Good year that, four albums here that I really like a lot (plus some OK albums by the usual suspect that I won't mention here but that are really not bad).

Never For Ever is awesome, a highlight of my collection, and I can't see myself voting against it, even though Sky 2 and Tangram are very strong and Colours is the one I think of as Eloy's best these days. By the way I don't see Sky mentioned much on these pages, but in their best days (in the beginning, that is) they were second to none (except Kate Bush ). I saw them live when Sky 3 came out, and they were super entertaining, competent, and simply enchanting. Pity that they couldn't keep that level. 

 

I thought I might struggle to fill all 25 slots, but I ended up having to leave five albums out of the poll.

Rush, Gabriel, Yes, Hackett, and Rutherford would make my Top 5 for this list, with APP as an Honorable Mention.

it's usually hard to make a choice in polls with so many choices. 

I'm gonna vote an underdog in the end. 

I also like the Eloy, Oldfield and The Enid albums a lot.

Psychedelic Paul wrote: Another series of ten polls, which reminds me of the band, "Ten Poll Tudor"

40 years later this album is still close to my heart, and the (slightly mangled) image above is also of the cassette version as released here in Australia which I pretty near wore out: the hit single Toccata, the epic side-long FIFO, the intriguing Scipio which grew on me (apparently written by Herbie as an overtly "difficult" response to Francis Monkman's epics), the austere Sahara plus their cover of Vivaldi by the mysterious "Curved Air", then just the name of a band that popped up in interviews and newspaper articles. By necessity when playing 4 sides of a cassette album, the lesser pieces between them got played as well and so were part of the tapestry of the album for me.

For this poll, I could also have voted for Permanent Waves, Duke or TOAFC which I also enjoy, but those came way later (for me). And I think Sky - and their "lower tier instro-prog" - deserve some love here on PA too...

I know. I can't even decide who to vote for in my own poll.

You'll be surprised to hear I pretty much agree with this, I'd replace Eloy with Hawkwind but otherwise good.

I'll vote for Hawkwind as Rush will get plenty of love.

My personal list would be

I don't know Present but the other three are awesome. Not quite Never For Ever-like awesome, but still...  

PS: Good to see some love for Sky!

They were four of the lesser known bands I had to leave out of the poll because I didn't have room for them, seeing as I'd already used up all 25 available slots.

 

Another vote for Rush who are currently leaving all of the other albums behind in the wake of their Permanent Waves.

 

May I be the first to welcome you to ProgArchives! I noticed you just joined us 24 minutes ago. I'm sure you'll have a great time here.

 

 

As shockingly surprising as it is, I voted for Duke.

Cheers! I'm sure I will! 

To keep it on-topic, I just noticed Asia Minor's 2nd record is also on the poll. Poor reading comprehension on my part failing to notice it. That's one of my all-time favorite albums!

I could have easily voted Kate, Rush, Duke, Yes...

I thought you might do, in just the same way as RushFan voted for Rush.

 

After a long period of deliberation, I voted for The Enid in The End.

Since nobody else will vote for Colours or Tangram, I could vote for either!

(In case you are at all curious, that list reads as follows:

1. FLAIRCK Gevecht met de engel

2. SBB Memento Z Banalnym Tryptikiem

3. HAROLD BUDD & BRIAN ENO Ambient 2:  The Plateaux of Mirror

4. LARAAJI (Produced by Brian Eno) Ambient 3: Day of Radiance

5. ITOIZ Ezekiel

6. IVORY Sad Cypress) 

 

I doubt if SBB are well-known outside the progosphere and I've no idea what the initials stand for.

 

There's a lot of Rush fans here.

 

I've never come across any Rush haters here. I thought Rush fans here were only slightly behind Yes, Genesis, King Crimson & Pink Floyd fans.

 

The Rush fans have certainly come out in force in this poll. I expect Rush will win the upcoming 1981 poll too.

 

There's no rush. The 1981 prog poll is coming right up, with moving pictures too!

But this poll is for the progosphere! 

SBB = "Search, Break, Build" ~ which describes their approach to music-making.

Actually a pretty strong year, given how prog (and rock in general) fell out of favor in late 70s.

So we have, obviously, a straight up great album by Rush, Permanent Waves.

But also a bunch of other interesting, 3 star (or even borderline 4) records: Hammill, Hackett, Bruford, Bush and Gabriel for soloists, Yes and Genesis had Drama and Duke, Jethro Tull's A was underrated somewhat...

I pick QE2 though, I think nobody has voted for it yet, but it's really solid, at times magnificent album. I wish it had a more exciting cover, it'd have at least 0.2 higher rating on the internet

Awesoreno wrote: Too many I haven't heard (YET) to decide, but also too many good ones to decide anyway. Also, doesn't SBB also stand for Silesian Blues Band? They are also listed third on the 1980 rankings list. Makes the list less Anglo-American-centric (despite the Canadians' lead).

It is. Although later on they settled on "Szukaj, Burz, Buduj" – "Search, Break, Build"

 

Drama is currently in third place with four votes. I wonder if the album would have done any better if I'd placed it at the top of the poll instead.

 

Although on second thoughts, being at the top of the poll doesn't seem to have done Jon Anderson any good.

I'd choose Tangerine Dream, but only because I haven't heard any albums by Eloy.

 

Thanks for the tip. I'll make a start on listening to Eloy's albums just as soon as I've finished listening to all of Mike Oldfield's albums. I have a feeling I'm going to like Eloy a lot if they're anything like Nektar. Maybe I'll even get around to writing an Eloy tribute thread, just like I did with Nektar recently. 

Okay, will do. I have a high frequency of Mike Oldfield albums to listen to first though.

Kate Bush would be doing really well in these 1980's polls if there weren't so many other artists to choose from.  

 

Rush have permanently waved goodbye to all of the other contenders in this poll.

Some other gems on that list....Asia Minor, Beefheart, Bush, Gabriel, etc.

Agree om those 4, especially for Art Zoyd. In their absence, I give Jon Anderson the first vote. Not a masterpiece, but his best after Olias. It doesn't deserve a 0.

Yup.....nuff said

Had to be Doc at the Radar Station - just one of my favourite albums - though if I were limiting it more strictly to prog, I'd probably have gone with the crowd on Moving Pictures.

I must say 1980 is a much stronger field than 81, 82 or 83.

Peter Gabriel

Asia Minor

Really...well, you're in for a ride. They're probably the best band you've never checked out! I second the recommendation for Colours.

Thanks for the recommendation. There are so many great bands and albums out there still waiting for me to check out for the first time. I'd never even heard of Nektar or Eloy before I first went online in 2010.

That was so close for me. Most years it would have won.

 

I might struggle to fill 25 slots in any single year from 1990 onwards.

 

The only problem is, the only two artists I'm familiar with out of those you mentioned are Dream Theater and Porcupine Tree.

If you do have issues filling slots, I'd be willing to help out—I listen to quite a lot of modern prog as its how I was introduced to the genre as a whole.