The other day I saw an interesting album on Progstreaming IQ’s The Road of Bones. I went to Spotify put the album on,  listened to a few minutes of the opening track “From the Outside In” really liked it and quickly downloaded the album  to the iPhone. I had a chance to listen to the album more fully this morning, and I love it. I see after reviewing band information at both IQ’s website and ProgArchives that IQ is a neo-prog band from the United Kingdom. IQ was formed in 1981 and seem to tour mostly in the UK and Europe, which partially explains why I have never heard of them.
The other part of the reason that I haven’t heard of them is that, when Peter Nichols, Michael Holmes, Martin Orford, Paul Cook and Tim Esau formed IQ in 1981, after the demise of The Lens, I was in my second year of fatherhood and was listening to less and less rock music. Â Over the next umpteenth years, while I was raising my four children, IQ was busy making releasing album after album of great progressive rock! Their music combines elements of various genres including: prog, punk,jazz and even reggae. With the exception of guitarist Michael Holmes, the members of the band have changed through the years. On The Road of Bones, IQ’s latest release four out of five of the original members of the band are united for the first time in years. The only original member of the band not appearing on the new album is keyboardist Martin Orford whose duties have been taken over by Neil Durant.
The Road of Bones is just about the perfect prog rock album for me, and certainly one of the best that I have listened to this year. The album combines great vocals, and musicianship. At the ProgArchives that album has one of the highest ratings I have seen 4.39 out of five with over 53% of the rating five stars, making the album an:Â Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music!
So Check  out IQ!! As for me, my son Andrew says that he loved their 2009 release Frequency, and really anything after 1993’s Ever, so I guess I need to check those albums out! I also need to check out the two albums that kicked off the career of IQ – Tales From The Lush Attic and The Wake which became instant classics, after their releases in 1983 and 1985 respectively!!
Links for further Explorations of IQ….
Website
ProgArchives
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Here’s the title track from The Road of Bones by IQ