Ranking 'The Epics'

[Blackbird]

It's actually not that easy to decide which songs qualify as epics. To me it's a mixture of length and atmosphere, i.e. those songs need to have this "special" feeling about them that makes them stand out from the typical AB songs, which does NOT necessarily mean that they're better. They're just different.

A few examples: I absolutely adore Lover and think it's a very special song that doesn't really match anything AB have done before, but it's not an epic in my books. I'm heavily on the fence for New Way to Live, it's one of AB's best songs of all time to me, over 5:30 AND fits the atmosphere criteria. Since Words is an epic without a shadow of a doubt, I'll include NWTL. Similar reasoning for Dying Light (even though I don't adore it as I do adore NWTL) and Cradle to the Grave. Calm the Fire, for example, definitely doesn't make the list because it's too standard AB after the intro (totally agreeing with maximzub here). Sin After Sin is WAY too monotonous and doesn't have any real highlights. Hard pass. Show Me a Sign on the other hand definitely makes the list for me.

Anyway, here's my order:

1 - Blackbird
2 - Words Darker Than Their Wings
3 - Fable of the Silent Son (may exchange places with Words, not sure about it)
4 - New Way to Live
5 - Show Me a Sign
6 - Cry of Achilles
7 - Burn it Down
8 - Fortress
9 - Cradle to the Grave
10 - Dying Light
11 - This Side of Fate
12 - Pawns and Kings
13 - The Last Hero

End of the list gets kinda blurry, not really sure whether I like P&K more than TLH or Dying Light more than TSOF.

[Thomz87]

Just my two cents:

Blackbird
Cry of Achilles

Fortress
Fable of the Silent Son
Pawns & Kings
Words Darker Than Their Wings
The Last Hero
Dying Light

Cradle to the Grave
This Side of Fate

[Silvercreed]

He makes an interesting analysis about the epics

[maximzub]

He makes an interesting analysis about the epics

He also included "The Lick" in the thumbnail. Legendary.

[Mr. Slash]

He makes an interesting analysis about the epics

He also included "The Lick" in the thumbnail. Legendary.

Now the question is, how often do we encounter "The Lick" while listening to AB? I never paid attention to it but maybe they used it in some of their songs?

[Silvercreed]

Excuse my ignorance, but what is "the lick"?

[Dolo]

The Lick is a lick, or stock musical phrase that has been used on numerous jazz and pop records and is part of several classical compositions, to the point that it has been described as "the most famous jazz cliché ever". In recent years, it has become an internet meme and is sometimes used for comedic effect.

The internet works most of the time.

[Silvercreed]

Oh ok thanks. I thought there was a special story about it.

[Timotheus]

That was a pretty interesting video. That's the perfect amount of overanalysing

I don't really agree with all the songs all the songs he put in the 'compound epic' category. Show Me A Leader doesn't belong in the same category as Fable of the Silent Son in my opinion. Sure, it's got a different sounding intro, but aside from that it's a regular pop song. I'd maybe split that category up in 'chaotic compound' and 'simple compound'.

But aside from that, really cool!

[cheesedip1]

Fable was great on the first 1-3 listens but after that the wonder died out.

Still a great song tho. Just not mindblowing.