Divisive Prog Albums

I'm talking albums such as Tales from Topographic Oceans, maybe some Amarok, the Wall (for those of you that consider it prog), maybe even some divisive songs, such as Benny The Bouncer (a masterpiece)

Prog fans wanting to keep their favorite Prog bands in a box and not desire for them to explore can be attributed to the familiarity they strongly develop for a specific band...however if their favorite bands were to stick to the same old formula then they would be a redundancy.

If you've already repeated a formula on three different albums then it's t

ime to try something new ..moving on breaking the barriers and receiving hate for it.

Undoubtedly, The YES Album that's been the Big Generator of the most controversy over the years is Tales from Topographic Oceans. YES, it's a long double album with four long Yessongs, which was treated as something of a rotten Tormato by the cynical music press, but if you Open Your Eyes, you'll gain The Keys to Ascension and realise what a classic album this is. The album came Close to the Edge of splitting the band up, when there was a Magnification of tensions within the group with so many Fragile egos at stake. In the ensuing Drama, Time and a Word has it that Rick Wakeman threatened to walk out during the recording of the album. The album climbed The Ladder of success though, topping the UK album charts for two weeks. Rick Wakeman left the band and didn't appear on the following Relayer album. There was Talk of a re-Union, but Heaven & Earth had to be moved to persuade Rick to return for the Going for the One album in 1977. The best-selling YES album of all time though, released in 1983, was famously named after its catalogue number, 90125. 

Both, I love divisive album, so I'm curious for more examples, and general discussion

I would say A Passion Play. Controversial, different than anything Tull had done before, The critics did not treated it well, but the fans took it to Number one in the charts.

Dream Theater - Awake - it's become a love it or hate it kind of album. It was a quite relevant, important album when it came out. Quite influential as well. 

If we are talking 'Second Generation' bands, then I can't think of anything that divided opinion quite as much as The Mars Volta did during the early days of this forum... 

Edited by David_D - May 08 2023 at 08:23

YES, i think the wall is the Best PF album, and The Final Cut is the worst. It's weird, but that's how I think. Also I think Larks' Tongues in Aspic is a bit overrated, yes.

Frets N Worries wrote: YES, i think the wall is the Best PF album, and The Final Cut is the worst. It's weird, but that's how I think. Also I think Larks' Tongues in Aspic is a bit overrated, yes.