Which Prog Band Made The Best Pop?

I'm not asking "most successful" as that's probably quite uncontroversially Genesis, unless we include proto-proggers partly from the pop world in the first place like The Beatles, The Who, Deep Purple etc

While many prog bands had a go at pop and some got a hit single or two, only Genesis really seemed to really crack it. But regardless of chart success, which prog acts pop attempts do you personally enjoy the most.

For me it's Rush. Even in their most progressive years, there were always tracks like Something For Nothing, Closer To The Heart, Circumstances, Entre Nous, Freewill, Limelight etc around which managed to sound ready for the radio (though many of them weren't even singles) without being stupid or predictable. Perhaps because they were younger than a lot of their prog peers, they found the shift to pop rock and synths a lot more natural, and Peart's refusal to write dumb lyrics helped too.

Edited by Textbook - October 31 2011 at 01:29

Dredg, if you count them as Prog. The Pariah, The Parrot and the Delusion and Catch Without Arms are stellar examples of complex pop rock.

dreadpirateroberts wrote: Mr Bungle on their California album gets a mention from me. It's got some superb pop on it.

Do you mean full blown prog acts that make pop music (In which case, I would say some of the Porcupine Tree tracks like `The Sound Of Muzak', `Trains', `Lazarus' are first rate `pop' tracks, if someone like Coldplay released them they would make millions)?

Or do you mean `pop' bands like Tear For Fears, Mansun, etc who had prog-elements in their accessible music? :)

Oh, `Six' is one of my favourite albums!!!!
I especially tracked down a vinyl copy because of that cover!!!
I actually loved all of their albums, thought they were a great band! Terrific lead guitarist too.

I used to have a Mansun t-shirt, but it regrettably feautured a photo of the band and it looked kind of like a `boy group' t-shirt, not cool!

I haven't heard much pop from the 70s bands and I can't say I want to explore more. But I like Big Generator a lot, it's a four stars album for me (90125 much less so).

The band Kumm turned alternative, and their alternative rock (recently going in an indie-pop direction) albums are some of my favourite from the genre.

Sigur Ros' last album is great. And Jonsi solo took that kind of stuff even further into indie-pop territory (and did it very well).

Marillion have made some excellent pop songs and albums throughout their career.

Edited by sleeper - October 31 2011 at 12:48

lucas wrote: There are a lot of prog or prog-related bands who can craft nice pop songs :   Talk Talk Kevin Gilbert Tony Banks Sagrado Coraçao da Terra King Crimson (during the eighties) Saga IQ (the Menel era) It Bites The Beatles (hehe !) Manfred Mann's Earthband Roxy Music Supertramp 10CC Journey (they began as a prog rock band) Ambrosia Peter Gabriel (if we assume that he is a prog rock artist) Steely Dan IONA Renaissance October Project Tangerine Dream ('Le Parc' comes to mind) Mike Oldfield (especially when Maggie Reilly lends her voice) Kraftwerk (electronic pop !) Queen Pavlov's Dog Camel (listen to 'dust and 'dreams' and 'breathless') Pink Floyd The Flower Kings Caravan Steve Thorne Orphan Project Enchant Alan Parsons Project Procol Harum Queensrÿche Fates Warning (listen to 'parallels') Xen (the guys from Enchant in a more poppy mood) Echolyn Kansas (they had some nice power pop tunes in the eighties) Klaatu Skaldowie (the whole 'ty' and 'wszystkim zakochanym') Niemen (his early works) Le Orme The Moody Blues   etc.

sleeper wrote: Marillion have made some excellent pop songs and albums throughout their career.