best 80s PROG ALBUM

Eeeww....man what kind of inaccessible collection is that?

What about Moving Pictures from Rush? Or Clutching at Straws by Marillion?

This isn't right.

Sweetnighter wrote: Permanent Waves - Rush Discipline - KC Misplaced Childhood - Marillion Tangram - Tangerine Dream

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Los Jaivas : 'Alturas de Macchu Picchu' & 'Obras de Violeta Parra'

Sagrado coraçao da terra : 's/t' & 'Flecha'

Rebekka : 'Phoenix' (the german answer to Renaissance)

Vermilion sand (the japanese answer to Renaissance) 

Cai : 'noche abierta'

Gordon Giltrap : 'Peacock party'

Mike Oldfield : QE2

Anthony Phillips : PP&P

Talk Talk : 'Spirit of Eden'

Cardiacs : 'A little man and a house and the whole world window' & 'On land and in the sea'

Kate Bush : everyhting she released at that time

Saga : everything except maybe 'Wildest dreams'

Rush : everything

IQ : the first two albums

It bites : everything

NRG : no reasons given (with kevin Gilbert)

The Enid : 'The spell'

Dixie Dregs : 'Dregs of the earth', 'Unsung heroes', 'Industry standard'

Steve Morse : 'The introduction', 'Stand up', 'High tension wires'

Ambrosia : 'Road island'

Queensryche : everything

Fates Warning : 'Awaken the guardian'

Watchtower : 'Control and resistance'

Metallica : everything released at that time

Voivod : 'Nothingface'

DallasBryan wrote: thanks for your honesty Certified! whats your opionion of some of these recordings. Holger Czukay - On the Way to the Peak of Normal      Gandalf - Magic Theater      Bernard Xolotl - Last Wave      Klaus Schonning - Lorian Arabesque      Johannes Schmoelling - Wuivend Reit      Airto Moreira - The Other Side of This       Michael Shrieve - The Big Picture PROG METALHEADS need not inquire.

Phew - I had to do a bit of revisiting - these aren't regular visitors to my turntable; or more accurately, cassette deck...

I love Can, so Holger's recordings always appeal to me - and I respect his work deeply as I know he studied under the creator of electronic music; Karlheinz Stockhausen. "On the Way..." is a great album and as experimental in terms of textures as you would expect - but I can't help feeling it's Holger trying to keep his vision of Can alive.

I don't know the Gandalf recording - but I like their debut almost as much as I like the debut by the Swedish band of the same name!

Xolotl, Schonning and Schmoelling don't make exactly prog rock, do they? I mean, if I was going to recommend music from the 1980s to Tangerine Dream fans then those are good choices - Last Wave contains some ethereal electronica; but no prog per se.

Airto Moreira? Give me a break! It's superb World music - I wouldn't say "New Age", as it goes beyond what I think of as New Age - but it would also appeal to people who like that music.

I'd almost put Shrieve's music into the same category, as there are vague similarities in style.

All these recordings share one thing; a mostly constant rhythm track over which textures are interplayed, layered and otherwise manuiplated. The nearest to prog rock is Czukay, but only because of the similarities with his former band.

True prog rock of the 1980s does not lie in these recordings - but they are all worthy of consideration for inclusion on this site, IMO.

True 1980s prog IS the neo-prog of the bands I have mentioned. In my opinion, "Script..." is the greatest of the lot for its stylistic innovations, the accent on strong melody and lyrics with elegant clean-cut lines of counterpoint, emphasis on drama through structure and creating powerful and progressive songs rather than pastiches of sonic texture.

It is actually incredibly easy to do the latter - most people can sit down at a keyboard and find a voice that makes a nice sound. The art of intertwining those sounds is imprecise, and a lot can depend on luck - although I am certainly not putting your suggested recordings down - they are all superb.

However, great and progressive songwriting is a more precise art at which the Beatles were the obvious pinnacle in rock/pop, and Genesis the arguable pinnacle in 1970s prog rock - Pink Floyd an obvious alternative. Listen again (and again, if necessary) to "Script...". It took me a while to get - I think I'm still "getting it" 22 years later. There is much more to it than the deceptively simple surface;

Try this little excercise:

Write a piece of music as "simple" as either "Script...", "Chelsea Monday" or "Forgotten Sons". Ensure you have a high level of narrative and drama running through the lyrics as well as the music. Ensure also that all instruments and vocal melodies preserve a perfect counterpoint to each other without ever getting "busy", colour the lyrics without clouding them, and enjoy a little solo status at appropriate moments in the piece whilst maintaining the drama within - indeed, the prime objective is to heighten the drama, since this is a rock song. The piece must be over 6 minutes long, contain a keyboard solo and a guitar solo - both of which are entirely distinct, hummable and memorable, the lyrics must exist on multiple levels to satisfy intellectual listeners, and the overall style should be uniquely indentifiable as something that you have produced with only nods to other musicians or bands.

Simple!

Aerosol Grey wrote: Script For A Jester's Tear wasn't even the best album of the year it was released. And while I'll agree Marillion and IQ have their feet too steeped in the past glory of prog, Dream Theater have taken their taken that familiar template and run a completely different way with it. They're one of the most fully realized prog bands since the 70s.

"Dream Theater have taken their familiar template and run a different way with it."

Yes they've run over to the heavy rock stable and now play stadium rock.

Flamin' ell Jason you were born in 1985 and whilst this doesnt preclude you having an opinion, it does set you at a disadvantage.

When Marillion released Script prog rock was on its last legs.Remember, that this was a debut album-compare it to early Genesis and you will find a much more focussed, complete product.This was evolution-a stepping stone to creating a singular identity and carrying the torch for an embattled genre.Genesis and Yes were directionless, ELP un-focussed and in disarray.Something completely new was not what was called for. We got something familiar but not really derivative, something that would re-ignite our enthusiasm for Prog rock.Marillion achieved this and but for the split with Fish, would continue to be a huge success.

I am a big Rush fan, but at this time and subsequently, they were moving in different directions-creating a hybrid called prog-metal that you seem to want to give Dream Theater the plaudits for. It is very unlikely that Dream theater and their cohorts would have been making this kind of music without Rush. It is Rush that have run in a different direction from the "template" as you call it and managed to be damn successful whilst doing it.The market for Rush and Dream Theater has intersected frequently over the last 10 years, yet it is Rush who consistently outsell them, both with albums sales and concert seats.

The problem is, DB, that you don't explain your views.

I asked a whole load of questions, simply to try to find out why you might hold such a strong anti-neo prog view, and you have not done the courteousy of answering any of them.

Maybe you find the "ripping apart" style aggressive - I find it the only way to get to the questions I need to ask and maintain some sense of context. You could read it as aggressive attacking (if you felt so defensive about your indefensible views), or you could read it as plain, simple questions. My language is not aggressive, and neither is my intention.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but to slate the entire neo-prog genre and dismiss the bands as nothing but wannabees deserves some kind of explanation - after all, there are others on this site who like the genre a great deal - aren't you curious as to why that may be - or do you just think they are stupid?