Customer Reviews

Pleasure & The Pain

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

...but I find this album one of the best Saga has done after Heads & Tails. Even better than House of Cards & Trust just to talk about their mos recent "good" ones.

I always knew they had it in them ever since I saw 'Don't Be Late' on MTV in its first year. They have kept the power toned down in the past, gave you a glimpse on 'Generation 13', and really let it out on this one. Yes, it's different than their previous work, but that's the definition of a progressive band. It's not enough to unseat my favorite Saga release, but it gets better every time I play it. Give it a try, it will grow on you and the underlying Saga 'style' is there. I can't wait to here the next one. Look out Dream Theatre!

Despite their marvellous musical skills and unique rythmn section among prog rock bands, Saga's LPs or CDs have often suffered of poor production (except Rupert Hine's ones). The prod here is maybe their worst. In spite of that, Pleasure and Pain songs remain musically strong and interesting, with european techno indus and noisy rock influences, bringing this album a particular savour.
All in all a Saga crap still remains high above 90% of common rock production, so 4 stars!

Don't be fooled by the slick cover art, this record is by far the worst record SAGA has done. IT is very hard to listen to. An awful cover of "Taxman" gimme a break! A terrible re-recorded version of "You're not Alone" WHY!? Hideous German techno on "Where's my Money." Sloppy drumming on the title song-where'd Steve Negus go?! I would've left too! The best song here is "Gonna Give it to Ya" which is how the whole record should sound based on their direction up to this point. The rest sounds contrived and tired, however, "Heaven can Wait" and "Welcome to the Zoo" are ok. Overall, I can't believe this is the same band that relased gems such as "Behaviour," "World's Apart" and "Silent Knight" I love SAGA and feel bad writing this review, but unfortunately, this is well deserved. Skip this and get their earlier remasters which are ESSENTIAL!!

I'm surprised by how some (alleged) Saga fans attack this album. For a long time I believed those opinions, and avoided getting and listening to this album. But you know what? It's actually very good! I'm glad I took a chance and believed in the band, instead of listening to the naysayers and cynics. I thought Saga fans were smarter than that.

One of the greatest aspects of this album is the big sound, especially the HUGE drums! No Saga album sounds better. I'm old-school when it comes to production, and don't like the modern, over-processed, over-done mixing. But this sounds natural and uncolored. Just pure, high-quality recording (must be digital). It should be listened to loud, for full effect!

The CD booklet is a bit weak. There are photos, including some heavy-duty mullet shots of Jim Crichton and band, but they are a bit pointless. Unfortunately, lyrics aren't included. But hey, it's the music that really counts. And this album follows nicely after Generation 13.
Here's a breakdown of the songs:

Heaven Can Wait - Strong opening track, with memorable melody (4/5)

How Do You Feel? - Another strong, heavy song. In the mold of Generation 13 songs (5/5)

Welcome to the Zoo - A more average track, though still strong with a big sound (3/5)

Where's My Money? - Entering the weaker area of the album. A stupid and pointless song, with a dumb hip-hop drum machine type beat, and repeated shouts of "where's my money?" Very un-Saga. The only track to skip (1/5).

You're Not Alone - A remake of their earlier classic. A nice big modern sound, and nice change. Most fans will still probably prefer the original (3/5)

Taxman - A good and Saga-ish remake of the Beatles hit song. Kind of reminds me of
Pitchman. Unclear why they included this, but it's not bad (3/5).

You Were Made For Me - Back to the stronger songs. Sounds like Jim Gilmour on lead vocals. Heavy riffing by Ian Crichton. Good song (4/5)

Gonna Give it To Ya - Starts off with sort of a dance beat (maybe with drum sequencing), but then improves. Gets much better half-way though, with cool traditional Saga melodies, which save the song in the end (4/5)

Fantastically Wrong - Heavy, with somewhat of a repeated chant in the verse. Switches to a cool, quieter darker guitar melody, for a nice change and variety, then back to the heavier verse. Cool heavy middle part with big drums, guitar, and keys (5/5)

Pleasure and the Pain - Basically a remake of the beginning melody in "No Stranger" (from Worlds Apart). Features a Ian on acoustic Classical guitar and Jim Gilmour singing. There are other changes too that make it interesting and special. Somewhat reminiscent of Gentle Giant's "His Last Voyage" (5/5).

Welcome to the Zoo (live) - Sort of unnecessary bonus track (3/5)

It's hard to tell what was going on with the band at that time, and they may have been rushed into recording it with less material than normal. But other than the weaker middle area of the album, and the lack of lyrics, this really is a good album. Every Saga fan needs this in his/her collection. Otherwise, key Saga material will be missing. The awesome production and sound are worth the price alone. Get it, or be kicked!

When I discovered Saga a few years ago, it was at the tail end of slogging through a number of prog bands, almost all of which I found to be overrated and disappointing compared to Marillion, Dream Theater and the better Rush periods. I bought Worlds Apart and Heads or Tales first, and was immediately and completely sold on this band. That has happened to me maybe five times in my life.

At the time, though, prog music was still hard to find and I was only able to promptly get The Security of Illusion. I found that album to be louder and less of a thrill than the others, but it grew on me, and I was ready for more. Then I came across Pleasure & the Pain. I put this CD in and my immediate thought was that this must be a different band coincidentally named Saga. I loathed every song, and couldn't believe it was the same guys. If this was our Saga, it had to be an attempt to pander to modern (at the time) audiences, and as such I hated it as much as I'd hate any of the genre that's being imitated (can't define said genre exactly, as I avoid it). I listened to it all the way through once, and then forced myself to listen to it again the next day before literally throwing it into the trash. The only other album I've treated the same way was Rush's Counterparts, and that didn't even warrant a second listen. Well, Roll the Bones was close...

This experience turned me off of buying any more Saga albums for several years. Fortunately, when Amazon started carrying a lot of prog, I came across and bought a couple of Saga's other albums, before and after the P&P release date. It seems like this album is an anomoly, because every other Saga album I've heard (not yet all of them) features loads of their reliable catchy, complex-riffed, multiple-instrument melodies. Sadly, though, this album cost me a lot of good Saga-listening years, and I wish it would just go away.

I have loved or at least liked every other Saga album I've gotten, and that's more than I can say for any of my other favorite bands, even the handful who--at their best--I like better than Saga. I don't even try new releases by Rush or Marillion anymore...but anything by Saga, no matter what year it was recorded, is on my list. Except this.

While I still respect this band after all these years. I have to say that this is not one of their strongest releases. There's more pain here than pleasure. Each song is straight forward. What you hear is what you get. Meaning, you don't get anything that's typical Saga. None of the dueling guitar/keyboard speed melodies here. If you're looking for that, you'll have to look towards earlier releases (Worlds Apart, Heads or Tales, Generation 13) or later releases (House of Cards).

This is a pretty straight forward rock CD. There's not much in the way of Saga progressivism on this CD. Although, on Gonna Give It To Ya, they try some Yes-ish type progressive music. As another poster said, it sounded too much like other bands and not enough like Saga. Considering the quality of the previous release, Generation 13, I'm sure Saga wanted to take a break and do something less intense and structured. This appears to be the result of that break. Later albums past this one, Saga gets back to their roots much more, yet with a more updated and raw sound.

All in all, this album is worth listening to if you are an avid Saga buff. But, I recommend that if you are new to Saga, you should check out Worlds Apart, Heads or Tales, House of Cards, Marathon or even Generation 13 (as depressing a story as it is) before this release to hear the best of Saga musically and get a feel for their real style. Overall, I gave this three stars simply because they diverted way too much away from their roots. They didn't even throw any old Saga on even one of the songs just to give us a bone.

First of all this cd suffers from bad production. Some of the songs on here are good, but like welcome to the zoo( on this cd) it comes off better live. The best song on here is gonna give to ya which is a really excellent song..the only one here well produced. Heaven can wait is very good but once again comes off better live. You were made for me is good but suffers from poor production. For example, take give my money..which is good musically but has really annoying voices shouting where's my money in it

Wrong time/wrong direction/bad sound quality/rotten drummer, need I say more?

I admit that I was only able to listened to this disk once and I was unable to get no.10 to play as the disk must have been defective, but after going thru the disk once,that was all that I wanted to hear of this C.D. All in all I was not impressed by this C.D. As a fan of Saga from way back, I found them trying too hard to be a genre of music far inferior to their own quality of great music, and that is being a 90's alternative sounding band.The guitars all have that far to familiar uninspiring dry bland sound that bands like Korn or Ministry have come to use, and the annoying minor chords used by Rob Zombie or Alice in Chains reveal the obvious direction they took on this disk.Only no.8 was a song that resembled any form of their true brilliance with key boards actually being a major part of the music. This disk is great if you like the grunge sounding guitars and minor progressions chords of the 90's, however if you're a fan that wants to hear that classic sound of Saga, you just might be disapointed.