I will say this: the notion that "people don't have time" or "people don't appreciate" is sort of a copout. I think the people here, for example, put in the work, and yet even here, it's a polarizing piece.
I've "put in the work" on records like The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway and Tales From Topographic Oceans, and just this morning I was thinking that my three most favorite records over the last couple years are Innocence And Danger, Senjutsu, and Weltschmerz, all dense, deep double records. Not fantastical concepts, I grant you, but still heavy pieces of work. And yet... I'm still looking for the key to unlocking The Astonishing for myself.
There’s nothing to unlock. It’s as “on the nose” as you can get. People either like it or don’t. The thing for me is that I have respect for what they attempted. And when I listen to it, I think “this isn’t that bad”. But I never want to listen to it. And there really aren’t any single songs where I think “this is just awesome”. And I know people will say “it’s meant to be taken as one whole piece”. I realize that, but if I have to listen to a whole 2.5 hours of music to get anything from it, then I’m out. I like songs. SFAM has great songs. Mindcrime has great songs. Snow has great songs. Also, I have a job, a wife, and four kids. I totally understand when people say they don’t have time for it
Yeah, I didn't mean the literal story, I meant what you said after about finding the songs that resonate. I THINK I know parts of the story to TLLDOB, but it really didn't "unlock" for me until I could identify with certain songs - In The Cage, Lilywhite Lilith, all the little solo spots for Tony that later came up on the 3SL medley - that I could enjoy on their own independent of the story.
I saw an interview with Dominic Miller and Rick Beato, and Rick asked him: what's better: crap lyrics and a good melody, or great lyrics and no melody, and Dominic took the latter. Working for Sting, I guess I get it, but I'm the former, with only a few exceptions either way. I can't, right now, sing you one melody line from The Astonishing. Not saying they aren't there, just saying
I haven't connected with them yet.
I'm not at all bagging on the work; it's an epic creation, no doubt. But music is personal, and it either resonates or it doesn't, and I don't (usually) force it. I don't need people drawing conclusions about my attention span or anything else simply because there is no visceral - that is to say, no UNCONSCIOUS - connection with a particular work. Some things have no answer.