Reviews (page 5 of 7)
The music is bad but on the plus side the album is really long!
Hey, Soft Machine. I've seen this album cover before, though what I really know these guys from is Gitaroo Man - one of my favourite games of all time. The opening theme for that game is "Soft Machine" by Coil (the Japanese one), which I assume is named after this band. Truth be told, I know next to nothing about these guys as far as their music is concerned. I think I remember reading somewhere that these guys have a bit of a freaky sound, so I'm hedging my bets on either proto-punk or gothic rock. YouTube Music has this album listed as an EP, which is absolutely diabolical. I thought I had a short listen on my hands today. I guess I wasn't entirely wrong in my freaky sound assessment - the opening to the first track was quite abrasive. I'm not entirely sure what causes this album to fall into the "jazz rock" genre, though I can believe that it boils down to this album sounding like a bit of a sonic mess. I'm not gonna lie - I spaced the fuck out while listening to this one. I suppose it made for some solid background noise, though you're kind of setting yourself up for abject failure when your album is comprised entirely of long as fuck songs. Alright-to-listen-to long as fuck songs mind you, but long as fuck songs all the same. Anyways, most of the tracks have a decent, bassy sound to 'em, and I appreciated the warbling saxes. I'm curious to look into Soft Machine's earlier psychedelic works as there is some craft to this album, though much later down the line, I'd imagine. "Slightly All the Time" is alright. I can appreciate a nice, relaxing, subdued sound when I hear one. It has a bit of a noir sound to it as well which is always cool. You can bet your bottom dollar that the rest of the album was a bit of a snoozer, however. Book time. High point for the band. Underrated. That's it as far as the book entry is concerned. Wikipedia says that this album was a huge stylistic shift for the band, performed decently on the charts and has a mild critical acclaim. Sure, I can let this one through. I gotta hold onto my dwindling reserve of replacement albums, after all. I cosign this inclusion.
A bit annoying, loud, listened only to the first 2 songs
a bit too avant for my garde
Weird and surprisingly interesting.
Are they still warming up?
Who was the audience for this album? I can appreciate improvisation and eclecticism, but this was throwing instruments at a wall and seeing what would stick. Hopeful elements, but they were snippets that never went anywhere.
Avant- guard art rock, sounding a like recorded in a tin can, at its peak the instrumentals are influential, at worst there are lacking emotion and can sound ambivalent. Vocals drag it down
Man I swear all lesser known prog rock all sounds exactly the same. The first track was so ear screeching my girlfriend came and told me to turn it off - and she likes prog rock more than me. I did enjoy the jazzier elements to this. Slightly All The Time was clearly the best song on here. I can't find myself coming back to that song because I'd rather just listen to 'real' jazz. Fuck this thing went on FOREVER as well.
Slightly All The Time
It has it's moments, but those moments aren't worth the rest of the time spent testing the listener.
Weird shit or elevator music. There's nothing in between.
First song was proper shite, it takes a serious set of brass balls to open your album with 18 minutes of incoherent noises. Next one was much better but we still didn't listen to all of it. Like if your psychedelic jazz album is going to be 2 hours long it has to be really bloody good and this just wasn't.
Yeah I mean that was ok, just by nature of this kind of music I didn't find it to be hugely memorable. One I can see growing on me, although from a first listen it did feel like a chore to listen to by the end.
Was not really into it. For the must part, just synthetic noise.
the original mathrock (I'm assuming :P) -- I haven't listened to this since I was a child definitely sent me back in time. I love acid jazz as much as the next person, which is to say, it's really hit or miss. haha. I'm ready for some zappa. :D
Seems random but sure
The Third song some is one of the worst things I have ever heard. Chaotic jazz with some genuinely annoying effects. Only 4 songs.. 20 minutes each. 3/10
Wild, bold exploration of avant-garde jazz fusion, but I'm not convinced that this album was vital enough that it needs to be heard by future musicians and music fans of which this list serves. Having said that, I'm glad the list turned me on to them, as I'm not sure I would have discovered them any other way. On the other hand, after hearing THIRD, does anyone else feel Angelo Badalementi's LOST HIGHWAY tracks, and chunks of Barry Adamson's LOST HIGHWAY tracks, and his late 80s and early 90s albums were influenced by an appreciation for Soft Machine?
This was NOT GOOD.
2.5
2.5
Really didn’t care for this. 5 songs all 20 minutes a piece.
Omg tooooo long. If you're going to fill a 2 hour album with 18 minute tracks, you better bring it. They didn't. 2/5
Пять песен по двадцать минут?....местами это было довольно-тауи прикольно, но в основном просто ..зачем.. особенно первая половина первого трека, я была вот настолько близка к тому, чтобы выключить это все нафиг
A little too much droning for me.
This really needs the right circumstances to be enjoyed for me.
Facelift and Out-Bloody-Rageous have really nice grooves once they finally get going...but I nearly turned the album off after its first two minutes (looking at you, "gloopy space synth noise").
what the heck? a bunch of sounds
Guhhhhhhhhhhhhh whyyyyyyy?! Kinda cool, but not 1001 albums worthy.
Ha sido bastante pesado y lo he sobrellevado por que en el fondo me gusta más o menos esta música. Este es otro disco de cultura musical. Check.
Pretty spacey
I'm glad disc 2 isn't on Spotify - way too long and nothing too special here.
some interesting ideas in here but this album is so long that they are separated by chasms of 60s psychedelic garbage
This didn’t speak to me.
pick: slightly all the time
Long and boring
Background music, at times it's just background noise. I hate songs longer than 15 minutes. 2 outta 5
I’d rather be listening to Zappa
65
Jazz rock I guess? Kind of interesting, didn’t mind having it on in the background.
the intro was awful, and the songs way too long even though they were good it doesn't make up for it
I mean, wtf. This is the kind of album that makes people hate jam bands. No structure, no melodies, no progression in the songs, they just seem to meander forever with no resolution.
Unstructured, random noises for so much of it. I'm not a jazz person and the jazzy stuff is actually the better part of this record. I don't want 18 minute songs.
Two minutes in and I was thinking dissonant and pretentious. Then, whale sounds? By the time it got to the second track, it fell into more of a free jazz groove, which is better, but not much. That would be my least favorite style of jazz. I just can’t get into it. By the third track, it’s fallen into what I guess would be progressive rock, like ELO or early Genesis, only not nearly as good. I never quite finished this album because by a couple minutes into the last track I had lost all interest. I just didn’t have another 15 minutes of this in me. So final thought: less dissonant than I expected, by a little bit, but still sort of pretentious and not terribly listenable. If you want free jazz, look to Coltrane and Davis, if you want progressive, early Genesis and King Crimson are better choices.
I can see the reason it is here, just very much so not my genre. 4 nearly 20 minute fully instrumental songs is rough.
Personal enjoyment: 1/5 Relevance to this list: 5/5
This is the band that are most responsible for me saying I can appreciate jazz. So they had to try to prove me wrong didn't they. It would appear that the compilers of this list believe that jazz can only be played on brass instruments. This is of course complete bollox. They are a band with some superb musicians. One founder member is Daevid Allen was multi-instrumentalist genius who I was privilaged enough to see live in the early 90's as part of another band. But back to the album in hand, sorry, not the best. I'm finding this really hard to review this album without taking others into account albums like Bundles and Softs are quite brilliant but this one is quite disappointing hopefully we may get them later. This one is only worth a very low 2, possibly rounded up from 1.7 to be honest.
Bloody long sprawling songs filled with just about every possible instrument known to humankind. I had it on in the background while doing things, which is fine. If I had to give it my full concentration, then I think I would get a headache.
Maso
My first time listening to progressive rock. I loved the jazz elements and flute melodies being paired with the drums. The first song, ‘Facelift’, was too in-cohesive for my taste. The following songs however were quite enjoyable and sonically intriguing.
Probably better if you’re on drugs.
Quite ok, but a little too much of the same...
Track 2 was so good it almost made me forget how poor the rest of the album is, especially track 1.
jazz? discordant, random shit.
Its 4 tracks around 20 ish minutes each and you really do feel it 2/5
There are quite a few albums from 60s and 70s in this book that could be dropped. I think this is one of those albums. I don't know if this a must listen. Sounds alright and nothing to write home about.
I'd never heard of Soft Machine, so started reading up about them and noticed Robert Wyatt's involvement, suddenly it makes sense, except it doesn't - this is a soundscape for an (experi)mental asylum!
Too impromptu.
Begin met het tweede liedje, dan is het soort van te doen
I still don't get jazz. I like prog pretty well, but this was too much jazz and the tracks were too long. 20 minutes is just too much. It ranged from actively annoying at worst to fades into the background at best.
19 minute long tracks of experimental rock are just not my cup of tea
There are moments of really cool stuff on this, but the full effect was not great for me. If I had thought of this as a jazz album first I may have liked it a lot more. I thought of it as a rock album first, though, so I found this quite frustrating and even annoying at times.
This was just not my thing. A 10+ minute long song is pushing it for me - having four nearly-20 minute songs was too much. It was too far out there at times. It did seem to get better at times, but I found myself counting the minutes between those moments.
I’m getting real tired of this
This is a weird and difficult one to rate. It’s eclectic to the extreme. I felt like the first song was the high watermark. There was some interesting jazz-rock stuff going on and the tonal shifts were at that point intriguing. But each track is so long that you lose the plot a bit. Some sections put me in mind of Pink Floyd but only if they were trying to find a particularly obnoxious opening sequence. The vocals really don’t help and prefer when it’s instrumental (fortunately most of the time). I think both the second and third song had a very jarring climax shortly before the end with eerie electronic sounds. So all told I applaud the experimental nature and there is musical quality involved but it was an album I pushed through rather than enjoyed. Just don’t think I can give it a 3 (on my own personal scoring).
I just can’t get with it. Great musicians I’m sure, but for me it’s just a headache inducing hodgepodge.
Facelift - 19 minut muzyki wleciało jednym a wyleciało drugim, nudna piosenka i zmarnowany czas. 2/10 Slightly all the time - Przyjemna muzyka jazzowa jednak za długa, nie słuchałbym tego często, może kiedyś w jesienne wieczory. Jest to najlepsza piosenka jazzowa jaką usłyszałem do dziś (27.07.25). 7/10 Moon in june - Pierwsze wokale na tym albumie, nie genialne ale złe również nie są. Znowu przyjemna piosenka dla ucha, przy końcówce zjebali. 5/10 Out-bloody rageous - Elevator music, nudne tyle mam do powiedzenia. 3/10 O całym albumie mogę powiedzieć, że był przeciętny. Dało by się według mnie skrócić każdą piosenkę o 10 minut ponieważ album się przedłużał.2 przeciętne piosenki 2 nudne, raczej do tego albumu nie powrócę. 4/10
Probably some 3 star, possibly 4 star parts to this, but, as an album, I will never, ever be able to listen to 1hr16mins of this without skipping or taking a break.
This is the kind of meandering stuff that gives prog a bad name. If an album is two hours long and has four songs, it has to do quite a lot to be worthy of the level of listener investment required. This record didn't at any point rise to that challenge. At times in the first song it sounded like they were riffing on Larks Tongues In Aspic, which unfortunately just reminded me how much I'd rather be listening to King Crimson.
Cool understated album cover for what the songs are. Wild jazzy, psychedelic sounds. Unfortunately not my cup of tea, but can see how talented Soft Machine is.
пойдет для нарезки сэмплов
2 maybe different instruments would make me enjoy it more?
*Bizarre album. Basically a jam band experiment, but all over the place. *Only 6 songs of about 15-20 minutes each. *All over the places - lots of experimental noise, then some melodious parts. Instrumental except one track. *Not my jam. RATING - 3/10
Highly experimental album that was fine, but I just didn’t get that into it.
#630. I can't say that I'm a fan of this at all. Just some fuckers noodling about for a bit. 2/5: no
I feel like this album can't get out of it's own way. Large portions of it are unbearably obtuse. Then for brief periods it seems to start pulling something together. Something that might actually be good. But then it loses the thread and meanders into obscure noise again. Most of the songs would be better if broken into individual songs for each idea and focused.
The tracks are very long (~20 minutes). Some are jammy, some are jazzy. Some parts sound like background music for a science documentary. There were parts Iiked (e.g. track 2: Slightly all the Time) but on the whole I'm not inclined to hear it again.
I feel like I'm doomed to be the dum-dum who never fully understands the appeal of an album like this, because I listen to the 80ish minutes of them noodling around and think "great, you've produced some great raw material, now go make some songs using it." Its not that I expect every song to be a tight 4.5 minutes of verse-corus-verse, but the general lack of structure here just doesn't draw me in to the music, at all.
Mycket underlig, långdragen musik på 20min per låt. Kanske fungerar i en konstig restaurang eller så. Inte i mina hörlurar hur som helst.
The first three tracks were pretty hard for me to get through, but Out-Bloody-Rageous kind of saved it for me. I'm a sucker for tippy tappy guitar doodly doos, I just wish the rest of the album was in the same arena.
70s jazz rock apparently. But really experimental noise rock with 70s synths and jazz instruments. Awful. Gets better after first experimental track. Don’t like prog rock.
Enough with the prog. Show me the best 2-3, maybe, and then we’re done.
Dit zijn geniale muzikanten. Er zijn momentjes dat je dat hoort tijdens het luisteren van dit album, maar er zijn ook momenten dat je denkt dat je naar een soort jostiband aan het luisteren bent. Dat laatste met name tijdens die valse start van een track 1. Met name die eerste track (1/4e van het album) slaat dus teveel door in het experimenteren. Daarna lijkt het album iets meer improvisatie jazz met prog te worden. Gelukkig zou ik haast zeggen. Uiteindelijk blijft het voor mij een album lang vissen naar lekkere stukjes (track 2 vanaf 8:06 tot 12:02) in een grote ketel soep waarin teveel grove brokken ronddrijven. Ik zou willen dat ik dit meer kon waarderen, maar ik mis iets van houvast en daardoor duurt het me al gauw veel te lang allemaal. Als het allemaal iets meer recht toe recht aan was had ik dit wel gaaf gevonden, want de juiste ingrediënten zijn er. 2 sterren. Dit is wel zo'n VPRO Vrije Geluiden album wat je hier af en toe gewoon hoort aan te treffen. Dus dat is top.
First track was an assault on my ears. The rest didn't do much better. This really takes the Rock out of "Prog Rock", and I'm not sure about the Prog either. 1.5/5
I'm not really into this kind of experimental, jam prog whatever.
I’ve now listened to a few examples of this style of music, prog rock, which I had never heard of before. It’s fine, even kind of interesting, but none of it grabs me as anything I will choose to listen to again.
None of the tracks justify their runtime Very monotone and doesnt go anywhere Cool drums tho
2- Stars (4/15)
Bit experimental for me but appreciate the vibe
Early psych jazz fusion not for me
Never heard of this “most influential British jazz-rockers ever”. And kind of wish I never had. Definitely a late 60’s early 70’s vibe I could skip. Maybe if the songs were a tad bit shorter, like by 10 to 15 minutes.
Creo q tengo q estar muy drogada para disfrutar de esto.
Well that was a trip. Parts were alright, but it was overall a noisy and unpleasant experience.
There is something happening here. Every time it grabbed me, it immediately tried to run away again. I don’t doubt this hugely influenced a series of better albums. Ahead of its time, but I’m still gonna be mean and 2/5
Take rock band, add jazz, and watch your enjoyment slowly rot away to boredom. The third track was tolerable for two minutes, and then I realized that there were 15 more minutes. I am completely confident that there are good reasons for this album to be on the list, but I can't see them because I fall asleep before I can form a coherent argument against it.
The lowest 2 I could give.
First 7 minutes sound like an orchestra warming up rather than playing any tangible music. After that somebody reminds the band they are recording an album, still not great but at leastfeels like its meant to be music. Picks up slightly with the middle two tracks before track 4 returns to near five minute warm up and my delight at the fourth track ending quickly dashed by it starting up again It’s the sound of Jazz meets Rock but this is far from a happy marriage of styles
It was some cool jazz but wasn't really my thing
Noodling
I didn't get on with this at all. I don't know why; I'm not against prog rock. Maybe it's the acid jazz. The only track I can say that I liked was Moon In June.
Hard to underestimate how little i was interested in listening to 4 x 20 minute prog sessions today. It's fine, but it really didn't hit
too avant garde for regular listening imo, but it was an interesting listen. possibly groundbreaking for its time.
I was not excited when I first started this album, it did not begin on the right foot for me. It did get better as things went on, but still a bit too experimental for my tastes. 2.35/5
Unique sounding album, but it wasn’t very interesting to me. I got bored of it about a third through it and it did not pick up for me. I’ve heard prog rock before and this was one of the most boring albums in that genre I’ve heard. So unfortunately I can’t find myself ranking it highly. Favorite Track: Moon In June
Should be called Turd
Cool but not my thing
This is another overlong (75 mins!) live album, so who knows how good they were in the studio, but even Timothy Leary amounts of acid wouldn’t make this enjoyable.
Moon in June
Not for me
Meh
The prog jazz-rock is trying to pull me in but I can smell the weed and god knows what else.
Couldn't really get on board with this one. Sounds like a mix of soundtracks from 70s cop movies, jazz and early 70s Pink Floyd. I'm sure it's probably really good at what it's trying to do. 2/5
slightly all the time is amazing though
Way too long. Also this is just jazz theres no progressive rock here
It’s just noise to me
Some real funky stuff! I enjoyed it but probably not for regular listening
4.5/10
I must not be in the right mindset because this just sounded like a mess.
Quizá eso es música en otra dimensión, no en ésta en la que estoy, o me intrpolan mientras trato de comprender la fusión donde percibo jazz, psicodelia, rock, ruido. No es para mí, es para mí resaca
I like prog. I like jazz. I like Robert Wyatt. I like long compositions. But what is the actual meaning of this? Some redeemable features along the way, but it really is far too long and meandering.
First song is unbearable. Gets better after that. But four total songs on a double album is silly. 2.0
i enjoyed some parts, but others were genuinely painful to listen to!
Soft Machine, Hard Work. (albeit slightly easier after the first track)
So ahead of their time and influential! They influenced the sound of the dial up modem
Sizzler salad of music
Very jazz heavy album with some psychedelics thrown in. I was jamming along to some parts of the songs but then they got a bit to strange for me. The instruments were great and then the singer started making strange sounds for a while before singing. I would have liked the album much more without the singing parts. Just the jazz sound would have gave it a higher score for me.
Je me considère comme un grand amateur de prog rock, mais là même ça j’ai eu de la misère à finir. Y’a des bons passages, mais il y a des moments où tu veux juste pitcher tes écouteurs, histoire de retrouver le doux silence de l’usine de pâte et papier
40min into the album after 2 songs was enough
If you like that sort of thing it’s the sort of thing you’d like. I have a pretty high tolerance for experimental bullshit. But Jesus is it intolerably long. It’s just jazz!!! Like I guess it’s rock because…there’s electric guitars? It’s jazz. And not particularly engaging or fun jazz at that
Jazz crap
I have no reference point for this at all…
There were moments when the jazz was working for me, but the unlistenable opening track, plus the vocals ruined it. Since I managed to enjoy some of it I will grant it 2 stars
Hmm
Förstår inte varför jazz måste låta gnissligt jämt.
Stuck between giving it a 1 or a 2. It gets a 2 but only because 1.5 isnt an option.
I do love the fact this album is very unique... And has a strong prog rock/avant-garde/jazz fusion taste. But I just think there are so many better versions of this genre out there than this album (for example, Chick Corea). This album lacked a general sense of cohesion, struggled to really pull me in, and was a little too much "out there".
It occasionally found a song
28/1001 - The weird intro was more fun than the large sections of jamming with mostly uninteresting solos. Singer is very British (gonna have to get use to that on this list). Last song was kinda cool but the intro was too long and then a random piano intro started and I realized there was 8 more minutes of the same song again!
A few minutes into the first track and I was ready to give this album a 1, but after making my way through it - solid 2. Will I ever rate an album a 1?! This was listenable, and a 1 IMO is not. Wandering, nonsensical jazz is not my thing. I'm itching for more structure and melody. The vocals don't add much at all here either, would possibly prefer just the music. Flute goes hard at times.
My CalArts friends love prog rock and experimental jazz. And I heard a lot of it when I spent my early LA years visiting them. So this is not uncharted territory for me. I can get into it at times and hate it others, but for me the vocals kill this record. I would've much preferred a purely instrumental effort from Soft Machine as Robert Wyatt voice sounds flat as a pancake most of the time.
Track 4 just about saved this album from falling into my one-star bin. I'm proud of my tenacity for listening through the whole gamut of weird noises interspersed with a few melodic interludes.
Albumi #139, 06.02.2025 Pienen tauon jälkeen taas kuuntelemaan 1001 albumia. Soft Machine-yhtyettä en ole kuullut aikaisemmin. Third on nimensä mukaan orkesterin kolmas albumi. Se on tupla-albumi jossa albumin jokaisella neljällä puolella on yksi noin 19 minuuttia kestävä kappale. Third on siirtymäteos yhtyeen aiemmin psykedeelisemmästä tyylistä enemmän jazzrockin ja progressiivisen rockin suuntaan.
Do you like jaaaaaaaz? How about industrial jaaaaaaaaz? Мне вот не особо
один нормальный трек, на 20 минут нахуй
Not really sure what the deal is here. Listenable but nothing particularly good. Will say the 2 side of a 2.5.
This is the second "Third" album I've generated(the first "Third" I had was twenty-fourth). Just like the first "Third", I was underwhelmed. On this one, the shortest song was 18 minutes, and 12 seconds long. This normally wouldn't bother me too much, but with repetitive instrument play, and scarce lyrics, it becomes boring very quickly(especially since this is one of the longest albums I've listened to in my life). For the third consecutive day, I have to give out a "2" rating. I'm tired, boss. Favorite Song: "Moon In June".
Not good just weird. I get the influence on psychedelic rock but I think others just did it way better after them
I regret ruining the start of a good Friday with this album. I mean, jazz and prog rock are already two genres that I struggle with...what did we think would happen if the two merged? This was truly just exhausting.
Was not available
It's too hard to listen to this kind of album: It screams historical importance, probably influencing many artists that I like, but it's so boring that I feel ashamed for listening to it. I can probably just read a music history book with the same effect.
Progressiv rock, 4 laaange numre, liveudgave, lidt psyk, lidt jazzet også
It's a bit *too* avant-garde sounding for my taste starting out, but it improved as it went on.
Never loved prog rock even in its heyday when you weren't cool at school if you didn't & it's aged poorly.
I really wanted to enjoy this but then they started singing and it all went downhill
Thank god it was only the A side, once again I have a hard time enjoying any full length album without lyrics.
Some was nice (I feel it's more of a live music type of listening), some felt was really annoying to listen to.
Absolutely no thank you
Very few regrets when it comes to my career in Houmous & Chutney. Devising and inventing Prog Rock is one of them. 1.7
Very tedious listen. I’m generally pretty open to prog, but this was meandering and each track being 18 minutes long made this a chore. Moon in June is the best track by virtue of there being some sense of direction due to the vocals.
Boring but the occasional good part, glad 20 minute songs died.
Idk seems a little experimental First track? Wait its getting better... Favorites: Moon in June The song is so long
Not my cup of tea
Turd.
Stor 2’er, ikke for mig men lyder imponerende
Jazz-rock progresivo. Se me ha hecho bola. Un 2.
Jazz rock, electronic, ambiental. Muy largo. Si no fuera por lo largo que es, le subiría la puntuación.
Masturbatory self indulgent tripe. Way too long and way too boring. As I reach the end of this, this kinda shit is just so uninteresting. It's just too. fucking. long. 1.5/5
When you get an album called Third right after a Big Star record, and that album is not Big Star's Third, it's going to be a disappointment. This was kinda cool when it was a bit of an abrasive sounds jam near the beginning. The more there were 'songs' and the more the synth played melody lines the worse it got. They do a bunch of work to make sure you're sick of this by the time anything good comes in again. music: hated. (⌐■_■)
Avant-garde, not my thing.
Just noises
Cuando leí Third pensé que era el disco de Portishead.
Uma experiência psicodélica que mais parece uma junção de várias trilhas sonoras. Se quiser viajar nos seus pensamentos, pode colocar isto para tocar. O pessoal nessa época estava bem louco!
If I dig deep enough into bands that influenced my favorite bands, I often come across the name Soft Machine. I have previously put on some of the tracks I found online, but nothing entirely grabbed me. Third appears to go into more of jazz direction than what I remember about them. After a slow experimental mood builder, we finally get glimpses of melodies and progressions about 6 minutes into the opening track. This approach demands alot of attention and buy-in from first-time listeners; as such, faith that the album would be any good almost relies solely on the quality of previous work and their reputation, which assumes someone is aware of that. In the end, endurance pays off. "Slightly All The Time" is more focused in execution, maintaining the jazz approach and changing the feel throughout the composition in order to stay interesting. It would sound more improvised if not for the doubling of the saxophone and flute lines; they are intentional and rehearsed, although they feel freeform since they don't really create and return to a musical theme. Usually the lack of a musical theme on instrumental pieces feels too sprawling, but there's an intelligence in the movements that keeps my interest. It changes often enough to explore different moods, but not too much to be frantic and aimless. "Moon in June" is the first time we hear a vocal: thin, pinched, soft, and vulnerable, and not unlike a more tentative Jerry Garcia. We also feature the guitar and organ more predominantly than on the previous songs. This one did feel sprawling to me. With a name like "Out-Bloody-Rageous" and with the crazy stuff they already threw at me, one would expect this track to be mind-blowing. Another sprawler. I bet this album would be great to see live, to be amongst the mass-hypnotized in that moment, collectively experiencing the weird together. And if it was recorded as a testament to and a document of the live experience, so be it. But there's really only one track that I would play at the house; though ambitious and obviously skilled, as an album, Third is generally too unfocused to keep me coming back for more.
Cool sounds but a little too abstract for me.
I ain't gonna listen to this whole thing. Not 1-star worthy, but f this
Wasnt that good. I like that it exists and it was mustve been pretty cool in the 70s, but I think a lot other bands since did this style better.
Experimental jazz fusion. Excellent musicians (except the occasional singing), but not my kind of music
Not for me.
As Dwayne Johnsson once said: "It's the biggest piece of dog shit that I've ever heard" The album is tiring and boring. No matter how technical and innovative the sound may be, if it doesn't create connections with the listener, none of it makes sense. I'm gonna leave 2 stars today.
Schizo music into And then he got... this run music into Slightly different than usual Robert Wyatt music into Electronic jazz music? I honestly don't know All in all, not the worst Third on this list, but not the best either
Progressive jazz rock. Or jazzy rock prog. Or prog rock jazz? No matter what you call it, it’s still a no from me, dawg.
Wow. First two tracks reminded me of a cart made from parts cobbled together from a Ford, a Tesla, a Chevy and a goat cart, powered by a team of cats and geese. Ready for the journey but no one had the slightest idea of where it was supposed to go
Saved by that second track which is pretty okay jazz. Everything else is overlong garbage I must say.
I get the concept but this was was trying to be too avant garde for me. At some point, it's a lot of noise.
Some tracks are really good. Some not so much.
Not for me.
Not my cup of tea
A bit too chaotic for me. I like a smoother jazz. I know what they were going for and it’s just not my thing
Das ist aber reichlich abgehoben. Jazz, kein Rock
Once you get past the first 5 minutes of the first song, it gets more interesting. But still way too long. I am grateful that the second disc is not on Spotify.
18 minutes for a song is always too much but If ur gonna make a long song atleast make it very good. This wasn’t that.
4/10 - It was sort of jazzy and rock like but worse in every way. The songs were way too long. The album was over an hour and there were only 4 songs. The one song with lyrics was so bad.
Really not good, avant garde
75 minutes. Four songs. This prog must cease. There was actually a few interesting bits in there, but I can't see me thinking 'oh I'd like to listen to minutes seven to nine of that terrible song by Soft Machine'.
The first song is an absolute trainwreck. The last few are better but just fine.
I'm tems of best albums, it's not third that's for sure
Glimpses of quite nice things in amongst a migraine of free jazz prog rock pain.
This wax fine to have on in the background but left do little impression I didn’t even notice when it finished.
I loved the first two Soft Machine albums. This one has always left be cold. I like experimental music, but this one is too disjointed for me. And I like jazz but this one eschews swing in favor of the herky-jerky.
Facelift - oh for fuck's sake. Slightly All The Time - dudes wanking with their instruments. Moon in June - heh, that was English they were singing?! Out-Boody-Rageous - MAYBE...I'd explore this on an insomnia night. all in all, this is NOT how I would have ever spent New Year's Day 1970.
Feels like I'm in a k hole with an aged wizard.
Het begin deed me de moed in de schoenen zinken, nog meer van die experimentele mutkuziek? Gepingel, slordige opnamen (met feedback), veel te lange tracks. Maar gaandeweg werd het iets beter, er werd ook nog een mopje bij gezongen, en al met al is het nog wel uit te zitten. Mijn cijfer was hoger geweest als ze de eerste track hadden weggelaten.
Jaja. Op dit album bewoog de groep weg van de psychedelische klanken. Wat moet het daarvoor dan wel niet geweest zijn? Okee, het volgende nummer is heel wat meer jazzy. Zouden er mensen nou zo'n studio nummer geluisterd hebben, gedacht hebben dat live te willen zien en dan vervolgens iets als het eerste nummer voor hun plaat hebben gekregen? Echt heel bijzonder wordt het tweede nummer in elk geval niet. En dan komt nog een groot vraagteken. Iemand laat af en toe horen dat hij prima snapt wat de toetsen kunnen, maar meestal klinkt het of een kind wat willekeurig indrukt. En de zanger laat af en toe horen dat hij best een aardig stemgeluid heeft, maar het grootste deel van het nummer klinkt er een heel luie zang. Het is bij elkaar zo raar dat het wat intrigeert. Maar een positieve score kan dat echt niet opleveren.
Soort jazz meets progrock. Muzikantenmuziek denk ik, want ondanks dat het ongetwijfeld best aardig in elkaar steekt, mis ik persoonlijk de liedjes en wat vaste melodieën. Het verzandt nu soms in een soort 70s Columbo of Miami Vice detective filmmuziek met een psychedelisch intermezzo waarbij je allerlei felle kleuren ziet die in elkaar over vloeien. Het voordeel aan dit soort muziek is dat we ons niet hoeven te storen aan een Britse zanger met een zeikende en zeurende kutstem. Al begint op het 3e nummer wel iemand een beetje er doorheen te jengelen, dat hadden ze beter achterwege kunnen laten. Ik vind het op zich allemaal niet superslecht ofzo, maar het is mij allemaal iets te vaag en wat te experimenteel. Niet mijn genre muziek. Verpak dit in liedjes van 3 tot 6 minuten en grotere kans dat ik er makkelijker voor open sta. Dit is me allemaal te moeilijk gedoe.
The fact they could do this live is impressive. The fact they did this is not.
It sounds like they don't know how to play the instruments - Ev
Gare jazz rock Had op zich wel zin in jazz maar dit is toch iets te veel van t goede
Jazz, prog, fusion, 20 minute long songs. Bits of the songs are fantastic, other parts blend into one another. Put on your wizard's hat and cape and get stoned while imagining you're going on a quest. Best Tracks: Slightly All the Time; Moon In June
Too much for me. After getting past the initial 5 min irritating noise feedback, the album was OK. Experimental electronica rock/jazz. Moments of it being good but moments of detracting singing and too much wandering.
Gets better after track 1. That's about all I can say really. Prog rock, it's not for everyone
Listening to this album felt like wading through wet cement. Every track just trudges along without any spark or payoff. There’s a sense that something interesting is about to happen, but it never really does. Instead of building momentum, the songs get lost in their own confusion. It tries for deep and experimental, but ends up feeling tedious and joyless. By the end, I was more relieved than anything else.
I felt like I was stuck in a jazzy funk K-hole I couldn’t escape and the disjointed rhythms and chaotic melodies left me feeling lost. I kept waiting for the songs to click, but instead, it was like I was wandering through a maze with no sense of direction. It was just too much for me. I couldn’t find any connection to the album.
First five minutes pissed me off but then it kinda redeemed itself. Not my fav genre but there is a sort of mind quieting effect. Actually update they lost me again
4 tracks and 75 minutes? This is a bad sign, isn't it? Track 1 is apparently live, but there is no clapping, so it's possible it's actually live. I fought with my ear buds for a long time thinking they weren't working but it turned out there just wasn't music for a long time, and I'm using the term music very loosely. There's like 5 and a half minutes of the sound of space whales crying before anything recognized on earth as a musical act takes place. Then there's some sort of space goose battle, I think I died for 9 minutes, though it's possible that either my brain was merely protecting itself or the space geese probed me in some way and I was temporarily beamed up to the mother ship. Anyway, when I came to, the song was mercifully ending. My ears hurt. Did they probe my ears? Maybe this is the best outcome for this journey. The next song is called "Slightly All the Time" which is how I would describe my tendency towards suicide while listening so far. This is much more like music. It's kind of a cool jazz at times, though it's entirely too goddamned long and is best described as the soundtrack of having explosive diarrhea and alternating between phases of having to stand perfectly still, walk briskly, run like hell, and finally release. "Moon in June." Oh good, they've introduced singing into the mix. Now my ears are definitely being probed. I fondly recall a time of space whales singing. I wonder if they were singing about their space whale version of wanting to be home and talking blandly about living through different instances of weather. If they were, they were doing it better than this. Holy space vacuum these lyrics are brutal. It's like stream of consciousness by someone with no consciousness. The latter parts of it is just awful ambient space trash with some sort of alien moaning peppered in. If this the sort of thing we created Space Force to combat, I'm suddenly much more invested in seeing them succeed. "Out-Bloody-Rageous" is more or less how I'd describe this being on the list. This song kind of starts off like a nice, ambient noise suitable for getting settled into a relaxing massage. And then the spacecraft from planet AuralTorture makes its approach. It does launch into some not totally unlikable jazz, so enjoy the few minutes of that before we reawaken to our massage and start the whole nightmare over again. They made this 8 times longer than it needed to be, and it's out-bloody-rageous. There was a moment at the end where I thought, "Wait a minute, this just got good. There is an actual melody and where has this been the last hour and a quarter of my life?" And then I realized the auto-play feature had moved on to Jethro Tull.
Yikes- the intro was very very rough, once the first track got to 8min in the song transformed. love the cover art. It started to grow on me a bit and I was able to get through the album.
Not my thing.
Whole lot of nothing
Ekat 5 minuuttia sai jo melkein skippaamaan koko levyn, mut onneks alkoikin ihan kuunneltava musiikki. Omaan makuun lian ”kokeellista” kuitenkin, joten pitkälle levy ei pötkinyt
Did not like
>Looks at track listing >Four songs >Looks at total album time >1hr15min Hahha okay man. Sure. Why not.
Mid
Due jazz di fila è un crimine😭 mi sento troppo superficiale ma che palle
i primi minuti della prima canzone sembrano fatti da Ross Geller in quell'episodio di Friends dove usa la tastiera per comporre canzoni usando suoni completamente a caso, tipo esplosioni o cani che abbaiano. stesso effetto. grazie al cielo poi migliora leggermente, ma comunque ne ho piene le balle di sto progressive rock un po' psichedelico, ho capito che ha fatto la storia, ma sinceramente, anche basta.
Admittedly probably wasn’t on enough drugs to enjoy this. I found this to be the musical equivalent of the drunk guy at the bar who won’t stop rambling and never arrives at the point.
I see where Budos band gets their inspiration from. Chill but meh
Favorite Track: Slightly All The Time
Avant garde trash again
I dunno. Maybe too noodly for me. At times it felt like it was just jazz, but other times it was just background and uninteresting.
Too much prog rock on this list
Call it what you'd like, post psychedelic rock, whatever, sub-genre as you please, this is jazz - I listened to the whole thing without opening a vein - close call.
Struggled with this. I thought Robert Wyatt was in Soft Machine (probably wrong!)
2.5/5
The only thing stopping this album from being a one is Slightly All The Time proving serviceable jazz.
Bonkers 'experimental' music. Rock's equivalent of Stockhausen. Strangely listenable but not enjoyable.
English prog rock group try to make an avant-garde jazz album to mixed results. It’s a very ambitious and impressive record that I just didn’t really enjoy listening to
The first song was just annoying. As if it was designed specifically to irritate me. The rest was a little better, but not enough (not even close) to win me over.
Well I certainly battled it but Third does have its moments. Yeah it's too long and most of it is a waste of my time but the last third of both Slightly All The Time and Moon In June build to something fairly enjoyable. I have a bit of a natural bias towards the saxophone and it's welcome here as a jazz element to otherwise probably forgettable prog, let's call it a 2 and get on with the day.
Didn't much care for this, to be honest. Long, meandering, prog with not a huge amount of excitement. Seemed to focus much more on the musicians enjoying themselves and showing off rather than making something that would appeal to the listener. 2/5.
About half of this album was decent and kind of interesting and half, not so much. Therefore, 2.5/5.
Usually I like prog rock but this is a bit much. Some of the lyrics are really corny and the guy's voice is pretty annoying
Not for me, anyone younger than genX, or anyone else who can count on one hand the number of times they’ve smoked weed. With that in mind, I will give props to these guys for being this musically fluid while surely being cooked out of their brains
This whole scene bores me. I doff my proverbial cap to those who created it so I can enjoy all my music since but I can’t be motivated to really listen. Happy to graze and have it on while I work or whatever but it’s a no thanks from me.
Ehhh
I may have spoken too soon when I accused Aqualung of being the lamest album I’d ever heard. Best song: Slightly All the Time
Really hard start. And then it got jazzy proggy silly, and I don't have headspace today for this.
Muita viagem, mas passa bem.
Favorite Track: Slightly All The Time
Didn't really understand what I was listening to here. Prog type jazz? I dunno but I didn't care and was well ready for it to be over
Just because it's weird doesn't mean it's good
A double album with only four songs 1 per side makes this album drag a little bit as each song is nearly 20 minutes long. I like prog im still not sure about jazzy prog I liked it but I feel like everything was too long and I found myself thinking of other things. Out-Bloody-Rageous was pretty great and a good closer.
Simply: it does not work for me
how dare you begin an album with this
I had no idea what to expect and as soon as I saw this was just 4 tracks, each around 19 minutes each, I knew it was time to strap in for some hippie proggy jams. Which is exactly what this was. It was fine for sure, but not really my jam, and overly long for sure.
Not for me ! Parts were interesting but it lost me. 2*
Eh.
Not for me
I was not a fan of this. I guess I didn't really understand it. I'm sure it was inventive, but it's just not for me.
Points for uniqueness, this puts the jazz in prog...or the prog in jazz...not sure which is more prominent but I read "rock band" and that's not what happened.
Not for me. Progressive experimental jazz. Too long but songs are very predictable once they start so nothing really surprising for me. I feel that being from 1970 it was sonething new and different for the time and imagine it created quite a buzz but for me Ive seen more like it and the beatles didnexperimenting at its best.
Þetta hafði allt til brunns að bera til að vera skemmtilegt en svo var þetta bara ekki skemmtilegt. Ég fílaði ekki tempóið í djassinum og svo voru aðeins of miklar tilraunir til að fíla á svona plötu. Ég hefði alveg örugglega fílað þetta í einhverjum jam-djassklúbb en ekki á plötu. Nei takk.
Not into it...
It's ok I guess. To be honest I had it on but it never forced its self to be anything other than background noise
What in the shit is this? Let’s go ahead and lie and say I listened to this all the way through and they’ll probably still let me into music heaven.
Not sure on this. Don't get me wrong, I quite like prog, but some of the jazzy bits get annoying.
Rock progresado
TBH, a lot of this jazz is indistinguishable from each other and, without a vocalist, Soft Machine are a bit more one dimensional than others
As everyone here, I loathed the intro of the first track and then eased into it. did not hate it but i don't think I'll ever listen to this again.
Well this 1¼ hour long album of four tracks came immediately after another 1¼ hour long album recorded by another "soft", and of the two I'd probably go for Soft Cell over this one. It starts badly with an overindulgence of cacophony. Yes, it does get better in a prog wankery kind of way, but ultimately it's a prog rock album. It is not an outstanding example of prog, and what does make it notable is the amount of just unpleasantness contained..
So hard for me! I don't give it a ⭐ out of respect and because it doesn't live up to my rap ratings.
This was a perfectly enjoyable album of instrumental music until the Moon in June track presented itself. Singing not a strong point, lyrics didn’t do it for me either. Knocked down a star for that one (which is 1/4 of a four track album).
Mostly noise to me but some decent sounds
A bunch of wankers wanking. The last tune (and I use this term loosely) was the best of the bunch. Maybe I should have hit the bong before listening.
Yuppers
I do not really get it. And that‘s not meant und a interesting way.
Not to be harsh but this was everything in an album I don’t really like. Extraordinary long with little to no singing and nothing to make up for the absence of voices. I see that it is influential but I just didn’t like it.
I mean I don’t hate this but I also have no desire to sit through it again
That first track is pretty cringe and is somewhere between acid jazz and noise. Moon in June is outstanding! Definitely an off the beaten track album that was not played for a currently existing audience but might have made a lot more sense in the psychedelic scene where it was birthed out in the shadow of Pink Floyd. Hey, these guys are still playing!
Improvisational jazz rock isn’t something that captures or commands my attention. So most of “Third” drifted into the background as it meandered along, only to jar me out of my stupor with elements that seemed more akin to space rock than the Hawkwind or Spiritualized albums we listened to the next week.
Best consumed while laying in the dark before bed. That’s a limiting listening scenario. It’s not all trash, being loosely formed prog/jazz rock and all, but it’s best when not paying attention.
Just kinda meanders. The moon june song has some lyrics, structure and ok soloing. Re: the opening track - it is interesing to see all these prog bands creating "innovative!" noise and 30 years before radiohead deconstructed rock and roll or whatever
Lite experimentellt, men det lät i alla fall inte som att de ströp en gås i 56 minuter.
Genuinely intriguing mishmash of rock and jazz.
Nah
Loud piercing nonsense at the beginning of this album almost made me turn it off. After that it was "listenable", but seemed to have no direction or purpose. I'm all for improvisational jams, psychedelic type music...but this was more like a science experiment gone bad vs a legitimate album....with just a pinch of potential, at times.
doing LSD seems terrible
The first song is an atrocious attack on the ears and the rest of the album is mediocre at best. Not a fan.
Overall listenable, but about 20 mon too long.
Endless and pointless, yet with some proper songs hidden, e.g., at the beginning of Moon in June.
Meh... ekki spennandi.
Babbity prog shite. Skipped track 2. Skipped track 3. Met by silence, relieved when I thought I'd lost track 4. Left it playing but left the room.
A lot of tune up in the front. I almost gave up. But I continued. Too much work for 2 stars.
Y'know, I don't hate Jazz, but oh my GOODNESS did each song have to be nearly 20 minutes long??? I can excuse 20 minute long songs if they're interesting, see Echoes - Pink Floyd, but there's nothing here that warrants that timeframe for me.
I'll be honest, I hated this. The only reason I gave it 2 stars is because I sort of enjoyed the "acid jazz" sounds that were interspersed between the other noise.
File this one under disappointment - totally judged this book by its' cover and wasn't at all what I expected. Even having read the bio I thought it was going to be one thing and it was something else entirely. I don't think it's a bad album per-se, but even had it been labelled differently I don't think I'm as into experimental jazz records as your average participant
Nothing special
Boring mess.
this was not for me. mostly instrumental (i think one song had lyrics). the songs just kind of meander seemingly endlessly. the album only has four songs, but… none of the songs are under 18 minutes long.
Why is jazzso weird man
I had to skip two songs