The Nerd List No One Asked For: The Top 5 ‘Late Career’ Prog Rock Albums
Look, we all know that prog (or progressive) rock absolutely peaked around 1976. But those bands couldn’t just retire then, they had to continue to write, evolve and create music. This more often than not led to follies with pop, rap, metal, electronica, new wave and (groan) world music throughout the turbulent 1980s and 90s. But, all was not lost! a few of these bands did stuff in the 90s and 2000s that was as good, if not better, than in their 70s heydays. Here are the top 5 ‘Late in their career’ albums worth checking out.
- THRAK - King Crimson, 1995
‘(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?’ was the big rock seller of 1995. a bunch of loud northerners lead the charge with brit-pop, and Alanis Morissette was depressing everyone in the world with jangly coffee shop songs about being dumped. King Crimson, fronted by the ever mysterious Robert Fripp, ignored all of this nonsense, and said ‘Hey. what if instead of one Prog band made of three members, we were two bands that played at the same time?’
And so, the double trio was born. two drummers, two bassists (or stick players, in this instance) and two guitarists formed a mighty band of 6 of the best musicians in the world. It’s loud, with more in common with heavy metal than any KC album before. It’s amazingly cleverly composed, with great songs and catchy hooks hidden in maddening intertwined polyrhythms. The lead track that the album is named after is a mental instrumental that’s mostly drum solo. In short, not only is this a great album for a band so old to make, it may be my personal favourite of their entire output.
2. Fly From Here - Yes 2011
YES are a band with one of the dodgiest and least consistent music catalogues of all of the prog bands, and couldn’t seem to keep band members together for more than a few albums at a time. of all the 70s bands, these guys hold the record for me of doing some of the most unnecessarily long and overblown compositions in a genre known for overblown and overly long songs.
Everything they wrote on the first 5 albums from 1969 to 1972 is note after note amazing, but from the overly long and ridiculous ‘Tales from Topographic oceans’ their output is patchy, silly and hard to get into. Everything from 74 to 78 can just be ignored, in my opinion.
But then, in 1980, they made an album named ‘Drama’ fronted by Buggles lead singer and super producer Trevor Horn, and presented to the world a leaner, more song focused Yes who could write hooks again, play songs that could be followed, and although still undeniably prog, it was more accessible and fun. The critical response to said album, however was so poor that Trevor was booted off of vocals and became involved purely in a producer role with the band in all following albums.
He had, however, already written most of a follow up to drama, in the form of an album named ‘Fly From Here’ before being unceremoniously sacked. The band weren’t interested in recording another Drama in 1980, and shelved it until they had all run out of ideas in 2011. When it was finally recorded and released though, fans heard a focused, well produced yes album with great hooks and wonderful tones that blew all of their other late career output away. Like THRAK, this is not just good for some old dudes, but comparable to the band’s best early work.
3. Vapor Trails - Rush 2002
It’s no secret to people who know me that I think RUSH are one of the greatest bands of all time. but, let’s be honest, the late 80s and early 90s were not kind to them. too much cheesy keyboard, to many patchy albums (‘Presto’ being particularly ploddy and boring)and some very questionable fashion choices. But, in 1996, they produced an album called ‘Test for Echo’ that felt like old school Rush again. Gone were the keyboards, gone were the dodgy lyrics, and away went the awful haircuts. Just good tunes, nice production and sensible outfits.
Then, after a personal tragedy put the band on a seemingly permanent hiatus in 1997, they made their comeback in a big way in 2002 with the heavy, focused and straight out rocker of an album ‘Vapor Trails’. This album is great. more classic rock than prog, it’s full of great riffs, awesome drumming, thoughtful lyrics and big anthems made to be played in the stadiums they filled until they retired in 2015 after 40 years of amazing music. They made 2 more albums after this one, that both have some great moments on them, but this is easily the best of their post 90s work.
4. Up - Peter Gabriel 2002
Genesis were arguably the best of the British prog bands in the 70s. from ‘Trespass’ to ‘The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway’ (five albums of amazing and evocative works) Peter Gabriel lead the band through an age of musical wonderment that they never quite recaptured without him. He then went on to have a rather flawless solo career (except maybe for 2000s boring outing and failed experiment OVO) that was innovative, ground breaking and interesting, mixing Prog sensibility with the occasional massive pop hit.
Then in 2002, he did something truly outstanding. He released an album that sounded enthusiastic, futuristic, menacing and easily as good as his first 3 self titled albums. with more in common with Electro-metal pioneers Nine Inch Nails than with the lumbering beast Genesis had become, this album sounds like it was made by a 25 year old, not a man in his 50s. His voice is on point, his song writing is tight and the composition and production techniques sound fresh and modern. In a world where the bland sounds of Coldplay were polluting airplay worldwide, this was a shining beacon of just how good pop prog could be. As of yet, he has not done another new album of original material, but I’d love to hear what new noises a 70 year old Gabriel makes.
5. The Desaturating Seven - Primus 2017
Primus are far from being as old as any of the other entries on this list, but it deserves a mention because most people make their obscure concept album early in their career, then move onto more accessible stuff as they grow up. Primus were never accessible in the traditional sense, but waited until their 32nd year as a band to release their prog masterpiece. This album about colour stealing 70s goblins was made by a bunch of dudes in their 50s, and it is great. Formed in 1984, Primus picked up the prog mantle when few others would go anywhere near it, and have made pretty consistently great albums full of weird and wonderful compositions ranging in style from pure redneck country to heavy metal.
This album is very unique one. It’s basically what if 80s king crimson were also stoned hillbillies. The album is based on a psychedelic kids book from the 70s, and sounds like it. It has an undeniably ‘Bouncy’ feel, and feels as fresh and valid as the band’s first album ‘Frizzle Fry’ but made 27 years later. I never know what to recommend as a starting point to get into Primus, but maybe starting with this and working backwards would be a good idea, as the album before this one, ‘Green Naugahyde’ is equally great, if not a bit more straight forward.
They were the good ones, but what about the ones that sucked?
Some bands recaptured it, some spent years chasing and never got it back. ELP, Camel, The Moody Blues and various members of Marillion (as well as many others) all kept releasing music way after they were relevant that was a shadow of their former selves, failing to move with the times, or trying so hard to capture the zeitgeist it was embarrassing.
None, for me, ever fell as far as Jethro Tull. I adore this band, and everything from 1968 to 1978 is inventive, invigorating, tonally interesting and very well composed, but then from 1979’s pedestrian ‘Stormwatch’ until now, they’ve just put out a big pile of sweaty bollocks. None as sweaty as the badly produced and terribly named j-tull.com (named after the band’s website). A collection of badly produced, terribly uninteresting songs that sound like a band doing a bad Jethro Tull impression. The last few times I saw them live they were still amazing, but whenever they’d roll out a ‘new song’ you’d see an awful lot of people get up to go to the toilet. Such a shame.
