THE TOP TEN ALBUMS OF 2025:
1 Sloan, Based on the Best Seller
2 Wolf Alice, The Clearing
3 Lady Beast, The Inner Alchemist
4 Testament, Para Bellum
5 Neal Morse, Never Been Down This Road
6 Garbage, Let All that We Imagine be the Light
7 The Darkness, Dreams on Toast
8 Sanhedrin, Heat Lightning
9 Haim, I quit
10 Brass Camel, Camel
It’s been a good year for music! So good it demanded a slightly different format this time around. You can read my original reviews of my 40 or so favorites from 2025 at the article links that precede each listicle. Listings include the types of release as laid out below, with Top Favorite listings in bold italics (as well as pictured above)!
Clean-Up on Aisle 24 (January)
Gotta Lotta Live If You Want It (February)
Phil Keaggy: The Progarchy Interview (April)
Lightning Round Reviews (April)
And Shockingly Unreviewed Until Now:
— Rick Krueger
No haikus this time, I promise! However, I am going to try and make up for my recent radio silence by covering a lot of ground at a fast and furious pace. Listening links will be available in the title listings. Buckle up . . .
Completely new & noteworthy releases have seemed few and far between the last few months — although I’ve not yet heard the new Neal Morse album Time Lord has so fulsomely praised. My hands-down favorite (easily making my year-end shortlist) has to be Firebrand, the farewell album from Norwegian keyboard trio Ring Van Möbius. On three extended tracks, Thor Erik Helgesen delivers more frenzied organ riffs and howling modular synthesizer licks per minute than we’ve heard since the glory days of Emerson, Lake & Palmer — plus thoroughly unhinged singing of Dag Olav Husås’ trippy lyrics to boot! With Havard Rasmussen’s growling bass and Husås’ throbbing percussion driving the album to multiple shattering climaxes, Firebrand is a demented psychedlic journey to the outer limits of angular, aggressive prog — and all the more gripping on account of it! Meanwhile Tony Levin, Markus Reuter and Pat Mastoletto are back as Stick Men for a 5-track EP of new material, Brutal. This one packs a serious, King Crimson-adjacent punch; the title track, “Bash Machine” and “Pulp” all live up to their names, leaping out of the speakers with heady abandon, precision instrumental riffery, and dense blocks of hardcore sound. More, please! And whatever the debate over the merits of Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film One Battle After Another, Jonny Greenwood provides yet another arresting soundtrack for the director; this time around, Greenwood foregrounds jagged piano over his exquisitely modernist orchestral textures (as well as the occasional gnarly reminder of his trademark guitar sounds in Radiohead and The Smile).
On the other hand, there’s a motherlode of excellent live albums out this quarter! Big Big Train score yet again with Are We Nearly There Yet?, as Alberto Bravin, Greg Spawton and their band of equals blitz through 2024’s fabulous The Likes of Us on disc 1, then gloriously reaffirm BBT back-catalog highlights and rarities on disc 2. District 97 has buffed up and expanded their stellar 2013 collaboration with John Wetton, One More Red Night: Live in Chicago, doubling the disc’s playing time with the Wetton/Leslie Hunt duet “The Perfect Young Man” and D97’s debut album epic “Mindscan”. Reunited with Mike Portnoy, Dream Theater’s 3-CD, 2-BluRay Quarantieme: Live a Paris is an unbeatable 40th-anniversary souvenir; from the crunchy, complex metal of “Metropolis” and Scenes from a Memory through phone-waving power ballads like “Hollow Years” and “The Spirit Carries On” to full-on prog suites “Stream of Consciousness” and “Octavarium”, the entire band operates at a new peak. And, while mashing up a new production of Hamlet with songs from Radiohead’s Hail to the Thief for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Thom Yorke decided the group’s concert takes on the material deserved their own release. Hail to the Thief (Live Recordings 2003-2009) is a banger well worth fans’ time; Radiohead is at their most feral here, squeezing fresh juice from the album’s fuzzed-up, squelchy snapshots of cultural unease with a tightened-up yet wilder sound.
Still, two live particular live releases stood out for me. David Gilmour’s 2024 tour set, available as audio from throughout (The Luck and Strange Concerts) or breathtaking video of a single show (Live at the Circus Maximus), is sleek and spectacular in equal measure, the subdued melancholy and sublimated anger of his solo albums and late Pink Floyd interlaced with the familiar flavors of selected Floyd classics. One of the best things about this set is that it isn’t all Gilmour’s baby: Greg Phillinganes ably fills the keyboard and vocal roles of Richard Wright on “Time”; daughter Romany visibly steals the Rome audience’s heart with her lead vocal on “Between Two Points”; backing vocalists Louise Campbell and The Webb Sisters light up a fresh take on “The Great Gig in the Sky” plus recent solo songs “The Piper’s Call” and “A Boat Lies Waiting”. But Gilmour is still the star, never disappointing on the standards, raising chills with his singing and solos every bit as much on “A Great Day for Freedom” and “High Hopes” as on “Wish You Were Here” and “Comfortably Numb”, his young backing band keeping up all the while. Unmissable, and a unquestioned 2025 Favorite, especially the video version.
Plus, just this past week I discovered my holiday album of the year! Yorkshire songstress Kate Rusby, “the nightingale of Barnsleydale”, has made eight Christmas albums in the last two decades; her latest, Christmas Is Merry, is a live compilation from recent December tours that celebrates the season with the joy and awe it deserves. From whimsical takes on Tin Pan alley chestnuts (“It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”, “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas”) to rumbustious traditional carols (“Hark Hark”, “Sunny Bank”) to off-center originals (“Glorious”), all backed by a trad folk band and brass, Rusby is guaranteed to raise a smile. And when she switches to her intimate croon for the foreboding “The Moon Shines Bright” and a hushed “O Little Town of Bethlehem”, I dare you not to be moved. An immediate 2025 Favorite; you really need to hear this.
There have been first-rate reissues aplenty as well. My Favorites have been: The Zombies’ long-neglected Summer of Love classic Odessey and Oracle remastered in mono, with Colin Blunstone’s sublime vocals and Rod Argent’s classically tinged organ propelling an impressively mature song suite; the 20th anniversary remaster of Sigur Ros’ Takk — a delightfully imaginative, massively symphonic highlight of the Icelandic post-rockers’ output; and Pink Floyd’s 50th anniversary edition of their elegiac masterpiece Wish You Were Here (especially the BluRay release, which includes a complete 1975 show suitably exhumed from its original bootleg by Steven Wilson).
And there are lots more reissues worth a listen: the 1983 debut from Detroit pop-proggers Art in America (they had a harp player — yes, a giant harp, one with all those strings) along with their unreleased second album Rise; Steve Hackett’s album-length acoustic collaboration with Shakespeare and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; fresh Steven Wilson remixes in stereo, surround and Atmos of King Crimson’s transitional albums In the Wake of Poseidon (Robert Fripp and Peter Sinfield carrying on from the innovative debut with a rotating cast of characters) and Lizard (free jazz meets post-Wagnerian romanticism; quite the magnificent mess); Nick d’Virgilio and Mark Hornby’s long-unavailable, polystylistic Rewiring Genesis: A Tribute to The Lamb Lies On Broadway (with full orchestra on “In the Cage” a Dixieland “Counting Out Time”, sneaky Jethro Tull quotes tucked in the fadeout of “The Waiting Room”, etc.)
Lastly, while the music industry’s annual fourth-quarter release glut means that my box set backlog is worse than ever, I can wholeheartedly recommend the super-deluxe version of the original The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway; while the set’s Atmos mix has been controversial, its straight-up stereo remaster gives the music an absorbing clarity that fills in the blanks of Peter Gabriel’s opaque storyline, and a live bootleg from Genesis’ contemporaneous tour (with vocals mostly overdubbed by Gabriel 20 years later) is equally, winningly surreal. Finally, the 20-disc Peter Hammill: The Charisma and Virgin Recordings, 1971-1986 isn’t for the faint of heart — but given Hammill’s track record with Van der Graaf Generator, hardcore enthusiasts like me knew that anyway. Boundless existential musings set to music of structural, timbral and histrionic extremes — nearly 200 tracks, with 1975’s proto-punk album Nadir’s Big Chance and 1977’s dark, devastating break-up song cycle Over standing out. Hammill (who opened for Genesis during parts of The Lamb tour) may be strong meat, but he never gives less than his all.
— Rick Krueger
Wow. This is an unexpectedly impactful album from Neal Morse. You never know what you’re in for with any of his new projects, but this one has surprised me with its unusually profound emotional immediacy.
Right out of the gate, “Leavin’ California” delights the listener with an autobiographical reflection from Neal. He delivers it in a piano-laden style that reminds us of Bruce Hornsby and the Range’s big hit, “The Way It Is.” However, we get here something even deeper than Bruce Hornsby’s observations about an uncaring jerk who tells a hard-luck case to “get a job.” Instead, Neal himself sings from the POV of the down and out. He tells his own story about getting fired and being miserable. This epic and encouraging tale is alone worth the price of admission.
But the whole album continues with music of the highest caliber. The next song, “New Man,” tells a fictional tale that is no less moving than Neal’s own—no doubt because its composite image is based on a variety of true-life stories. Here, Neal quite effectively takes us down the road to redemption, guiding us to a thrilling musical catharsis where we can exclaim along with him, “God bless the new man.”
“Reach Deep and Grab It All,” with its perfect hook and killer horns, shifts gears from the consummate storytelling of the first two tracks into a dazzling display of hitmaker songwriting. Neal shows the same ability on the penultimate track, “The Heart Always Knows,” which combines a catchy chorus with the rollicking good time of a barn-burning stomper. He even throws in a perfect-fit sax solo on that penultimate track, as well as on the album’s closing track, “Breathe the Air.” That lush finale, along with two other tracks, succeeds in presenting the listener with an unusually intimate mode of prayer that displays a fully naked emotional honesty: “Open Up Again” and “The Most Important Person.”
The album thus has a unique mix of singer-songwriter mini-hits, short stories, and humble prayers. But “Never Been Down This Road” is the impressive title track that adds something further—a prog dimension—to the album’s many-sided gifts. “Never Been Down This Road” has lyrics infused with a mystical poetry that seals the whole album as another upper-echelon, Dylan-level achievement by Neal Morse. So, drink in and enjoy this whole beautiful album. It’s a satisfying and deeply moving artistic achievement.
Lots of ink has been spilt on Cardiacs over the decades. While I personally love their prog pop/punk sensibilities, others don’t have a good word to say about them. Life’s rich tapestry, etc. They are the quintessential Marmite Band.
If you are of my persuasion, you may be delighted to know that their new long player – titled LSD, is now available on Bandcamp.
It’s a remarkable album considering Tim Smith (blessed be His name), the main creative force behind the band, died in 2020 after a long, debilitating illness. The record had a difficult birth, given the state of the available material, and when I first heard about it I thought that it was going to be a mere tribute album. How wrong was I? This actually feels 100% a Cardiacs record – Tim’s fingerprints are all over it. His friends, colleagues and fans have done him absolute glorious justice.
Cardiacs albums defy review, so I won’t go there. If you like them, go buy it. If you hate them, pass by without comment. If you’ve never heard of them, give them a try.
Verdict: Worthy Of Laudation.
“How many of you came here by mistake tonight? Wives, girlfriends, best friends, and so on? I know what you’re thinking — ‘we’ve been here ninety minutes and he’s played four [expletive deleted] songs!’”
— Steven Wilson, September 19, 2025
To which the mostly – though not exclusively – male fans who brought those wives, girlfriends, best friends and so on to The Fillmore Detroit (btw, thanks for renaming the venerable State Theater so it’s just another franchise, Live Nation) would probably reply: “Yeah, but how about those four songs?!?”
As usual on this tour, Steven Wilson and his band kicked off with the entirety of his new concept album, The Overview, with hi-rez video projections and surround audio to match. While my critique of Wilson’s latest music holds — I found it compositionally thin, too derivative of his influences, annoyingly reductive in its materialist message — the scope of the visuals fused with the propulsion of Nick Beggs on basses and Craig Blundell on drums supplied the depth and drive my at-home listening has lacked. And when Randy McStine launched into a scorching guitar lament on “Objects Outlive Us: The Heat Death of the Universe”, or when Adam Holzman and his synthesizer skittered across galaxies on “The Overview: Infinity Measured in Moments” — well, the Chestertonian sense of wonder I’d been longing for was there in the moment, embodied if unprofessed.
Confirming Wilson’s current fascination with the creative template of vintage electronic music, he and Holzman opened the second set with a creepy synth duet on The Future Bites’ “King Ghost”. But then came the moment the numerous folks in Rush t-shirts had been awaiting – an no-holds-barred take on “Home Invasion/Regret #9” from 2015’s neo-prog masterwork Hand.Cannot.Erase. Everything veteran cosmic rockers love about this album was there: blazing guitar riffs, biting Rhodes chords from Holzman, earthy funk grooves from Beggs and Blundell, solo space aplenty for Holzman and McStine, and lyrics spat out by Wilson, as on target in their bleak portrait of online life as they were a decade ago:
Download sex and download God
Download the funds to meet the cost
Download a dream home and a wife
Download the ocean and the skyDownload love and download war
Download the shit you didn’t want
Download the things that make you mad
Download the life you wish you hadAnother day of life has passed me by
But I have lost all faith in what’s outside
The awning of the stars across the sky
And the wreckage of the night
From that point, Wilson and the band didn’t miss a trick; as they trawled his back catalog, the crowd stayed with them through every twist and turn. And admittedly, there was something for everyone in this setlist: the soft pop of “What Life Brings” (which, Wilson pointed out, never got traction on TikTok due to its minute-long guitar solo); Beggs’ jaw-dropping Stick feature on The Harmony Codex closer “Staircase”; a take on the vintage Porcupine Tree tarantella “Dislocated Day”, stretched out by Wilson bringing Blundell’s volume lower . . . and lower . . . and lower; “Pariah”, To The Bone’s vocal duet that proved effective even with a prerecorded Ninet Tayib; extended cinematic workout “Impossible Tightrope”; the metal-injected melancholy of “Harmony Korine”; and brutal, thrashy set-closer “Vermillioncore”. As encores, the multi-part epic “Ancestral” and the mournfully uplifting title track of The Raven That Refused To Sing put a satisfying button on the night.
If Steven Wilson remains unapologetic about his consistently contrarian musical moves, his current live concerts embrace a certain realism; repeated stabs at channeling modern pop toward progressive ends (especially on The Future Bites) didn’t necessarily expand his core audience, while the recent Porcupine Tree reunion seems to have brought younger generations of rock and metal fans into the fold. Projecting a new-found comfort with cult status (as he cracked after a labored joke about tariffs, “I’m not famous enough to be extradited”), Wilson and his killer band are delivering the virtuoso goods present and past on this tour, and the delighted Detroit crowd — a pleasant surprise for a grateful Wilson, given that it was his first solo stop there — ate it up. Whether you believe Wilson peaked ten years ago, hold on to hope that his best is yet to come, or even wind up at his concert by mistake, I think you’ll find something to your liking at this generous three-hour show. (Remaining US and world tour dates are here.)
— Rick Krueger
As usual, direct purchase links will follow each album review, along with video or audio streaming where available. Given the potential impact of new US tariffs and regulations on both overseas musicians and the vendors who sell their music, I especially encourage readers to support your favorite prog artists and retailers during this period of transition.
Dave Bainbridge, On the Edge (Of What Could Be): I glommed onto Bainbridge with his fabulous 2021 effort To the Far Away, but every one of his solo albums is crammed full of delights — rocking, rhapsodic and ravishing throughout. On the Edge is no exception: a double album with a self-contained suite on each disc, like Dave’s band Iona it takes listeners on a trip through the beauty of this world to the promise of a life to come. So many highights they can’t all fit here! Up-tempo elegy “Colour of Time” (with Randy McStine’s fierce vocal inspiring Bainbridge to heights of biting, frenzied jazz-fusion); the title track’s multi-sectioned build from triple-time acoustic folkiness to a thrilling electric climax; Simon Phillips’ fleet drum groove on “Farther Up and Farther In”, topped with mind-melting acrobatics from Bainbridge and piper Troy Donockley; Frank van Essen’s evocative violin and Bainbridge’s primal, Santana-meets-Mahavishnu cry on the orchestral “Beyond the Plains of Earth and Sky” are just a few of many great moments. Toss in vocals (in English and Gaelic) from a bevy of fine singers and virtuoso keyboards from Bainbridge, and you have an set that takes you on a genuinely amazing journey, gathering power as it builds to a spectacular culmination. Already a 2025 Favorite and a solid contender for the year-end top spot.
Bioscope, Gento: Steve Rothery’s keening, singing guitar has been one of Marillion’s prime calling cards for more than 40 years; as Edgar Froese’s appointed musical heir, Thorsten Quaeschning has recently propelled synth-rock trailblazers Tangerine Dream to fresh creative heights. Recorded during breaks in their bands’ work, the duo’s debut is a classic example of how two great tastes can taste great together. With the exception of psychedelic-Beatles closer “Kaleidoscope”, the musical elements on Gento repeatedly gather from thin air, coalesce, intensify, interact, react and dissipate — whether driven by Quaeschning (the wispy melodies, luxuriant textures and motorik rhythms of the three-part opener “Vanishing Point”), Rothery (the chiming rhythm guitar, slide/synth duets, fierce fuzz riffing and floating arabesques that shape another trilogy, “Bioscope”), or both in wonderfully organic call and response mode at multiple pieces’ climaxes. Add the rock solid drumming of Elbow’s Alex Reeves, and the results really are magical. Gento has gently, unobtrusively grown on me, all the way to making my 2025 Favorites list; it may take a few listens, but I think it will do something similar for you.
Discipline, Breadcrumbs: Eight years on from their last record, the Detroit proggers serve up another helping of their trademark, stately melancholia. Breadcrumbs proudly mines veins dug by King Crimson, Gabriel-era Genesis, Van der Graaf Generator — even a bit of keyboard-period Rush, with production by Terry Brown and art by Hugh Syme to boot — but as always, the results are a heady, hearty brew all its own. Throughout the intriguing title epic, the measured lament of “Keep the Change”, the relentless, stinging “When the Night Calls to Day/Aloft” and the thwarted, impressionistic “Aria”, Matthew Parmenter’s lyrical rhetoric and harmonically slippery keys take point, with Chris Herin providing pungent, tasty support and comment on guitar. While Breadcrumbs leans away from the slashing theatrics of vintage Discipline classics Unfolded Like Staircase and To Shatter All Accord, it still gives off a chilly intensity that showcases the band at their most spellbinding and cathartic. Through every challenging musical twist and verbal turn. this album is finely crafted and delivered with total conviction — another instant 2025 Favorite!
Steve Hackett, The Lamb Stands Up Live At The Royal Albert Hall: Yes, it’s Hackett’s tenth live album of the 21st century, but as usual, fans will find this a must for multiple reasons. Given recent personnel announcements, it’s probably Steve’s last live set with Roger King’s keyboards and Craig Blundell’s drums driving his talented band forward; the first half proves a spirited solo set, with lots of pleasingly vintage material and a thrusting trilogy of excerpts from 2024’s The Circus and The Nightwhale. And it’s hard to conceive of a better anniversary celebration for The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway! Nad Sylvan utterly inhabits protagonist Rael and Peter Gabriel’s other sundry characters; unjustly-forgotten Genesis vocalist Ray Wilson conjures an atmospheric, rumbling take of “Carpet Crawlers”; reflective moments like “Hairless Heart” shimmer, narratives like “The Lamia” and the title track subtly, potently grip your attention, and heavier moments like “Fly on a Windshield”, “Lilywhite Lilith” and “It” slam good and hard. With the super-deluxe box of The Lamb finally coming out at the end of September after multiple delays, sets like Dave Kerzner’s studio tribute and Hackett’s new concert set have nicely filled the gap while reminding both long-time and first-time listeners how ahead of its time the album was, and how vibrant this music still is.
Robert Reed, Sanctuary IV. One of the driving forces behind 1990s neo-proggers Magenta, Reed has branched out impressively in the following decades. Reed’s Sanctuary albums — episodic long-form pieces in the genre pioneered by Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells — have evolved far beyond pastiche or even tribute, and here he refines and re-energizes his approach to its peak. Compelling opener “The Eternal Search” races forward, climaxing with an utterly berserk Simon Phillips drum solo; “Truth” bounces vivid instrumental colors off of sampled male vocals, morphs into a nautical shuffle laced with Les Penning’s recorder tootles, then lunges for a grandiose, double-time finale; and the closing “Sanctuary” provides the perfect comedown with its gentle, compact, well-wrought theme. If you’re looking for a sweet spot between Bainbridge’s Celtic maximalism and Bioscope’s kinematic ambience, Sanctuary IV’s shimmering, tuneful instrumentals could be just your ticket.
— Rick Krueger
A typically quiet summer in our little corner of the music world came to an abrupt end last week, with the news that at the end of August, the United States government would impose new tariffs on goods from UK and the countries of the EU — two prime sources of progressive rock for American fans. In addition, a ‘de minimis’ exemption that allowed foreign packages valued under $800 to enter the US duty-free was going away at the same time. This prompted the Royal Mail, other European postal services and international businesses like Etsy and DHL to suspend deliveries to the US, allowing time for new procedures and paperwork to be developed and put in place. (The Royal Mail has restarted deliveries, providing tariff collection services on their end and charging sellers an additional handling fee.)
The impact on musicians we’ve come to know and love is currently unclear. Progarchy’s go-to British retailer Burning Shed will collect the new 10% tariff on UK shipments to the US — but only on merch, citing Royal Mail guidance that “informational materials” (books, CDs, vinyl, DVDs, BluRays, cassettes, posters and photographs) are exempt. Bandcamp is providing similar guidance to their international sellers (including Leonardo Pavkovic’s MoonJune Records — though as ever, Leonardo does things in his own unique way) and US buyers, but they also note that
The exception will depend on the seller including the correct HS codes on the customs forms and the US agencies processing the packages correctly . . . For those packages that are shipped to the United States after August 29, 2025, you (the buyer) may be charged tariffs upon delivery of the order. Any import duties are the buyer’s responsibility to pay.
Stalwart American importer (and Progarchy fave) The Band Wagon USA is leery about the impact of these changes, citing the real possibility of price increases and more limited stock in the near future. To their credit, they’re also stepping up to provide US distribution for DIY artists like Celtic-Tolkien progger Dave Brons (previously featured on this site), whom these new taxes and regulations will impact the most. But even the bigger acts in the genre are pondering their options; Marillion was one of the first to sound the alert about the coming changes, then suspend shipments until the fog clears. And since the two largest prog labels — Inside Out, a European division of Sony, and Kscope — are headquartered overseas, saying what the future holds only becomes more difficult.
Hardcore fan that I am, I plan to keep on keepin’ on with my upcoming purchases, wherever in the world they come from (I mean, come on — a new live album from Big Big Train! Ring van Möbius’ farewell album! A triple set of trio improv from The Necks!). And while your mileage may vary, let’s continue to support the musicians and the middlemen that bring the music to us, in a way that helps them continue to do what they love!
— Rick Krueger
How does a two-week vacation circling the Great Lakes wind up being this . . . proggy?
Well, starting out with a few days in Cleveland made a visit to The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inevitable; it’s been almost thirty years since I set foot in its controversial precincts. (In fact, I’d argue that any hall of fame, no matter its subject, is about controversy — who’s in, who’s not, who should and shouldn’t be there. On such foundations are sports talk radio and the seething hatred of prog fans for Rolling Stone magazine built.) Has the R&RHoF improved in welcoming progressive rock since its fledgling days in 1997, when gigantic props from Roger Waters’ version of The Wall glowering from the top of its atrium (see above) were about the only evidence prog was even on its radar?
Honestly, omissions are still painfully plentiful; the otherwise comprehensive rock history displays on the first two floors blank out prog entirely, hopping from psychedelia and singer-songwriters to punk with only the barest nod to heavy metal. On the other hand, there has been movement in the last 30 years, with three of Britprog’s Big Six — Pink Floyd (1996), Genesis (2010) and Yes (2017) — plus Rush (2013) inducted into the Hall proper, currently housed on the third floor.
(By the way, you can watch highlights from any artist’s HoF induction on video displays stationed in the Hall. Of course I dialed up that marvelously manic night when Rush was honored — the highlight reel included a full minute of Alex Lifeson’s inspired “Blah blah blah” speech.)
And, doubtless more to harvest email addresses than anything else, you can also vote on who you think should be in the Hall on adjacent video screens. Having done my civic duty by casting a vote for King Crimson, it was heartening to see them at #83 in the Top 100 of this year’s fan poll, though in a lower position than Styx (#5, just in front of Weird Al Yankovic), Tool (#12), Jethro Tull (#15), and Kansas (#35, not pictured). (And sad to say, Emerson Lake & Palmer were nowhere in sight.)
Then it was on to upstate New York, where I spent a delightful hour over coffee with noted music theory scholar and killer guitarist (and acquaintance from my grad school days) John Covach. One of the vanguard academics who pioneered rigorous analytical study of rock in general and prog in particular, John overflowed with good vibes as he waxed eloquent on the delights and challenges of shepherding books like Understanding Rock, What’s That Sound? and The Cambridge Companion to the Rolling Stones through the university press publication process; setting up a lecture tour of U.S. music schools for legendary drummer Bill Bruford (fresh from gaining his own Ph.D at the time); and getting gigs in a Yes tribute band when the post-Anderson version of the group still toured North America every summer! It was a blast to reconnect with John, who in addition to teaching and researching at the Eastman School of Music, is hard at work editing The Cambridge Companion to Progressive Rock (still in pre-publication, hopefully to be officially announced in 2026).
From there, it was a short border hop to an overnight stay in St. Catherine’s, Ontario — in a subdivision:
And yes, landing in the hometown of prog-metal’s finest drummer/lyricist was no coincidence; an outing to the town’s Lakeside Park (gorgeous even on an overcast day), complete with a picnic lunch in the shadow of the Neil Peart Pavilion brought the early Rush song of that name to vibrant life. (Fundraising for a memorial sculpture of Peart to be installed in the park has been in progress since last fall; click here for more information.)
If there’s a lesson, I suppose it’s this: a proggy vacation does not just happen; it must be carefully planned. So, fellow Progarchists: what’s your dream itinerary?
— Rick Krueger
P.S. Yes, all of the above is pretty retro; but new prog and more cool music piled up in my inbox while I was gone, so the appropriate Quick Takes are coming . . .
If you like your prog pop with a generous helping of quirk, then you will be delighted to know that Moron Police – one of Norway’s finest – dropped a new track (Pachinko, Pt. 1) from their upcoming album on Bandcamp. 11 minutes 44 seconds of absolute goodness!
Progarchy 