SO

You can't get any farther from prog than this. The songs have simple pop structures and all chords and harmonies are very typical for eighties pop/rock. There are some world influences appearing in the arrangements, but not in the melodies, chords, etc. The music itself is as pop as it can be. It would sound quite similar even if there was just some synth playing all the things, Sledgehammer still would have made it to the top (trumpets and saxophones can't be called "world" influences). And anyway, world music is not the same as progressive. Almost every song have been made with one goal, to be an easy-listening hit song, so they lack of substance. There are progressive influences on "So" as much as in any pop album, I think The Police's Synchronicity is actually more progressive than this, and I could easily find some pretty "artful" and "progressive" things from that album (by the way, why isn't The Police in Prog Archives?). Every good quality pop album has it's original sound and progressive sides. It's not always black and white. In fact, this album is a stereotypical example of eighties pop, and I have recommended it to some people as a good "eighties pop album". Afterwise, none of them have said anything else about it. Pretty many people here have said it to be very artful and even progressive, but that's just because they have a self-evident assumption of Gabriel as a "prog artist" (because of his early work with Genesis) and have listened the album carefully tracing even the slightest prog elements.

But anyway, "So" is a fine pop album. And So on, this is one of the clearest examples of an ex-prog artist selling out (Genesis had that time at least the "epic masterpiece" Home By The Sea, so they were certainly NOT selling out, ha).