It is that time of the year to recall and reflect on what has been another extraordinary year for this crazy little thing called prog.

Again, as the fans and consumers of huge quantities of prog, our expectations were high and once more, the bands continued to deliver in the most spectacular fashion.

A question I have asked myself on many occasions this year is where on earth is this music coming from? It appeared there was a whole new seam of invention and creation being mined in the most spectacular fashion by the current torch-bearers of the musical genre.

There have been so many highlights both on record and indeed live this year. Watching bands, especially The Enid, Haken and Maschine overcome the extreme cold at HRH Prog; seeing Benoit David and Michel St Pere dazzle with Mystery at Celebr8.2; encountering Steven Wilson at the Royal Festival Hall in the same week as the Flower Kings, Neal Morse, Transatlantic and Steve Hackett were at Camden’s Electric Ballroom (plus three other gigs we attended), and of course, celebrating the return of Lazuli to Summers End, all brought immeasurable joy to this humble observer.

The “wow” moments have come thick and fast, the personal high being The Big Big Weekend, when a simple idea took on a life of its own and became a celebration of the warmth and camaraderie between one very special band and its fans. Here’s hoping there will be a chance to repeat the occasion next year.

Central to all of these activities of course is the music, that has been extraordinary, exhilarating, life-affirming, game-changing and frankly brilliant.

There were ten particular albums which stood out for me and here they are in order of preference:

1) Lifesigns – Lifesigns

A beautifully balanced album composed by John Young containing all the classic prog elements and some stunning performances from a “who’s who” of players. Shining out in particular are JY’s superb expressive voice and virtuoso keys, Nick Beggs’ sonorous bass and frenetic Chapman stick, Frosty Beedle’s energetic drumming, together with dreamy guitars from both Robin Boult and Steve Hackett, and classic flute flourishes from Thijs van Leer.

What made it stand out for me was the very deep spiritual chord it struck especially through the lyrics which reflected on some of my own personal life experiences and hopefully, lessons learned as a result. It will be wonderful to see it all performed live next March.

2) English Electric Pt 2 – Big Big Train

Well, how do you follow English Electric Pt 1 which was my 2012 album of the year. Pt 2 came oh so close to repeating this feat in 2013 and East Coast Racer is without doubt the stand-out long track of the year. Nobody can get through this remarkable composition without marvelling at the innate splendour of the legendary locomotive so lovingly built and still a centrepiece of British industrial heritage. The whole album is a musical meditation on times past and all that we have lost in order to gain in the name of “progress”.

3) The Raven That Refused To Sing – Steven Wilson

As a long-time SW naysayer, I locked myself away in a darkened room to listen to Raven with a view to writing a negative review. How nice to be proved wrong once in a while. Finally, I felt him reaching out and grabbing those of us sitting on the fence. Everything about it oozes total power and artistry, the playing and production an exercise in consummate prog excellence.

4) The Mountain – Haken

Having finally caught up twice live with one of prog’s emergent stars this year, they deliver the killer blow with an album bursting full of pomp and swagger. It fuses prog metal with some deft touches including the Marmite track The Cockroach King which channels Gentle Giant and Queen, plus the mighty Atlas Stone, a cinematic masterpiece of epic proportions.

5) The Twenty Seven Club – Magenta

This is arguably the finest album so far by the Welsh quartet, a breath-taking collection of carefully crafted songs, each depicting a particular musical legend whose life was cut short at that tragic number. It could have been mawkish or contrived; instead, it hit new heights through both the instrumentation and the gorgeous voice of Christina Booth. Here’s hoping her current treatment for cancer will enable her to return to the stage very soon to perform those glorious songs live.

6) Le Sacre Du Travail – The Tangent

One of the most eagerly anticipated albums of the year did not disappoint as Maestro Tillison and his all-star cast rewrote the prog script harking back to Stravinsky and indeed Bernstein with its extraordinary musical scoring and individual take on the world of work. As someone who now listens to Steve Wright in the Afternoon by design rather than choice, its meaning has taken on a whole new dimension!

7) The Man Left In Space – Cosmograf

There are many great storytellers in prog but Robin Armstrong is one of the best. He draws on his own personal influences such as David Bowie, Pink Floyd and Neil Armstrong to recount the ultimate double-edged tale of how success can lead to the ultimate sacrifice. The claustrophobia and loneliness are palpable throughout.

8) [REDACTED] – Also Eden

After a near-fatal motorcycle smash and two changes of personnel, Also Eden up their personal ante with an album of such dense atmospherics, it is akin to taking a walk down by the water on a warm misty evening and entering into a parallel universe. Rich Harding’s penetrating voice and Simon Rogers’ soaring guitar are your pathfinders into this rather ghostly new world which also draws on influences such as Rush, Marillion, Francis Dunnery and Steve Hackett.

9) Rise Up Forgotten, Returned Destroyed – Shineback

Always expect the unexpected with Tinyfish’s mainman Simon Godfrey whose songwriting is right up there with some of the best. Breathing fresh life into electronica, RUFRD is a deceptively clever album which uses samples from Bulgarian singer Danny Claire to build a story drawing on his vivid imagination during his childhood experiences of insomnia.

10) Fanfare & Fantasy – Comedy of Errors

After their excellent debut album Disobey, this album affirms Comedy of Errors as a growing force in prog, their brand of melodic prog echoing Marillion and Mystery but with a few surprises along the way such as Time’s Motet and Galliard.

Long ago, a live album from Rush was, for many of us fans, on par with a studio release from our heroes.  They followed a pattern of a live album following four studio albums, and so it was from “All The World’s A Stage” through “Different Stages.”  We’d make sure to tune into rock radio hoping to hear cuts from the new live album and we were certainly in front of the record shop on release day to snap up a copy to hear our favorite band bring it live.

Setlists aside, we remember “All The World’s A Stage” for showcasing the raw power of a young power trio on the “2112” tour, we remember “Exit…Stage Left” as being the slick, overdubbed effort chronicling the “Moving Pictures” tour (ever notice that the crowd cheer on “The Spirit Of Radio” is the same as the cheer following the song?), we remember “A Show Of Hands” capping off the synth/sequencer-heavy era of the 80’s, and we remember “Different Stages Live” as a possible swan song for the band following the “Test For Echo” tour and the well-documented tragedies in the personal life of Neil Peart.

Since reforming with “Vapor Trails,” Rush has made live albums a regular post-tour offering, and so for this fan, they’re a bit hit and miss with me as they don’t differ a ton beyond the new music and them throwing in select tunes from the past such as “Natural Science, The Camera Eye,” and others.  I own “Rush In Rio” and “R30,” but have skipped the last two just as I skipped those tours, though I *have* bought the DVD’s knowing their live show is as much to be seen as to be heard.

With “Clockwork Angels Tour,” my interest was more in the 80’s material than the new material as I was one of the few who really didn’t embrace the “Clockwork Angels” album. Producer Nick Raskulinecz, a professed Rush fanboy, has been good at coaxing great performances from a band that could go on autopilot at this point of their career, but the one trap this fan thinks he falls into is attempting to pull them all the way back their more raw, power trio days, playing up major chords and hard rock concept of Rush instead of the more epic, progressive route they took in the late 70’s and the melodic route they took during the 80’s.

“Clockwork Angels” saw Rush executing an album-length concept for the first time, and by its release, I found the concept a bit tired from the release of the first two tracks a few years before, the tour that followed those two tracks, and the companion book. I honestly gave “Clockwork Angels” a fair shake, but aside from “Caravan” and the incredible finale that was “The Garden,” the album really didn’t resonate with me, though of course, a decent Rush album is better than most bands’ best efforts, right?

“Clockwork Angels Tour” – let’s refer to it as “CAT” – kicks off with 1982’s “Subdivisions,” the leadoff track from “Signals” and a change in how Rush concerts start, followed by another album-opener in “The Big Money,” which like “Subdivisions” is a faithful reading all the way down to the synth patches, Simmons drum patches and all the keyboard “touches” found on “Power Windows.”

Rush continues its march through the 80’s leadoff tracks with “Force Ten” from 1987’s “Hold Your Fire,” which along with the previous two tracks are staples of previous tours.  With so many Rush live albums to judge “CAT” against and knowing they’re playing better than ever, it really comes down to setlists and the few ways the songs differ from the originals, for Rush rarely ventures away from the recorded versions of their songs.  With “Force Ten,” Alex Lifeson treats us to a guitar solo that’s much more involved and extended than the album version.

The 80’s theme really kicks in with “Grand Designs,” the second track off “Power Windows” and likely not played live since their 1986 tour.  Had I attended this outing, this would have been the point of the show where I’d have jumped out of my seat. “Grace Under Pressure” is next represented as “The Body Electric” continues the show’s romp through the 80’s. It doesn’t seem to hold up terribly well live until the solo section, where it’s full gallop by the band.

With a rhythm undoubtedly inspired from Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s “Two Tribes” (did I just say that?), we’re treated to “Territories,” which us old-timers know as the first track on side two of “Power Windows.”  It’s a grooving track and the band does a fine job with this reading, especially Peart, who has quite the rhythmic workout with all the percussion he triggers during the song.

From there it’s yet another 80’s favorite, “The Analog Kid,” which I believe saw it’s revival during the Test For Echo tour. The song served as a scorching counterpoint to the lush “Subdivisions” on “Signals” and, as expected, Lifeson is fierce with his solo on this one.  I’ve said this for years now, but with each tour, Rush simply get better and tighter with every outing, if that’s possible for band some 40-plus years into its career.

The band then jumps into the 90’s with what I think is one of their finest tunes in “Bravado” from “Roll The Bones.”  The high notes following the solo prove to be a strain for Geddy Lee’s voice, which is actually somewhat contrasted by his sampled background vocals, likely taken from the album.  We stay with “Roll The Bones” via “Where’s My Thing,” featuring Lee vamping a sweet bass solo before the familiar intro from Lifeson gets the band going. Midway through, Peart jumps into one of several drum solos in the show.  Though the man who my main drumming influence growing up has, IMO, long since been leapfrogged by other drummers in progressive rock, his solos are a show unto themselves.  “Far Cry” ends the set, after which the volume fades.

Signaling the start of “Clockwork Angels,” Rush dives into “Caravan” and we’re treated to band’s string ensemble, marking the first time ever the band was joined by backing musicians – if you can really call them that – for a full tour.  They help bring tracks such as “Caravan” and the album’s title track – one of my favorites – to life.  The band tears through the standout tracks from “Clockwork Angels” with fire; as is the case with many Rush tracks, they take on an additional energy when played live. Peart breaks up “Headlong Flight” with a cool drum solo break before Lifeson gives us the “By-Tor”-esque solo.

One of the highlights of any Rush tour is something new to our ears, and boy, do we get it here with “Peke’s Repose,” a lovely guitar solo from Lifeson that leads us into “Halo Effect.”  The solo is awash in effects but simply sparkles. They continue driving through “Clockwork Angels” and finally bring us to “The Garden.” Lee’s voice seems worn by this point in the show, but it’s a magnificent song, one that I think they could end their career on, though I suspect they’re not done yet.

The string section sticks around after the “Clockwork Angels” set to add flourishes to “Dreamline” from “Roll The Bones,” then we get what is arguably the most creative and melodic (!) solo of Peart’s career in “The Percussor.” Something tells me he’s got at least an EP in him of this sort of melodic drumming.

After revisiting the 80’s with “Red Sector A,” we get another highlight with the string section as they help take “YYZ” to another level, then the band finishes off the set with the trifecta of landmark tracks in “The Spirit Of Radio,” “Tom Sawyer” and the bookends of “2112.”  The album includes bonus tracks including a soundcheck recording of “Limelight” along with live takes of “Middletown Dreams” – one of my favorite tunes from the 80’s – “The Pass” and finally “Manhattan Project.”  “Power Windows” was certainly represented on this tour, huh?

If I have any criticism to make – and this is likely beyond his control – it’s that sadly, Geddy Lee’s singing is starting to morph into some sort of falsetto, likely from age and the toll of so many shows.  I started noticing this watching video of the “Time Machine” tour, but it’s all over this album.

For this Rush fan who cut his teeth on the band with “Moving Pictures,” “Clockwork Angels Tour” works beautifully for me as the band clearly wished to revisit their 80’s catalog.  The “Clockwork Angels” tracks are delivered with gusto and augmented beautifully by the strings, plus we’re treated to instrumental surprises by all three guys along the way. With this tour’s emphasis on the 80’s one wonders if the next tour – if there is one – might focus on tracks from “Presto,” “Roll The Bones,” the largely-ignored-but-fabulous “Counterparts,” and “Test For Echo.” Until then, this release with its bonus track are well worth picking up.

A friend recently told me that nothing gets more hits on a webpage than a “top ten” list.  I had no idea.  For a brief moment, I thought, “well, let’s do a whole series, then!”  But, of course, we wouldn’t be prog lovers if we merely went for quantity.  We love quantity only when it’s full of quality.  You know, a 22-minute Big Big Train song, the kind of song that forces a non-prog friend to say to me, “Birzer, I had no idea when I started the song that I’d missed dinner.”

Ok, before I start sound like a really long refrigerator magnet. . . my top 29 prog songs of the past five years.  It’s the best I could do and still feel as though I possess some integrity.

My only rules.  1) The song had to appear in the last five years for the first time.  And, 2) I wouldn’t repeat any band’s appearance in the list.  In alphabetical order:

• Anathema “Universal”
• Ayreon “The Sixth Extinction”
• Big Big Train “The Underfall Yard”
• Cailyn “Nocturne”
• Coheed and Cambria “In Keeping Secrets of the Silent Earth: 3”
• Coralspin “Sons of the Sleeping Giant”
• Cosmograph “The Man Left in Space”
• Days Between Stations “Eggshell Man”
• The Fierce and the Dead “Part 1”
• Flower Kings “Tower ONE”
• Frost* “Wonderland”
• John Galgano, “1000”
• Gazpacho “Tick Tock (Part II)
• Glass Hammer “If the Stars”
• I and Thou “Hide and Seek”
• IZZ “Can’t Feel the Earth, Part II”
• Kingbathmat “Kubrick Moon”
• Leah “Northern Edge”
• Neal Morse “Time Changer”
• No-Man “Truenorth”
• Nosound “Winter Will Come”
• Oceansize “Trail of Fire”
• Reasoning “A Musing Dream”
• Riverside “Escalator Shrine”
• Rush “Clockwork Angels”
• Sanguine Hum “The Trial”
• The Tangent “Where are They Now” (Going Off the Two Version)
• Tin Spirits “Broken”
• Tori Amos “Battle of Trees”
• 3RDegree “The Ones to Follow”