Best progressive rock album side
My intent is to seek albums which I may not own from the recommendations of you all. I ranked best sides of progressive rock albums on vinyl that I own and came up with the following list. I don't want it to undermine anything else that an artist has created. I love it all but as far as start to finish on one side this is what I came up with.
#1: Supper's Ready
#2: Terrapin Station
#3: Atom Heart Mother
#4 The Court of the King Crimson
#5 Echoes
Of course there are many more. Some may not be complete sides like Atom Heart Mother but the intent of the artisan was to make it a complete side. I had a very hard time deciding between #1 and #2. Both are very worthy in my mind.
What a great topic! Plenty of forgotten albums I’ll have to rediscover on Tidal tonight. Aside from what’s offered I’d suggest A Salty Dog by Procol Harum. Though there’s not a single long composition, there are plenty of the other characteristics that make it prog-worthy. -- What other song has seagulls??
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cincyjim86 posts Uriah Heep Look At Your Self Pink Floyd Meddle Led Zeppelin III Yes Fragile Black Sabbath paranoid
Led Zeppelin & Black Sabbath are "progressive rock"? I did not know that. |
@mapman - should be a new P.T. album coming out very soon; have you read Steven Wilson's autobiography yet? Excellent read! |
OP by @ricmci "My intent is to seek albums which I may not own from the recommendations of you all." So many great prog albums already listed, here are some that I really enjoy and may be obscure to some. @ricmci, hopefully I've introduced you (and others) to some new prog that you will enjoy. Links included. Experimental Post Metal Crossover Prog Steven Wilson - The Raven That Refused to Sing (and Other Stories) The Pineapple Thief - 8 Years Later Atmospheric doom metal/post-rock Finnish Folk Prog (I believe?) Ambient/Prog/Classical |
I’m no guru of prog, I lived through the original classical formalism and have the UK early pressings of ELP, Crimson, Yes, etc. But I tapped into "prog guru" Ken Golden who helped broaden my horizons, with good King Records reissues from Japan of some of the "important" Italian prog, and other things I found along the way (an Italian Polydor of DeDeLind, which sounds like Fado music meets Deep Purple). Among them, an interesting obscurity out of Denmark, circa 1971, called Blast Furnace (band name and album title). An OG pressing will be spendy but it was reissued w/in the last five years- worth seeking out. I also very much like both Cressida albums on Vertigo Swirl, from the period. Those will be spendy. I opted for a German pressing of Asylum, have the UK of the first album. There are certainly different categories of prog, including pretty deep offshoots. I really liked Ollie Halsall’s vibraphone-like touch to the guitar on the first two Patto albums (the US copy of the first record is more bombastic than the UK Swirl and far cheaper)- on their second, I’d say you need to look outside of the US for copies from elsewhere.
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I’m not sure how "progressive rock" is defined.
1). If it includes "psychedelic folk-rock", I suggest "On the Shore" by Trees.
2). I’m pleased to see "In the land of Grey and Pink" by Caravan appear on the list. I haven’t thought of that album since the underground radio station days of the late 1960s (where I was delighted to listen to it in the studios of Phoenix’s KDKB/KCAC under auspicious circumstances many times).
3). If "progressive rock" extends to early Mothers, I’d add "We’re Only in it for the Money" or "Uncle Meat".
4). Maybe the term can be stretched to cover "It’s a Beautiful Day" side 2.
5). Finally, I would be absolutely remiss to overlook "Balaclava" by Pearls Before Swine". It may be the pinnacle of progressive rock as I understand the term.
Anyway, very interesting discussion and thanks for starting it!
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@kacomess - somebody else who knows 'Pearls Before Swine'! I don't think I'd call them prog as much as Tom Rapp seemed more like the more surrealistic Dylan stuff. Their first album, 'One Nation Underground', is also excellent... I'm a big fan of Caravan and the whole Canterbury scene as well... Actually got to see them in Berkeley in the late 70's.... Zappa's early stuff on Verve is by far my favorite of his... |
I know it's a digression, but since you mentioned Zappa/Verve, the unnerving prescience of "Trouble Coming Every Day" on "Freak Out" keeps coming to mind. I saw the original Mothers line-up play at the Phoenix Star Theater shortly after "Freak Out" was released. A memorable show (almost on par with Capt. Beefheart at the "Fox West Coast Theater" (an abandoned cinema taken over as a concert venue) in Long Beach, CA circa 1972 where The Magic Band performed with "It's a Beautiful Day" |
Enough with the naysayers. The more music one listens to, the more one realizes there is great music in all genres from all periods of time. You have to be curious and seek it out with an open mind. Only close-mindedness would generalize quality of musicians based on genre. Absurd to say such things. That said, when recording quality comes into play some music is unfortunately simply unlistenable on a revealing system. It’s like people saying this tweak or that component must be overpriced and not be worth the money (or provide great sound quality) when they haven’t even hooked it up to their own system and listened. At the end of the day this hobby and the love of music or a passion. If you don’t have the passion and a desire to enjoy the journey find another hobby! |
From the Sage of Houston, Billy Gibbons: Brian Eno and Robert Fripp's foray into some artful excursions into some ethereal electric experiments. There was a lot curious activities emerging in London, Amsterdam, and Berlin back then developing some fiercely fuzzy of synth-like effects way outside the norm which really blew the lid off things |
@morguldrelb - I got to see Camel play 3 nights in a row, 2 shows per night, at the Boarding House in San Francisco when they were touring on 'Moonmadness'. Beautiful music, they put out..... |
There's a lot of classic Prog-Rock listed, so here's my list of some lesser unknown favorite modern Prog-Rock albums. Cyan - For King and Country Southern Empire - both self-titled and Civilisations. Kino - Pictures Frost - Milliontown Lifesigns - Altitude The Neal Morse Band - The Great Experiment Sound Of Contact - Dimensionaut (Simon Collins and Phil Collins) Moonrise - The lights Of A Distance Bay
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I'm a little surprised that McDonald & Giles hasn't shown up yet as King Crimson has been mentioned several times. Hard to pick a side as it is a complete piece. Other selections... Nice/Ars Longa Vita Brevis Jethro Tull/Thick as a Brick Moody Blues/A Question of Balance Nektar/Remember the Future Emerson, Lake and Palmer/Tarkus Frank Zappa/Hot Rats |
Wow, great thread with a lot of great contributions. Thanks! A handful of my favorites that haven’t been mentioned yet:
Safety in Numbers (Side 1) Hand Cannot Erase (whole thing) Sonder (whole thing) Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Side 1) Teaser (whole thing) On Letting Go (side one I guess) Handmade Cities (side one I suppose) Incatare (whole thing) Spirit of Eden (Side 1) Amused to Death (in whole, and how has this not been mentioned!?) The Geese & The Ghost (whole deal) Blind Dog At St. Dunstans (side 2) Seeds of Change (whole thing Bundles (whole thing) love it Thanks
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Yes, great thread, thanks to all. +1 Samla mammas manna. For early swedish prog, check out also, Hansson och Karlsson. Nationalteatern. Hoola Bandoola band. Part-prog, at least. The best prog band in the 70s in the Nordic region was perhaps Wigwam. Their album Being is quite unique, and their later albums are interesting too. |
Another worthy European (Netherland) contender: Golden Earring: Eight Miles High. Maybe Procol Harum, on Home, isn't quite prog. Like many bands they tried to sell records - become more commercial. But often, it did not hurt. Same thing with Steppenwolf. On their 7 album, tracks like Renegade and Hippo stomp carry their bluesrock into prog territorry. Not much recognized, in the prog camp. And - Yes: close to the edge rewards a new listen - but this british side of the prog story is only some of it. And somewhat tiring, now, to my ears. |
So, I am going to be 'that guy', and bring up the "what is prog" discussion. For me, prog, is not a style of music (it's barely a genre), in the same way country, blues, punk, etc are. Prog has more to do with the structure of the music, than any sort of surface veneer and style the music may have. One could play just a few example songs of the above genres (country, punk, blues), and get a pretty good idea about how the majority of the rest of the genre sounds. Sure, there are differences between interpretations, but at their core, they have their attributes that define them. Blues for example, has to be in minor pentatonic scales, or it is no longer blues. But what could someone nail down about how prog sounds, by playing something from: Yes, Gentle Giant, National Health, Magma, Univers Zero, Can, Area, Pain of Salvation, Anglagard, Samla Mammas Manna, Bruford, Gong, Il Balletto di Bronzo, Henry Cow, etc? These bands, literally sound almost nothing like each other. The thing that defines all the above bands as prog, for me, are all or most of the following attributes, in no particular order: a very high level of musicianship, complexity (chord progressions, time signatures, arrangements, syncopation, etc), deep and broad levels of emotional content, (sometimes) long format pieces, nonstandard song format, avoidance of verse>chorus>bridge song format, avoidance of catchy hooks, influences from disparate types of music (classical, jazz, folk, Eastern), sometimes use of dissonance. There is no specific sound a band has to have to be prog, but there are certain other attributes (those above), a band has to have to be prog. For example, the modern technical-metal bands, Cynic, Tesseract, The Contortionist, sound almost nothing like prog bands from the 70's, but they are certainly prog. Ridiculously high level of musicianship, very complex, very emotional, nonstandard song formats, jazz-fusion influences, are all there.
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Wow, this thread turned out way better than I expected it to. Some great recommendations to search for. I much more enjoy searching in record stores than ordering on line. Many mentioned, I already have. I think of those listed that I don't have, I am going to start looking for Renaissance, Porcupine Tree, The Pineapple Thief, Godley & Creme, and the Marilyn Manson suggestions. They might be obtainable locally. Thanks again for the great posts. |
Please do yourself a favor, and DON’T ignore the Italian bands! Some of the best prog ever, came from (and still does) Italy. PFM - Storia di un Minuto, Per un Amico, and L’isola di niente are as good musically as any of the better known Brits. Same with, Banco del Mutuo Soccorso - S/T, Darwin!, Io Sono Nato Libero Plenty of others are right up there, too. Il Balletto di Bronzo - YS / This is considered an acquired taste, due to being a bit dark and intense, but it is also brilliant. With a keyboardist as good as any of the Brits. Museo Rosenbach - Zarathustra Arti e Mestieri - Tilt / This is an incredible album, that kind of straddles the line between beautiful prog and fusion. Le Orme - Uomo do Pezza, and Felona e Sorona As much as I like Porcupine Tree and Pineapple Thief, for my tastes, they are a bit ’watered down’, maybe a bit too close to the mainstream for my tastes. I like Steve Wilson’s first 3 albums (Grace for Drowning, The Raven That Refused to Sing, Hand Cannot Erase) better then any Porcupine Tree albums. For modern bands, check out: Riverside (Poland) All Traps on Earth (Sweden) Only 1 album, but it’s pretty amazing. Echolyn (USA) I like their earlier stuff (Suffocating the Bloom, As The World) than their later stuff. Great complex vocal harmonies, quite complex, world class musicianship. After Crying (Hungary) Kind of chamber-prog sort of stuff, with amazing melodies and musicianship. Anglagard (Sweden) Uncompromising, full on prog, with some Genesis, Gentle Giant and King Crimson influence. Quite complex, lots of dynamic contrasts, lots of changes. Despite the 70’s influences, they make it sound fresh. This is the band most often credited with beginning the 2nd golden age of prog, beginning in the early 90's. Anekdoten (Sweden) Began life in the 90’s a King Crimson cover band, so their first 2 releases are in that vein. But then they went in their own direction. Went a bit in ambient-prog direction for a while, but their latest from 2015, Until All Ghosts are Gone, is more intense. Deus ex Machina (Italy) One of the best Italian bands from the more recent era. Ridiculous musicianship. The lead vocalist has a 5 octave range, and great intonation, but can be a bit of an acquired taste. They also can lean a bit toward the avant-garde side every once in a while, so, YMMV. But they are not trying to pander to the mainstream side of prog. Just pure, no holds bared, prog. Have you ever checked out the site: Gnosis2000 Great site for searching out great prog by year. |
