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Best Prog albums?

Toronto Bassist

Toronto Bassist

Jan 9, 2008
530
39
Toronto
www.vaughn-s.net
#1
As with the Fusion thread, not necessarily the best prog bass albums, but if that's your criteria, then so be it. So what's on your list?

Here's mine:

Pink Floyd: Animals, Dark Side Of The Moon, Meddle
Jethro Tull: Aqualung, Thick As A Brick
Wishbone Ash: Argus
Renaissance: Scheherazade And Other Stories, Ashes Are Burning
Yes: Close To The Edge, The Yes Album, Relayer, Yes
The Mars Volta: Bedlam In Goliath, Deloused In The Comatorium
Emerson, Lake, and Palmer: Brain Salad Surgery, Tarkus
Cathedral: Stained Glass Stories, The Bridge
Pure Reason Revolution: Cautionary Tales For The Brave
Rush: A Farewell To Kings, Moving Pictures, 2112, Signals
Glass Hammer: Culture Of Ascent
Spock's Beard: Day For Night
King Crimson: Starless And Bible Black, Discipline, Red, In The Wake Of Poseidon,
Dream Theatre: Images And Words, Train Of Thought
Big Big Train: English Electric 1, Gathering Speed
Le Orme: Felona E Sorona
Genesis: The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, Foxtrot, Nursery Cryme, Trick Of The Tail, Selling England By The Pound, Tresspass
Gentle Giant: Free Hand, The Power And The Glory
Styx: The Grand Illusion
Vand Der Graaf Generator: Pawn Hearts, H To He Who Am The Only One
Porcupine Tree: In Absentia
Magma: Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh
Focus: Moving Waves
Oblivion Sun: Oblivion Sun
Utopia: Ra, Oops! Wrong Planet
Kansas: Point Of Know Return
Steven Wilson: The Raven That Refused To Sing
Camel: The Snow Goose
Neal Morse: Sola Scriptura
Discipline: To Shatter All Accord
Soft Machine: Third
UK: UK
Steve Hackett: Voyage Of The Acolyte
 
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#2
Your list is very similar to what mine would look like.
I'm a huge Yes fan, so you've got them covered pretty good, but I would add Tales From Topographic Oceans.
I'd add Hemispheres by Rush to the list too.
Nice selection of classic & newer Prog.
 
#4
PoorePlaysBass said:
No Tool? Or are you trying to stay away from prog metal?
Click to expand...

It's on the wishlist - I'll get around to it eventually.

Prog Metal is hit and miss for me, I like the newer Dream Theater album but I picked up Arjen A. Lucassen's "Space Metal" and Cynic's "Traced In The Air," and I wasn't crazy about them. Maybe they just need more listens.

Anyways, this thread isn't just about me! Feel free to post your own stuff, it doesn't have to be a gigantic list :)
 
#5
I'm not as well-versed in progressive rock as in some other genres, but there are several albums I absolutely love:

1. The Yes Album
2. Pretty much any pre-Signals Rush, but to narrow it down . . . Moving Pictures
3. Rush, Farewell to Kings
4. Rush, Permanent Waves
5. King Crimson, Court of the Crimson King ("Love" might be a strong word, but it's really grown on me, and it absolutely deserves a very high place in the history of progressive rock).
6. Yes, Fragile
7. Rush, 2112
8. Rush, Hemispheres
9. Kansas, Leftoverture
10. Yes, Relayer
11. Yes, Close to the Edge
12. Genesis, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
13. Genesis, Selling England by the Pound

I just saw you had The Grand Illusion on your list . . . that would have to be on mine also.

I'm guessing we'd have to classify Genesis as "pop" by the time Abacab came out . . . but if not, that's probably my favorite Genesis album.
 
#9
M0ses said:
Your shunning of Fragile and In The Court Of The Crimson King confuses me.

Too mainstream to make your Prog Favorites? lol
Click to expand...

What's confusing? I don't care for "Fragile" (other than Roundabout and Long Distance Runaround) and "In The Court Of The Crimson King" has lots of good material, but I don't like the "free jazz" (for lack of a better term) sections. I realize that's kind of a King Crimson thing, but it has yet to grow on me.
 
#10
With the exception of Thank You Scientist I am completely out of the loop on contemporary prog.

I'm a big fan of Yes, King Crimson, and Gentle Giant. But not a whole lot of the other "classic" prog bands.

I really like Henry Cow and Soft Machine, but I sometimes feel like they're not so much "prog-rock" bands as they are European Parallel-Invention Jazz/Rock Fusion Played By Non-Jazz Musicians bands.

The whole Canterbury Scene intrigues me, though it also strikes me as hard to classify; it's almost prog-rock, but with the pretension swapped out in exchange for humor and/or insoucience.

And I detested Happy The Man when they first hit the scene, but I've come to recognize and appreciate how important they were in the whole history of the genre, and I'd encourage anyone not familiar with their recordings to check them out.

I'm sorry, what was the question?
 
#11
Oh, okay, "best prog albums" (aka, my favorites)

Tales From Topographic Oceans - Yes
Relayer - Yes
Free Hand - Gentle Giant
Octopus - Gentle Giant
Red - King Crimson
Starless And Bible Black - King Crimson
USA (and/or The Night Watch) - King Crimson
Discipline - King Crimson
Beat - King Crimson
UK - UK
Refugee - Refugee
Of Queues And Cures - National Health
In Praise Of Learning - Henry Cow
Legend - Henry Cow
Unrest - Henry Cow
Egg - Egg
Black Noise - FM
i - Patrick Moraz
Fish Out Of Water - Chris Squire
Beginnings - Steve Howe
Olias Of Sunhillow - Jon Anderson
 
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#13
I like the OP's suggestion of Spock's Beard, but I think the bass parts are more interesting (and cuts through the mix better) on Beware of Darkness and on V, and even Octane.

Dave Meros and Nick D'Virgilio were a great rhythm section. Not everybody's cup of tea, but the style of music really allows the bass the space to shine.
 
#14
In the Court of the Crimson King
Brain Salad Surgery, Tarkus, Pictures at an Exhibition
Meddle, Atom Heart Mother, Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, Ummagumma
Thick as a Brick, Aqualung
The Beatles White Album (YES, it's prog)
Close to the Edge, Fragile, The Yes Album, Drama
Selling England by the Pound, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Caress of Steel, 2112, A Farewell to Kings, Hemispheres
Days of Future Passed, In Search of the Lost Chord, On the Threshold of a Dream
John Barleycorn Must Die, Low Spark of High Heeled Boys
We're Only in it for the Money
Leftoverture

Just off the top of my head.
 
#16
For me, prog is anything more intricate than radio. Requiring a bit more musicianship than radio doesn't hurt either, but I'm not an ability snob. Mainly, the idea is what's important. I'm always looking for something new to keep my ears fresh. My current favorite prog albums:

Tesseract - Altered State
Scale the Summit - Traveler && Migration
Indukti - Idmen && Susar



DT - Train of Thought && Six Degress are their best/my favorite, followed by Scenes/Metro2 and Systematic Chaos. I've been dry humping their songs for years, love all of their music, albums, dvds, etc. But their early catalog right up to Metro 2 feels very progressive-dated. The new stuff (BC&SL onwards, but I'll throw Octa in there even tho it's out of order) doesn't feel very passionate. They can always throw a curve ball out there, but I think their best writing years were 1998-2008ish and those will be their lasting songs.
 
#17
patrickj said:
DT - Train of Thought && Six Degress are their best/my favorite, followed by Scenes/Metro2 and Systematic Chaos. I've been dry humping their songs for years, love all of their music, albums, dvds, etc. But their early catalog right up to Metro 2 feels very progressive-dated. The new stuff (BC&SL onwards, but I'll throw Octa in there even tho it's out of order) doesn't feel very passionate. They can always throw a curve ball out there, but I think their best writing years were 1998-2008ish and those will be their lasting songs.
Click to expand...

It's funny what other people think about DT. For me, I think their last really good album was Scenes From a Memory. All of their newer stuff is very hit and miss. It's like they tried to start being "more metal" and didn't really think about putting any feeling into the songs.

I know they've always been criticized of not having feeling, but I disagree on a good amount of their material.
 
#18
Some more recent stuff that I like.

Anglangard - Viljans Öga (Some of the proggiest prog I have ever heard.)
Beardfish - Mammoth, The Void
Echolyn - Islands

I don't get into the "metal" side of prog much (King Crimson is about the nastiest I like), definitely not the Dream Theatre kind, I like prog to have lots of space in the recordings and lots of room for all instruments to get weird
 
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#20
There's a few bands that could honestly have multiple releases includes in my list, but I'll streamline and pick only one album from each band. In no particular order here are my favorites...

Older stuff:

King Crimson - Red (although some days it's Lark's Tongue)

Yes - Close To The Edge

ELP - Trilogy

Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick

Genesis - Selling England

Rush - Hemispheres

More Recent Stuff:

Tool - Aenima

Mastodon - Crack The Skye

Intronaut - Valley of Smoke

Converge - Jane Doe

Isis - Wavering Radiant

Mars Volta - Deloused

Opeth - Blackwater Park

Death - The Sound of Perseverance


That's off the top of my head, and as said before I really could list multiple albums by all of the above artists.
 

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