Eleven Prog Bands Whose Second Album Was Their Best, According to Loudwire

The difficult second album can sometimes turn out to be the best one. Starting from this premise, the magazine Loudwire has drawn up a rather peculiar list: that of the eleven prog-rock bands whose second album is the pinnacle of their discography. "It's by no means a given that a band will manage to surpass its debut with a better second record, but it's not impossible either — Jordan Blum writes in the introduction — It can even happen that the second effort becomes their absolute masterpiece (at least up to that point)... Since progressive rock has been around for almost 60 years, we can cover a very wide time span. There are records from 1967, others from 2025, and plenty more spread across the various eras of the subgenre. Curiously, though, there's nothing from the Eighties or Nineties (so if there are any glaring omissions from those decades, let us know)", the magazine goes on to write.

So here's the list of the eleven prog-rock bands whose second album is their best, according to Loudwire magazine (full feature here).

The Mars Volta — “Frances The Mute” (2005)

Closure In Moscow — "Pink Lemonade" (2014)

Nektar — “A Tab In The Ocean” (1972)

The Far Cry — “Once There Was” (2025)

Unitopia — “The Garden” (2008)

Camel — "Mirage" (1974)

The Moody Blues — “Days Of Future Passed” (1967)

Happy The Man — “Crafty Hands” (1978)

National Health — “Of Queues And Cures” (1978)

Dredg — "El Cielo" (2002)

Southern Empire — "Civilisation" (2018)

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