Quintessential Prog Album

terramystic wrote: wiz_d_kidd wrote: I like to consider the quintessential prog album this way:  If a person not familiar with prog asked me for a sample track, what would I play for them? I have used Rush - Xanadu. When my students learn about rock music and different genres I show them the music video of Xanadu so they can also see the instrumentation - double neck guitars, rich percussion set, synths (pedals and keyboards).

Genesis - Foxtrot

And I don´t mean the time changes or the chords. I mean the many many instruments and unexpected avant percussion in one more red nightmare. They´re really odd not to say arythmic and absolutely alien to the song. What do you think about it starting with an instrumental? The song lengths never kept me away they were more like my first attractor xD. Don´t know what others think about song lengths.

I still think Relayer is rather inaccessible... I mean, we're all used to all this weirdness, so we might have a hard time remembering what "not weird" is. Gates of Delirium should be a rather difficult thing to grasp for someone not used to this music... except perhaps for the Soon section... perhaps. And Sound Chaser, come on, how will a non progger get into that. To be Over is indeed rather beautiful, but for it's length it would be difficult to get into it, and listeners may get bored with it soon enough. As for Red, the title song I think should be an easy one to love, with that riff leading the way. The next two may be a bit difficult, but not more than anything on Relayer. Starless does have some beautiful moments, so it might be apreciated, if the long instrumental buildup doesn't scare the new listeners out. And Providence, yeah, that should be the most difficult part of the album to get into (I still think they should have used the improv that became Ausbury Park), but not more than Sound Chaser, I think. Not in vain, if I remember well, Kurt Cobaine mentioned Red as an important album for him.

Dellinger wrote: Relayer easier for someone who's not into prog than Red... no way.

I think Relayer is easier if you don´t count Starless (which would be an exceptional grandiose start). Red is after all pretty f**ked up (Providence, One More Red Nightmare(those damn rhythms kill me)) and has very eclectic instruments and styles (I for myself weren´t able to put Fallen Angel in a Rock context when I heard it at the first time) Red is a brutal and extremely hard to grasp stop and start fully instrumental affair and the start of the album. I think Red as a whole is disastrous for beginners. I still find it to be one of the more experimental albums in Prog. And for Relayer. It´s relatively fluent. anderson is always catchy. The album isn´t weird, It is more an "out there" affair and epic (just what I would show someone new to prog who wants to be wowed) with all those spacey sounds and it has a simple ballad as a final (I mean gates and because I have the opportunity as it just appeared to me... I also mean To Be Over) Also we have a classic line up of... The eclectic Epic the jazzy and avant one and the symphonic beauty.

Red accessible you must be out of your mind xD sry bro just kidding.

Edited by ForestFriend - October 08 2018 at 19:33

ForestFriend wrote: It seems quite ironic to me that the first prog album would be the ultimate; considering that ultimate often means final, or the point at which no further progress can be made.

ForestFriend wrote: It seems quite ironic to me that the first prog album would be the ultimate

Relayer is an incredible album and one of my absolute all time favourites.