word...  and what the hell...  have another on the house Ian 

Nice edit micky 

Great post.  It may not sit quite that high with me, but your logic works fine.  

Doing the old at a very high level doesn't go out of style.  Not everything need be ground breaking to be great.  

Nothing wrong with someone showing up as a new, Camel, Gentle Giant, King Crimson or Genesis. 

The music is the music.  What if someone heard the more recent band first and heard the early band last?  Would which one was original and which was derivative matter?  It has zero bearing on how well the music fits into the ear.  

I think it's much better than their debut Hinterland which seemed to rely too much on Mellotron for my taste. This has much more Hammond and is more dynamic so that pleases me and it sustains my interest.

It already has 549 ratings which is higher than the aforementioned Hinterland and also other albums they've released. However compared to other albums in the top 20 that's not even close.

You could argue that only albums with at least 1000 ratings should be considered. If you do a filter of the top 100 on this basis then it's makes interesting reading. For instance you get 3 more ELP albums and most people would agree that makes sense!

 

I thinks it's a great album.

 

A few months ago, a work colleague asked me what progressive rock is. After considering several albums, I finally settled upon this album as the best answer to the question: "What is progressive rock?"

 

I chose a modern album so that I wouldn't be influenced by nostalgia, and the album would be assessed by the music alone.

 

I chose a symphonic album because I believe that in spite of the breadth of what is considered progressive rock, progressive rock is symphonic at its heart.

 

I chose an album that is fully prog (not prog-lite), yet still fairly accessible. I wanted an album that is dynamic and beautiful, but not too dark or weird.

 

I chose an album that I consider to be perfect from start to end.

 

 

 

 

Nogbad_The_Bad wrote: It's a nice retro album performed by a very good band, it being in the top 25 prog albums of all time is ridiculous, give it 12 to 24 months and it will find its proper level.

 

Most albums that are launched into the higher PA rankings with great thrust, thanks to the devout fanboys who are eager to reward these with a five star rating after two or three listens, will descend faster to a more appropriate rating level. But the release of this album is now almost two years ago. I doubt if I will see the day that this album sinks out of the top 100. And why should only albums released in the period from Itchycock to MP (or - later - Hybris) be regarded as prog classics?

I think that this widely acclaimed masterpiece may last longer in the higher echelons of the PA rankings than its release year assumes.

And what about its successor as AotY that we find just below the top 20 ?

And they're better than your band.

I'm really not sure Silence deserves a 4.43 rating but I'm not going to get into a discussion of ratings since we all know how those often turn out.

  

 I like Rites at Dawn better--it has always had more heart and soul to me--and far more haunting melodies--but it is often too imitative of Yes' Close to the Edge. From Silence to Somewhere is so polished, so flawless, so captivating of the spirit of the 1970s' symphonic giants, it's hard to argue against it belonging among the "greatest prog albums" of all-time. But, it's missing something . . . "friendly"--missing something that makes me excited to return for another visit. I think it masterful, even flawless, but I rarely find myself revisiting it now two years later (occasionally "Foxlight") while I go back to Rites at Dawn often! . . . Personal preference.

The mentioned 2018 "masterpiece" from former Änglagård members, All Traps on Earth's A Drop of Light , is, however, a completely different story. This album awes me. Like hearing Magma or Relayer or Mahavishnu for the first time. It takes my breath away. Literally. It stuns, shocks, and awes me. And there is so much there! So much thought and creativity, so much space and texture, so much egoless virtuosity. I said it when I first heard it, when I reviewed, as I've advocated for it:  A Drop of Light   may be ... the best ... progressive rock album ... I've ever heard!

Wow!!! That's high praise. I liked ATOE a lot but Wobbler has my heart. I love all four albums. Immensely. 

 

Is it overrated?  Well, I guess I think it is.

 

Sure it's a good album, but one of the top 25 prog rock albums of all time?  You've got to be kidding!

 

The idea that it's better than "Relayer", better than "Aqualung", better than "In a Glass House", or better than "Octopus", and I could go on, is just laughable.

 

There's personal taste, of course, but the problem, IMO, is that PA places insufficient weight on the number of reviews an album has, so that an album that has a small number of rave reviews by a handful of Collabs can rocket to the top of the ratings, whilst an album with hundreds of reviews languishes further down the rankings.

 

It's totally obvious that there are albums that should be ranked much higher on PA.

 

Quite how an all time classic of the genre such as Caravan's "In the Land of Grey and Pink" can rank all the way down in 54th place, whilst "From Silence to Somewhere" is up in 19th place is beyond my comprehension. 

 

I don't think that's personal taste.  I recall James Baldwin commenting that "In the Land of Grey and Pink" ranks as a top ten album on the Italian equivalent of PA. 

 

That it ranks so low on PA undermines the credibility of PA in my opinion.

AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: I've been following this thread despite the fact I don't own this album and have only listened to a little bit of it on youtube(I would rather wait and get the album). Anyway, for those who think it's over rated or doesn't deserve to be in the top 20 I have a question for you. Are there any modern albums(I'll use the term modern loosely to mean any album after the classic era)that are in the same general style that you like better(or think is better)?

 

The Banks Of Eden - The Flower Kings

The Inconsolable Secret - Glass Hammer

Veni Vidi Vici - Par Lindh Project

Heliotians - Deluge Grander

I don't agree. Even when you filter the ratings to minimum of 1000 then its still only comes in at No 48. This is a global site and as far as I know no one has an axe to grind with Caravan as they do with say ELP ( where is Brain Salad Surgery in the supposed top 100??)

My feeling is that the ratings are about right once you get to 1000 ratings. Wobbler only have about half that so the 'fanboys' have had their say. Now the next 500 will be more critical I suggest and this point has already been made by others.

*Laughs in Yes Relayer*  

In all honesty, great album! 

In my personal evaluation, From Silence To Somewhere have just reached four stars, so, at the moment it's surely not in my top 100.

But my knowledge of contemporary prog is not high, and I need time to be sure of my sentence.

The arrangement of that album is very elaborated, very sophysticated and the performance of the musicians is superb... but it lacks immediacy, pure melodic inspiration in many passages and sometimes I've got the impression that the hyper-production fills the fall of insipiration.

But, repeat, I need time to be sure. Maybe I'll change my mind.

sounds like a review of Tales From Topographic Oceans

I agree. The biggest prob for me is Andreas' vocals. An acquired taste for sure. 

Having read this thread, it's an album I will certainly try to find now!

I am a big IQ fan, and would place several of their later albums in any list, but certainly Frequency and The Road Of Bones would beat many of the top albums on this site, for me.....