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The AOR-side of Prog
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TerLJack View Drop Down
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Thanks Suitkees!
I'm getting all kinds of recos now for my favorite genre!

While we're here, I'm started to be reminded of some other great stuff like:
Of course, Boston.  How could we forget?  That entire debut album has been played everywhere for decades.
MMEB's Chance and Roaring Silence are nice.
Lake's first record falls in this category.
Some late 70's-early 80s Kayak, if we're going to talk Supertramp.  The US version of Starlight Dancer blew me away when I first heard it.
Lodgic - Nomadic Sands, anyone?  It's from 1985, and is among the first recorded works of Billy Sherwood with his brother Michael and a few other guys that have been playing in the prog world for awhile.
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Originally posted by cstack3 cstack3 wrote:

Originally posted by mathman0806 mathman0806 wrote:

I was listening to Demon - The Plague today. I think that might count. Maybe a bit on the harder side of rock.

As far as the REO Speedwagon of prog, that's got to be Moon Safari.


I went to university in Champaign, Illinois USA (University of Illinois), where REO Speedwagon had their origin!!  In those years (1973-77), Champaign was renowned for our bands!!  REO used to play street dances and local gigs at bars, they were very popular with the students and "townies!"  A movie about that era was made, see https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEHPP_EmL2qDHm4egl4K9v_Xen7WopVoq

The original vocalist for REO, Terry Luttrell, left REO and eventually ended up as vocalist for the Yes-like band "Starcastle!"  Starcastle were HUGELY popular in Champaign back then, and their first LP had constant rotation on college radio!!   They were an amazingly energetic and charismatic band, playing all sorts of covers by Rolling Stones, Elton John and others as well as their originals!  

BTW, I don't consider them a "Yes-Clone," their vocalization style was very much influenced by Flash vs. Yes.   Gary Strater helped to give them that Yes sound with his Rickenbacker-Squire style, and keyboardist Herb Schildt was a master of the Hammond organ!!  These were rather rare instruments for bar bands in those years. 




I don't care for their self-titled record, but Fountains of Light is a different story. Herb's the star of that album, as far as I'm concerned.
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Points: 51103 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote progaardvark Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 29 2024 at 08:13
One not mentioned that I like is Planet P Project's debut album.

Two more non-PA bands that have hints of prog in places are:
The Fixx (in particular, their first two albums)
Grandaddy (in particular, The Sophtware Slump; sometimes I'm reminded of a Cars/ELO mix with many of their songs)

Not sure any of the above qualified under the AOR banner, but they were more in the "artsy" side of the pop rock spectrum, with The Fixx typically under the new wave banner.
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My favorite...

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Here are a few AOR/prog that I enjoy:
  • Styx / Pieces Of Eight
  • Utopia / Oops! Wrong Planet
  • Journey / Journey
  • Manfred Mann's Earth Band / Chance
  • Asia / Asia
  • Planet P Project / Pink World
  • Steve Lukather / Candyman
  • Ambrosia / Road Island
  • Lake / Paradise Island
  • Toto / Hydra
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Points: 1219 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Moyan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 29 2024 at 05:41
The 2005 self-titled lone album by White is one of my all-time favourites in the AOR-prog subgenre. Generally, it is melodic music with elements of hard rock and neo-prog. 
The album and band name obviously allude to the late Alan White. Together with Alan on drums, here we have Asia keyboardist Geoff Downes; lead singer Kevin Currie is accompanied on vocals by the great support of Steve Boyce, who also played bass. Karl Haug played the guitar. And its sleeve features some amazing Roger Dean illustration work!
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Points: 20251 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Sean Trane Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 29 2024 at 04:46
there are some valid suggestion, though I haven't seen Boston in the lists yet

Interesting take on AOR, and I am surprised by most of you in what they consider as such.


Maybe mine (take) is skewed by what I lived in Canada in the second half of the 70's (era in which AOR (adult-oriented rock, not Album Oriented Radio >> which happened in the earlier 70's). Most of what I call AOR is North American bands that had success (or little of it) between 75 & 85, though it could encompass most country rock, soft rock, yacht rock, corporate rock and indeed some forms of hard rock & prog rock (70's Kansas, for ex). 
But there are a few of these names listed above that I would actually consider AOR
The bands that epitomize AOR (IMHO) would be Steve Perry's Journey (though the metamorphosing had started beforehand), REO Speedwagon, Doobie Brothers, Eagles, Toto, Foreigner,  
But it would never occur to me to include Supertramp, 10 CC (or Queen FTM), APP (at least not the first three), Saga, Elton , TFF or Stevie Wonder.



To me, MW's list, none of them would enter the AOR bracket, except Ambrosia's third album and later ones TBH, I only discovered that Ambrosia had anything to do with prog until joining PA.
I'm not sure I would call any of Logan's choices as AOR either, though he names specific albums more than bands that made them and previous & later ones.


To me, artistes like Sting were never close to AOR (we could imagine Song-Oriented Jazz)


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Points: 7275 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote cstack3 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 28 2024 at 22:21
Originally posted by mathman0806 mathman0806 wrote:

I was listening to Demon - The Plague today. I think that might count. Maybe a bit on the harder side of rock.

As far as the REO Speedwagon of prog, that's got to be Moon Safari.

I went to university in Champaign, Illinois USA (University of Illinois), where REO Speedwagon had their origin!!  In those years (1973-77), Champaign was renowned for our bands!!  REO used to play street dances and local gigs at bars, they were very popular with the students and "townies!"  A movie about that era was made, see https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEHPP_EmL2qDHm4egl4K9v_Xen7WopVoq

The original vocalist for REO, Terry Luttrell, left REO and eventually ended up as vocalist for the Yes-like band "Starcastle!"  Starcastle were HUGELY popular in Champaign back then, and their first LP had constant rotation on college radio!!   They were an amazingly energetic and charismatic band, playing all sorts of covers by Rolling Stones, Elton John and others as well as their originals!  

BTW, I don't consider them a "Yes-Clone," their vocalization style was very much influenced by Flash vs. Yes.   Gary Strater helped to give them that Yes sound with his Rickenbacker-Squire style, and keyboardist Herb Schildt was a master of the Hammond organ!!  These were rather rare instruments for bar bands in those years. 
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AFlowerKingCrimson View Drop Down
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Points: 18313 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote AFlowerKingCrimson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 28 2024 at 20:47
^ Heh, I have Spaced Out Monkey by them. Heavy but good. Not sure how I would categorize them but apparently they were part of the NWOBHM.

Moon Safari are great. I kind of feel like I have to be in the mood for their "happy" vocal harmonies though. 
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mathman0806 View Drop Down
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Points: 6442 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote mathman0806 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 28 2024 at 18:57
I was listening to Demon - The Plague today. I think that might count. Maybe a bit on the harder side of rock.

As far as the REO Speedwagon of prog, that's got to be Moon Safari.

My favorite relatively recent (2019) AOR Prog album is Noise Floor by Spock's Beard.
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AFlowerKingCrimson View Drop Down
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Points: 18313 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote AFlowerKingCrimson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 28 2024 at 18:12
^ Yeah, I think the first Asia album (and the first incarnation of the band in general) gets crapped on a lot because people were (or are) expecting a full on prog album based solely because who was on it and because of those expectations it disappointed a lot of people. However, taken on it's own terms it's very good catchy aor pop prog. 

Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - April 28 2024 at 18:13
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Points: 7275 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote cstack3 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 28 2024 at 17:30
Not all AOR "prog" hit the mark....GTR comes to mind.  

I do enjoy a bit of Asia, but it was a bit formulaic for my tastes.  Still, I always enjoy hearing John Wetton's voice! 

I would say that the debut LP by Asia would hit the mark for REO of Prog.  "Sole Survivor" is quite a fine song, here, have some! 
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Ambrosia
Alan Parsons Project
Supertramp
Roxy Music
10CC

Adding :
Asia
Styx
Castarnac
Archive
Radiohead


Edited by mellotronwave - April 29 2024 at 10:25
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The underrated Best Kept Secret by Alquin is the first album I think of.
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Points: 2164 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Jeffro Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 28 2024 at 15:24
Originally posted by TerLJack TerLJack wrote:

The first 4-5 Sting records, 

Originally posted by AFlowerKingCrimson AFlowerKingCrimson wrote:

Jelly Jam ( a bit of a supergroup featuring members of King's X, Dream Theater and Dixie Dregs)

Nice to see two of my favorites listed. Those earlier Sting records are really good stuff.

And Jelly Jam? What can I say? Great stuff, especially the first disc. 
If you like Jelly Jam, you have to check out their predecessor band, Platypus. Platypus is essentially Jelly Jam but with Derek Sherinian included on keys.
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Points: 1557 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Floydoid Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 28 2024 at 13:41
Apart from their first two albums which are fairly proggy, I'd say most of the rest of ELO's 1970's output is pretty much decent AOR.
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AFlowerKingCrimson View Drop Down
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Points: 18313 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote AFlowerKingCrimson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 28 2024 at 11:56
Yeah, Tall Ships by It Bites would be a good example. I have one of their earlier albums too but didn't like it much (something about a Windmill).
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Points: 35951 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Logan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 28 2024 at 10:58
Not suggesting these because I think them good, although I quite like Presto.

Rush - Presto
ELP - Black Moon and In the Hot Seat
It Bites - Once Around the World
Rose - A Taste of Neptune (tastes better than Jupiter, Saturn, or Uranus I suppose)



Edited by Logan - April 28 2024 at 11:05
Duos for fave acts
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This always sounded like a mid-1970's AOR (Soft Rock) monster-hit to me, but it didn't even chart anywhere (and has less than a million streams on Spotify).

 
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Points: 490 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Criswell Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 28 2024 at 10:25
Originally posted by TerLJack TerLJack wrote:

Love Ambrosia's first two, 10cc, Crack the Sky, City Boy, Be-Bop Deluxe...
They don't get enough love around here in my opinion.

A perfect list there...
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