A Briefer Explanation Of How I Rank Prog Rock Albums

_{last edited: 25th july, 2023}

I have an article on this site where I explained both why and how I rank Prog Rock albums, however I feel like the article is not that well written and it's a bit long while at the same time not saying much. So this article attempts to rectify that by being a more a clearer version of how I go about ranking so many Prog Rock albums.

You don't have to listen to me

I am not an expert on Prog Rock music, or any genre of music for that matter.
My lists are not special, they are just how I would personally rank all Prog Rock albums based on my own preferences.
I'm mostly doing this to see what modern musicians and bands are doing with the genre instead of just re-listening to stuff from the '70s.

What qualifies as "Proggressive Rock"?

It comes down to if the artist/band calls their album:

Progressive Rock/Prog Rock
Neo Prog/Neo Progressive Rock
Art Rock
Or if it's inspired/based on the Canterbury Scene

I will usually determine this through the Bandcamp tags if the band has a Bandcamp page for their album. If they do not, I will look at their website/social media pages to find out what genre they use.

How do I rank albums?

I use the r/progmetal lists and NewProgReleases blog as my sources for Prog Rock albums to listen to.
I will listen to each album at least twice before making any comparisons.
After the 2nd listen, I will then compare the current album to the lowest-ranking album on the list currently.
I then ask myself "Would I rather listen to this album I've just heard, or the lowest-ranking album?".
If the answer is "Yes", I will then move up the list and repeat the question but for the next album on the list.
Once I reach an album that is already on the list that I would rather listen to, I stop there and put the new album just below it.
If I am unsure or don't remember much about an album that I'm comparing to, I will re-listen to it in full at least once before making a judgment.

How long to I plan to do this?

In an ideal world I would do this for the entire decade, but considering I started 3 years late that's probably not going to happen. So really it's until I get bored of doing it.

Notes and Possible Biases

While I could just sort Bandcamp by the Progressive Rock tags and go through all of the albums there, that would add far too many albums that I would need to listen to. On top of that, not all artists/bands upload their music to Bandcamp but instead rely on streaming services like Spotify, YouTube Music, Deezer and Apple Music among others. Using the two sources to determine what I listen to gets enough of the major releases, and that's what I care about.

On Bandcamp, if an artist/band uses the tags "Prog"/"Progressive" and "Rock" separately, I still consider that as them tagging it as "Prog Rock"/"Progressive Rock", it's mostly just me using a safety measure so I can get to everything, because sometimes artists/bands don't tag their stuff properly.

While not all "Art Rock" is Prog Rock, it's sometimes the case that artists/bands will use the terms interchangably or conflate the two, so to be sure I get everything I include Art Rock in the list.

I do not consider Remastered, Remixed, Live Albums or Compilation albums as part of the list. My list is specifically for Studio Albums and Extended Plays.

If an artist/band has an album with Single Edits, Remastered/Remixed Songs or Songs that are exclusive to one particular music platform (if they just release their music digitally), I generally do not include them as part of my ranking. However if they released a song prior to the album's release as a non-edited Single, I do include that.

If an artist/band releases a Deluxe version of their album, I consider that to be the entirety of the album and will listen to that when ranking it.

BIAS: I am more likely to be in favour of albums that have lyrics. Furthermore I am more likely to be in favour of albums whose lyrics are in English (as that is sadly the only language I speak).

BIAS: I am more likely to be in favour of albums that have some form of narrative or story.

Hope this was helpful in understanding how I rank these albums. I may refine this over time if my process changes or if I notice any other biases I have when ranking albums.

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