Top-5 2018 (at the moment)

[Jez]

18 hours ago, PeterS said:

Mmm.  Kim Wilde. Need to check that out. More to do with the crush I used to have on her though. 

It's a great album mate..full of poprocktastic tunes. A big return to form..Check it out

[PeterS]

20 hours ago, Jez said:

It's a great album mate..full of poprocktastic tunes. A big return to form..Check it out

Yummy. Very good indeed. With the Fire Tiger already hitting the nail on the head, this already a good year for whatever you'd call this sub genre. 

 

And just seen there's an expanded version of T'Pau Bridge of Spies just released. Will check that out. 

[lettard]

Favs up to now...

W.E.T - Earthrage

Vega - Only Human

Steel City - Fortress

Station - More Than The Moon

Volster - Perfect Storm

LeBrock - The Real Thing E.P

Shiraz Lane - Carnival Days

Others I liked but will not make the end of year list for sure are...

Perfect Plan - All Rise

Grand Design - Viva La Paradise

Dangerous Curves - So Dirty Right

Maverick - Cold Star Dancer

[Glen]

The only 2 that are worth anything are WET & Vega.

Everything else is under 80% imo.

The Lebrock EP is very good. 

[Geoff]

On 5/13/2018 at 7:36 AM, Glen said:

The only 2 that are worth anything are WET & Vega.

Everything else is under 80% imo.

The Lebrock EP is very good. 

Harsh reality; I like it. It's been a wasteland of a year in terms of albums.

The evolution of music and the way I listen to it has worked out nicely for me in 2018. I'm no longer really an "album man" but kist pick and choose the songs I like so as not to waste my ear-time. There's been some real nice tunes so far this year but barely a decent album to talk about. I like Station, Vega, No Sleep For Lucy and then maybe Blessthefall as the curveball. 

But yeah, a severe, harsh lack of really good albums this year for sure. And as I said when I last posted here, LeBrock absolutely destroys anything and everything else released this year. By light years. 

[Glen]

4 hours ago, Geoff said:

Harsh reality; I like it. It's been a wasteland of a year in terms of albums.

The evolution of music and the way I listen to it has worked out nicely for me in 2018. I'm no longer really an "album man" but kist pick and choose the songs I like so as not to waste my ear-time. There's been some real nice tunes so far this year but barely a decent album to talk about. I like Station, Vega, No Sleep For Lucy and then maybe Blessthefall as the curveball. 

But yeah, a severe, harsh lack of really good albums this year for sure. And as I said when I last posted here, LeBrock absolutely destroys anything and everything else released this year. By light years. 

I agree but in no way does Lebrock destroy WET & Vega. I love those albums. 2 gems imo. 

[Nightrain]

For me top 5 at the moment and both still under 5 spins though :

WET

VEGA

STATION

GRAND DESIGN

SHIRAZ LANE

and near the top 5 are JUDAS PRIEST, ISSA, PERFECT PLAN, and PAL

 

[Glen]

I can only mention WET, Vega & Lebrock so far.

NFO & Tremonti will join them soon to complete my top 5 for the first half of 2018.

 

[kourosofsteel3]

Only top 3 for the moment:

 

WET

VEGA

STATION

5 hours ago, Nightrain said:

For me top 5 at the moment and both still under 5 spins though :

WET

VEGA

STATION

GRAND DESIGN

SHIRAZ LANE

and near the top 5 are JUDAS PRIEST, ISSA, PERFECT PLAN, and PAL

 

What's your opinion on latest Ark Storm (with Mike Boals)?

[Geoff]

I have a top 5, though I'm not overly passionate about most of them, and it'll change;

1. LeBrock     -    Real Thing

2. Station     -    More Than The Moon

3. No Sleep for Lucy     -    Until the End

4. Self Deception     -    Self Deception

5. Vega     -    Only Human

[mrbandwidth]

On 4/6/2018 at 3:49 PM, mrbandwidth said:

Well, this year is being much softer than last one IMO; not exactly a surprise as a lot of great bands did their releases in 2017 and it's too soon for the most part of them.

My top-5 currently:

1. W.E.T.

2. Shiraz Lane

3. No Sleep For Lucy

4. Ammunition

5. ReVertigo

Big deception: Kamelot

Very possibly Vega, Station, and Ted Poley+Degreed will mess all this.

Don't be shy and let me know yours!

Time for an update:

1. W.E.T.

2. Shiraz Lane

3. No Sleep For Lucy

4. Vega

5. Station

[Glen]

The Station is average imo. I doubt I'll ever listen to it again. 

[Nightrain]

23 hours ago, Glen said:

I can only mention WET, Vega & Lebrock so far.

NFO & Tremonti will join them soon to complete my top 5 for the first half of 2018.

 

I will try NFO and just checked out LeBrock and surprisingly great, love it too, too bad it's only digital and only CDR ?

 

[Nightrain]

18 hours ago, Geoff said:

I have a top 5, though I'm not overly passionate about most of them, and it'll change;

1. LeBrock     -    Real Thing

2. Station     -    More Than The Moon

3. No Sleep for Lucy     -    Until the End

4. Self Deception     -    Self Deception

5. Vega     -    Only Human

Geoff, is No Sleep and Self modern rock thing ?

[Nightrain]

19 hours ago, kourosofsteel3 said:

Only top 3 for the moment:

 

WET

VEGA

STATION

What's your opinion on latest Ark Storm (with Mike Boals)?

haven't heard Ark Storm, will give it a spin later - is it similar with his Ring of Fire project ?

[Geoff]

6 hours ago, Nightrain said:

Geoff, is No Sleep and Self modern rock thing ?

Kind of, but I don't know/care, mate. They're just good melodic/commercial (hard-ish) rock albums.

[The Rocker]

23 hours ago, Glen said:

The Station is average imo. I doubt I'll ever listen to it again. 

That's why I'm big on compilations. There are just a few albums that I'll throw on and let it play. I just make comps with my favorite songs from each band, It's like listen to the perfect radio station(and commercial free)!  Lol

[Glen]

15 hours ago, Nightrain said:

I will try NFO and just checked out LeBrock and surprisingly great, love it too, too bad it's only digital and only CDR ?

 

I've heard one full track and snippets of 9 tracks and the new NFO sounds amazing. Just cannot wait for this. 

[mrbandwidth]

On 5/26/2018 at 3:06 PM, Glen said:

The Station is average imo. I doubt I'll ever listen to it again. 

Not as great as I expected to be honest. Lacks the energy of the debut, specially the first 3 tracks that were total 'killers'. However other tracks were skippers there, while I can enjoy this one from the beginning to the end instead. And some are really nice tracks (though not 'killers'), so let'em my 5th position for now...

[CureTheSane]

13 hours ago, The Rocker said:

That's why I'm big on compilations. There are just a few albums that I'll throw on and let it play. I just make comps with my favorite songs from each band, It's like listen to the perfect radio station(and commercial free)!  Lol

Yep, I'm the same.
For me the best judge of an album is how many songs make it into my best of folder....

[The Rocker]

14 hours ago, CureTheSane said:

Yep, I'm the same.
For me the best judge of an album is how many songs make it into my best of folder....

Yes

[Geoff]

On 5/28/2018 at 7:00 AM, mrbandwidth said:

Not as great as I expected to be honest. Lacks the energy of the debut, specially the first 3 tracks that were total 'killers'. However other tracks were skippers there, while I can enjoy this one from the beginning to the end instead. And some are really nice tracks (though not 'killers'), so let'em my 5th position for now...

I agree it's not that amazing, but Glen's never listening to it again is a bit drastic. And I agree with the posts about discarding average songs and only listening to the best. If I ever get around to it, I will have my entire collection sorted this way and "the album" will no longer exist... well, only in very few cases, where every single track is a gem. Hasn't happened this year yet.

I digress. I agree that Station isn't amazing, but like I said in my post where I listed it second behind Lebrock, I'm not really passionate about anything from 2018 except Lebrock. Station isn't great but it's much better than WET, in my opinion.

[Glen]

56 minutes ago, Geoff said:

I agree it's not that amazing, but Glen's never listening to it again is a bit drastic. And I agree with the posts about discarding average songs and only listening to the best. If I ever get around to it, I will have my entire collection sorted this way and "the album" will no longer exist... well, only in very few cases, where every single track is a gem. Hasn't happened this year yet.

I digress. I agree that Station isn't amazing, but like I said in my post where I listed it second behind Lebrock, I'm not really passionate about anything from 2018 except Lebrock. Station isn't great but it's much better than WET, in my opinion.

bhahahahaha. That's seriously the funniest thing I've read for a long long time.

I bet you are the only melodic rock fan in existence who actually thinks the new station album is better than the new WET album.

For me I would probably rate WET around 85% and Station around 65%.

And that is across everything - songs, production, vocals, instrumentation, artwork

[Geoff]

3 minutes ago, Glen said:

bhahahahaha. That's seriously the funniest thing I've read for a long long time.

I bet you are the only melodic rock fan in existence who actually thinks the new station album is better than the new WET album.

For me I would probably rate WET around 85% and Station around 65%.

And that is across everything - songs, production, vocals, instrumentation, artwork

Production on the WET album is definitely far better than Station. In fact, at the end of the day, the only thing that probably holds the Station album back is the rather timid production job. It's not bad... it's just a soft, lite recording. Put some beef into it and the album instantly sounds far better. I think I said that about their debut too. 

I definitely prefer the songs on the Station album, which obviously is the most important factor. Because I agree the production, Soto's vocals & instrumentation are probably better on the WET album... but overall I prefer the Station songs. The top 10 songs from both albums would probably be a decent split from both (maybe 6-4 for Station), but overall I do prefer Station, pretty easily. 

[tts42572]

My top 5 as we approach mid-year...

1.  Shiraz Lane - Carnival Days

2.  W.e.t - Earthrage

3.  Maverick - Cold Star Dancer

4.  Station - More Than The Moon

5.  Perfect Plan - All Rise

Honorable mention :  Dangerous Curves - So Dirty Right

Love Shiraz Lane's album....rocks, variety, great production.  This just hits my tastes perfectly.  

Really like W.e.t too.  For me, I think it's my favorite W.e.t album to date.    

I'd say the same about Maverick too....My favorite release from them to date.  I just like the vibe of it and just has a unique feel.  I think the title track is among my favorite songs this year.   

I'm a big Station fan and like the album.  However, there's a couple too many ballads here that I find myself skipping past.  And I'm still irritated they left off two solid songs in All You Need Is a Heartbeat and Never Enough.  It would've been stronger if they had taken off say Northport Sunset and Walking Away and replaced them with those other songs.  

As for Perfect Plan, solid release but find myself wishing it had a bit more edge to it.  Stone Cold Lover is probably my favorite song here.  Basically, I like most of the first 8 tracks then find myself sort of losing interest for the last 3 songs....that 1985 song just causes me to tune out.

I had to give an honorable mention to Dangerous Curves as I like that album too.  It's a fun album and feel like I need to spend a little more time with it.