Arjen Lucassen has released some images of the forthcoming Ayreon album, The Theory of Everything. Enticing!
1990: A Little Psychedelia Is Good for the Soul
1990 has always been a special year for me. Communism was on its last legs, the economy boomed, and the world seemed a rather friendly place. There were never lines at airports, and I could see a John Hughes movie about any time I so desired.
I also graduated from college in May, 1990, and I spent the next three months living with my great friend, Ron Strayer, in Lawrence, Kansas, sleeping on his couch.
In late August, I packed up my Mac Classic, some of my books, and my outdoor gear, and I moved out West to the Rockies. Once there, I began editing an academic journal with fellow progarchist Craig Breaden, and we became fast friends.
For two years, I wrote, edited, hiked, listened to music, and played lots of Canasta. My older brother lived in Boise, and we met at least once a month for a hike and some excellent fellowship. Usually, we talked about the natural order of things and our mutual love of science fiction.
1990 also introduced me to more music–and, perhaps more importantly, more types of music–than any year I can remember. I had been a rather straight-forward prog rock and New Wave/alternative rock kind of guy for most of my life. Ron and Craig,however, each introduced me to a rather wondrous variety new groups and genres.
Of the new material released some time during 1990, here are some my favorite songs and albums, in no particular order.
House of Love–“Hannah” and “Shine On.”
Cure–“Never Enough”
World Party, Good-bye Jumbo
Peter Murphy–“Cuts You Up”
Stone Roses, The Stone Roses
Charlatans, Some Friendly
The Sundays, Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic
Echo and the Bunnymen, Reverberation [and, yes, I think this is fine Echo album, even without Ian]
French Frith Kaiser Thompson, Invisible Means
Big Big Train–Justice!
I’m so proud of these guys. For the full article, click here.
The host of The Prog Magazine Radio Show on TeamRock Radio, Philip Wilding presented the Breakthrough award and he highlighted exactly why that honour has been bestowed on him with an hilarious intro based on schoolboy rivalry between Gavin Esler and Jeremy Paxman. The award was won by Big Big Train who were clearly very pleased with their achievement as three members of the band – Greg Spawton, David Longdon and Andy Poole – paused to thank everyone who had helped them. It’s important to remember who’s helped you get to where you are, of course!–Jerry Ewing
The greatest blog you will ever read….ever!
You know there’s one thing that really gets my goat…
Before I carry on I should point out that there are many things actually, including false opening statements like the one above. I’m now in my mid-forties and true to form my dormant grumpy gene has kicked in, and having an online social network presence is not the ideal place for someone with a growing affiliation to Victor Meldrew. (Sorry people of the US, pick another great pompous moaner from TV, Fraiser Crane perhaps?) Reading people’s comments and sweeping generalisations on a daily basis pushes all the buttons to get me to DEFCON 1, it’s not good.
And it’s not your fault or mine; we are all a product of the social revolution with all its benefits and woes.
Okay back to my point, the one thing that annoys me on a daily basis, oh bollocks, here I go again. It’s not one thing. Actually…this is my point. Exaggeration used to create a strong impression. The dreaded HYPERBOLE.
Actually Hyperbole isn’t all bad, I should say this now. In literary terms it has great uses and allows us to understand the character or story in a short, effective passage. “He’s got tons of money.” or “I have a million things to do.” These types of hyperbole work. However it’s when we look online, visiting blogs and forums and reading people’s updates and reviews that Hyperbole becomes the engorged tool of the devil. It all turns a little triumphalist. I know. I have seen it a million times….
“Mila Kunis is the sexiest woman alive,” apparently.
Well she is pretty and probably a contender. But come on! How would anyone know that? Has the person who made this crap piece of lazy journalism walked the length of the earth like some obsessed Forrest Gump type checking on all the women alive before deciding it is in fact Kunis? Yes indeed he might have, it’s highly likely he’s done some research late at night on the computer when his wife is asleep in bed, but that still doesn’t qualify the statement. Yes it’s a judgement call based on a tiny sample of the voting public, but for crying out loud, it’s just not true.
Progressive Rock fans are no exception, especially those that write about it online.
In fact in music genre terms they are perhaps the World’s worst for hyperbole. (see what I did there…)
Maybe it’s something connected to the epic quality of the music that brings out the overblown statement, or just the fact that as fan’s we know that the world isn’t really listening and they should be, so we bolster the music with exaggeration and unrealistic amplification? As fans go, they stand out for committing this particular writing sin more so than many other music categories.
With Pop music the opposite of hyperbole seems to happen (What is the opposite? Hypobole?)
Rather than resort to overstatement, we are bombarded with sky high superlatives instead, against the backdrop of choral theme music and a man with a ridiculously deep shouty voice. See the X-Factor/American Idol for evidence of this.
“Have you heard the new single by Jessie J? It’s a masterpiece!”
Somewhere, someone online may be saying this yet if this is so, it’s not close to the grand scale of trumpet blowing that follows each new Prog release. Does this mean that Progressive rock is better than everything else and the only true source of music perfection, or are we occasionally in danger of disappearing up our own epic-length arseholes?
So far this year we have seen a dozen of entries in the “album of the year contenders” category and, probably the same again in ‘masterpieces’ and classics. I can’t walk through some of the popular discussion groups without tripping over these pedestals.
Is it really true that the new ‘Haken’ album is a masterpiece or the latest ‘Magenta’ release? Both are certain to be excellent and well worth a look, for sure. But masterpieces they are not, nowhere near. By ranking them as this we do a disservice to the very music we love because we elevate it far too much and look subjective and a little obsessive, like musical equivalents of anoraks to the uninterested music world.
“Who cares, we’re fans and we can review our albums just how we want, why should we be worried?” Well we should, because the next band to break through and make Progressive rock massive again is probably out there but they are weighed down by huge amounts of hyperbolic bling from their core fans.
Putting that aside, let’s take a look at example of the new Haken again as a potential masterpiece and see if the cap fits. If the term masterpiece can be applied to any music of the last fifty years then lets classify ‘Close to the Edge’ by Yes and ‘Dark side of the moon’ from Pink Floyd as such and add Haken’s “The Mountain” into that club. Suddenly I see everything that winds me up about the internet. Short sightedness and a need to make everything better than everything else, ever. How can we take a review seriously that boasts about a new album, barely two weeks warm, summing it up as a true masterpiece? Ten out of ten. The danger is once we use the term we then have to find new ways of describing something even greater. Like the race for the next size of storage capacity or super-fast processor, we need a ‘mega-masterpiece’ or a ‘giga-piece’.
Ultimately it’s fair to say that none of the above are masterpieces, not even Yes or Pink Floyd. It’s hard to see any of these albums influencing and inspiring people a hundred years from now in the same way that Bach, Mozart, Debussy or Stravinsky have done for centuries and still do. Hell, even my spell check knows who these people are. These are the truest representations of the word and need no hyperbole to remind us how magnificent they were. If you ever doubt the validity of this, have a chat with those musicians whose work we elevate to such lofty heights, in fact I did and this is the result.
As for the over statements on the internet, I couldn’t change it in a million years. No word of a lie.
The Red Priest Rides Again
I highly recommend this recording (available from DG) by Daniel Hope, an amazing reconception of the most famous work by “the red priest”:
Today the “Four Seasons,” with more than 1,000 available recordings, are not just rediscovered—they are being reimagined. Astor Piazzolla, Uri Caine, Philip Glass and others have all created their own versions. In Spring 2012, I received an enigmatic call from the British composer Max Richter, who said he wanted to “recompose” the “Four Seasons” for me. His problem, he explained, was not with the music, but how we have treated it. We are subjected to it in supermarkets, elevators or when a caller puts you on hold. Like many of us, he was deeply fond of the “Seasons” but felt a degree of irritation at the music’s ubiquity. He told me that because Vivaldi’s music is made up of regular patterns, it has affinities with the seriality of contemporary postminimalism, one style in which he composes. Therefore, he said, the moment seemed ideal to reimagine a new way of hearing it.
I had always shied away from recording Vivaldi’s original. There are simply too many other versions already out there. But Mr. Richter’s reworking meant listening again to what is constantly new in a piece we think we are hearing when, really, we just blank it out. The album, “Recomposed By Max Richter: Four Seasons,” was released late last year. With his old warhorse refitted for the 21st century, the inimitable red priest rides again.
Over at The Imaginative Conservative, you can also find more recommended recordings of “the red priest” for your listening pleasure.
Given what Richter and Hope have done, don’t you think it’s time for someone to do a prog presentation of music by “the red priest”?
It could be epic!
Pure Pop for Prog People
Sometimes you have to put aside the extended epics and experience the simple pleasure of a nicely crafted pop song. With that in mind, here’s a playlist of recently released pop-like songs that prog-lovers can enjoy without guilt:
1. Sound Of Contact: “Not Coming Down”. Coming from their extraordinary album, Dimensionaut, this catchy tune has all the right ingredients: wall-of-sound production, rich vocal harmonies, an eminently hummable chorus, and they even sneak in a Beatlesque bridge. Take a listen, if you don’t believe me:
2. Days Between Stations: “The Man Who Died Two Times”. I’ve written about the wonderful album this track appears on in a previous post, and it features a delightful cameo by XTC’s Colin Moulding. It has an irresistible beat married to an insistent synthesizer riff, with Moulding’s multitracked, wry vocals floating over the controlled chaos. Think classic Alan Parsons Project mashed with 10CC, and you get a glimmer of the genius of this song. Go ahead and spend a buck for the mp3 of it here. You won’t be disappointed.
3. Sanguine Hum: “The Weight of The World”. Okay, this one is almost 15 minutes long, which qualifies it as a genuine epic, but it is so effortlessly melodic and uplifting I have to include it. I’ve always thought Sanguine Hum’s secret influence was Jellyfish, and it’s hard to deny that here. If Jellyfish and “One Size Fits All”- era Mothers of Invention had a child, it would be this track. It lilts, it waltzes, it almost skitters out of control, but it never loses its pop appeal. The first 37 seconds of their promo for the album are taken from this near-perfect song:
4. Big Big Train: “Uncle Jack”. I defy anyone to listen to this song and not end up grinning ear to ear. A jaunty tempo provides a fertile bed for lush vocals that sing the joy of taking a walk outdoors. And when the counter-melody hits at 2:40, you’re transported to paradise. Listen below (but buy the whole album, English Electric Part One):
5. Arjen Lucassen: “E-Police”. It can’t be an accident that Lucassen’s “E-Police” recalls the glories of late-70s Cheap Trick (“Dream Police”?). A big helping of glam rock that will leave you hitting Repeat on your player.
6. Gazpacho: “Mary Celeste”. A Norwegian band does Celtic music, and creates a pop masterpiece. A delicate intro on mandolin and piano blossoms into a full-blown production that includes accordion, guitars, violin, and masterful vocals. It doesn’t hurt that the melody compels you to get up and move.
So there you have it – a playlist that you can use to seduce your friends who are woefully ignorant of prog into the beauty of that genre, or one that you can use yourself when the occasion calls for some sing-at-the-top-of-your-lungs music. Enjoy.
One Hundred, or Thereabout…
A list of favorites?
Ignoring blues, bluegrass, and alt.country (though some of my picks will leak in that direction). My favorite albums in a roughly prog or prog-friendly orbit. Explanatory notes as needed. And no Beatles.
Aereogramme — Sleep and Release. Scottish prog metal with screaming blue Pict faces.
Alan Parsons Project — I Robot
Alice in Chains — Jar of Flies
The Allman Brothers Band. Berry Oakley, arms outstretched in the niche.
Anthony Phillips — The Geese and the Ghost
Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk. Where would rock be without these?
Atomic Opera — For Madmen Only
Be Bop Deluxe — Life in the Air Age. The curious case of the three-sided album.
Black Eyed Sceva — Way Before the Flood. Intelligent, proggy Christian emo/ math rock.
Black Eyed Sceva — 5 Years, 50,000 Miles Davis. “Beware when you read ‘Letters from the Earth…'”
Boards of Canada — Tomorrow’s Harvest. To have been in the desert Southwest for the live listening party.
Buffalo Springfield Again. Long version of “Bluebird,” please.
The Byrds — Fifth Dimension
The Choir — Free Flying Soul. Another smart, Christian masterpiece.
Crack the Sky — Safety in Numbers. “Something’s wrong from the moon, my friends…”
Daryl Hall — Sacred Songs
Dead Confederate — Sugar. DC is a Southern neo-grunge band. But if Dmitri Shostakovich had ever tried his hand at writing a four minute rock bombast, the title tack to this album is close to what it would have sounded like.
The Decemberists — The Hazards of Love. Hipsters closer to prog than they realize.
Deftones — Saturday Night Wrist
Dixie Dregs — What If
Dixie Dregs — Night of the Living Dregs
Dixie Dregs — Dregs of the Earth (the trifecta)
Dogs of Peace — Speak. A brilliant one-off by Jimmie Lee Sloas and Gordon Kennedy. May we have another, please?
Echolyn — As the World.
Electric Light Orchestra — Eldorado
Emerson, Lake & Palmer — Pictures at an Exhibition. The Lyceum Theatre rendering (1970, DVD) is better, in my opinion.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer — Trilogy
Brian Eno — Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks. Gorgeous music for the documentary, For All Mankind.
Explosions in the Sky — The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place
Faith No More — The Real Thing
Flaming Lips — Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Fleet Foxes. Okay, I’m starting to veer…
Genesis — Trespass. My favorite in their storied collection, leaving us wondering what might have been had Ant remained in the band.
Genesis — Foxtrot. The end of the age, in 9/8 time.
Gov’t Mule — Life Before Insanity
Hall & Oates — Abandoned Luncheonette. Blue-eyed soul was never this artsy.
Hall & Oates — War Babies. Todd Rundgren was never this blue-eyed soul.
Helmet — Meantime
Incubus — Morning View
Jane’s Addiction — Ritual de lo Habitual
Jeff Buckley — Mystery White Boy
Jennanykind — Mythic. The scary South, a la O’Connor.
Jethro Tull — This Was
Jethro Tull — Thick as a Brick
Jimi Hendrix Experience — Are You Experienced?
John Fahey — America. Prog folk if there ever was.
Johnny Q. Public — Extra Ordinary
Juliana Hatfield — Only Everything
Kansas. When they were lean and hungry for barbecue and potato salad.
Kansas — Masque. “The Pinnacle” was their pinnacle.
King Crimson — Larks Tongue in Aspic
King Crimson — Red
King’s X — Gretchen Goes to Nebraska
King’s X — Dogman. One of the most played records in my collection.
Kraftwerk — Autobahn. Analog over digital any day of the week.
Led Zeppelin — II
Led Zeppelin — Houses of the Holy
Living Colour — Vivid
Model Engine — The Lean Years’ Tradition (BES re-incarnated)
The Moles — Instinct. “Raymond, have you seen the Red Queen?”
The Monkees — HEAD. Never apologize for loving the Pre-Fab Four.
The Moody Blues — On the Threshold of a Dream. Sending out “In the Beginning” to the NSA.
My Bloody Valentine — Loveless
My Morning Jacket — At Dawn
My Morning Jacket — It Still Moves
Neil Young — Harvest
Neil Young — Tonight’s the Night
Ortodoksinen Kamarikuroro — Divine Liturgy. From Finland, the most breath-taking Orthodox Church chant I’ve ever heard.
Pelican — City of Echoes
PFM — Jet Lag
The Pink Floyd — The Piper at The Gates of Dawn
Pink Floyd — Wish You Were Here
The Police — Zenyatta Mondatta
The Police — Synchronicity
Proto-Kaw — Early Recordings from Kansas (1971-73). Therefore, proto-Kansas.
Radiohead — The Bends
Radiohead — Kid A. Leading rats and children out of town.
Rick Wakeman — The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable
Rush — A Farewell to Kings
Rush — Permanent Waves
Rush — Moving Pictures (the hat-trick)
Sebastian Hardie — Four Moments. Prog from down under.
Slowdive — Blue Day (compilation)
Soundgarden — SuperUnknown
Steve Hackett — Voyage of the Acolyte
Sun Kil Moon — Ghosts of the Great Highway
Supertramp — Crime of the Century. You’re bloody well right.
Syd Barrett — The Madcap Laughs
Synergy — Semi-Conductor. Compilation of Larry Fast’s electronic realizations.
Talk Talk — Spirit of Eden
This Will Destroy You. Post-rock paradise set by the mighty Rio Grande.
Todd Rundgren — A Wizard, A True Star. Without Hall & Oates.
Tomita — The Planets. Electronic realization of Holst’s orchestral suite.
Tool — Ænima
Velour 100 — Fall Sounds. Shoe-gazing density from Ypsilanti.
Velour 100 — Songs From the Rainwater.
Wilco — Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Mossad makes a cameo.
Yes — The Yes Album
Yes — Tales From Topographic Oceans. Yes, it’s too long, but “The Revealing Science of God” is worth the whole album.
Thaddeus J. Kozinski’s Favorite Albums
Seeing a name like Thaddeus J. Kozinski–who wouldn’t check out this post!?!? A great note from this professor of philosophy at Wyoming Catholic College. Tad, I hope you don’t mind me posting it. It’s too good not to.
***
Brad:
If you’re interested, here’s a list of mine:
The masters of this genre–post metal and doom-metal and post-rock, which you will find below, are existentialist, beautiful, brutal, soul-crushing-and-soul-elevating, poetic, suckers of reality to the bone. To me, they’re Plato, and Dostoyevsky and Flannery O’Connor and Nietzsche and Kierkegaard, and Marshall McLuhan and David Hart and Catherine Pickstock and Alasdair MacIntyre and Simone Weil, and E. Michael Jones and Rene Girard and Max Picard and Charles Taylor put to music. This is Arvo Part and Olafur Arnalds and Beethoven and Russian chant, and David Lynch and Michael O’Brien and Louis de Montfort (punching out the drunks interrupting his sermon) and John of the Cross and Socrates and the militant masculinity of St. Michael and the depthless femininity of St. Raphael transmogrified into earth, electricity, mountains, tsunamis, blood, sweat, anger, and the depths of the ocean. It’s not tame–no, it’s completely wild and ferocious–but it’s good.
Mouth of the Architect: The Ties that Bind, Sleepwalk Powder (on Split with Kenoma)
Neurosis: Times of Grace, Given to the Rising, Through Silver in Blood, Sun that Never Sets, The Eye of Every Storm
Isis: Oceanic, Panopticon
Tides: Resurface
Giant: Song
Tides/Giant: Split
Amenra: Mass IV
Tool: Undertow, Aenima
Soundgarden: Badmotorfinger
Minsk: Echoes in the Movement of Stone, Ritual Fires of Abandonment
Yob: Atma, The Great Cessation, The Unreal Never Lived, The Illusion of Motion
Blckwvs: 130,140, 150
Latitudes: Individuation
Failure: Magnified, Fantastic Planet
Indukti: Idmen
Jesu: Conquerer
Meshuggah: Catch 33, Obzen
Mono: Hymn the Immortal Wind, You are There, One More Step and you Die
Pelican: The Fire in our Throats will Beckon the Thaw
Rosetta: A Determinism of Morality
Samothrace: Reverence to Stone
Shora: Malval
Braveyoung: We are Lonely Animals
Mogwai: Young Team (Mogwai Fear Satan)
Russian Circles: Station, Geneva, Empros
Yet Another Top Albums List
Brad’s post below on his Top 101 albums of the rock era got me thinking about my favorite albums of the same era. And given his hopes that we all do a similar post, I’m only too happy to oblige now given a few free hours and an overwhelming urge to write something (that’s not job related, which I get enough of Monday-Friday and often times on weekends).
I’ve discussed elsewhere that coming up with a list of five or ten desert island discs would be nearly impossible for me. If I was a secret agent under interrogation, a knowledgeable interrogator could easily get actionable intelligence from me by simply trying to force me to come up with such a list. Thus, I’m not going to restrict this list to any particular number of albums.
On the other hand, I am going to put one restriction on this list – I’m not going to list anything I’ve first heard in 2013. For me, it takes time to fully digest great works of art, and thus all of these albums here will be ones that have stood the test of time for me. This will eliminate some great albums from the list, such as English Electric 2 by Big Big Train, Riverside’s spectacular Shrine of New Generation Slaves, and other great releases from a year that is shaping up to be one of incredible abundance for excellent prog rock. It will also eliminate albums such as Spirt of Eden by Talk Talk and Tick Tock by Gazpacho, neither of which I had actually heard until a few months ago. Nevertheless, all of the releases mentioned in this paragraph are extremely likely to end up on a future edition of this list.
Finally, here and there, I will add a few notes about some of the albums on the list. Maybe to give some insight as to why I like them, maybe an interesting fact about them … who knows. The reasons will hopefully be self-evident.
Genre-wise, the list will cover a lot more than just prog, but generally will stay within the realm of rock. This will eliminate some other favorite albums, such as two excellent releases of instrumental flamenco guitar by the late Italian guitarist Gino D’ Auri. It will also eliminate some classical guitar oriented albums by Steve Hackett that I otherwise like very much.
Anwyay, without further adieu, my list:
AC/DC – Back in Black
Aerosmith – Toys in the Attic
Aerosmith – Rocks
Aerosmith – Rock in a Hard Place (this is a *very* underrated album among Aerosmith fans, in my opinion, probably since it was the only one without Joe Perry. But Jimmy Crespo did a bang-up job in his role, and this album flat out rocks. As an Amazon reviewer noted, it’s “criminally underrated.”)
Arena – The Visitor
The Beatles – Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Big Big Train – English Electric, Part 1
Big Big Train – The Underfall Yard
Black Sabbath – Paranoid
Black Sabbath – Sabotage
Black Sabbath – The Mob Rules
The Cult – Electric
The Cult – Sonic Temple
Days of the New I (sometimes referred to as ‘Yellow’)
Days of the New II (sometimes referred to as ‘Green’. This album came out in autumn, 1999, around the time I was going through a divorce from my first wife. As you can imagine, I was a whirlwind of emotions. This album both resonated with me and grounded me during that time. It’s also spectacularly good).
Drive By Truckers – Southern Rock Opera
Drive By Trucker – The Dirty South (If you’ve ever lived south of the Mason-Dixon line for any extended length of time and like raw, gritty music, then these two albums are for you).
Emerson, Lake, and Palmer – Trilogy
Emerson, Lake, and Palmer – Brain Salad Surgery
Fleetwood Mac – Rumours (one of the best pop albums ever. It showed that ‘pop’ and ‘quality’ need not be mutually exclusive. I swear my opinion here is in no way swayed by the fact that Stevie Nicks was a strong celebrity crush of mine in the late ’70’s … no, really … ok, maybe a little)
The Flower Kings – Space Revolver
Gazpacho – Night
Genesis – Selling England by the Pound
Genesis – A Trick of the Tail
Genesis – Wind and Wuthering
Glass Hammer – Perilous
Grateful Dead, Charlotte, 3-23-1995 (This isn’t officially an album, but rather a bootleg recording of the only Grateful Dead show I ever attended. While I was nothing close to being a Deadhead, it was a great show, and I can certainly understand why The Dead had so many dedicated fans. One additional note – Bruce Hornsby sat in on piano that night).
Heart – Little Queen
Iron Maiden – Piece of Mind
Iron Maiden – Powerslave
Jane’s Addiction – Ritual de lo Habitual
Jefferson Airplane – The Worst of Jefferson Airplane (yes, a greatest hits album, but what a great collection of songs here).
Jethro Tull – Thick as a Brick
Jethro Tull – Warchild
Jethro Tull – Minstrel in the Gallery
Jethro Tull – Songs from the Wood
John Cougar Mellencamp – Scarecrow
Jon and Vangelis – Short Stories
Jon Anderson – Olias of Sunhillow
Jon Anderson – Song of Seven
Jon Anderson – Change We Must
Judas Priest – British Steel
Kansas – Leftoverture
Kansas – Point of Know Return
Kerry Livegren – Seeds of Change
King Crimson – In The Court of the Crimson King
Led Zeppelin – III
Led Zeppelin – IV
Led Zeppelin – Houses of the Holy
Led Zeppelin – Physical Graffiti
Led Zeppelin – Presence (It would seem strange to call a band as lauded as Led Zeppelin ‘underrated’, but I think the label applies. They did music that falls into so many different genres, from bluesy music such as ‘When The Levee Breaks’, to prog-tinted stuff such as ‘Stairway to Heaven’, ‘Kashmir’ and ‘In The Light’, to folky stuff such as ‘The Battle of Evermore’ and ‘Gallows Pole’ to flat out rockers such as ‘Rock and Roll’ and ‘Out on the Tiles’ … and they did them all extremely well).
Lone Justice – their self-titled debut. (Their cowpunk sound was a little bit ahead of it’s time, and if they had debuted in the mid-90’s or later when the alt-country wave hit, they might still be around. Also, it’s entirely possible my opinion here is swayed a bit again by the celebrity crush thing, the object of which being lead singer Maria McKee)
Marillion – Script for a Jester’s Tear
Marillion – Clutching at Straws
Marillion – Brave (this was an album that didn’t click with me on the first few listens, and I set it aside. Years later I picked it up again, gave it a good listen, and was blown away, wondering how I missed it the first time around. A true masterpiece).
Montrose – their self-titled debut.
The Moody Blues – Days of Future Passed
Mother Love Bone – a self-titled album. (One really wonders how music history would have been different if the lead singer of this Seattle-based band, the flamboyant Andrew Wood, hadn’t succumbed to his demons and died of a heroin overdose on the verge of releasing their debut album in 1990. There almost certainly would have been no Pearl Jam, and I wonder if the grunge thing would have ever taken off, given that Mother Love Bone’s sound was nothing like that of the other bands of the same time and place).
Neil Young and Crazy Horse – Live Rust
Neil Young and Crazy Horse – Weld (both live albums, and thus compilations, but both are very good. In fact, I think most of the songs on these albums sound better live than in the studio).
Paul Simon – Graceland
Pearl Jam – Vitalogy
Pete Townshend – Empty Glass
Pete Townshend – White City (a ridiculously underrated album)
Pink Floyd – Meddle
Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon
Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
The Police – Syncrhonicity
Porcupine Tree – Fear of a Blank Planet
Queen – News of the World
R.E.M. – Life’s Rich Pageant
Renaissance – Novella
Renaissance – Turn of the Cards
Riverside – Rapid Eye Movement (I thought of this album as pretty good when I first listened. I’ve re-assessed lately, and now realize it’s great, the best of the ‘Reality Dream’ trilogy in my opinion).
Riverside – Anno Domini High Definition
The Rolling Stones – Some Girls
Rush – 2112
Rush – A Farewell to Kings
Rush – Hemispheres
Rush – Permanent Waves
Rush – Moving Pictures
Rush – Grace Under Pressure
Rush – Power Windows
Rush – Clockwork Angels
Rush – Exit Stage Left (a great live album)
Saga – World’s Apart
Simple Minds – Once Upon A Time (Another album that proved ‘pop’ and ‘quality’ need not be mutually exclusive. This album had some exceptionally strong melodies).
Soundgarden – Badmotorfinger
Steve Hackett – Voyage of the Acolyte
Steve Hackett – Spectral Mornings
Tool – Lateralus
Tool – 10,000 Days
Trevor Rabin – Can’t Look Away
U2 – War
Van Halen – Fair Warning (another very underrated album)
Wang Chung – To Live and Die in LA Soundtrack
The Who – Tommy
The Who – Who’s Next
The Who – Quadrophenia
The Who – Who Are You
Yes – The Yes Album
Yes – Fragile
Yes – Close to the Edge
Yes – Going for the One
Yes – Drama
Progarchy 