VDGG - Pawn Hearts (maybe I need to listen more but I probably prefer Godbluff)

King Crimson - Red (the title track is really repetitioius and the improv piece is well an improv piece. Anyway, I much prefer LTIA)

Porcupine Tree - In Absentia (not many "wow" moments imo)

Camel - Moonmadness (a solid album for sure but I still much prefer Mirage and The Snow Goose)

Rush - 2112 (I love side one but side 2 is probably their weakest side from the 70s although still good)

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon

ELP - Brain Salad Surgery (some great stuff on here for sure but the karn evil 9 epic is too repetitious to be thoroughly enjoyable. I prefer the debut.)

Genesis - Foxtrot (supper's ready is the best thing they ever did but side one is a little spotty imo especially get em out by Friday which took me a long time to warm up to).

Genesis - Trespass & Nursery Cryme

Rush - Moving Pictures & 2112

Pink Floyd - Animals & The Wall

ELP - Tarkus

Alan Parsons Project - Tales of Mystery and Imagination

Moody Blues - In Search of the Lost Chord

Steve Hackett - Voyage of the Acolyte

Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells

Supertramp - the first two albums

Marillion - everything with Fish

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Genesis-Nursery Crime-I much prefer the previous "Trespass"

Eloy-Floating-it does nothing for me, I really dig the debut and especially "Inside" much more

The Soft Machine-debut and Volume Two-these first two albums are nonsense to me; their later albums like "Fourth" and "Seven" are much more focused and together recordings.

ELP - s/t, Trilogy

PFM - Storia di un Minuto

Pink Floyd - Animals

Maxophone - s/t

Collegium Musicum - Konvergenzie

Camel - the entire discography (sorry it's very boring for me)

I just listened to Nursery Cryme the other night and I think it might be a contender for best Genesis album. I think next to A Trick of the Tail it's probably their most consistent. SEBTP and Foxtrot both have a bit of low points (or as some people might say "filler") and the same goes for Lamb.

The only Yes album that might be a little overrated (these days anyway) is Close to the Edge. These days that's to prog what Dark Side of the Moon or Led Zepp 4 is to classic rock. Too bad the classic rock crowd never really caught on but in prog circles at least it's often seen as the GOAT.

I counted 35 titles in PA's top prog albums, that according to my tastes are overrated, but I'm not going to name them. 

I can say which ones I disagree about that's been mentioned here instead: VDGG - Pawn Hearts, King Crimson - Red, Camel - Moonmadness, The Soft Machine - Volume Two, Genesis - Trespass & Nursery Cryme (my two favorite Genesis albums), PFM - Storia di un Minuto and finally:

Grumpyprogfan wrote: In the Court of the Crimson King. The opening tune is a masterpiece. The closing track is really good. The remainder is nothing special.

I know not everyone loves the whole album like I do, but thinking of Epitaph as nothing special, is just weird to me.

I also think Wish You Were Here firmly belongs in the lower half of Pink Floyd's albums.

Another one from the category "highly rated albums from an artist I love that I don't think are that good" is Oldfield's Amarok, which is quite messy in my view, and it doesn't help that he intentionally damaged the flow of it just to annoy Richard Branson apparently.

Änglagård Hybris

Tool Lateralus

The Mars Volta De-Loused in the Comatorium

Wobbler From Silence to Somewhere

Seven Impale Summit

I admittedly was a little underwhelmed when I first heard Seven Impale's Summit but I only listened to it once so far. Not bad but maybe just not the style I typically like and listen to. TMV I have to listen to again. They seem a bit wild. Hybris is a stone cold classic though and the Wobbler is very good too but need to listen to more.

Certainly not a new subject, maybe except from the "little" 

but okay, some of them are and maybe not just little:

King Crimson - Discipline

Rush - Moving Pictures

Yes - Fragile

Tull - TaaB

VdGG - Pawn Hearts

Everything from Genesis (sorry but I've never been able to survive an entire album in one shot)

But The Lamb is a great exception to what I have written above. 

Hi,

Agreed. I do think as well that saying that something as this, is rather weird .... I was about to state that the "influence" of others is a serious issue, otherwise you or I would never think of anything as such.

As an artist, stuff like this is a bummer. It takes away a lot of the beauty and effort that so many people have put together for an album. I guess it's different today since you can "compose" in your bed, or shower, and that "qualifies one to say something else is "overrated"? Blame Byron, who used to write some of his poetry in the bath!

Definitely weird!

2112's flipside has 2.5 pearls IMHO

Bangkok and Something For Nothing are downright excellent , and ditto to a lesser extent Twilight.

Steve Wyzard wrote: Supertramp - the first two albums

Maybe I'm easily pleased, but I think they are all 5 Star albums, except the Rush (Side A 5/5 B 3.5/5)

Hi,

Weird that in the 90's it was thought as "overrated" by some. When it came out, there was no "Prog", or even "Progressive" as a known term, and everyone just thought, like I did ... nice! Really nice! And very enjoyable.

This is the tough part of how some folks rank/rate so many of these things according to TODAY's standards, instead of what I think was the time and place WHEN it came out, when the album was special and far out, and so different from the previous stuff that KC had done. One could say that they were "progressing" really nicely as opposed to many other bands that repeated themselves.

For me, it's like saying that Beethoven's 3rd and 4th are overrated when compared to the 5th and the 9th ... and in the end, I think this is not respectful to the artist and his/her ability to give us so much music that we enjoy over and over again, and to think that we are almost to the 50th year after its release, makes me appreciate it even more, and the fact that KC still performs these in concert is special to me ... that was a magic time, 1972/1973, 1974 and 1975 ... when so much music made our heart go wow.

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Dark Side Of The Moon. Actually a fantastic rock album but slightly overrated as a prog album. Also never understood the big deal about AP's production. Nearly everything else recorded in 1973 sounds better to me!

Script For A Jesters Tear. Never been the biggest Marillion fan but I much prefer Fugazi which has better playing and seemed a bit more original to these ears.

Hybris. Actually I love this album but it seems to overshadow a lot of equally good albums that were released in the 90's. Maybe like Marillion it was that 'first in gets the bacon' thing.

Scenes From A Memory Pt2. Never could connect with this and there are other DT albums I like a lot more. However this one gets the masterpiece status while Octavarium, A Change Of Seasons and Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence skulk in it's shadow for reasons I never understand.

and finally of course In The Court Of The Crimson King. Yep first in gets the bacon!

If you dislike CTTE more than just a little that's ok too but I'm wondering what it is about the album that puts you off so much.

Absolutely. Many artist put a lot of effort in the writing, instrumenting, orchestrating, recording, etc. of an album, just to be labeled "overrated" by somebody who doesn't have a clue how to do this, sometimes they don't even know how to play an musical instrument, let alone know how to write a song, only because it doesn't appeal to their taste. It seems quite unfair to me, honestly, and I don't agree with it at all. Of course it's only my opinion, but I'm glad there're at least a few people who agree with me.

For example, very overrated:

1) JT: Thick as a Brick

2) Genesis: Nursery Crime

3) Gentle Giant: In A Glass House

4) Rush: all the albums

5) Pink Floyd: Meddle

6) Yes album

7) Camel: The Snow Goose 

8) Al di Meola: all the albums

9) Mahavishnu Orchestra: All the albums

10) Opeth: all the albums

11) Anglagard all the albums

12) Death: all the albums

13) Riverside: all the albums

14) Return to forever: all the albums

overrated/little overrated:

1) Yes: Fragile and little overrated Close to the edge

2) Genesis: Selling England and little overrated Foxtrot

3) Vdgg: Still Life and little overrated Godbluff

4) Pink Floyd: Animals and little overrated Dark Side

5) Camel: Moonmadness and Mirage

6) PFM: Per un amico and Isola di niente

7) Banco: Io sono nato libero

8) Emerson Lake and Palmer: all the albums

9) Porcupine Tree /Steve Wilson: little overrated all the albums

10)  All Traps on Earth: lttle overrated all the albums

11) M. Oldfield: all the albums

12) Supertramp: little overrated Crime

13) King Crimson: litlle overrated Larks

14) Wobbler: litlle overrated all the albums

15) Gentle Giant: The Power and Free Hand

The, Little overrated Harmonium, Metropolis part 2, In The Land,  Obscura, De Pois do film etc.

From my favourite band/artist:

Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet

Steven Wilson - The Raven that refused to sing

Pink Floyd - The Wall

Genesis - Nursey Crime

I've noticed that too, although I would never say that. 

By the same token, I could say my favourite band Mostly Autumn are overrated too, but only because I've given all of their albums the full five stars. 

In the end, it all comes down to subjective opinion, where a 1-star turkey for me could be a 5-star masterpiece (and vice versa) from someone else's perspective. 

Strongly disagree. That's the album that finally broke down my Resistance to the sound of poor man's Gabriel imitator Peter Nicholls and Resistance still remains my favourite IQ album to this day.  

Horses for courses, the silence and sold sources. 

I generally am not keen on the overrated and underrated terms unless one can refer to specific claims that are true or false, demonstrable, verifiable or unverifiable, and arguments that are valid or invalid / faulty.  There is little point in arguing tastes and saying that my opinion of art is better than other people's -- which is pretty arrogant and can lead to or be a sign of very insular thinking.  Like what music you like, dislike what you will, to each his or her own tastes.   We all experience music differently to some extent.  We have physical differences, mental differences... different psyches... experiences, associations, dispositions.

That said, a little less valued by me or a lot less than the majority opinion that I have observed would be Yes' Close to the Edge.  Well, I'd give it three stars.  With Magma, MDK (the studio album) is often said to be THE Zeuhl classic, and I understand and won't disagree, but while I used to love it, it has gone down in esteem for me (live versions are great).  I Like Magma's debut the most. Thinking Plague's In Extremis would be another (much prefer earlier Thinking Plague). I understand the love for Captain Beefheart's Troutmask Replica, and I have loved the album before, but unadventurous me would rather the comfort of Safe As Milk.  I would have said Tangerine Dream's Phaedra at one time, but now I love it.

Weaker than Nomzamo? I'll say it probably shouldn't have been a double but I don't think it's that bad. Maybe on par with  Frequency (imo).

Why are you posting my quote if you aren't going to answer the question. 

Funnily enough, I can't remember any songs from Resistance either, but it's still my favourite IQ album. 

I would have to take issue with the idea that everything is overrated.

Although I wouldn't go as far as crediting Rush with creating Prog metal they were as important as anyone and massively influential. I would say their seventies albums are fair game but Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures are no way overrated. 

I am a fully paid up member of the ELP fan club so I'm passionate that they are regarded about right on PA. Emerson, Lake and Palmer's debut was a massive statement of intent in 1970 and rightly occupies a place in the Top 100 (lower reaches). After that Brain Salad Surgery tends to be more polarising but has a rating quite a bit lower than many prog albums of 1973 that are far less interesting. This is subjective of course. If you check the ratings of all their albums they seem about right. ELP were a better live band than album band but they have to be given due credit for their part in raising the benchmark with not just their debut but also Tarkus and Pictures At An Exhibition. This is me trying to be objective. Prog was a real movement that happened and not just an idea that was dreamt up by a bunch of college grads. It needed some rocket fuel and ELP were that.

That is why they are "progressive."  Pompous, over-the-top, overly serious about themselves.  

Spinal Tap with Mellotrons.  

Ask Rick, he'll tell you. 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1045969/Yes-original-Spinal-Tap-says-Rick-Wakeman-Seventies-prog-rock-supergroup.html#ixzz1Ss5rspNu" rel="nofollow - https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1045969/Yes-original-Spinal-Tap-says-Rick-Wakeman-Seventies-prog-rock-supergroup.html#ixzz1Ss5rspNu

My favorite studio album by Magma is either Emehntehtt-Re or Felicite-Thosz. MDK is superb, but its full splendor isn't quite captured in the studio. I believe the best version is the one from Trianon. Without a doubt, it's the greatest zeuhl recording of all time.

Hi,

In my book, McLaughlin is way better at improvisation because he works on it time and again, specially with many foreign players alongside, and his excursions into other musics are neat, different, and sometimes not to everyone's taste, I don't think.

Jean Luc Ponty is very good, but in a classical way ... he is not, in my book a good improvisational player, and I think he is more in sync with the chords and notes and then joins in ... unlike someone like Shankar ... on a Bruce Springsteen rehearsal and shows ... when Bruce asked him ... what chord you in, man? ... and Shankar replies ... Bruce, my friend, yo just play and I join in!

That's not to say that JLP is not good, but I do not see in him as much freedom as we could probably see ... and this reminds me of a show at the Hollywood Bowl one time, when the great flute buffoon, was paired up with a jazz flute/woodwinds master ... and that night the buffon showed that he could not improvise, and was lost half the time. The bootleg (recording was never released to my knowledge!). showed it to be more of a comedy than anything else ... and a serious statement about how much a lot of well known classical music folks didn't really know crap about music!

JLP, for me, even in his solo albums, is REALLY WELL THOUGHT OUT and defined ... and that makes it look like the solos are better and that he is improvising ... he didn't have to ... he had the studio to be able to change/add/subtract some things.

When I saw him with RTF a few years back in Eugene, I did not feel like he was improvising, or had the spotlight that Corea and Clark showed, or the guitarist (Gamboli? sp) ... and it felt like he was merely making sure his parts were clean ... and well done, but he never smiled or played "hot" like his other friends. But I'm not sure that RTF had worked solos for him, since he did not tour with them all the time, due to his many commitments. Corea and Clarke didn't need a violin that night, or any other night! But their "improvisational abilities" were small and amounted to a few seconds on a transition or the like.

Another great example of improvisation with someone that is note/composition inclined, is Chick Corea's thing with Hiromi ... she was free flowing, and you can easily see his mind going ... start on this chord ... or equivalent ... he never really had the smile and free flow that Hiromi showed. She went by "colors" ... he went by notes and chords ... and the difference, was massive. It's hard to not appreciate Chick Corea, but on that night Hiromi, stole the show and then some.

The issue with EL&P is very different. They are British and are among the founders of prog. Their historical importance is immense. Enrico Merlin puts two of their albums in his book 1000 Records for a Century, where the criterion is musical innovation. EL&P were thus innovators in mixing cultured music with prog music, they influenced many prog artists who came after them, including the most famous Italian ones (Pfm, Banco, Orme). Having said that, if I evaluate the beauty of their albums, I think that they didnot churn out any masterpieces, that Tarkus suite, although innovative, is much less beautiful than the suites of Yes, Genesis, VdGG, King Crimson, that their records are full of low quality songs. I therefore put them in the little overrated ones, since they are not in the top positions of the Top 100. 

I can say this, though: I would understand not just one record, but two EL&P records in the Top 100 or even Top 50 (the debut and Tarkus, or the debut and Brain Salad) more than four Rush records.

Which EL&P album do you like most?

Which is your ranking?

Moving Pictures is very highly rated by many musicians and almost as important as Red in some respects. Rolling Stone magazine put it at No3 in their list of the greatest prog albums behind DSOTM and SEBTP. I was very impressed by their list but I get that you are going on personal taste. We can all be a bit objective though if we try. I've always thought Hemispheres was overrated but so many put it on a pedestial I've had to rethink a bit. Nevertheless I think it is overpraised. Early 80's Rush though is important because they were able to change with the times but still put out music that had artistic integrity. I think they also learnt the art of consistency with those albums.

ELP wise it's always Brain Salad Surgery. I actually played the debut on Friday and fell asleep during Take A Pebble and had to take it off the CD player during Tank. I was bored which a horrible admission to make as a fan! The albums I rate the highest after BSS are all live albums - Pictures At Exhibition, Mar Y Sol (1972) and the triple. Those are the ones I listen to the most aside from BSS. If ELP hadn't included the drum solo on the triple album in the middle of Karn Evil 9 then I would probbaly not even bother with the studio album. I also believe that Works Volume One deserves a bit more praise although the rating of it is about right on PA. It has some bold ideas and I think that Pirates is the very zenith of their music as a band. Fanfare in it's album form is also great and was superbly produced. After that album and the Works tour it was steeply down hill all the way unfortunately.

Atually, My rankings are

Rush

1) Moving (4 stars)

2) Emisphere (between 3 and 4)

---

3) 2112 - 3 stars

4) Farewell

---

5) Permanent - 2 stars

6) Caress

EL&P

1) EL&P (3 stars)

2) Tarkus

3) Brain Salad

---

4) Trilogy (2 stars)

5) Pictures

I agree!  I love to watch this clip over and over!!  

Beauty is very much in the eye of the beholder as someone once said. I think the only way to be objective is to take account of other opinions which is why I like a rating site. We also value different things and this the prism through which we judge.

I think for ELP studio albums

1. BSS 4.4 (PA 4.17)

2. Trilogy 4.3 (PA 4.14)

3. E,L and P 4.1 (4.24)

4. Tarkus 3.8 (PA 4.07)

5. Works Volume One 3.3 (PA 2.96)

Some are overrated and some underrated imo, overall if you add up total ratings they are not that far off

For Rush (top 5)

1. Moving Pictures 4.6 (PA 4.38)

2. Permanent Waves 4.4 (PA 4.27)

3. 2112 4.2 (PA 4.11)

4. AFTK 4.1 (PA 4.34)

5. Hemispheres 3.9 (PA 4.38)

I think that AFTK and Hemispheres didn't really improve that much on 2112 which was also more historically important. PA is about right with MP and PW but I would still elevate them a bit higher personally.

Hi,

I wonder how many musicians find "sloppy" a good way to find new things to do and learn.

It's kinda weird when you hear RF say "bollocks" when he misses one of his exercises, however, if his history is any example, in 50 years, he has had more chances than anyone to be "sloppy" and eventually come up with something else for another day.

As for like or dislike? ... I don't exactly think in terms of the subjective ways of looking at many of these folks ... I never think that they are not exactly looking to find new ways and things to do in a future setting. Sloppy might just as well be another word for "new" ... until we get used to it.