Prog bands that pass the 5 album test

No need to go on an anti-metal tirade about how it's just loud and isn't music. Some of us like both metal and Zappa. They both qualify. Zappa's underrated and probably always will be, and he definitely belongs on this list. So are a lot of metal bands.

Hi,

It is always an issue with me ... FZ deserves a lot better than he has gotten from today's audience, but it's difficult as long as we treat all the music into "genres" and do not look at it for its musicality and composition, which FZ would win hands down over most bands anyway ... specially when he started it way before most people listening to radio ever knew about anything else ... and while he was not a huge seller, he was already a fairly good seller in Southern California, and very well known and respected.

Forward 50 years, and we think some of the metal stuff is great music, when it's (not always but often) simply loud and making it look like it is musical, when most are just repetition of themes and an even louder solo on the guitar. Maybe one day that guitar will add to the music instead of a solo, no?

I look at it as we are not very good at looking at the history of music and its players ... we always seem to compare to what things are like now, and somehow my imagination only sees today's stuff as good and yesterday's stuff as not even worth listening to. 

It's just strange, making me think that some folks are not into music ... just into the stuff they like. I may not like/enjoy Brahms, but for crying out loud ... he is listed in the music annals for a reason, and it wasn't "metal" or "loudness".

I was thinking about making a poll on this just yesterday!

I will get back with it maybe today.

I'll go along with that list and up the ante by adding Prologue and Live at Carnegie Hall to make it a solid  run of seven 5-star albums in a row. 

The Man Who Sold The World ~ 4.02

Hunky Dory ~ 4.19

The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars ~ 4.26

Aladdin Sane ~ 3.84

His Ziggy years basically. He was untouchable then and those albums remain one of his greatest achievements. However, they don't total five, and here's why. Space Oddity doesn't quite reach 3.5 with a score of 3.34, and though Diamond Dogs does pass the 3.5 mark (barely, at 3.60), it is unfortunately preceded by Pin-Ups the covers album! Pin-Ups has only 3.04 stars to its name, and had it been released just a year later wouldn't factor into this discussion. However it does sit where it sits. If you choose not to count it, I can see your point, but the technicalities will not agree with you. Nevertheless, Bowie can't go on to have an even longer run without it, as Young Americans (ever the black sheep of his 70s releases) only scores 2.83! I agree it's his least compelling, but I don't think it's that low, but that's just my personal take. 

"But wait!" you say, "what about the Thin White Duke and the Berlin Trilogy and Scary Monsters? That makes five right?" It just almost does, and in my personal taste it absolutely passes with flying shades of orange, black, and white. However, there's one little problem with the PA ratings: Lodger.

Station To Station ~ 4.03

Low ~ 4.09

"Heroes" ~ 4.05

Lodger ~ 3.48

Scary Monsters ~ 4.15

Perhaps Bowies most oft forgotten classic album, Lodger seems to be the PA critics choice for the least compelling of this period, and what a strong period it is! Everything else here passes the test even with a 4.0 cutoff, that's not easy! Bowie was pushing boundaries and making great art in new ways on every one of these five albums, but that second to last one just didn't work so well for many people. Is it the lack of an ambient instrumental suite? Has the songwriting gotten too predictable? Is the band not as good? We may never know. 

But anyway it would've been nice to see Bowie score two 5 album runs in the 70s, yet both have been thwarted. His later work has more frequent ups and downs score wise, though if Hours and Reality were regarded just a few tenths of points more kindly he'd have a good sendoff run of five from Hours to Blackstar. I suppose that's the danger of constantly changing your approach. It's hard to know what will work and what won't.

I almost included them in my list, but Gravity is not "great" IMO... only "very good"