Top 50 prog albums?

We have an enormous thread on this somewhere, I think. Otherwise, The Wall should not even be *near* a top 50. I do not think much of Relayer, when compared to other Yes albums, especially Close To The Edge.

Things I'd consider highly:

Larks' Tongues In Aspic - King Crimson
In The Court Of The Crimson King - King Crimson
ELP - ELP
Close To The Edge - Yes
Look At Yourself - Uriah Heep
Mirage - Camel
Selling England By The Pound - Genesis
Nursery Cryme - Genesis
To Watch The Storms - Steve Hackett
Caress of Steel - Rush
2112 - Rush
Love Over Gold - Dire Straits
Birds Of Fire - The Mahavishnu Orchestra
Per Un Amico - PFM
Godbluff - VDGG
Aqualung - Jethro Tull
Thick As A Brick - Jethro Tull

Uh, hard. But fun: Probably forgot some essential ones (to me)
 
  1 Magma: St (Kobaïa)
  2 Robert Wyatt: Rock Bottom
  3 Comus: First Utterance
  4 Van Der Graaf Generator: Pawn Hearts  
  5 Can: Ege Bamyasi
  6 Igor Wakhewitch: Dr. Faust
  7 Soft Machine: Third  
  8 Non-Credo: Happy Wretched Family
  9 Area: Caution Radiation Area  
10 Gong: You
11 Peter Hammill: Silent Corner and the Empty Stage
12 Gentle Giant: Acquiring the Taste  
13 Art Zoyd: Generations Sans Futur  
14 Magma: Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandöh  
15 Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso: Darwin!
16 Van Der Graaf Generator: H to He Who am the Only One
17 Cos: Postaolean Train Robbery     
18 King Crimson: Red       
19 Gentle Giant: Three Friends
20 Genesis: Nursery Cryme
21 Kultivator: Barndomens Stigar
22 Art Bears: The World as it is Today
23 KHA YM: 10 "GMT
24 Dün: Eros
25 Eskaton: 4 Visions
26 Van Der Graaf Generator: Godbluff  
27 Tangerine Dream: Alpha Centauri
28 Flamen Dialis: Symptome Dei
29 Guapo: Five Suns
30 Picchio Dal Pozzo: St
31 Balletto Di Bronzo: YZ
32 Amon Düül II: Yeti
33 Can: Tago Mago
34 Premiata Forneria Marconi: Storia Un Minuto
35 Dedalus: Dedalus
36 Cos: Viva Bomba  
37 Museo Rosenbach: Zarathustra  
38 King Crimson: In The Court of the Crimson King
39 Secret Chiefs 3: Book of Horizons
40 Vortex. Les Cycles de Thanatos
41 Igor Wakhewitch: Hathor
42 Archaïa: Archaia
43 Gnidrolog: In Spite of Harry's Toe Nail   
44 Van Der Graaf Generator: The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome
45 Curved Air: Second Album
46 Supersister: Present for Nancy  
47 Le Orme: Felona E Sorona  
48 Klaus Schulze: X
49 Jethro Tull: Thick As a Brick
50 Spirogyra: St. Radigunds

Fefteen more:

51 Pierrot Lunaire: Gudrun
52 Peter Hammill: In Camera
53 The Residents: Mark of the Mole
54 Lacrymosa: Joy of the Wrecked Ship
55 Hatfield and the North: The Rotter's Club  
57 National Health: National Health
58 Franco Battiato: Sulle Corde di Aries
59 Metamorfosi: Inferno
60 Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso: Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso
61 Algarnas Tradgard. Delayed
62 Radiohead Amnesiac
63 Frank Zappa:We're In lt in it For the Money
64 Dionne/Bregent: Deux
65 Akasha: Akasha





Edited by Rocktopus - February 21 2008 at 06:43

TGM: Orb wrote: We have an enormous thread on this somewhere, I think. Otherwise, The Wall should not even be *near* a top 50. I do not think much of Relayer, when compared to other Yes albums, especially Close To The Edge.

pendragon	not of this world
collage	moonshine
vandenplas	christ0
shadow gallery	room v
satellite	a street between ..
symphony x	v
lte	lte2
skeem	skeem
dream theater	systematic chaos
roine stolt	the flower king
cairo	conflicts and dreams
explorers club	age of impact
symphony x	the odyssey
various artists	odyssey-the greatest tale
ayreon	into the electric castle
magic pie	motions of desire
arena	the visitor
satellite	into the night
dream theater	six degrees
ice age	the great devide
clepsydra	more grains of sand
lte	lte
clepsydra	alone
tfk	flower power
pink floyd	animals
dream theater	images and words
tfk	paradox hotel
apple pie	crossroad
knight area	under a new sign
tfk	space revolver
jadis	across the water
enchant	juggling 9
amaran's plight	voice in the light
riverside	second life syndrome
tfk	sum of no evil
nexus	perpetuum karma
yes	close to the edge
pendragon	masquerade overture
translatlantic	smpt
satellite	evening games
tangent	world we drive through
frost	milliontown
translatlantic	bridge across forever
genesis	foxtrot
threshold	dead reckoning
tomas bodin	I A M
glass hammer	the inconsolable secret
spocks beard	v
john petrucci	suspended animation
mangrove	facing the sunset

p0mt3 wrote: TGM: Orb wrote: We have an enormous thread on this somewhere, I think. Otherwise, The Wall should not even be *near* a top 50. I do not think much of Relayer, when compared to other Yes albums, especially Close To The Edge.   CttE is amazingly overrated, my friend . . .   Look, this is all opinions here, so don't say mine isn't correct and yours is . . . it's an OPINION. And in my OPINION, The Wall is the best thing Pink Floyd ever did, and Relayer and Fragile are both ten times better than CttE.     However, I do have to say that you have obviousely been a listener of prog longer than I, so many of the albums you listed I have not yet heard, so this list of mine will undoubtedly change quite a bit in the coming years as I broaden my collection of prog music. I applaude you for varied list, very impressive

Anything I say in this place is, naturally, my opinion. I acknowledge that I'm not always right and it isn't a case of one album fits all, however, adding imo to every sentence I write seems needless to me unless we're not on a topic where every view is personal and subjective (eg. fastest guitarist or longest song etc). I guess you've confused my list with Rocktopus's, but, if not, thanks for the applause. TBH, I haven't heard any of the prog metal albums you've listed and I tend to go for classic rather than modern prog.

I think Close To The Edge is very highly rated because it's very good, some people disagree there. Personally, I enjoy that album as a whole for the lyrics and the combination of more layered sound with more usual solos. I don't like Relayer that much because of The Gates of Delirium, which seems very self-indulgent and somewhat childish to me (the obvious 'battle' between the keyboards and drums fails to impress me, and Anderson's vocals occasionally fail to get me). The music does not at all evoke the concept for me, and the lyrics seem very weak and too prominent to ignore. I know that it's very widely liked, but I only really enjoy the Soon section of that song. Fragile has two problems for me: one is We Have Heaven and its reprise on the end of Heart Of The Sunrise (I really dislike this song, not entirely sure why), and there's too much material that I don't think reaches particularly high levels.

I've never understood the widespread love of The Wall, and I generally think it's not reviewed/rated harshly enough and with enough nitpicking compared to other, much stronger (imo ;) ) albums. I have to admit that there are some *amazing* moments on it, but overall I think a masterpiece should be a flawless conceptual and musical work, and if it's got at least two songs (Vera and Bring The Boys Back Home) which are almost universally considered weak and have (as far as I can tell)  no need to be there or any real advancement of the concept. I don't particularly like the concept, and I think that the lyrics aren't up to scratch with Waters' other material, but I'm in a serious minority here.

/semi-rant. I actually have compulsions to attack Relayer and The Wall whenever I see them, or at least justify why I dislike them. I can't really do that without a review, though. Sorry for sidetracking the thread.