Prog Readers' Poll 2021

[Yorkshire Square]

Hey, I don't care so much about this list, I just must say I am not into The Quest, but I don't care about the prog-factor of it. But if they vote Steven Wilson on 2 the prog factor anyway isn't soooo important. Generally I don't care much for most of todays prog anyway, bought a ticket for Transatlantic here this year just out of curiosity, I like them just so so. The real progressive music of the recent 30/40 years anyway IMO was XTC, Talk Talk and Radiohead for example who maybe would not have been in a Prog-magazine-poll.

I just think, that Downes/Braide would have deserved to be included in the top ten.

You mentioned some great bands there. See, we don't need some crusty old Prog mag to tell us who to like or not... 😉

[PeterCologne]

You mentioned some great bands there. See, we don't need some crusty old Prog mag to tell us who to like or not... 😉

I absolutely agree

[Homemade Parachute]

Generally I don't care much for most of todays prog anyway...

I am pretty out of the loop, too: according to iTunes, I bought all of nine albums from 2021:

The Quest
I Don't Live Here Anymore - The War on Drugs
Symmetry - Saga
Crash of the Crown - Styx
Thirstier - TORRES
Chemtrails Over the Country Club - Lana Del Rey
Bright Magic - PSB
Ghosts of Rock and Roll - Phil Odgers
Ocean to Ocean - Tori Amos

But then also the Tull and Marillion remasters must have broken the bank after all…

[PeterCologne]

I am pretty out of the loop, too: according to iTunes, I bought all of nine albums from 2021:

The Quest
I Don't Live Here Anymore - The War on Drugs
Symmetry - Saga
Crash of the Crown - Styx
Thirstier - TORRES
Chemtrails Over the Country Club - Lana Del Rey
Bright Magic - PSB
Ghosts of Rock and Roll - Phil Odgers
Ocean to Ocean - Tori Amos

But then also the Tull and Marillion remasters must have broken the bank after all…

Yes, I see and there is some here I can relate to like Tori Amos and Public Service Broadcasting, I like their new album and will try some more I think. And, quite different, Phil Odgers, fresh country-rock. Reminds me a little! bit of the very fine Ryan Adams, maybe with less Drama.

I am happy to have Jethro Tulls A on vinyl. Like it as I liked the show back in 1980. Hope that Broadsword comes next. Would like him then to skip the next two and to continue with Rock Island and even more so with Catfish Rising and Roots To Branches, love those two especially. But I don't think they get the Wilson-treatment. think. But the new one will be out soon, looking forward.

By the way, I don't need especially Steven Wilson remixes, some are good, but Songs From The Wood, my favourite Tull album, he messed up, took the magic, he just made the dense musical bushes much too transparent. My second favourite, Heavy Horses, was a little better in his mix, but still not really needed. I just want all the stuff on great sounding vinyl. Don't need really remixes.

[Davy]

I am pretty out of the loop, too: according to iTunes, I bought all of nine albums from 2021:

That's a bunch! I bought one new album in 2021 - The Quest.

[True]

I also read the recent issue of Classic Rock magazine which listed their picks for the best 50 albums of 2021. This issue, of course, has a broader set of styles than the Prog issue. While the top 50 includes 2021 releases by newer acts, such as The Byson Family, Greta Van Fleet, Aryon Jones & Mammoth WVH, there are quite a few 2021 releases on the list by old familiar rock acts including Deep Purple. Styx, Alice Cooper, Cheap Trick, Thunder, and their top album of 2021 is Senjutsu by Iron Maiden. Also on the best of 2021 list are some more gentle-sounding releases from Robert Plant/A Krauss, Lindsay Buckingham and David Crosby.
And - there are some names on the top 50 who are more commonly celebrated in the prog realm, including Big Big Train at number 11 and Steven Wilson.
The rest of the top 50 includes a fair share of Southern Rock and Blues Rock to round out the mix.
While Classic Rock does give a nod to prog as well as some more gentle rock music, aside from a plethora of louder offerings, they did not list The Quest as among their 50 best.

[Homemade Parachute]

That's a bunch! I bought one new album in 2021 - The Quest.

I am An Olde: I still like buying rather than streaming music…

[bondegezou]

Ever the Positivist

I would say it is pretty unsettling if only four from 29 critics of a prog-magazine have the fist new Yes!-album in seven years somewhere in their top 20 - and it doesn't show up in the top 20 in the end.

I think you mean "optimist". I reject positivism, as per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positivism

There's a lot of prog albums out there. There's a lot of prog albums out there that I really enjoy that don't get into any of the critics' lists. So, is it disappointing not to make the critics' top 20? Yes. Is it "unsettling"? Only if you are of a very nervous disposition!

Ultimately, what matters to me is whether I like the album. I'm not going to stop liking an album because others don't, nor am I going to start liking an album because others do. It's interesting how an album does in lists like these, but they're not objective fact. I listened yesterday to the album that won the Critics' Choice and I thought it was pretty mediocre. So, congrats to The Anchoress for her success, but her album ain't for me.

[bondegezou]

Why worry? The Quest (and indeed DBA) are hardly Prog by any stretch of the imagination. And that's a good thing in my book.

They seem like "prog" to me; The Quest more so. Wikipedia offers this description:

"the style was an outgrowth of psychedelic bands who abandoned standard pop traditions in favour of instrumentation and compositional techniques more frequently associated with jazz, folk, or classical music. Additional elements contributed to its "progressive" label: lyrics were more poetic, technology was harnessed for new sounds, music approached the condition of "art", and the studio, rather than the stage, became the focus of musical activity, which often involved creating music for listening rather than dancing."

The Quest has those elements from other genres, notably classical. As well as having actual orchestral parts, there's a lot more theme and variation than in traditional pop/rock, but also some more improvised parts akin to jazz. It has more Apollonian lyrics. It is music that is seeking to be contemplative, not dance music. It has longer pieces, multi-part pieces. It has extended instrumental passages, with a focus on virtuosic playing.

So, seems like prog to me.

[Grey Wolf]

So, seems like prog to me.

But The Quest doesn't *Rock* very much, so don't go calling it Prog Rock.

[PeterCologne]

I think you mean "optimist". I reject positivism, as per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positivism

There's a lot of prog albums out there. There's a lot of prog albums out there that I really enjoy that don't get into any of the critics' lists. So, is it disappointing not to make the critics' top 20? Yes. Is it "unsettling"? Only if you are of a very nervous disposition!

Ultimately, what matters to me is whether I like the album. I'm not going to stop liking an album because others don't, nor am I going to start liking an album because others do. It's interesting how an album does in lists like these, but they're not objective fact. I listened yesterday to the album that won the Critics' Choice and I thought it was pretty mediocre. So, congrats to The Anchoress for her success, but her album ain't for me.

I first wanted to say "Optimist", but that seemed not strong enough to me ;-) I am aware of positivsm, and I reject it as well, but I just didn't think that you would draw that comparison.

Anyway, as said above, prog does not mean so much to me, I am into many genres, and I never put Yes rigorously in that corner. It's just one facette of that multiheaded chameleon monster (that hopefully does not stop to change).

But Steve Howe I think was more than the others the one pushing in that direction in the recent decades, wasn't he?! Beginning with saying in the 80s that Yes-West is not Yesmusic and meaning of course most of all that - and continuing over the decades with praying the need for more prog on many occasions. Squire was the one for many who sold the band to pop (maybe even Anderson to some extend), but Howe the one who would have made it all "better". So at least one can mention that aspect and comment it with a twinkle after Prog-magazine and its readers voted.

[True]

Speaking of the topic of "what is prog?" (and I am not sure I know the answer myself!) - Steve Howe commented on the "progressive rock" terminology during an interview with Guitar Player magazine in May of 2021, as follows:

“I never called us ‘progressive rock’ or ‘prog-rock,’” he says. “As I recall, when I first joined Yes, we all used to call our music different things.

"There was ‘orchestral rock’ and ‘cinemagraphic rock.’ We never argued about it, but there were a lot of names and terms being tossed about.” So what term did he use to describe Yes’s music?

Howe laughs. “I often called it ‘soft rock,’” he says. “I thought what I wrote was a sort of soft rock, but the phrase didn’t catch on, at least not with what we were doing. But progressive rock? Where that got started, I don’t know. I think it might have come after the fact.”


Personally, I never thought of Yes as a "soft rock" act back in the 70's. I think I thought of bands such as America, for example, as soft rock. But I would say that if The Quest were the debut album by a new band, and I listened to it without the context of their past work, I might think of the music as fitting the soft rock description.

[pianozach]

But The Quest doesn't *Rock* very much, so don't go calling it Prog Rock.

Prog Pop.

Yes, Prog pop is a "thing".

[PeterCologne]

Speaking of the topic of "what is prog?" (and I am not sure I know the answer myself!) - Steve Howe commented on the "progressive rock" terminology during an interview with Guitar Player magazine in May of 2021, as follows:

“I never called us ‘progressive rock’ or ‘prog-rock,’” he says. “As I recall, when I first joined Yes, we all used to call our music different things.

"There was ‘orchestral rock’ and ‘cinemagraphic rock.’ We never argued about it, but there were a lot of names and terms being tossed about.” So what term did he use to describe Yes’s music?

Howe laughs. “I often called it ‘soft rock,’” he says. “I thought what I wrote was a sort of soft rock, but the phrase didn’t catch on, at least not with what we were doing. But progressive rock? Where that got started, I don’t know. I think it might have come after the fact.”


Personally, I never thought of Yes as a "soft rock" act back in the 70's. I think I thought of bands such as America, for example, as soft rock. But I would say that if The Quest were the debut album by a new band, and I listened to it without the context of their past work, I might think of the music as fitting the soft rock description.

Interesting that you say that. In fact in his biography, he speaks of also of melodic-rock if I recall. And I remember now also the soft-rock-refereance. But I still think that most of all Howe wanted Yes to get back to the classic 70s virtues of Yes. And those are what a lot of others might not call soft-rock or "orchestral rock" - but prog.

[Grey Wolf]

Prog Pop.

Yes, Prog pop is a "thing".

[can't figure out how to multi-quote here]

Combining this with the "Soft Rock" quote from Steve Howe, I'd call The Quest "Soft Prog", because it doesn't sound like what passes for "Pop" these days to me.