BEST PROG ROCK ALBUM IN THE WORLD... EVER

Another addition to the "The best... album in the world ever" series of compilations, is a surprisingly listenable sampler, and ideal for keeping in the car for those long journeys (over three hours of progressive rock - enough to send the most tolerant child apoplectic in the back seat).

As with all such compilations, you get the usual suspects appearing again & again (Joybringer, Silver Machine, Hocus Pocus), but as these all crop up on the first CD, they're easier than usual to bypass; there is also the usual lack of any King Crimson or Pink Floyd, criminal omissions, but more likely due to licensing problems.

On the upside, you get a good three disc cross section of 1970's prog-rock, and unusually, some of those bands usually bypassed, are included here, such as Matching Mole, Kevin Ayers, Rare Bird, Steve Hillage and many other less luminary names.

A nice touch also, is that each disc concludes with an epic of around 20 minutes, from the psychotic jamming of Colosseum's 'Valentyne Suite', through the Canterbury fuelled lunacy that is Hatfield & The North's 'Mumps' to Van Der Graaf Generator's masterful 'Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers' (VDGG bookend the whole set - the first disc opens with 'Theme 1').

Altogether then, a worthwhile compilation to keep in the car if only to annoy your children/parents/granny/wife (delete where appropriate).