Please recommend very diversified neo-prog albums

Ween- "The Mollusk" 

Rexorcist wrote: richardh wrote: Arena and Frost* have something in common - John Mitchell. May therefore be worth checking out It Bites - The Tall Ships. I love that album personally and another great example of brilliant song writing in the 21st Century. There are also his Lonely Robot albums, some nice things there and he also guests on last years Legacy Pilots album. One of the best modern(ish) guitarists imo.  That actually explains quite a bit.  Currently, Frost and Arena are two of the top neo-prog bands on my chart, although I'm still a bit new to them.  My current top 3 neo-prog albums are Milliontown, Immortal and Experiments in Mass Appeal.  I've also found that I'm partial to Marillion's Seasons End as opposed to their Fish era.  Seasons End just made #4.

Edited by Rexorcist - February 23 2025 at 17:35

I think the relatively obscure neo prog band Aragon are worth mentioning. An online radio station recently played something by them that had saxophone on it. I'm really only familiar with Don't Bring The Rain which is a great album imo but maybe not very diverse. 

Cyan emerged in 1984 as an endeavour spearheaded by the talented English multi-instrumentalist Rob Reed. Although being promising, the band’s initial active phase was relatively brief; unfortunately, when the demo recording was completed, the whole project was put on hold. So, a significant portion of the material featured on Cyan's album For King and Country, released in 1993, consists of reimagined tracks derived from that original 1984 demo tape, everything played by Rob Reed himself. This album brought a rich tapestry of musical influences, traversing atmospheres reminiscent of Genesis while also echoing the sounds of Pendragon and Eloy. The beat rhythms and guitar instrumentals make one think of Camel. And at times, when he is playing the guitar, Reed makes one think of Mike Oldfield. Magenta enthusiasts should love this album as well.

"Stylistically it is the most diverse work of The Adekaem at both musical and lyrical levels. Starting with classical music, through progressive rock, hard rock and ending on world music; from love poems, through fairy, dreamlike pieces, to socially engaged protest-song." - From the liner notes of the recently released album "Pictures from Sierra Morena" by The Adekaem, a Polish group listed as a neo-prog band in PA. Full album stream: https://theadekaem.bandcamp.com/album/pictures-from-sierra-morena

I have one more Unitopia album to go, but first, I'd like to satisfy some major curiosity and get a headstart on Pendragon with their debut, The Jewel.  So far it's quite nice.  But in comparison to the second and third tracks, the opener, Higher Circles, is a pretty standard AOR opener that makes Bryan Adams look like a genius.  Writing a review to go along with this.