Side-long construct pieces, walls of Mellotrons, keyboardists in capes…such were the glories of art rock. And behind information technology all were a stack of wildly fictive prog-rock albums that still hold a potent boot of discovery. The reverberations are lul in that respect whenever a modern band takes chances with instrumentation or reaches beyond a singles-length pass over. But present we salute the original 70s flower of prog rock, with a yoke of late-60s and early-80s cornerstones. All of it demonstrates how much of a journey a 40-minute vinyl record album could be.
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50: Premiata Forneria Marconi: Photos of Ghosts
The Italian band Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM) was the initial bit-coevals prog banding, cutting their dentition on Jethro Tull and King Crimson covers. By the sentence of their American debut, they'd found their own elan, with a strong sense of pastoral melody and European folk music influences (their heavier rock side would come out in prison term). Purists favour the original Italian versions (drawn from PFM's first two European albums), but the new English language lyrics are several of Pete Sinfield's loveliest.
49: Marillion: F.E.A.R.
Marillion's second incarnation with singer Steve Hogarth is ease a bit underrated, despite his being in direct since 1989. Though they've done come out from time to time, the Hogarth-led band took its cue from the Brexit and Scoo era to go conceptual at one time again in 2022 (the title stands for "F… Everyone and Run"). F.E.A.R is less about specific politics than an inexplicit sense of disorder, it shows that ex-serviceman proggers can ease feature teeth.
48: Badger: One Springy Badger
Perhaps the most haze over entry on a list of greatest prog rock albums, Badger was keyboardist Tony Kaye's pint-sized-lived post-Yes band, along with Jon Maxwell Anderson's pre-Yes bandmate David Foster happening bass and vocals (Carl David Anderson produced this be album, from a show that Yes was headlining). Kaye plays some of his finest recorded solos and the percussion section really cooks, making this one of the few truly funky prog albums – comparisons to prime Traffic wouldn't be farther off. And with an underlying gospel/somebody look, the songwriting is so multipotent that IT's a wonder this got overlooked.
47: Genesis: Selling England By the Pound
Though they were through with side-long tracks, Genesis' mental imagery continuing to run wild on Foxtrot 's followup, with Peter Gabriel inhabiting a rogue's gallery of characters and the band's playing acquiring more muscular; "Firth of One-fifth" and "The Cinema Show" became oftentimes-played life history standards. And wonder of wonders, the capricious "I Cognize What I Like (in Your Wardrobe)" became a UK shoot single, their only unmatchable in the Gabriel era.
46: Procol Harum: Foreign Birds & Yield
Though many Procol Harum diehards volition always prefer the Robin redbreast Trower era, the band was even grander along this later effort with the equally fine Mick Grabham on guitar. The premiere half of Exotic Birds &adenosine monophosphate; Fruit reaches a heavenly peak with the outstretched lay "The Idol," and Side Two offers "Mas Boys," unmatched of the funnier slaps a prog stria has ever given to its tape judge.
45: Marillion: Misplaced Puerility and Clutching at Straws
Original Isaac M. Singer Fish's tenure with Marillion, which only lasted four albums, ended with two conceptual epics. Lost Childhood is often considered the peak, since it had cardinal indelible singles ("Kayleigh" and "Lavender") and dealt with the dateless prog theme of loss of innocence and the end of a pivotal love. Yet Clutching at Straws is in retrospect, a far gutsier track record, with a theme that cuts low – namely Pisces's romance with alcohol and cocaine, and the toll that took on his private life. Appropriately, the band rocks harder here than it ever so had earlier.
44: Rush: Hemispheres
Hemispheres was the deepest into prog that Rush ever got, with a side-long piece full of interlinking musical themes and a absorbing plot line (about two civilizations that represent the left and right sides of the brain). Flip it over and on that point's "La Francisco Villa Strangiato," Rush's longest, trickiest, and almost impressive instrumental. There are as wel changes afoot: The four-minute, hook-heavy "Circumstances" hints at Rush's more streamlined counsel to come.
43: Yes: Tales From Topographic Oceans
History tends to give this one a bad rap: With four side-long pieces based on Hindu Shashtric scriptures, it's got to be dense and impenetrable, right? Wrong: Most of Tales From Geography Oceans is as gorgeously melodic as anything Yes always did, and the stripe charges hard, newly fortified past drummer Alan Unintegrated. To name just one moment, Kink Wakeman's climactic synth alone on "The Revelation Science of Supreme Being" is positively celestial.
42: Camel: Mirage
At this early degree, Camel was perched central 'tween prog and merger: Their second album Mirage is two-thirds instrumental (the next, The Snow Twat, had fair one legal brief vocal), and it's largely hinged connected the interplay of keyboardist Peter Bardens and guitarist Andy Latimer, some dazzling soloists. But Mirage also has "Lady Fantasy," their all but romantic vocalized piece.
41: Supertramp: Crime of the Century
Though it produced a major UK gain (and one that predated punk) with "Homicidal Well Opportune," Crime of The One C was in reality Supertramp's deepest record album, with songs about a tortured soul's descent into madness: "Rudy," "Hide in Your Shell" and "Asylum" form a highly emotive and rather dark trilogy. It makes it even to a greater extent unexpected that Supertramp became much a pop Juggernaut a few days later.
40: Martin Luther King Violent: Larks' Tongues in Aspic
There was very little case in point for the kind of racket that Robert Fripp and company were making in 1973. The music on this largely-instrumental album was heavy and intense, with Fripp and violinist David Cross in constant scramble (Mad percussionist Jamie Muir was only present for this one album). And during all this chaos, John Wetton got to sing "Book of Saturday," one of the loveliest ballads in prog history.
39: Jethro Tull: Scuba
To some extent, Jethro Tull was still working their blues and hard-rock roots on Aqualung, along with the pastoral folk focusing that first appeared on Stand up Up. In time Ian Carl Anderson's writing was growing more harmonious arsenic heard on "My God." Though he's insisted this is non a conception album, the eleven songs act make a unified statement more or less organized religious belief and the earthborn downtrodden.
38: New wave der Graaf: Vital
Vital was recorded experience at the Marquee club in London during the season of spunk, and it sounds that way. This is arguably the most ferocious performance of all time given by a prog band, especially one with cardinal string players, and since fractional the songs have none studio apartment variant, it easily stands as an record album of its personal. The band (World Health Organization'd temporarily dropped "Generator" from their name) were clearly energized by their surroundings: They positively rampage through frontman Peter Hammill's nod to toughie, "Nadir's Big Hazard."
37: King Crimson: Discipline
Reinventing itself for a new ERA, King Crimson builds a undecomposed sound out of gamelan-like guitar parts, Adrian Belew's songcraft, and a flexible calendar method division. The 80s Crimson threw away the musical furnishing of 70s prog, piece retaining the tingle of exploration.
36: Queensryche: Operation Mindcrime
Prog metal is arguably a genre of its ain, but its flagship album Operation Mindcrime had to be enclosed Here. This 1988 epic expanded boundaries in both directions, bringing high compositional ambitions into metal and modern-day opinion apprehension into prog.
35: Genesis: Foxtrot
Nothing behind be more prog than an album that begins with two minutes of alone Mellotron and ends with the Apocalypse. For many fans, Book of Genesis never topped the kaleidoscopic "Supper's Ready," but Fox-trot is nary one-track album: "Get 'Mutton Come out Aside Friday" is their funniest bit of social satire, and the lovely lay "Time Table" finds a ring in its early 20s already sounding like shriveled souls.
34: Emerson, Lake & Palmer: Brain Salad Surgery
On their to the highest degree ambitious record album, Emerson, Lake & Palmer nonmoving found room for a bauble number, an English hymn, and a classic Greg Lake ballad – all to order the main attraction, the 30-minute "Karn Worthless 9." The song's narrative of a computerised, totalitarian upcoming in which the masses are kept happy with splashy entertainment sounds more resonant every day.
33: Rush: Permanent Waves
With their 1980 release Indissoluble Waves , Rush offered a workable vision of prog Rock for the new decade: Shorter and more contiguous songs with real-domain lyrical themes, still evincing a adenoidal degree of musical complexity. Not umteen bands picked up their lead (or had the chops to do it), but it gave Rush some plushy territory to explore o'er the next pair off of decades.
32: Mike Oldfield: Amarok
Microphone Oldfield waited till 1990 to make his all but ambitious album, a dumbly jam-packed 60-minute musical composition with threefold the common indelible Oldfield melodies and solos. Amarok is a good deal to take in at first gear (including the wonderfully odd closing), but it reveals more with each listen. And apparently, IT's all meant to annoy Virgin Records label boss Richard Branson, World Health Organization's called call at a Morse code substance that's in there somewhere.
31: Book of Genesis: Wind & Wuthering
The second Genesis studio album without Peter Gabriel and the last with Steve Hackett, Wind & Wuthering was arguably their net purely prog epic before finding their flowing 80s steering. And a resplendently arts work it is, capped with a soaring instrumental retinue and Phil Collins' first-class honours degree great vocal carrying into action on "Afterglow."
30: Pinko Floyd: The Dark Side of the Moon
The Dark Side of the Moon is active madness and alienation, and it's one of the best-selling albums of all metre – further proof that everybody is drawn to the inactive side at one time or some other. Yet Pink Floyd makes the dark side a gorgeous place to chaffer, creating a grand soundscape where the tape-loop experiments oeuvre redress aboard the moving melodies, the R&B workout "Money," and the obligatory amazing solos from Mr. David Gilmour.
29: Gentle Giant: Free Hand
Free Reach makes a arrant introduction-head prog rock album, upcoming at a time when Gentle Whale had learned to commingle fiendish complexness with heavier rock leanings. The temper is eudaemonia and the whole matter rocks suchlike mad, even the Renaissance-ish instrumental ("Talybont") and the largely unaccompanied cut through "On Reflection."
28: Transatlantic: The Whirlwind
Drawing its rank from four notable bands (Spock's Beard, Dream Theater, the Flower Kings, and Marillion), Transatlantic consistently represents the best in 70s-traced modern prog. The 3rd album was their magnum musical composition, a 75-minute piece designed to be seasoned as a whole. The national matter largely hinges on frontman Neal Morse's positive take on spirituality.
27: Yes: Fragile
This late-1971 album scarred the arrival of Crick Wakeman and the flowering of Yes' musical ambitions; they were now confident enough to include a solo track by each member. But each of the four full-dance band pieces became a Yes standard; with "Roundabout" starting the album on a high and "Heart of the Dayspring" closing IT epically.
26: Hedgehog Tree: Awe of a Blank Planet
Mastermind Steven Wilson claimed to be under the influence of Bret Easton Ellis when he wrote this epic, but atomic number 2 arguably does an even better job at spinning youthful alienation into artistic gold. It's non the brightest of prog visions, but there's cathartic power in the roily 18-minute centerpiece "Anesthetize." And the front of Robert Fripp and Alex Lifeson makes a signal passing of the torch.
25: Argent: In Deep
Now that The Zombies have been well rediscovered, Rod Argent's following set deserves some of the same glory. Their proggiest album begins with a fist-waver that Kiss covered ("Graven image Gave Rock & Roll to You") but goes from there into headier territory, with untold grandnes and keyboard genius. The nine-minute "Represent Willing" could be the prog respond to the Zombies' Odessey and Oracle.
24: Tangerine Dream: Encore
Edgar Lee Masters of the cosmic soundscape, the peak-ERA Tangerine tree Dream got into an outgoing mood on the mostly improvised, double live album Encore . They tease leading, experiment many with rhythm, and compile some lovely tunes on the spot. Leader Edgar Froese even gets in few grampus guitar solos.
23: Magma: Mëkanïk Dëstruktïẁ Kömmandöh
Distinguished opera meets fusion meets space travel, with some reimagined church music thrown in – bushed a spoken language that the eccentric French band made up. This was prog rock at its most abstract, and after all these years, nothing sounds rather like information technology.
22: Steve Hackett: Voyage of the Acolyte
Steve Hackett had a foot out the Genesis door when he made his solo debut, which laid out all the territorial dominion he'd search for the next 30-odd long time. Always a piece cosmic in his lyrics, helium could be atomic number 3 down to earth as the frantic implemental "Ace of Wands." This album especially benefits from a strong supporting throw away, with Sally Oldfield doing unmatched gorgeous vocal and Phil Tom Collins taking one of his first turns at the mic.
21: Mike Barney Oldfield: Ommadawn
Mike Oldfield made more famous albums, only he never flat-topped the first uncomplete of Ommadawn, a melodic feast that culminates with a stimulating guitar solo and a healing wash of Continent drums. Side two has its pleasures too, including a beautiful Rice paddy Moloney piping solo. If you lie with this go over the 2022 sequel, Return to Ommadawn.
20: The Moody Blues: In Search of the Bewildered Chord
You could make water a strong case for whatsoever of the "standard seven" Moody Blues albums but In Search of the Lost Chord stands out for its theme of mind expansion, offer three possible paths to enlightenment: Dot (via Ray Lowell Jackson Thomas' ode to Timothy Leary, "Legend of a Mind") meditation (keyboardist Mike Pinder's thinking "Om") and lovemaking ("The Actor," a vintage Justin Hayward ballad).
19: U.K.: U.K.
It wouldn't be right to doh a name of the second-best prog rock albums without including a record that the late John Wetton sang on. The original UK was simply too good to last: Wetton and Eddie Jobson wanted to go far into pop while Bill Bruford and Allan Holdsworth were drawn to jazz; for this united brilliant moment, the two planets collided.
18: Camel: Moonmadness
Camel had two terrific soloists in keyboardist Simon Peter Bardens and guitarist Andy Latimer, so the isthmus's best moments came when both got to cut loose. Moonmadness ' extended tracks showed off their dexterity, from the excited solo-trading along "Lunar Sea" to the cosmic grandnes of "Song Within a Song."
17: Strawbs: Hero and Heroine
Prog rock was honorable one stop on the Strawbs' long journeying from acoustic family to relatively straightforward rock. Only they nailed IT on this record album, where loss leader Dave Cousins' flair for drama infuses every track. The peak is the title song, where a lyric about heroin addiction meets John Hawken's heavenly chorus of mellotrons.
16: Peter Gabriel: Security
Peter Gabriel had disowned the "progressive rock" tail by 1983, yet his operate continuing getting more wildcat. This unrivaled broke new ground both sonically (he'd just unconcealed African music and gotten his hands on the Fairlight) and lyrically. He likewise brings some prog friends along: "Electric shock the Monkey" is the single Top 40 single Peter Hammill always sang on.
15: Kansas: Leftoverture
Nearly every of the best prog rock albums were aside English or Continent artists, but Kaw River was one of the few who was both undeniably proggy and heartland Terra firma. Their fourth record album was actually recorded abysmal in the Louisiana swamp and though it was partly radio-friendly, it also housed the Inborn American-inspired epic "Capital of Wyoming Anthem" and the instrumental "Magnum Opus," with some downright Zappa-esque moments. And how many smash singles ("Act up Wayward Son") ever so begin with a full chorus sung a cappella?
14: Renaissance: Ashes are Flaming
Because Annie Haslam had one of the loveliest voices in prog rock (or anyplace other), and because there was nary electric guitar, Renaissance sometimes set out written in the lead as too Henry Sweet. But their finest album adds very much of emotional burthen to the shuffle, courtesy of the epical championship track, and the shimmering "Carpet of the Dominicus."
13: Caravan: In the Land of Cloudy and Rap
This edition of Van had the same jazz leanings as their Canterbury mates the Soft Machine, just singer/writers Pye Hastings and Richard Sinclair too brought in some pop mastery to In the Land of Grey and Pink . The side-long "Nina from Carolina Feet Underground" is a seamless mix of stretched-out performin and idealistic melodies. And if you also want some offbeat Brits humor, "Golf Girlfriend" adds that to the mix.
12: Emerson, Lake &A; Arnold Palmer: Tarkus
ELP's chef-d'oeuvre actually leaves retired many of their trademarks: There isn't that more Moog (Keith Emerson was still into piano and organ), and Greg Lake never gets an acoustic-guitar ballad. Only the side-abundant construct suite is a landmark, exploring warfare, peace, and tricky time signatures. Wear't overlook Side Two's short pieces either; "The Only Way" attacks structured religion in some respects that later punk rockers would appreciate.
11: Traffic: John Barley Must Die
Unlike most bands in the progressive rock movement, Traffic (or at least its loss leader Steve Winwood) was e'er solidly grounded in R&B. Started as a Winwood solo project, John Barleycorn Must Die has plenty of someone but also covers happy jazz on "Glad" and doleful English folk on the title track, which misused to be a chaff drinking song.
10: Avant-garde der Graaf Generator: Pawn Black Maria
Take everything fiddly and pretty impermissible of the uncomparable prog rock albums, ramp up the loudness, and you have got Van der Graaf Generator's classic, Pawn Hearts. Fueled by Peter Hamill's existential lyrics and wildly hammy singing, the power Hera never lets aweigh. It's no inquire they were the ace prog sway band that European nation punks (famously John Lydon) admitted to liking.
9: Jethro Tull: Thick Equally a Brick
An record album-length while wrapped in a Monty Python -esque newspaper, Grumose As a Brick was at once a songful masterstroke and a grand joke. Ian Maxwell Anderson clearly known with the smoldering misfit lyrics, but dispatched ahead his own pretensions at every turn.
8: Todd Rundgren: Zion #1
The guys in the first Utopia (not to be confused with the later quartet) were jazz-enlightened musos who could solo eventually, and then on paper, IT makes no sense to flip in a pop songwriter of Rundgren's calibre. Only on disc, it works perfectly, with Rundgren's catchy moments place setting up and amplifying all the helpful fireworks (plenty of which came from his have lead guitar). "The Ikon" was at the clip the longest album side ever (30:22), but it's anything simply a keep one's nose to the grindstone; the opening riff takes about 5 seconds to hook you in.
7: Gong: You
Bell's Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy saved the best for high. Their trademark "pothead pixie" whimsy is here, but so is some deep spirituality and powerful jams, with the dueling virtuosity of guitarist Steve Hillage and saxophonist Didier Malherbe. You boasts all this, plus a finale that will leave you vagrant.
6: Unreserved: Moving Pictures
Rush was progressing like mad in 1982, writing arena-ready anthems ("Tom Sawyer," "Limelight") aboard high-wattage bang rides ("Red Barchetta"). Only in that location are also signs of a more sophisticated bear on Moving Pictures , with the synth-driven "Television camera Optic," harking to the next tenner. It's no surprise that this was the only album they ever performed full in order.
5: Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here
Pink Floyd were kings of the thematic album between 1973-80, releasing four conceptual classics albums in a row. This one gets special rapport from the unearthly presence of chemical group founder Syd Barrett, who rotated up personal during the sessions. They smooth get foetid, and funny, on "Have a Cigar."
4: Gentle Giant: The Power and the Glory
Gentle Giant's earliest albums were fiendishly difficult, while their final ones were AOR crossover. The Top executive and the Resplendence lands in the angelical pip directly in the middle. "Aspirations" is one of the almost beautiful tunes prog rock has ever produced. And the even-well timed theme of political power and its insult proves you can do a construct album without leaving the real existence.
3: Genesis: The Charles Lamb Lies Down happening Broadway
Perhaps the most outlandish conception album of all time, The Charles Lamb Lies Fallen on Broadway takes you on a surreal ride with Rael, a Parvenue House of York graffiti artist who wakes up in a netherworld. The narrative came mainly from St. Peter the Apostl Gabriel, but everyone in Genesis was aside now a first-rate songwriter, and you could feel their later papa success coming.
2: King Crimson: In the Court of the Crimson King
IT's hard to settle on incomparable King Crimson album, since each avatar (including the up-to-the-minute one) was remonstrate-dropping in its own way. But their launching really pushed the limits, with the band's avant-jazz leanings somehow meshing with Greg Lake's choirboy vocals. Information technology makes perfect sense that "21st Century Schizoid Man" sounds even more necessary in the 21st century.
1: Yes: Close to the Edge
The most glorious moment among all of the scoop prog rock albums has to be the climax of the "Close to the Edge", where Crick Wakeman's Hammond organ alone ascends into the heavens, and then the song's impressive closedown chorus takes you along. The two shorter pieces are no slouches either: Prog sway ne'er got more soaringly romantic than "And You & I," or much joyful than "Siberian Khatru." And did we mention Steve Howe's amazing guitar tone?
Listen to: "Siberian Khatru"
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"""10 Prog Rock Concept Albums Every Music Fan Should Own"""
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