Another 1's: 1971, 1981 and 1991 albums

This poll is merely meant o cover some albums not in Mellotron Storm's excellent One poll that covers 15 albums from 1971, 1981, and 199l. see HERE. This poll is meant as a secondary accessory topic to the main event that this poll is a response to and inspired by. That other poll has various of my favourite albums such as Pink Floyd's Meddle, Talk Talk's Laughing Stock and Eskaton's 4 Visions that would have made my list, and it has various others that I rank highly.

John has gone outside of his faves fro his polls which can bring more variety (my main interests in music may well be more limited anyway). This list is based on what I am most interested in these days, and I did exclude some little known faves for a little more popularity, so please excuse what to you might seem obvious omissions from my list that are not in John's recent O's poll which this is meant to complement. A complaint has been even when explicitly doing my favourites that I totally miss the obvious choices, and people would be curious about and even apparently angry about some omission sometimes but not all of my favourite are unpopular in Prog circles. To each their own tastes and interests.

My Awesome Prog lists are much longer and those are very incomplete based on what I know and like. It was really hard even with outing my faves on John's list pairing this down to 25. 1971 and 1981 are both VERY strong years for me, and there';s lot more I like from 1991 than my but three choices. I wanted to to do Golgotha's Controlled Bleeding for instance.

Unlike John's poll which cruelly (kidding) challenges up to choose just the one: This is a multiple votes enabled poll, vote for up to five (or more) albums in the poll and please list one's choices in a post. For some choosing just the one in any of my favourites topics might be challenge enough, actually.

1971:
Van der Graaf Generator - Pawn Hearts
Serge Gainsbourg - Histoire de Melody Nelson (not in PA)
Comus - First Utterance
David Bowie - Hunky Dory
Can - Tago Mago
Igor Wakhevitch - Docteur Faust
Magma - 1001° Centigrades     
Jan Dukes de Grey - Mice and Rats in the Loft     
Popol Vuh - In den Gärten Pharaos
Embryo - Embryo's Rache
Gentle Giant - Acquiring the Taste     

1981:
Siouxsie and The Bansheesn - Juju (not in PA)     
Glenn Branca - The Ascension (not in PA)
Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Penguin Cafe Orchestra     
Dün - Eros
Magma - Retrospektïw I-II
Fabio Frizzi - L'aldilà [The Beyond]      
This Heat - Deceit     
Wha-Ha-Ha - Shinutokiwa Betsu     
Univers Zéro - Ceux du Dehors
Art Zoyd - Symphonie pour le jour où brûleront
Kraftwerk - Computer World

1991:
Swans - White Light From the Mouth of Infinity
Cardiacs - Songs for Ships and Irons
Tuxedomoon - The Ghost Sonata (not in PA)

I love these years, well 1991 is the weakest for me overall of these ones but various albums I love from then (as well as 2001, 2011, and 2021, so was not willing to resist the urge).

Please excuse any typos/errors, I wrote this fast (easy for me to draw on lists I made before and adapt) and I am very error prone.

Picked three. Love Acquiring the Taste from Gentle Giant. Also choose Bowie and VDGG. Enjoyed listening to both those albums.

^ There is so much great music from 1971 and 1981.

I think you'd appreciate that Tuxedomoom. I find it to be a remarkable album from that group (chamber music with neoclassical darkwave qualities oriented).



I know you don't care for Cardiacs, and Lewian does not find All His Geese Are SWANS very good (I really love the instrumental), but with Swans in the poll for the same year, I can't resist sharing a loved track from both releases. I'm often big on crescendos, by the way, and that's something that both Swans and Cardiacs can do very well imo.





EDIT: by the way, for Magma - Retrospektïw I-II I have especially loved it for Theusz Hamtaahk, but I also really love the MDK version on it. The whole thing is essential to me.   I actually had not listened to that MDK for years and listening now... Magma is something really, really special.

Edited by Logan - June 02 2025 at 23:08

Pawn Hearts and Hunky Dory for this round.

^ I really like Tuxedomoon, especially Holy Wars and The Ghost Sonata, but also Desire and Half-Mute.

Hadn't focused on that Cardiacs drumming, but it is heavy handed. I could imagine it being done as a bunch of snare fills. :) Vander would be great on it. I think Ágúst Ævar Gunnarsson of Sigur Rós could be really neat for it.

I love various different versions of MDK. Mekanïk Kommandöh was something I heard from Magma early on when exploring the band, I think.   While the studio album was an early for me Magma love and I used to play it a lot, I became more likely to turn to live versions like the one I listed and Bourges 1979... I also like Theusz Hamtaahk in various versions like that and BBC 1974 - Londres, and that big more modern one... I love Magma studio and live and I love to hear different versions of music I love. I also recall that I tend to like live albums more than you and you go to more actual concerts than I do.

I did a post on Fishmans yesterday which is a band that I have been very into. There's something about it that speaks to my proverbial spirit in a rather similar way to Magma, and both can bring me such joy. Such exuberance at times and sensitivity at other times. With that the live versions tend to become my more-so go-to versions. There's an energy and excitement there as well as extended bits and variations that I like, there's the audience interaction with them. I like the feeling of being in a scene. After going to two of my son's high school talent shows last week (he does his own piano compositions), and there were such wonderful young musicians (and even some slam poetry) I'm feeling all the more connected with live music. I don't see as much live music as I would like, used to be more common (Magma has been a highlight and I will be seeing Stereolab in concert).

Lots to love here:

Art Zoyd – Symphonie pour le jour où brûleront
Glenn Branca – The Ascension
Fabio Frizzi – L'aldilà
Kraftwerk – Computer World
Popol Vuh – In den Gärten Pharaos

mathman0806 wrote: For my first 4, I go to 1971 with VdGG. CAN, GG, and Magma. Then Glenn Branca.

I'll take your first four and add This Heat. Lots of great albums here!
I'm a pretty big fan of Budgie's debut and Black Sabbath's Master Of Reality for '71 plus We'll Talk About It Later by Nucleus.
For '91 Dunaj's Rosol is awesome and I like that Xaal record, as well as Legendary Pink Dots' The Maria Dimension and Echolyn's debut.
For '81 Kultivator and Los Jaivas stand out.