Under Gabriel's stewardship, the band embraced epic length compositions like "Supper's Ready" (Foxtrot), the "Musical Box" (Nursery Cryme) and "Dance with the Moonlit Knight" (Selling England by the Pound). Gabriel's piece de resistance was the 1974 double album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. This concept piece was followed by a lavish tour, immediately after which Gabriel promptly quit.

The Lamb is a bit "extended" for listeners new to prog, so I recommend starting with Foxtrot. In addition to the aforementioned must-hear "Supper's Ready", the album notably includes "Get 'em Out by Friday", "Watcher of the Skies", and Steve Hackett's beautiful solo guitar piece "Horizons".

Genesis's Trick of the Tail
Even after Gabriel left in 1975, Genesis still had a couple of progressive albums left in them. This was principally due to Hackett's continued presence; once he left, after the live album Seconds Out, it was pretty much all downhill (although the remaining trio of Banks, Collins, and Rutherford did create one gem, 1980's Duke). While Collins could never replace Gabriel, his singing in those days was far more pleasing than it would later become.

Trick of the Tail has some great ensemble moments. Check out the polyrhythmic groove on "Dance on a Volcano". The title track is irrepressibly cute, but "Squonk" and "Mad Man Moon" more than make up for it in substance. This album truly is Banks's finest hour; his synth textures and piano-playing populate the musical landscape with sumptuous extended harmonies.

King Crimson's B'Boom
You want all of King Crimson's catchiest tunes, as well as tight, explosive solos? Look no further. This 1995 live album features the largest of Crimson line-ups -- a double trio: founder/guitarist Robert Fripp, vocalist/guitarist Adrian Belew, bassist Tony Levin, Warr guitarist Trey Gunn and drummers Bill Bruford and Pat Mastelotto. Those who want to hear a live album comprised entirely of instrumental, improvisatory fury by this same line-up are directed to check out Thrakattak. Sure, they've done lots of great work in many incarnations in the studio (from the '70s right up until the present), but these recordings document their incredible energy and musicality on stage.

Trey Gunn's The Joy of Molybdenum
The aforementioned King Crimson guitarist/bassist Gunn creates some powerful music here, bringing together elements of prog, world music and fusion. A more rocking album with hand drums you won't find!

Tony Levin's Pieces of the Sun
One of the best bassists on the planet bar none, Tony Levin has played with a host of pop and rock stars: Peter Gabriel, Seal, King Crimson, Yes, Asia, David Bowie, and others. His solo work, released on his own imprint Papa Bear, is unjustly neglected. 2001's Pieces of the Sun suggests that Levin's composing chops nearly equal his prodigious virtuosity on both bass guitar and Chapman Stick.

Marillion's Afraid of Sunlight
Lots of people got up in arms when vocalist Fish left Marillion and Steve Hogarth replaced him (what is it with vocalists leaving prog bands?). True, lots of their work in the '90s and '00 has been more commercial-sounding (though hardly commercially lucrative, I would imagine), but 1995's Afraid of Sunlight, on the strength of the title track and "Cannibal Surf Babe" alone, showed that the band still had progressive leanings.

David Sylvian and Robert Fripp's Damage
This collaboration between former Japan frontman Sylvian and perennial King Crimson leader Fripp employs both the atmospheric and eminently tuneful predilections of its musicians. Fripp uses his soundscape technique to create swirling textures when the former is required, whereas "20th Century Dreaming" and "God's Monkey" simmer with rhythmic vivacity.

David Sancious's True Stories
One of the best-kept secrets of prog, this album was recently reissued on CD. Sancious has a storied career as a multi-instrumentalist sideman, playing both guitar and keyboards in an early incarnation of Springsteen's E Street Band, and going on to tour and record with the likes of Sting and Peter Gabriel. In the 1970s and '80s, he fronted several prog and fusion projects. True Stories is the finest, combining soulful melodies, supple jazz changes and screaming guitar and Moog solos. (Fusion fans must not pass "Go" until they have also heard Sancious's album Forest of Feelings).

Can's Tago Mago
You don't own this album? Good Lord, even Insound carries it -- what are you worried about!?!

Steve Howe's Not Necessarily Acoustic
This 1994 solo live album will make your jaw drop. After 30-plus years of playing in Yes, Asia, GTR, and on his own, Steve Howe has guitar technique to spare. Whether he's playing ragtime guitar pieces, renditions of Yes favorites, or songs from his own catalogue, Howe tears it up.

Peter Gabriel's Peter Gabriel (3)
Gabriel's third solo album combined an adventurous approach to instrumentation (drummers Phil Collins and Jerry Marotta weren't allowed to employ cymbals in their kits, to name just one stipulation) with some of his most engaging songwriting. "Games without Frontiers", "I Don't Remember", "And Through the Wire" and "No Self Control" retain the edge of Gabriel's early experiments while still receiving a strong infusion of melodic hooks. With "Biko", Gabriel presaged Western mainstream awareness of the depredations of Apartheid and engaged a political dimension in his music without becoming "preachy". At the same time, "Biko" and other songs expand Gabriel's palette toward non-Western domains, a pursuit that would later lead to Gabriel's involvement in WOMAD and Real World.

Steve Hackett's Darktown
After his departure from Genesis, Hackett's solo work was uneven -- his work in classical crossover may actually be the stuff that holds up the best. But this 1999 prog album showcases both his considerable abilities as a guitarist and some of his best compositions to date.

Tony Banks's A Curious Feeling
As Genesis became more pop and less prog, Banks's intricate keyboard textures began to take a back seat to drum machines, samples, and beer shilling. A Curious Feeling, more or less contemporary with Genesis's last non-mainstream effort Duke, is sort of a farewell to all that was beautiful about his songwriting with early Genesis. His later solo work was often quite special as well, in an intimate and gentle sort of way. Now that Genesis appears to have disbanded, dare we hope for more solo efforts from Banks?

Yes's Close to the Edge
Sure, Fragile had the radio hits, but Close to the Edge provides three of Yes's most effective extended pieces -- the title track (which took up the entire side of an LP), "And You and I", and "Siberian Khatru". These compositions should not be looked at as "songs", per se -- they're really multi-movement works, nearly symphonic in ambition. Of course, those who hate prog for precisely these ambitions will call "Close to the Edge" bloated, but it actually has quite a carefully constructed formal design. So there.