Prog albums you think are a little underrated?

It didn't take long for me to find A LOT of albums which score less than 3 stars in PA that I feel should be much higher. Not surprisingly, most are post-1980 albums, so go ahead and dismiss me as someone who loves 1980s-1990s junk!

richardh wrote: In the 20 years I've been on here I bever realised that you could rate a topic

Only 12 years, but actively much less, for me, and didn't know either.

Edited by mathman0806 - July 22 2024 at 09:12

Edited by David_D - July 22 2024 at 04:58

Hrychu wrote: It depends on which community/echo chamber you focus on.

I like the added criteria and challenge, otherwise this would be just another rehash of a topic we have had many times before.  If not everyone follows the expectations, so be it, par for the course (especially as it is common for people not to read the first post before responding to the topic's title) but I like the concept.  While I would get rid of being able to give topic stars if I could (or if Max allowed me to) as it sometimes has been abused, or perhaps just plain used, as tackily self-congratulatory or in a vindictive manner by others, I'm also giving this topic five stars.


Edited by Logan - July 21 2024 at 12:34

Grumpyprogfan wrote: Jared wrote: To keep this thread a little more focussed, I'd ask forum members to only include albums which score less than 3 stars. It amuses me that many don't follow what is intended.

I'll admit I just ignored it. Less than three stars is to low for to me contribute in a meaningful way, so I focussed on the "a little underrated" part.

It depends on which community/echo chamber you focus on. There are some "prog" communities which despise The Flower Kings, and some that love them. xD On PA it's a 50/50 mix.

Gorgeous early fusion album that would have been historically important had it been released when it was recorded, and not shelved for almost ten years.

The Residents actually gets much more love from non-proggers:
 
Mark of the Mole (3.06) - a 5 star classic to me, and so is:
Intermission (3.36) =5 &
Commercial Album (3.66) =5
The Tunes of Two Cities (3.25) =4.5
Whatever Happened to Vileness Fats? (2.91) =4

-and the same goes for Can:

Saw Delight (3.24) =4
Landed 3.51) =4 &

Hawkwind's albums like PXR5, Church of Hawkwind, and Road to Utopia deserve more than two stars and something, so these albums aren't little but criminally underrated, while this ridiculously set topic certainly does not deserve more than one star, as it got from me.

Jared wrote: Mystique wrote: I understood the intention of this original poster; however, his request that the albums we mentioned have been rated with only two stars in PA is without a doubt in direct contradiction with the request expressed in the title (a title of a thread is like a preamble to the introductory post, you'll agree) of the topic for "little underrated" albums. and there you have it, encapsulated in this sentence, the reason why I tend to initiate so few threads on this forum; by the time we hit page 2, someone will have dissected and analysed my intentions, finding their consistency wanting... takes all the fun out of the experience quite frankly...

You can't ask for "little underrated" albums in the thread title and then almost imperceptibly slip in the opening post that they be rated no more than two stars. A two-star album can only be vastly underrated, or at least in the vast majority of cases. For instance, many 70s bands changed their style in the early 80s, for example, from prog-rock to new wave, and then the reviewers "punished" them for this by giving them only two stars, not rating their new style as such.

Edited by Mystique - July 21 2024 at 01:58