Gabriel’s solo career-Prog or not?

 I don´t care if Gabriel´s music is prog or not. It is still very well crafted music. In contrast to your feelings towards recent albums, I find these albums better than previous. I sure like songs like "Intruder", "San jacinto", "here comes the flood" and "The rythm of the heat"...and some others I don´t remember right now. Still, there are way better and more mature and concrete ideas in recent albums by Gabriel. With a better and more solid sound, even from "SO". man ¡¡. "In your eyes" and "red rain" are fantastic. ¡¡...

 Well, that´s just my opinion. I think Phil Collins, despite everyones´ bad comments about him, made 4 great albums. ...Forget about being prog or not. "Face value" has many songs with great instrumentation with jazz influences, "In the air tonight" is an absolute classic and is full of originality. The second album still has at least some 4 creative and memorable songs, plus the pop songs here are fresh, full of conviction, energic and entertaining. "no jacket required" the third album is one of the best and better crafted pop albums in history. Remember, POP is not meant to be music for the brain, is music to entertain and present certain moods, this album is great at that. Making good pop like that is way more difficult than making lousy Prog like later Caravan´s, Later CAN´s, Epidarius, Many Magmas´, and many more in plain 70´s. (Yeah ¡¡, bring it on, I´m waiting for this site´s stubborn blind-love-for-prog-arguments). his 4th. album "But seriously" has great compositions and arrangements. It really is a well done album. Has it´s own personality and style, was made with conviction, is fresh and entertaining throughout.

 Does it need anything else to be good music?...to be prog?,...even if it is boring, uncompromised, repetitive, monotonuos, not original prog like the one by the bands mentioned above?.

 Don´t worry about Gabriel´s later music being prog or not. ...Making a comparison, Gabriel´s music is a full lenght Mozart concert compared to Waters´ "musicless" solo albums.

 Listen to "In your eyes" live. Man¡¡, that´s passion, conviction, joy, excitement ¡¡. I love that song played live, it just makes me cry listening to these musicians placing their heart out for the listeners. They can´t hide their joy for sharing that moment with each other. That´s what is important, not being prog just for the sake of being prog.    

I was with you until you brought up "In Your Eyes," .  I find that one to be really banal.

But yeah -- "prog" is just a genre.  It is not a "highter" form of music, and there can be music that is highly experimental and creative that is not considered part of prog.     

yargh wrote: I was with you until you brought up "In Your Eyes," .  I find that one to be really banal. But yeah -- "prog" is just a genre.  It is not a "highter" form of music, and there can be music that is highly experimental and creative that is not considered part of prog.

 About "in your eyes",  It´s a matter of taste I guess. The studio album could be liked or not. I donpt blame you. But I really recommend you to listen to it live from his last double live album (don´t remember the name). If it´s "In your eyes" it really doesn´t matter, it could even be another song...The real deal here is the passion, that implicit energy they put out.