It’s been worth the wait. Moon Safari is back with the equivalent of a prog double album. It’s got a killer single with “Emma, Come On,” and it’s got a killer epic with “Teen Angel Meets the Apocalypse,” and it’s got everything in-between.
I’m not kidding. This album has everything but the kitchen sink, with all kinds of tiny details that show a true love for the craft. There’s a sax solo on “Forever, for You”, groovy time signature changes on “Between the Devil and Me”, an effective spattering of 80s synth drums on “Blood Moon”, and an hilarious soundalike Van Halen synth part on “198X”.
But if you want big, then three out of the nine tracks are over ten minutes long. You get more than you bargained for, making this the ultimate prog bargain of the year. It’s like a decade’s worth of music-making and music-enjoying all on one disc.
The album is endless joy and endless fun. Come on, Emma, and prog on with Moon Safari. What a great way to close the year. See you in 2024!
District 97 released their greatest album yet in 2023. It was a magnificent leap skyward into the upper echelons of the prog stratosphere.
From start to finish, this is a perfect album, showcasing every strength in the band. First and most obvious are the vocal skills of Leslie Hunt, which have never been better.
But everyone shines as her vocal effect radiates outwards. Take her vocal duo with guitarist Jim Tashjian on “Mirror,” which is extremely powerful and emotional in its force. Alternatively, the track “X-Faded” shows she can achieve powerful effects even with understated singing.
It seems like every song explores new and different realms, such that this is a rich record that repays repeated listens. Especially to savor the integral contributions of Tim Seisser on bass and Andrew Lawrence on keyboards to Leslie’s vocal tapestries.
Most impressive to my ears is the new sound to Jonathan Schang’s drum kit. It’s like he’s been studying the timbres of Bill Bruford most carefully, because that’s who his drumming reminds me of on this record. Everything he does is perfectly controlled and wonderfully musical in effect.
Most remarkable is the fact that “Deck is Stacked” even includes a drum solo (to complement the song’s lyrical theme about never compromising musical vision in spite of a heartless and rigged music industry): Schang’s drum solo is never boring (even though 99.99% of drum solos eventually are); instead, it is unbelievably so musical and so inventive and so beautiful that it holds up after repeated listens as the consummate work of art that it is.
Hearty congratulations to District 97 on this magnificent achievement in 2023! We are eternal fans after Stay for the Ending. The final track, “The Watcher,” seals the deal on District 97 being able to command the heights of prog metal for the year.
Tanith delivers with sci-fi and fantasy lyrical themes galore on their epic retro-metal quest, Voyage. Vocalist and Bassist Cindy Maynard steals the show with her lead turn on “Mother of Exile,” but every track is a standout. If you aren’t pumping the air by “Falling Wizard,” there’s no hope for you.
Don’t overlook this album, because it’s a hidden gem from 2023. Russ Tippins supplies tandem vocals with Maynard that give this band a unique flavor. Together with Keith Robinson on drums, they invoke the greatest traditions of rock trios. Excelsior!
This metal album will thrash you into a good mood if you can handle it. “Unborn” and “Siphon” are two particularly bone-crushing tracks that deliver supreme heaviosity that you can rarely get elsewhere.
But everything here is so much fun, and there’s something for everyone. You just have to like smart and wry heavy metal at its best.
Be sure to play “Memory Hole” as you fight back against the oligarchs’ attempts to erase history. The closing track, “Setting Sun,” is good, but not as show-stopping as “Bandages,” which closed 2017’s War Moans. Okay, so what; you’ll just have to go get that album too, and play them both back-to-back.
Neal Morse does it again with his best release of 2023, the first installment of his Joseph epic based on the story in the book of Genesis. Potiphar’s wife steals the show, sung convincingly by Talon David. But everyone rocks out thoroughly, orchestrated by Morse to unbelievably even greater effect than usual. The jaw-dropping guitar solo at the end of “Wait on You” by Eric Gillette is worth the price of admission alone, but you’ll be glad you came for the whole show. Can I get an amen?
Superstar guitarist Joel Hoekstra created a magnificent showcase this year for his skills on the solid rock album Crash of Life. With vocalist Girish Pradhan fronting the songs, it’s a remarkable display of virtuosity and supreme song-craft. The title track “Crash of Life” is particularly memorable. But the whole disc is superb from beginning to end.
At last, Trevor Rabin makes a long overdue solo album. The big revelation here is just how much Yes owed to Rabin for rejuvenating them back in the 80s. So much of that dynamic songwriting is echoed on Rio, along with a wealth of musical ideas that get stuffed into its ten songs.
There’s more going on here than a hundred songs on ten albums by ordinary artists. “Push,” “Paradise,” “Thandi,” and “Egoli” are particular favorites, but there is nothing second rate anywhere on this disc. It’s an abundant supply from a musical genius that repays repeated listens.
This one was a real surprise. A novelist tells the story of a fictional band from the 70s. Then it gets made into a documentary drama on Amazon Prime as a mini-series. But the actors performing as a band make a bunch of killer songs that become an irresistible album.
How unlikely is it that art imitating art takes on a life of its own? This “fake” album is better than most of the real albums released in 2023. It’s as if the pretense of fiction freed the actors and musicians and artists to dispense with all negativity, so that they could celebrate all that is good and glorious in rock music.
So many favorite tracks here, but would it kill you to try “Kill You to Try” from this album? You might never look back from looking back.
They say the third time’s the charm. But the third album from The Winery Dogs is more than just charmed, because we have already heard undeniable magic on their first two albums. This time, however, we witness a truly jaw-dropping breakthrough.
What is worth noting here is that we have been given a solid album with ten songs that strongly lock together. They flow inexorably, as the coherent whole of what I believe will eventually be recognized as a classic album, one even better than the merely rave reviews it has already been getting. Its magnificence gets more and more impressive with each further listen.
On previous releases, I found myself picking out favorite songs. The range of the band’s material was stunning, and while all of it was impressive, there were still standout tracks that clearly rose above the rest. On the debut, for me those were: “Elevate,” “I’m No Angel,” “Not Hopeless,” and “Regret.” On Hot Streak, they were: “The Bridge,” “War Machine,” “Devil You Know,” and “The Lamb.”
But on this release, rather than pick favorite songs, I can only pick out favorite moments within the songs. Because every track is a standout, I love them all, and I cherish those detailed special moments that each one of them contain for the dedicated listener.
“Xanadu” and “Mad World” were the two pre-release singles, which led us to expect more of the same Winery Dogs virtuosity from their earlier albums. Their magical ability is to bring Richie Kotzen’s guitar and Billy Sheehan’s bass and Mike Portnoy’s drums together in astonishing acrobatic coordination, a higher realm of musical motion which only the true greats can access, like Alex and Geddy and Neil on “Free Will.”
Yet while we get more of such magic, we also get interesting new details on this album, like the startling jazz chords in “Mad World” or the unusually intriguing lyrics to “Xanadu” which shift and change even with the musical repetitions of the chorus. Kotzen’s impassioned vocals seem to be taking an accusation (living clueless in Xanadu/Malibu) and flipping the accusation around as a badge of honor to be worn, as Kotzen makes it clear he (and the band) doesn’t care what anyone else thinks.
With that declaration of independence, and with their secession from the world’s madness, The Winery Dogs then shift direction and reveal the first two tracks to have been something of a head fake. “Breakthrough” seems to me like the kind of killer radio-friendly track that a record company would demand as the first single. But, as track three, it comes as an unexpected twist after the clever “business as usual” first two tracks.
With this twist, the album launches into the upper echelons of the most classic of classic rock territory. The punchy power chords of the chorus invite air guitar participation. Both the riff and the vocal phrasings unexpectedly remind me of Saturation-era Urge Overkill, which I found to be a delightful and obscure surprise.
“Rise” astonishes with its complexity and soulfulness, as the band continues it third-album ascent, now conducting cakewalk “business as unusual.”
But it’s “Stars” that veers off into truly delightful prog territory. Sheehan supplies a steady bass pulse for Portnoy and Kotzen to go completely bonkers around. Kotzen demonstrates beyond all doubt that he is one of the greatest of all time on this track, because his guitar solo lasts for a minute and forty seconds of such insane, imaginative, and inventive sounds that it’s unbelievable. The song enfolds all this into such a satisfying and catchy groove, it marks an outstanding conclusion to a staggeringly impressive Side A.
But the album’s B-side is astonishingly equal in achievement to the A side. The kickoff, “The Vengeance,” has one of those cathartic Kotzen vocals (like “Regret” or “The Lamb”) whose emotions are equalled by the intelligence of the lyrics (which wisely affirm that it is the weak, not the strong, who need revenge).
This track illustrates well my thesis about each album track having additional small but memorable details: here, it is the helicopter-like synth-sounding pattern which leads into each chorus, and I call it “synth-sounding” because it somehow bleeds into what sounds like a guitar. It’s a truly magical transformation, and such a thrilling little detail, yet I have no idea how it is done, but it excites the listener to no end each time it is heard.
As if that were not enough, “The Vengeance” also has more Urge Overkill overtones, with those little “ooh ooh ooh” background vocals that remind me of the musical positivity of “Positive Bleeding.”
“Pharaoh” levels the listener with a heavy riff that knows just when to hold back and also just when to smash, all while Portnoy builds pyramids with massive slabs of pounding drums.
And then there’s no respite, as the following track, “Gaslight,” delivers a musical imitation of a gaslighting assault of craziness. Its boogie blitz comes charging out of the gate with more notes per second than the human mind can possibly count. All you can do is try and shake your tail feather to keep up.
Perfectly timed for breath-catching, “Lorelei” is a slow, bluesy 6/8 waltz. It’s the type of song that would function for a lesser band as a filler cool-down track at album’s end. But for The Winery Dogs, this become merely the penultimate track, and yet another one that they use to confound listener expectations.
Sometimes nothing is more boring than a blues guitar solo, but Kotzen convinces us that we have not heard it all before, as he plays his solo lines with such feeling that we find ourselves amazed. Not only that, when he sings on the chorus, he soulfully adopts such unusual phrasing that I am reminded of Steve Perry 80s Journey. The song unexpectedly wormholes me on a journey into a magic world of nostalgic teenage school dance waltzes.
The epic final track, “The Red Wine,” begins by seeming to deliver on the promise of the album opener’s Rush-word: “Xanadu.” For the first eighteen seconds, “The Red Wine” sounds like classic Rush. I did a double-take the first time I heard those bars, and had to look again at the song name, which for those moments I thought was actually: “The Red Star.”
But after those opening flourishes, “The Red Wine” makes an abrupt stage-left turn and turns into a funky and groovy dance-along track, replete with a sing-along “party time” chorus. We even get a verse imagining senior citizens playing air guitar with their canes, as the whole world falls under the spell of The Winery Dogs’ live music.
Happily, the track ends back in Rush mode, as the camera pans up (or so I imagine) from the outside dance party, up past the patio lanterns, and then ascends into the stars as the band turns again into the Rush of the opening half-minute. We get a mellow cosmic cool-down to end the album, as the band invokes the atmospherics, yes you guessed it, of Rush’s classic “Xanadu” mood. Billy’s bass is the last one sucked into the Cygnus X-1 black hole, but it beams back a cosmic echo, advising you to buy this album and find your way to the Dogs’ dance party.
Confounding the cynics, Kotzen and Sheehan and Portnoy are clearly not just a super-group of super noodlers. With this album, they demonstrate they are one of the greatest bands to have ever rocked the Earth. With III, they leave their paw print in the pavement, preserved for all time, in the pantheon of the Rock of Fame.
The Album of the Year for 2023 is, in my opinion, the masterpiece Fearless from the mighty Crown Lands: the incredible musicians Cody Bowles and Kevin Comeau.
No other album in my collection has received more repeated listens this year than this one. I alerted you to the lead track, “Starlifter,” back in February. Then, with the release of the whole album in March, it has been in heavy rotation in the succeeding months.
Despite the many top contenders for Prog Album of 2023 that have issued forth since then, the indisputable proof that Crown Lands must be awarded the top prize for 2023 is the Deluxe edition of Fearless that was made available in June.
Added to the nine tracks that comprise the Fearless album, the Deluxe edition adds eight instrumental versions. That means you can do Crown Lands karaoke, or practice playing the musical parts on your own instruments, etc. And the number of instrumental tracks added is eight, because the album track “Penny” is already a guitar instrumental in the tradition of prog palate cleansers like Steve Howe’s “Mood for a Day” or “The Clap.”
The Deluxe edition live versions of the Fearless tracks are nothing short of amazing. Usually bands sound worse live than on record. But with Crown Lands, we get versions of the studio tracks that sound even heavier and even more energetic than the carefully produced prog perfection originals.
Somehow, Crown Lands manages to capture on the Deluxe edition live recordings a special energy that they obviously have when they play live. Kevin’s riffs are even darker and more menacing, and the synth sounds punch and crackle with tactile gusto. Cody’s singing is impassionate and immediate, hitting all the high notes and even adding extra sentiment in the heat of the moment. The drum fills are astonishing, as they fly from speaker to speaker and you feel like you are standing behind the kit next to Cody as he kicks out the songs with enhanced verve. Kevin’s guitar solos and bass lines induce ecstasy, which is symbolized by all those bonus fretboard dive-bombing finger slides and power chord zoom blasts.
Fearless (Deluxe): You have to hear it to believe it, and you won’t be able to pick a favorite version of the album—live or studio—since they each have their own special charms. Perhaps all that the listener can do after hearing Fearless (Deluxe) is to pronounce the winner of Album of the Year for 2023 in the same way that as I do. Unquestionably, the crown has to be awarded to the invincibly fearless and unstoppable Crown Lands.
Progarchy 