"Classic Rock Presents Prog" readers' all time best prog albums

Or, wait, no I didn't vote "The Lamb", I voted "Selling England" of course. The best ever album by anyone ever!

And "The Wake" does have its supporters on ILM. At least IQ do, unlike most neo proggers.

Its supporters = me and Pash, I think.

Most of these are terrible - I only like about, um, two and a half of these records. Agree with Magma, Eloy, Aphrodite's Child being much better. And while I don't really think of it as prog, Space Ritual absolutely kills everything else on this list, so that has to be my vote.

Opeth: Watershed

So is this the Opeth album of choice?

I'm happy enough to think of Hawkwind as prog, so voting Space Ritual was an easy choice.

I agree that the wrong Van Der Graaf Generator album is listed. I read the issue, fun stuff, though the articles are mostly too brief. I also did not realize proggies liked Muse. I always saw them as mere bombastic, poptastic Radiohead clones. I've heard all their albums and could never get into 'em.

None of these. Its the first Todd Rundgren's Utopia album. 'The Ikon' rocks.

have to give this magazine points for trying. barrel's drying out in terms of undiscovered garage/psych, kraut, and postpunk; prog might harbor the most remaining exciting finds. something tells me though that a magazine called classic rock presents prog, with a list like that (where's le orme?), isn't gonna end up being all that helpful of a lost treasures guide

Torn between the two Crimson albums

― ∅ us (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, July 17, 2009 2:05 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

if anyone votes for dream theater i am using suggest ban for the third time ever

Would have voted Still Life, am now probably edging towards Relayer. Surprisingly few albums I'd consider voting for. "Fear Of A Blank Planet" is probably inside my top 10 for god's sake

If ITCOTCK was all as good as Schizoid Man, it'd be out in front, but it's a great example of an album whose reputation basically hinges on the fact that it has four ok-to-very-good tracks and one stone-cold game-changing best-song-of-decade contender

Relayer for me. It's a tough call with CTTE and 2112 on there though.

Cannot decide between Red and Space Ritual. Wd possibly vote for pretty much any other VdGG album.

lol at my post being stereotypical proggish choices for people who don't like prog etc etc (partly true and partly the list's fault)

I *do* like Pawn Hearts a helluva lot, and may vote for it

have to give this magazine points for trying. barrel's drying out in terms of undiscovered garage/psych, kraut, and postpunk; prog might harbor the most remaining exciting finds. something tells me though that a magazine called classic rock presents prog, with a list like that (where's le orme?), isn't gonna end up being all that helpful of a lost treasures guide

Well yeah the trouble with old-school prog fans in the UK is they all seem to think Marillion are some kind of Year Zero band, hence the love for Magenta and loadsa other shitty neo-proggers no-one's ever heard of. No way could a festival like NEARFest happen in this country, which is a shame really as the time is probably right to make prog a bit more acceptable. A lot of the NME old-guard have given up on it now it seems (apart from the ones at The Wire), and I think a lot of younger music fans don't know or care about the punk vs prog thing.

the latter point is inarguably a good thing

Marillion are probably very terrible from what I've heard

There's an NME old guard?

Pawn Hearts is awesome.

I had a sudden surge of affectionate loyalty for Angel's Egg when it came to voting, but the clear-headed choice would have been Close To The Edge.

marillion sucks so that's too bad about the UK. i would've thought that Radiohead would've changed minds but i guess not. maybe things would be different over there if ground zero moved up to OK Computer and neo-prog started meaning like Ilk and United Bible Studies instead

where's Mansun - Six and Oceansize and Youthmovies amirite

no cheer accident no credibility!

Yeah I wanted to vote for Gentle Giant ;_;

― kind-hearted, sensitive keytar player (Abbott), Friday, 17 July 2009 09:41 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

also thanks to divers ilx0rz who convinced me to love Gates of Delirium, I chose Relayer. Going for the One is better imo but 25% less proggy.

also knock The Mars Volta all you like but they deserve representation here

AA was I not the most virulent persuader? :D

other ILXors in turn have opened my eyes to Awaken, for what it's worth

"gates of delirium" is awesome. relayer's almost as good close to the edge

xp Awaken is the only time Rick Wakeman will ever give you an orgasm.

That's what they told his wife, but still she married him

also even though i kinda do find queensryche loveable....i don't really think operation mindcrime is prog per se....

it's mostly just conventional 80s metal songs stitched together by a loose "narrative" and a lot of heavy political jive talk....just doesn't really feel prog to me even though queensryche always got billed as prog metal, they don't do any exploratory type instrumental sections, no real feel of any kind of questing type soloing thing (or conversely any real mind garden type psych sonic landscapes either)...i dunno...listen to it and tell me if you think different but to me being a really pretentious metal concept album does not prog make

i mean...i dunno...is "band on the run" a prog record? is ziggy stardust?

Morning sex was never her thing :(
xp

The Crim I would have voted for (Larks' Tongues) isn't on here, so fuckit, no vote.

Free Hand is my faves Gentle Giant album (tho of course Octopus has the best cover).

I voted for "Nursery Cryme", it wasn't a difficult choice, it's one of my favourite records ever in any genre.

Magenta & Spocks Beard GTFO, jesus! Terrible. Spock's beard I'm kind of convinced actually finished the genre off, and I do think it's a dead genre now. Certainly very little I've heard since they hit (cough) "big" has grabbed me in any way whatsoever. Spocks Beard are the prog oasis,and symph is prog's equiv. of post britpop/dadrock guitar sludge, I guess.

so geir loves it?

Also, Matt H is so so OTM about "Operation Mindcrime", actually most "prog-metal", Dream Theater and all their followers, it's just fancy athletic-achievement metal really, very little that's progressive about it to my ears.

So is this the Opeth album of choice?

Apparently the least metal one, at least according to the article in the mag.

prog might harbor the most remaining exciting finds. something tells me though that a magazine called classic rock presents prog, with a list like that (where's le orme?), isn't gonna end up being all that helpful of a lost treasures guide

This is the furrow that's already been plowed over and over, man. Going back to the days of loads of CD reissues, through to over-entitled mp3 bloggers begging for praise for the shit they "discover" and "share", ppl have been doing the crate-digging thing for a long, long tim w/progressive music. I heard many, many micro-releases when I worked at the used rekkird store and in retrospect there wasn't a lot to hold the interest, long term. Lots of rare releases w/one good bit and a shitload of filler. enough ones without even that.

So is this the Opeth album of choice?

Add me. I love IQ, although I might actually like their post reunion stuff from the mid 90s onwards better than the somewhat too "new wave-ey" 80s stuff.

Also, Matt H is so so OTM about "Operation Mindcrime", actually most "prog-metal", Dream Theater and all their followers, it's just fancy athletic-achievement metal really, very little that's progressive about it to my ears.

Agree about "Operation Mindcrime", and possibly a lot of Dream Theater (the Dream Theater track in the "Prognosis" CD coming with the Prog mag sounded too me like 90s Metallica, although at their best and catchiest). But early Dream Theater definitely had some moments where you can hear the prog elements in their music. Even including a couple of really complex 20 minute suites.

pashmina, not to be argumentative, but wake me up next time a lost prog band outside of mp3 bloggers and micro-collector circles gets this kind of treatment http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5124
you see it almost every day with psych, garage, post-punk, what have you, never with prog rock bands. could be that prog rock just is inherently no good, some might say, but that's pretty unlikely

You know, what prog needs for the revival (because there is a revival) to really get the attention of the media is for one new prog band to be really huge. And that band has to be obviously prog, not metal (see Dream Theater, Opeth) or indie (see Radiohead, Muse).

I guess the closest contender out of today's crop would be Porcupine Tree, who sell more copies each time around, and are constantly extending their fanbase.

I tried to listen to that last Porcupine Tree album, but jesus christ those lyrics about playstations and disaffected teenagers were worse than a fuxxxoring Korn song.

i don't really care if there's a revival or not, but the media blackout since the late 70s or early 80s or whenever is really fucking boring. i get the point already that rock critics want readers to think they're too hardboiled or whatever to admit they listen to yes, but what i don't get is how come the prevailing fetish for obscurity completely ignores 70s prog rock bands from sweden or finland or wherever that no one's ever heard of. wouldn't mind being tipped to some of those every now and then alongside reviews of like the latest arthur russell or j-dilla unearthing

I tried to listen to that last Porcupine Tree album, but jesus christ those lyrics about playstations and disaffected teenagers were worse than a fuxxxoring Korn song.

One of the plusses of bands that use made up languages ...

btw I wasn't kidding about Cheer Accident, they are a band i think lots more ppl would love if there weren't relegated to the weirdo midwest skronk rock skin graft records ghetto...they are TOTES prog and very unique and distinctive

Cheer Accident is great ... that other prog Skin Graft band with the long name that there's no way I'm gonna spell right without looking up is pretty awesome, too. Actually, I like a lot of Skin Graft bands ...

I guess I must be out of date. Such items did exist though - I do remember a whole bunch of these replica vinyl reissues, in some cases quite perfect copies of the original issues of such items as....er....that goddam awful thing w/Bill Nelson playing a solo on it that used to go for shitloads of cash & probably still does (googles) Holyground! that's it, terrible, there was a whole slew of such items at the end of the eighties? Replicas of Vertigo Swirl albums, private pressings, T2's "It'll all work out in Boomland", Bachdenkel (who I remember were actually pretty decent in parts), Eloy's very first album, every inch of recording tape from out of Tony Hill's cupboard and so on. We used to order 5 or 6 of each one from a dutch distrib, and sell them to obsessive prog crate digger guys who would never even ask to hear them (probably never played 'em either). Longer ago than I thought I guess. A lot of it came out of Germany IIRC. there was usually an accompanying CD re, which I'd usually buy, I still have the Holyground one for some reason.

I can imagine ppl picking up on the more obscure '80s neo recs, Galahad's releases, early 12th Night cassettes and so on, if they don't already. The whole prog crate-digging scene in the late '80's was always more abt rarity/"look what I found" that the actual music, probably hasn't changed much. Do you remember Ptolemaic Terrascope mhen it first started? They were all over that whole prog rarity thing, I remember them selling reissues of Tangle Edge's album, praising the thing because it was a ltd edn, not mentioning the music so much, except to slag on IQ, Pendragon etc b/c their shit, not being ltd edn, would not have some specious cash value attached once it sold out! Of course I bought the bloody thing, and it wasn't all that (though their 2nd was much better I thoght)

blablabla enough drunken ramblings

It is the typical fan favourite

Not really, ask most long-term Genesis fans which one they like best and it'll be Trick of the Tail or Wind and Wuthering.

Only those who like 80s Genesis. Hardcore Genesis fans prefer Peter Gabriel.

(And not one negative word about those two albums - they are great, but the Peter ones are mostly even better)

Only those who like 80s Genesis. Hardcore Genesis fans prefer Peter Gabriel.

Trick Of The Tail is by far my fave Genesis album. I love that album to death. and i have no time at all for 80's genesis. well, i don't hate 80's genesis, i like some of abacab and duke a lot, but i don't listen to it.

and wind & wuthering is probably my 2nd favorite! hmm, maybe i'm a peter gabriel hater after all.

also: Trespass has to be one of my LEAST favorite prog albums. by any band. ugh.

Only those who like 80s Genesis. Hardcore Genesis fans prefer Peter Gabriel.

If I was ever going to get drunk with power and abuse mod privileges, I would probably delete all of your posts where you made claims about anyone's likes and dislikes other than your own. It would probably take a month.

You know, Yes "Relayer" sounding better and better as years go by. I'm surprised there's no dedicated thread...

I read this whole thread after searching for Gnidrolog. The most bizarre assertion herein is that Eloy is better than anybody, I've heard three of their records and they're laughable.

Have you heard the concept album where some stoner travels back to the Middle Ages in a time machine and teaches a princess how to smoke weed?

I skipped that one, I'm sure THAT's going to be the album to convince me they're awesome, ha ha.

Pawn Hearts getting 10x the votes as Dark Side of the Moon warms my heart on this cold spring day

I wonder if we reran this exact pill whether ILM would get it so gloriously correct a second time

Don't understand who would pick Moonmadness as the best of this batch. The Snow Goose is quite nice but the albums where they write lyrics and sing them are not.

Will Romano's book Mountains Come Out of the Sky lists Moonmadness as the 5th best/most important prog album, but I thought his love of Camel was a personal peculiarity, not a trend.

Camel a big favourite for White Van Man Prog along with Yes and ELP. Must be the stoner feel to it.

They're apparently a big influence on neo-prog bands, maybe it's the straightforwardness that they find easier to emulate than the more arcane or complex stuff.

Bingo