Prog bands that pass the 5 album test

Black Sabbath - s/t to Sabotage

What of Pink Floyd? DSTOM - WYWH - Animals - The Wall is obviously fantastic, but to complete it you either have to choose Obscured By Clouds (no cheating and going for Meddle) or The Final Cut. Do they pass or not?

The Yes Album ~ 4.31

Fragile ~ 4.46

Close To The Edge ~ 4.67

Tales From Topographic Oceans ~ 3.90

Relayer ~ 4.37

Going For The One ~ 4.05

In fact Yes nearly pass the test with a 4.00 cutoff, if not for those pesky negative reviews bringing Tales down a tenth of a star below. The question here is which would you drop for your five album run, The Yes Album or Going For The One? I would drop Going For The One personally.

In The Court Of The Crimson King ~ 4.63

In The Wake Of Poseidon ~ 3.84

Lizard ~ 4.13

Islands ~ 3.83

Larks' Tongues In Aspic ~ 4.42

Starless And Bible Black ~ 3.93

Red ~ 4.56

Discipline ~ 4.12

Some definite ups and downs and they wouldn't pass the 4.00 benchmark because of them, however those sub 4 entries are still pretty high scores. Beat is the first not to make it at 3.08, and with only a couple exceptions (ThraK and The Power To Believe), the Crim tends not to reach the mark after Discipline. My run of five here would be Lizard through Red. It pains me to leave out ITCOTCK, but not as much as it would pain me to leave out Red. Happily three of my other favorites are in any cut you want: Lizard, Islands, and Larks' Tongues In Aspic, though I somehow doubt anyone will be going from In The Wake Of Poseidon through Starless And Bible Black.

Emerson, Lake, And Palmer ~ 4.23

Tarkus ~ 4.06

Trilogy ~ 4.14

Brain Salad Surgery ~ 4.14

Works Vol. 1 ~ ....2.94 ouch

BUT! If you toss in Pictures At An Exhibition, sitting between the debut and Tarkus, you can turn that four album run into five. Pictures doesn't pass the 4.00 mark, but it manages to get close with a score of 3.88. Why am I more partial to this cheat than to cheating with Pink Floyd? Typically, live albums shouldn't really count for these discussions, not because they're recorded live, but because they don't feature any new material, or perhaps a single new song or new cover. However, Pictures is an exception to this tendency, as the whole album features ELP playing material which cannot be heard on any of their studio releases: a massive rendition of the orchestral piece by the same name, but totally reinterpreted ELP style (with lyrics and vocals!). To many ELP fans it functions as an album much the same way as any of their studio recordings, despite being live and despite being (technically) a massive cover. So I'm for including it. With Floyd on the other hand, one would have to play by a different set of rules which would negate soundtrack albums on account of their soundtrackiness. Presumably any rule which would negate soundtracks, despite being composed of new material and presented much the same as albums proper, would also negate live albums, even Pictures At An Exhibition. So I think it comes down to whether you'd like Floyd to have the 5 album run or ELP. I'll go with ELP, since they don't get enough love for what they did.

I think that's gotta be it. Also the record company may have been pestering them about single material after the success of Lucky Man, so they may have decided a 20 minute suite and a bunch of shorter songs was a bit wiser than a 40 minute suite and a cover of the Nutcracker as far as what they would put more effort into recording.

GG gets ruined for me with In A Glass House (which has always been my least favorite of the classic giants), but Area is certainly one I should have thought of. Good call. 

Damn that's an unpopular GG opinion; that's my favorite GG entry!

I also agree that GG makes this list. I love everything up to and including Interview.