Here’s the next five of my Nick Hornby-like list of 20 favourite albums.
Dream Theater – Metropolis II: Scenes from a Memory
Dream Theater are the pack leaders of the prog-metal scene. Earlier albums such as “Images and Words” showed they had the chops, even though some of the songs turned into poorly-structured jams. They progressed through the darker and heavier “Awake”, and the tighter, more radio-friendly “Falling Into Infinity”. Their masterpiece, “Metropolis II” combines the best elements of these three preceding albums, and shows how they’ve developed compositional and arrangement skills to match their undoubted instrumental virtuosity. It goes without saying that this is a concept album, the theme being memories of past lives, and a murder mystery.
Genesis – Selling England by the Pound
I’ve reviewed this album on this blog before. I find it difficult to choose between this and “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway”; both show the band at their peak, before Peter Gabriel left and the band began to turn away to a more commercial, blander direction. This is what 70s prog-rock was all about; Peter Gabriel’s sometimes surreal lyrics, complex classically-influenced arrangements, and lengthy instrumental workouts spotlighting Steve Hackett’s liquid guitar and Tony Banks’ keyboard skills.
IQ – Subterrainea
IQ had a chequered history. They began in the early 80s, and their early albums “Tales from the Lush Attic” and “The Wake” were clearly derivative of Gabriel-era Genesis. With a different singer they tried a more commercial approach with the “Nonzamo” and “Are You Sitting Comfortably” albums. They vanished for several years before reforming, back with the original vocalist Peter Nicholls. Their new sound was a more polished combination the best elements of the two earlier phases of their career. Of the three post-reunion albums, the second, the double concept album “Subterrania” shows them at their best.
Jon Lord – Sarabande
Attempts to combine rock and classical music get a bad press. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. This 1976 solo album by Deep Purple’s Jon Lord is an album that works, and is the best of several solo albums he’s released in parallel to his career in Deep Purple and Whitesnake. It’s based on the concept of baroque dance suite. Featuring Andy Somers, later of The Police on guitar, the rock band and the orchestra integrate into a single whole; sometimes the band play the theme with the orchestra adding tonal colour, in other places the orchestra takes the theme with band providing rhythmic support. Listeners are also treated to an extended jazz-rock workout from Jon’s Hammond.
King Crimson – In the Court of the Crimson King
King Crimson were to define the progressive rock sound, and then move on to different things as soon as making this musical statement. Although later incarnations of Crimson formed around guitarist Robert Fripp, this one is dominated by the soaring vocals of Greg Lake and the mellotron on Ian McDonald, and of course, the marvelous baroque lyrics of Pete Sinfield, although Fripp shines on the metallic opener, the classic “21st Century Schizoid Man”.
