Prog bands that pass the 5 album test

I can't actually come up with any prog bands that pass this test. There are a bunch I know that have at last five great albums and a bunch that have four consecutively great albums, and some with a combination of the two. But none that have five consecutively great albums... with perhaps maybe two exceptions.

Kansas: eponymous - PoKR might be a stretch of five great albums; I just need to listen to Masque and revisit eponymous before I can say they pass this test, as I'm not yet familiar enough with these albums

and

Yes: either eponymous or Time and a Word (I'm not familiar enough with either) through either Close to the Edge (if the former) or TfTO (if either the former or the latter) [I'm not familiar enough with TfTO, yet either]

Subterranean Masquerade currently has released four great albums; if their fifth album is as great as their previous four, they'll certainly pass the test so just gotta wait for that fifth album (which to my knowledge has yet to be confirmed)

Bands that don't make it but come close for me:

Orphaned Land: 5 of their 6 albums are great, but All is One, which is wedged between two of the great albums, is not a great album. They have four consecutively great albums, one not great album, and one more great album

Rush has five great albums, and four consecutively great albums: Caress of Steel through Hemispheres and Moving Pictures. Unfortunately, Permanent Waves breaks the streak for me, and thus they don't pass.

Renaissance has five great albums, with a streak of three: eponymous and Illusion, and then Ashes are Burning through SaOS. Prologue breaks the streak. While Novella and ASfAS are good, they're just not quite great imo.

Neurosis has four to five or six great albums imo, depending on whether you consider Neurosis and Jarboe to be a canonical Neurosis album worthy of being judged, here. The Word as Law, Through Silver in Blood, Times of Grace, AStNS, and Neurosis and Jarboe are great albums. I haven't fully listened to Souls at Zero yet, so I can't say how I feel about it, but I've always been turned off by the production on this one. Enemiea of the Sun is the one that makes the band fail the test - its good, but not great.

Pelican: Five of their six albums are great, but their fourth album, What We All Come to Need, just doesn't cut it and breaks their streak.

Queen's first four albums are great. Then in 1991, Innuendo was also great. The buncha mediocre to straight up bad albums in between (except for Jazz, which was decent) is what fails the test for them.

Cardiacs is a band that could potentially pass this test, I just need to listen to their discography in full. I like everything I've heard them yet, but they're still too unfamiliar for me.



Edited by bardberic - July 29 2023 at 14:55

Floyd from Meddle to The Wall (ObC is a soundtrack, but I think it's great anyway)

someone_else wrote: Bands with a major or minor hiatus: Van der Graaf Generator: The Least We Can Do thru Still Life (hiatus: Pawn Hearts) Yes: The Yes Album thru Going for the One (hiatus: TfTO)

Strawbs with "From the Witchwood" thru "Ghosts" managed 5 straight great albums.  "Bursting at the Seams" is the middle one and it may not be a prog fan favourite but it certainly has a lot of fans outside of prog, with allmusic saying its their best album.  If you add in the fine Dave Cousins solo album released in the midst of all that, you have 6 different albums of high quality.  That they sound so different is striking given that few singers could be mistaken for Dave Cousins.  I might even add the previous studio album "Dragonfly"

to clarify the OP was suggesting a Test and assuming it's inherent importance. I believe consistency is overrated , and why I think King Crimson were so important than ELP, Yes or Genesis . They had variation of ideas much more so than those bands and perhaps even more importantly influenced contemporary artists and bands. That's a more real test imo.

richardh wrote: There is not 5 album test , it's not a thing. Complete and utter nonsense. Most bands just churn out a variation of the same idea endlessly. What on earth does that prove?!

Edited by Zeph - August 21 2021 at 04:47

There is not 5 album test , it's not a thing. Complete and utter nonsense. Most bands just churn out a variation of the same idea endlessly. What on earth does that prove?!