humble opinion, and even then, The Warning surpasses them in places. And Queensryche were certainly not content to rest on their laurels. Their second album, 1986's Rage for Order, expanded their palette yet further, adding keyboards and heavier studio effects to the mix as prominently as guitars, in what the band dubbed “techno-metal”; the music, too, became far more layered and complex and a little softer, arguably more “progressive” in its songwriting than their later, more widely-recognized conceptual works. The band's lyrics, too, were more thoughtful than what was then the standard for metal: The Warning was something of a concept album about George Orwell's ideas, and throughout both records, Queensryche masterfully engaged with themes of technological paranoia, artificial intelligence and robotics, and the dangers of government intrusion.
And then came 1988, where everything came together their magnum opus Operation: Mindcrime. It is in my top hundred albums ever.
THERE'S A REVOLUTION CALLING!!!!!
I swear, this thing has one of the best ever plots for a concept album, ever. It's so intricate, and yet perfectly clear in how it's conveyed, and touches on all sorts of political and social themes too, just as well as their first two records. The whole thing is just incredibly well-composed to draw you into the narrative, and it has one of metal's most amazing, commanding vocal performances to boot. ("Suite Sister Mary", god damn.) Sure, it's not exactly heavy for a lot of its runtime, but when the tunes are this memorable front to back, who really cares? I could go on and on, but this thing is long enough to begin with, so I won't. The Warning and Rage for Order had done reasonably well for a metal band, but this was where Queensryche really broke out, deservedly so. While they weren't really hits in chart terms, the videos for “Eyes of a Stranger” and “I Don't Believe in Love” became staples on Headbanger's Ball (remember that?), and got Queensryche touring slots with such titans as Metallica and Def Leppard. Operation: Mindcrime would eventually reach gold status a year after its release. And so, in 1990, Queensryche decided to capitalize on their newfound mainstream toehold put out their fourth album Empire, a sleek and polished collection of accessible hard rock songs. And while it's certainly a good album for what it is, I can't help but find it a little disappointing compared to their previous three masterworks. But, hey, it went three times platinum and got them an iconic power-ballad hit, so what the hell do I know?
So what do I think?
9! I've heard “Silent Lucidity” described somewhere as “Pink Floyd for the age of hair metal”, and honestly, that's pretty accurate, in all the right ways. I'm a sucker for a good power ballad, and this is one of the best, in my humble opinion. The strings are gorgeously arranged by Michael Kamen, with this really stunning billowing texture to them that gives “Silent Lucidity” a glimmering, fantastical vibe, like you're really being swept away on the tides. I love it, and it adds a whole lot to the theme of dreams and fantasy throughout the lyrics. Both guitarists more than earn their paychecks, Wilton with his gently undulating acoustic figure, DeGarmo with a passionate display of beautifully-controlled sustain in his solo that David Gilmour would be proud of; meanwhile, the rhythm section keeps unobtrusive but subtly groovy time, rather than the typical power-ballad plod. And Geoff Tate's vocals are as incredible as ever – at this point, he's already lost a bit of his piercing “Queen of the RAAAAAAAIIIIIIIII” high range, but compensates for it with equally well-developed baritone lows, and a warmly earnest delivery, like he really is the guardian and guide, the loving father, that the lyrics depict. The only thing I can criticize at all is the spoken passage over the bridge, which I thought was a bit cheesy at first, but it actually does fit in pretty well. Yeah, absolutely beautiful stuff... and, hey, I did what I could.
Where Are They Now?™
I have to say this. Queensryche are not really one-hit wonders, at least not in a sales sense. Empire is a triple-platinum album bookended by platinum albums on either side of it in the discography, and it produced two more top 10 hits on the Mainstream Rock chart with “Jet City Woman” and “Another Rainy Night (Without You)”. But in terms of further Hot 100 hits? No, none of those, so I figured they would still be OK to put in here. The closest Queensryche got was “Real World”, their contribution to the Last Action Hero soundtrack, which fizzled out at #111. Thing is, they were a progressive metal band that had a fluke ballad hit, and it was right at the tail end of the decade in which metal was at its most popular. Throughout the 90's, classic heavy metal was not cool (a state of affairs that puts me rather in line with Randy “The Ram” Robinson at times...). So what were the chances that Queensryche could score another big hit like that? Virtually nil, so despite a few more Mainstream Rock hits to come, they would be relegated to merely “metal famous” from then on out.
Nevertheless, Queensryche made a decent fist of it when they followed up with Promised Land in 1994... and this is a bit of a hot take, but I actually prefer that album to Empire. It's a different beast to their previous work, more subtle and atmospheric with a strong acoustic basis in a number of the songs, and having something of a more “modern” sound, integrating unusual elements like saxophones, sitars and tribal percussion, and even some industrial-style tape loops. The lyrics follow the darker and moodier tone of the music, focusing on American consumerist society and the drawbacks of success, and having a much more disillusioned and angry tone to them than Queensryche's usual fare. It's a little tricky to get into at times, but definitely a worthwhile listen overall. The album charted at #3 and went platinum, but it wasn't nearly the blockbuster success that Operation: Mindcrime was, let alone reaching Empire-level sales. How could it be, the times being what they were? The band were uncertain of their future afterwards, with Tate going through a difficult time personally and not really wanting to do metal any more, and the pressure to stay on top getting too heavy, but they decided to stay together and do another album. In retrospect, maybe they shouldn't have...
Because then, it all went wrong. Queensryche's career arc over the next decade and a half was depressing to watch as a longtime fan, culminating in two halves of the band fighting over their name and legacy, before their eventual phoenix-like rise from the ashes. Michael Wilton's declaration from the 2012 lawsuit over the Queensryche name is well worth reading, if only to see how bad things got behind the scenes. If Promised Land was a successful attempt to adapt to the times, their 1997 follow-up Hear in the Now Frontier was certainly not, a far-too-late stab at riding the coat-tails of grunge, with awful mixing, songwriting so faceless and stale it puts Bush to shame, a hideously bloated runtime, and all the musicians sounding like they couldn't care less. The baffling cover art bodes ill to begin with, and let's just say, the record delivers on that promise. Though it did produce a #3 Mainstream Rock single with “Sign of the Times”, the album failed to reach certification, showing that the band's time as a mainstream act was well and truly up. And to make matters worse, Chris DeGarmo, who had been the sole writer of “Silent Lucidity” and one of the primary writers of most of their other signature tunes, left shortly afterwards due to personality conflicts with Tate, with EMI dropping the band at about the same time. Let me put this bluntly: the five full-length records (plus one cover album) that Queensryche put out in the 2000's and early 2010's were unmitigated embarrassments, laden down with desperate efforts to chase radio-rock trends from a band that once defined heavy metal in the 80's, and all capped off by Tate's rapidly degenerating voice. (Any live performance by him from about 2007 onwards is just plain painful.) The metal community mostly turned their backs on Queensryche, viewing them as a shell of what they used to be. I can say that Tribe, the 2003 album where DeGarmo made a brief return to the band, has its moments, but that's only as a stan.
PICTURES ON... YOOO-TOOOOOOOOOB. (Don't ask, dear readers, just don't even ask.)
To make matters worse, Tate's ego inflated to four times its previous size. He totally took control of Queensryche, and began to work mostly with outside musicians, sidelining the actual members of the band to more or less a session role and forbidding them from having any input in the business side of things; he refused to allow the band to perform older and heavier material in concert, even though that was what they wanted to do and what fans were clamouring for. To hear Wilton, Jackson and Rockenfield tell it, he made a series of “my way or the highway” ultimatums, threatening to quit the band if he did not get his way and making personal attacks if they questioned him at all. He also fired the band's management and installed his wife Susan as their manager, much to the consternation of the other members, and she proceeded to run the band's finances into the ground through a series of inefficient decisions, working on behalf of Geoff Tate rather than for the good of the band as a whole, as well as illegally running the expenses of another band she managed through Queensryche's accounts. Before a show in Sao Paolo in 2012, Tate argued with the band about them having fired Susan as their manager, and they expressed their displeasure about his having sold off film rights to Operation: Mindcrime behind their backs... the result being that, just before the show, he punched and spat on both Wilton and Rockenfield for no reason, and kept threatening them afterwards. The band was able to finish the tour, but Tate's antics (including grinding on a cameraman filming them, and telling the audience at Rocklahoma that “You really suck!”... on live television) were getting increasingly embarrassing, and it was evident that they could no longer work with him. And here is where the rebirth begins.
While Tate was off touring his solo album Kings and Thieves in 2012, the other members of the band formed a side project called Rising West, with Crimson Glory's now-former frontman Todd La Torre on vocals, to perform the heavier material from their first four albums that Tate didn't want to touch. Fan and audience response to the shows under the name was so good, and the band enjoyed it so much, that they decided to consider Tate fired from Queensryche and adopt the name for themselves. Not to be outdone, Tate hastily formed a new lineup of his own and brought legal proceedings against his former bandmates, claiming that he had been illegally ejected from the band... oh yeah, and proceeded to lock the other band members out of the Queensryche-associated websites out of spite. As a result, for a couple of years there, there were two entirely different bands using the name Queensryche... and to make matters worse, both of them toured and released albums in 2013. This is the cover of Tateryche's album Frequency Unknown, by the way.
Subtle, Geoffrey. Subtle.
Anyhow, the long and the short of it is, Wilton, Jackson and Rockenfield were able to buy out Tate's share of the Queensryche name in 2014, and they've put the work in to restore their reputation among metalheads. Signed to the big metal label Century Media, they've put out some safe but enjoyable (for big fans like me) records hewing fairly close to the Empire style of writing. They'll be releasing The Verdict, their third album with La Torre fronting the band, in March. Meanwhile, Geoff Tate renamed his version of Queensryche... extremely heavy sigh... Operation: Mindcrime. (What, the crappy sequel the band released in 2005 wasn't dragging that album's name through the mud enough? Seriously, when even RONNIE JAMES MOTHERFUCKING DIO can't save your album, it sucks.) He's continued puttering around in his stupid vests, plopping out the same dull hunks of garbage that he forced on Queensryche in the 2000's with a cobbled-together band of mercenaries, putting out hilariously bad EPKs, and generally being seen as a washed-up joke by the metal community. It's what he deserves, frankly.
Wow, Bert's really let himself go.
But in the meantime... oh dear, I think some falses have entried!!!!
OVER TO THE PEANUT GALLERY
Operation: Earcrime
DJHazey (1): Yeah this isn't doing anything for me. Sorry @Ironheade as I know they are personal favorite for you. At least we'll have Faith No More standom! (Indeed we will! For how long, is the question...)
Untouchable Ace (4.4): Silently lucid dream inducing. Yawn.
GimmeWork (2): I’ve listened to this several times and it doesn’t click, sorry.
DominoDancing (2.5): Overlong boring pap. The string arrangement is ridiculously generic.
yuuurei (2.5): The music is somewhat okay but it's really just ... very odd and not in a good way. Plus I was getting bored by about 2/3 of the way through.
iheartpoptarts (3): You can sing 'Flying Without Wings' over this. That’s not even one of the good Westlife songs. (There are good Westlife songs?)
Empty Shoebox (2): This is like being dragged on a rope behind a bus. (Nah, you want Brain Drill for that.)
Seventeen Days (4.5): This isn’t TOTALLY horrible, but it’s just toeing that line between dated and decent. (and not very well, might I add) (theearly90s.mp3)
ModeRed (5.5): Not bad, but I did get get a bit bored by the end.
WowWowWowWow (6): This was a hit in the USA? Granted I was 7 at the time it came out but… it would have been bettere if more parts of this song were silent instead of lucid! Yeah I said it.
Ganache (5): The early 90s had a surge in epic rock ballads (see also November Rain, the resurgence of Meat Loaf and Bo Rhap, you can even throw in It's All Coming Back to Me Now). (Can we have another one? - Ed.) This certainly takes you on a journey but all the others listed were better.
saviodxl (2.8): As good as Michael Bolton. (...You're cancelled.)
Operation: Ratecrime
chanex (7.5): LOL I know I should hate this but a hair-band ballad that actually made me feel something at certain moments is a unicorn that I must kinda bow down to. Insert cringe-face emoji. (Heh, speaking of "hair band", you GOTTA check out some of Queensryche's early promo shots. As one member said of the video for "Queen of the Reich": "That was when we cut our hair... so no one would recognise us!")
unnameable (7): Bands these days don’t have umlauts. This depresses me. (Someday, I will learn how to type a Y with an umlaut over it so I can typeset Queensryche's name properly.)
əʊæ (7): Why is the music so amazing while the vocals are so... not?
Hudweiser (7): This is kinda nice - strings are always an easy sell. (Michael Kamen, always good value.)
4Roses (6): I like it, but I hate it. (I'll take it.)
berserkboi (9.3): The instrumental is somewhere between Twin Peaks and MushiShi level gorgeous!
pop3blow2 (8): I heard someone describe this as the best Pink Floyd song never written one time. That seems apt. It has a lullaby calmness to it. Hard to believe this was such a huge crossover pop hit, but here we are.
CorgiCorgiCorgi (6): Was not expecting Queensryche in this rate! at first I misread it as Queensberry so I was expecting something else entirely!
AshleyKerwin (10): Smashing Pumpkins remnant. Do they have anything else like this? ('Fraid not, really. The video is a bit "Tonight, Tonight", now that I think about it...)
Auntie Beryl (10): Appropriately enough for this rate, just about the only good thing they did: and it’s brilliant. I can leave the preposterous prog rock concept albums, and the suspicion that Geoff Tate is a bellend. (Which he totally is. - Ed.) I’ll take this Floydy thing of wonder and run.
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she/her
Scream sorry we dragged one of your faves @Ironheade ... I honestly can't even remember how that song sounded now though ;;;
Why you gotta do that, man?
...Hey, it didn't get any zeroes, so I guess that's something?
58. SILENT LUCIDITY
Average score: 5.191
Highest scores: 2 x 10 (@Auntie Beryl , @AshleyKerwin )
Lowest scores: 1 x 1 (@DJHazey )
Chart positions: #9 Hot 100, #34 Radio Songs, #1 Mainstream Rock
Year-End Hot 100: #82 (1991)
Who? Oh yeah, them...
So, I'm not really pissed about this one at all. Because, hey, I knew “Silent Lucidity” didn't have a snowball's chance going into this thing, so I can't get mad about it, it's like, “what did you expect?” And they band behind it are not quite one-hit wonders either, if I'm honest. But, hey... I love Queensryche, and when am I going to get another chance to rate them on this forum? Never, I reckon. So sit back and relax, and let me fill your face with MOTHERFUCKING WALLS OF TEXT... as I always do when I get an opportunity to pontificate about metal on here, of course.
Anyhow, Queensryche were formed in Bellevue, WA in 1980, as a heavy metal cover band called The Mob, and the core instrumental lineup was the same as that which would bring them fame in the coming years: Chris DeGarmo and Michael Wilton on guitars, Eddie Jackson on bass, and Scott Rockenfield on drums. Eventually moving onto original material, they recorded a demo with Geoff Tate, the singer of a local progressive rock outfit called Myth, providing vocals on a session basis as he was committed to his original band; it was then that they had to change their name, as “The Mob” was already in use, and settled on Queensryche (taken from one of their early songs, “Queen of the Reich”). The demo eventually got put out as a self-titled EP in 1983, and with its high sales for a small independent release, it caught the attention of EMI, who signed Queensryche quickly. It was only then that Geoff Tate joined them as their permanent lead vocalist... and a legend was born.
This song will give you chest hair you could lose a hand in.
The EP was a masterclass in the relatively raw, NWOBHM-inspired material, owing a heavy debt to Iron Maiden, that made up the burgeoning American power metal scene at the time, but their debut LP The Warning, released a year later, was a bit of a different beast, a more mature and classy effort with surprising twists and turns taken in the songwriting. If the EP was good, then The Warning was a classic: it would be hard for it not to be, when the engine of the band were the best twin lead guitar team since Murray and Smith in Iron Maiden, and in Geoff Tate they had a frontman who was simply unmatchable in his prime as a metal vocalist, capable of terrifyingly powerful operatic highs and passionate theatrical delivery, combined with equally potent lows that were showcased more and more as his career went on. As far as US power metal bands of the early 80's go, only Manilla Road and Savatage do the style better in my humble opinion, and even then, The Warning surpasses them in places. And Queensryche were certainly not content to rest on their laurels. Their second album, 1986's Rage for Order, expanded their palette yet further, adding keyboards and heavier studio effects to the mix as prominently as guitars, in what the band dubbed “techno-metal”; the music, too, became far more layered and complex and a little softer, arguably more “progressive” in its songwriting than their later, more widely-recognized conceptual works. The band's lyrics, too, were more thoughtful than what was then the standard for metal: The Warning was something of a concept album about George Orwell's ideas, and throughout both records, Queensryche masterfully engaged with themes of technological paranoia, artificial intelligence and robotics, and the dangers of government intrusion.
And then came 1988, where everything came together their magnum opus Operation: Mindcrime. It is in my top hundred albums ever.
THERE'S A REVOLUTION CALLING!!!!!
I swear, this thing has one of the best ever plots for a concept album, ever. It's so intricate, and yet perfectly clear in how it's conveyed, and touches on all sorts of political and social themes too, just as well as their first two records. The whole thing is just incredibly well-composed to draw you into the narrative, and it has one of metal's most amazing, commanding vocal performances to boot. ("Suite Sister Mary", god damn.) Sure, it's not exactly heavy for a lot of its runtime, but when the tunes are this memorable front to back, who really cares? I could go on and on, but this thing is long enough to begin with, so I won't. The Warning and Rage for Order had done reasonably well for a metal band, but this was where Queensryche really broke out, deservedly so. While they weren't really hits in chart terms, the videos for “Eyes of a Stranger” and “I Don't Believe in Love” became staples on Headbanger's Ball (remember that?), and got Queensryche touring slots with such titans as Metallica and Def Leppard. Operation: Mindcrime would eventually reach gold status a year after its release. And so, in 1990, Queensryche decided to capitalize on their newfound mainstream toehold put out their fourth album Empire, a sleek and polished collection of accessible hard rock songs. And while it's certainly a good album for what it is, I can't help but find it a little disappointing compared to their previous three masterworks. But, hey, it went three times platinum and got them an iconic power-ballad hit, so what the hell do I know?
So what do I think?
9! I've heard “Silent Lucidity” described somewhere as “Pink Floyd for the age of hair metal”, and honestly, that's pretty accurate, in all the right ways. I'm a sucker for a good power ballad, and this is one of the best, in my humble opinion. The strings are gorgeously arranged by Michael Kamen, with this really stunning billowing texture to them that gives “Silent Lucidity” a glimmering, fantastical vibe, like you're really being swept away on the tides. I love it, and it adds a whole lot to the theme of dreams and fantasy throughout the lyrics. Both guitarists more than earn their paychecks, DeGarmo with his gently undulating acoustic figure, Wilton with a passionate display of beautifully-controlled sustain in his solo that David Gilmour would be proud of; meanwhile, the rhythm section keeps unobtrusive but subtly groovy time, rather than the typical power-ballad plod. And Geoff Tate's vocals are as incredible as ever – at this point, he's already lost a bit of his piercing “Queen of the RAAAAAAAIIIIIIIII” high range, but compensates for it with equally well-developed baritone lows, and a warmly earnest delivery, like he really is the guardian and guide, the loving father, that the lyrics depict. The only thing I can criticize at all is the spoken passage over the bridge, which I thought was a bit cheesy at first, but it actually does fit in pretty well. Yeah, absolutely beautiful stuff... and, hey, I did what I could.
Where Are They Now?™
I have to say this. Queensryche are not really one-hit wonders, at least not in a sales sense. Empire is a triple-platinum album bookended by platinum albums on either side of it in the discography, and it produced two more top 10 hits on the Mainstream Rock chart with “Jet City Woman” and “Another Rainy Night (Without You)”. But in terms of further Hot 100 hits? No, none of those, so I figured they would still be OK to put in here. The closest Queensryche got was “Real World”, their contribution to the Last Action Hero soundtrack, which fizzled out at #111. Thing is, they were a progressive metal band that had a fluke ballad hit, and it was right at the tail end of the decade in which metal was at its most popular. Throughout the 90's, classic heavy metal was not cool (a state of affairs that puts me rather in line with Randy “The Ram” Robinson at times...). So what were the chances that Queensryche could score another big hit like that? Virtually nil, so despite a few more Mainstream Rock hits to come, they would be relegated to merely “metal famous” from then on out.
Nevertheless, Queensryche made a decent fist of it when they followed up with Promised Land in 1994... and this is a bit of a hot take, but I actually prefer that album to Empire. It's a different beast to their previous work, more subtle and atmospheric with a strong acoustic basis in a number of the songs, and having something of a more “modern” sound, integrating unusual elements like saxophones, sitars and tribal percussion, and even some industrial-style tape loops. The lyrics follow the darker and moodier tone of the music, focusing on American consumerist society and the drawbacks of success, and having a much more disillusioned and angry tone to them than Queensryche's usual fare. It's a little tricky to get into at times, but definitely a worthwhile listen overall. The album charted at #3 and went platinum, but it wasn't nearly the blockbuster success that Operation: Mindcrime was, let alone reaching Empire-level sales. How could it be, the times being what they were? The band were uncertain of their future afterwards, with Tate going through a difficult time personally and not really wanting to do metal any more, and the pressure to stay on top getting too heavy, but they decided to stay together and do another album. In retrospect, maybe they shouldn't have...
Because then, it all went wrong. Queensryche's career arc over the next decade and a half was depressing to watch as a longtime fan, culminating in two halves of the band fighting over their name and legacy, before their eventual phoenix-like rise from the ashes. Michael Wilton's declaration from the 2012 lawsuit over the Queensryche name is well worth reading, if only to see how bad things got behind the scenes. If Promised Land was a successful attempt to adapt to the times, their 1997 follow-up Hear in the Now Frontier was certainly not, a far-too-late stab at riding the coat-tails of grunge, with awful mixing, songwriting so faceless and stale it puts Bush to shame, a hideously bloated runtime, and all the musicians sounding like they couldn't care less. The baffling cover art bodes ill to begin with, and let's just say, the record delivers on that promise. Though it did produce a #3 Mainstream Rock single with “Sign of the Times”, the album failed to reach certification, showing that the band's time as a mainstream act was well and truly up. And to make matters worse, Chris DeGarmo, who had been the sole writer of “Silent Lucidity” and one of the primary writers of most of their other signature tunes, left shortly afterwards due to personality conflicts with Tate, with EMI dropping the band at about the same time. Let me put this bluntly: the five full-length records (plus one cover album) that Queensryche put out in the 2000's and early 2010's were unmitigated embarrassments, laden down with desperate efforts to chase radio-rock trends from a band that once defined heavy metal in the 80's, and all capped off by Tate's rapidly degenerating voice. (Any live performance by him from about 2007 onwards is just plain painful.) The metal community mostly turned their backs on Queensryche, viewing them as a shell of what they used to be. I can say that Tribe, the 2003 album where DeGarmo made a brief return to the band, has its moments, but that's only as a stan.
PICTURES ON... YOOO-TOOOOOOOOOB. (Don't ask, dear readers, just don't even ask.)
To make matters worse, Tate's ego inflated to four times its previous size. He totally took control of Queensryche, and began to work mostly with outside musicians, sidelining the actual members of the band to more or less a session role and forbidding them from having any input in the business side of things; he refused to allow the band to perform older and heavier material in concert, even though that was what they wanted to do and what fans were clamouring for. To hear Wilton, Jackson and Rockenfield tell it, he made a series of “my way or the highway” ultimatums, threatening to quit the band if he did not get his way and making personal attacks if they questioned him at all. He also fired the band's management and installed his wife Susan as their manager, much to the consternation of the other members, and she proceeded to run the band's finances into the ground through a series of inefficient decisions, working on behalf of Geoff Tate rather than for the good of the band as a whole, as well as illegally running the expenses of another band she managed through Queensryche's accounts. Before a show in Sao Paolo in 2012, Tate argued with the band about them having fired Susan as their manager, and they expressed their displeasure about his having sold off film rights to Operation: Mindcrime behind their backs... the result being that, just before the show, he punched and spat on both Wilton and Rockenfield for no reason, and kept threatening them afterwards. The band was able to finish the tour, but Tate's antics (including grinding on a cameraman filming them, and telling the audience at Rocklahoma that “You really suck!”... on live television) were getting increasingly embarrassing, and it was evident that they could no longer work with him. And here is where the rebirth begins.
While Tate was off touring his solo album Kings and Thieves in 2012, the other members of the band formed a side project called Rising West, with Crimson Glory's now-former frontman Todd La Torre on vocals, to perform the heavier material from their first four albums that Tate didn't want to touch. Fan and audience response to the shows under the name was so good, and the band enjoyed it so much, that they decided to consider Tate fired from Queensryche and adopt the name for themselves. Not to be outdone, Tate hastily formed a new lineup of his own and brought legal proceedings against his former bandmates, claiming that he had been illegally ejected from the band... oh yeah, and proceeded to lock the other band members out of the Queensryche-associated websites out of spite. As a result, for a couple of years there, there were two entirely different bands using the name Queensryche... and to make matters worse, both of them toured and released albums in 2013. This is the cover of Tateryche's album Frequency Unknown, by the way.
Subtle, Geoffrey. Subtle.
Anyhow, the long and the short of it is, Wilton, Jackson and Rockenfield were able to buy out Tate's share of the Queensryche name in 2014, and they've put the work in to restore their reputation among metalheads. Signed to the big metal label Century Media, they've put out some safe but enjoyable (for big fans like me) records hewing fairly close to the Empire style of writing. They'll be releasing The Verdict, their third album with La Torre fronting the band, in March. Meanwhile, Geoff Tate renamed his version of Queensryche... extremely heavy sigh... Operation: Mindcrime. (What, the crappy sequel the band released in 2005 wasn't dragging that album's name through the mud enough? Seriously, when even RONNIE JAMES MOTHERFUCKING DIO can't save your album, it sucks.) He's continued puttering around in his stupid vests, plopping out the same dull hunks of garbage that he forced on Queensryche in the 2000's with a cobbled-together band of mercenaries, putting out hilariously bad EPKs, and generally being seen as a washed-up joke by the metal community. It's what he deserves, frankly.
Wow, Bert's really let himself go.
But in the meantime... oh dear, I think some falses have entried!!!!
OVER TO THE PEANUT GALLERY
Operation: Earcrime
DJHazey (1): Yeah this isn't doing anything for me. Sorry @Ironheade as I know they are personal favorite for you. At least we'll have Faith No More standom! (Indeed we will! For how long, is the question...)
Untouchable Ace (4.4): Silently lucid dream inducing. Yawn.
GimmeWork (2): I’ve listened to this several times and it doesn’t click, sorry.
DominoDancing (2.5): Overlong boring pap. The string arrangement is ridiculously generic.
yuuurei (2.5): The music is somewhat okay but it's really just ... very odd and not in a good way. Plus I was getting bored by about 2/3 of the way through.
iheartpoptarts (3): You can sing 'Flying Without Wings' over this. That’s not even one of the good Westlife songs. (There are good Westlife songs?)
Empty Shoebox (2): This is like being dragged on a rope behind a bus. (Nah, you want Brain Drill for that.)
Seventeen Days (4.5): This isn’t TOTALLY horrible, but it’s just toeing that line between dated and decent. (and not very well, might I add) (theearly90s.mp3)
ModeRed (5.5): Not bad, but I did get get a bit bored by the end.
WowWowWowWow (6): This was a hit in the USA? Granted I was 7 at the time it came out but… it would have been bettere if more parts of this song were silent instead of lucid! Yeah I said it.
Ganache (5): The early 90s had a surge in epic rock ballads (see also November Rain, the resurgence of Meat Loaf and Bo Rhap, you can even throw in It's All Coming Back to Me Now). (Can we have another one? - Ed.) This certainly takes you on a journey but all the others listed were better.
saviodxl (2.8): As good as Michael Bolton. (...You're cancelled.)
Operation: Ratecrime
chanex (7.5): LOL I know I should hate this but a hair-band ballad that actually made me feel something at certain moments is a unicorn that I must kinda bow down to. Insert cringe-face emoji. (Heh, speaking of "hair band", you GOTTA check out some of Queensryche's early promo shots. As one member said of the video for "Queen of the Reich": "That was when we cut our hair... so no one would recognise us!")
unnameable (7): Bands these days don’t have umlauts. This depresses me. (Someday, I will learn how to type a Y with an umlaut over it so I can typeset Queensryche's name properly.)
əʊæ (7): Why is the music so amazing while the vocals are so... not?
Hudweiser (7): This is kinda nice - strings are always an easy sell. (Michael Kamen, always good value.)
4Roses (6): I like it, but I hate it. (I'll take it.)
berserkboi (9.3): The instrumental is somewhere between Twin Peaks and MushiShi level gorgeous!
pop3blow2 (8): I heard someone describe this as the best Pink Floyd song never written one time. That seems apt. It has a lullaby calmness to it. Hard to believe this was such a huge crossover pop hit, but here we are.
CorgiCorgiCorgi (6): Was not expecting Queensryche in this rate! at first I misread it as Queensberry so I was expecting something else entirely!
AshleyKerwin (10): Smashing Pumpkins remnant. Do they have anything else like this? ('Fraid not, really. The video is a bit "Tonight, Tonight", now that I think about it...)
Auntie Beryl (10): Appropriately enough for this rate, just about the only good thing they did: and it’s brilliant. I can leave the preposterous prog rock concept albums, and the suspicion that Geoff Tate is a bellend. (Which he totally is. - Ed.) I’ll take this Floydy thing of wonder and run.
Someone pumped out a bootleg club mix of this one (and I bought it back in the days you had to go to a tiny DJ store in the gay district to get the 12” vinyl lol).
she/her
Damn, I didn't expect this to leave so soon! I probably underscored it. Listening to it again, it's at least a 7.
Well, I tried.
That’s happening with several of these...