Marc is a great guy and a valued poster here. I apologized for being an ass.
But that'd be like me listing 5 consecutive Alice Cooper or UFO albums. Who cares!
I mean, if YOU think they are great album runs, why not share them? Others might find that information useful, especially when trying to get into a new band or artist they've never heard before. To hear that a band has at LEAST five consecutive albums worth hearing means they're doing SOMETHING right, and if anyone can pick one of those five, like it, and then listen to the other four, you've done a good job of selling the band to a new fan. It's high praise to any band when a fan can recommend not just one or two, but five consecutive albums.
But you guys are right, I probably did go a bit overboard. Yeah, my lists aren't WIDELY RECOGNIZED by the general public, but this is a forum of Dream Theater fans - I think we know plenty of bands that will never be widely recognized for their work, so why not have fun and share what we all love?
Testimony 2
Momentum
Songs for November
The Grand Experiment
TSOAD
That is five official releases in a row. Songs for November is probably just good, but it still belongs in his run since it was an official release.
That's true, I suppose, but if you're counting Songs From November, you might as well count 2013's Get In The Boat and 2016's To God Be The Glory. Then again, any run of Neal albums will always have a worship or singer/songwriter album stuck in the middle because he writes and releases so much damn music!!!
V/Bridge Across Forever/Snow is perhaps the finest trilogy in prog rock. Considering Neal is the primary writer in both Spock's and Transatlantic, it is mindblowing that he was able to come up with 3 masterpieces in 3 consecutive years. Especially one being an ambitious double album. Plus Testimony came a year later.
Very true, his output in the early 2000's is breath-taking, between his last two albums with SB, the first two TA albums, and Testimony.
Sorry Marc, I'm being an ass.
Also true.
I'm with you, TAC. I think some of M's list is more a list of favorites. There's no way LZ put out 5 albums worthy of the same recognition as Led Zeppelin IV. Also, leaving out King Crimson's ITCOTCK is just silly. M might like those later KC releases, but again, this isn't about favoritism. It's about picking quintessential releases from a band who did it more than three or four times in a row.
But then I disagree with your confusion about The Flower Kings. Just because they aren't mainstream doesn't mean they aren't great releases in the prog world. Rush's best albums are not their most popular as far as radio play.
Sure, LZ IV gets a LOT of recognition, and while I'm not old enough to have lived through the height of their popularity, I think that their first four albums are still pretty good, having quite a few singles and popular songs on them, but you're probably right, LZ IV overshadows anything that came before or after it.
Back to the topic at hand - yes, Rush's album run of 2112-MP has to be one of the quintessential rock/prog rock five-album runs, right up there with any run by Yes or Genesis. Even Rush probably feel that way, having played all of MP, 5/6ths of PEW, a little over half of HEMI, about half of AFTK, and a little over half of 2112 in the last 20 years of their tours (since the TFE tour). I think they know how popular those albums are with their fanbase and were not afraid to try and play as much of them as they (and Geddy's vocals) could handle.
-Marc.