What makes a perfect album? In this podcast, Roie, Geoff, Dan, and Nick share their picks for the perfect prog albums, albums where every song is great, the sequencing is great, and so is everything that comes with it.
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Great discussion and thoughts as always. Don’t agree with everyone but still fun to hear your rationale (even if you guys are a bunch of Neal fanboys). I’ll definitely be revisiting Frost. I was thinking about some more perfect hidden gems and came up with: Phideaux – Doomsday Afternoon, Perfect Beings – Vier, and my wildcard Devin Townsend – Accelerated Evolution.
Also this one album “Close to the Edge” … have you heard of it? 😛
Haha, well yeah we do like Neal, don’t we. We do mention CTTE. But does that album need more love at this point?:)
Really enjoyed this podcast but can’t resist making a couple comments:
Jethro Tull doesn’t get nearly the love ’round these parts that they should. Thick As A Brick should absolutely have been mentioned. Not only was it the most ambitious prog album made by anyone up to that point, but it’s a perfect album not only in its music, but its presentation – the St. Cleve Chronicle is just wonderful to fold out an enjoy, with so many goofy jokes and fun references throughout. It’s really a complete package in the way few albums are.
Also surprised, when talking about perfectly concise albums, that Rush’s Permanent Waves wasn’t mentioned. It’s the perfect Rush album, IMO, with some fantastic prog moments as well as some hints at the tight pop songcraft that was to come on Moving Pictures and Signals. And it’s only 37 minutes long!
I’d likely have thrown a bit of love to Gentle Giant’s album ‘Three Friends’ as well, which is likewise concise, has a unique concept, and is consistently excellent.
Finally, what the heck was Prog Nick smoking when he came up with his list? I love Selling England and Fragile, but no sane person could call either album “perfect”. Both albums are famous for their filler. The ‘solo’ songs on Fragile are kind of neat to listen to a couple times, but they’re not songs anyone comes back to or can even remember. And ‘Battle of Epping Forest’ is just way too long. If it was a 6-minute song it’d be just fine (Genesis apparently agreed, revisiting the concept much more successfully three years later with the six-minute ‘Robbery Assault & Battery’). But at over 12 minutes, its interminable, and I skip it probably half the time when I listen to the album (which is otherwise spectacular).
Fair comments. I think we did mentioned Permanent Waves at the end at least :). Thanks for listening!
Did you? I just heard Moving Pictures in the honourable mentions at the end (also a reasonable choice!)
UK’s debut album
Talk Talk: Spirit of Eden
Spock’s Beard: V
Big Big Train: The Underfall Yard
Steven Wilson: Insurgentes
Roie. I’d like to add Wobbler, Dwellers of the Deep, a perfect prog album. Tom Palka