Albums In My Collection

– Are You Sitting Comfortably?
– Dark Matter
– Ever
– Frequency
– Frequency: Tour
– Nomzamo
– The Road To Bones
– Seven Stories Into 98
– The Seventh House
– Subterranea: The Concert
– Tales From The Lush Attic
– The Wake

An Overview

Easily one of my all-time favorite Prog-Rock bands!

The early 1980s was an exciting time in music, especially in Great Britain. Then, with Punk Rock and Pop/Disco on the wane, both the New Wave Of Heavy Metal and the New Wave Of Progressive Rock eras began, the latter being (for me) the most exciting. Among the many bands to emerge were Marillion, Pallas, Pendragon, Twelfth Night, and IQ.

For many years, I felt that Marillion were the band destined to become the ultimate torch-bearers, the supreme and long-lasting superstars in the Neo-Prog-Rock category, blazing a trail of nearly perfect albums that would never end–and for a while they were the leaders–but then their vocalist Fish left the fold, and things started to go downhill, and fast. Thankfully, nature abhors a vacuum, and at just about the same time as this decline in Marillion’s high quality output arrived, IQ (a band I’d always thought held great promise, who were probably 2nd in line to Marillion in the 80s) really started to blossom, and fast.

And now, 30 years later, they are still releasing 5-Star albums! Indeed, all of their albums from the early 1990s through today I have rated either 4.5 or 5 Stars, with their most recent release, The Road To Bones, being a chilling, jaw-dropping, bloody unrivaled masterpiece in the genre. They have easily become one of my favorite bands of all time, falling within the Top 10 of the Prog-Rock genre, leaving Marillion way behind in the dust. IQ never strayed too far from their Neo-Prog roots, and that’s why I respect them. Or rather, one of the reasons. The other reasons are their consistent high quality in everything from material, musicianship, melodies, and production. Simply Aces!

Any lover of Progressive Rock should do themselves a favor and add each and every studio release by this extraordinary band into their music catalogue. Yes, even the albums Nomzamo and Are You Sitting Comfortably?, featuring the singer Paul Menel and not Peter Nicholls, and considered by many their “lowest point,” which are still endlessly better than albums most bands can produce in a lifetime. So when it comes to IQ overall, there are only two important words—Essential Listening!