My All-Time Top 50 albums - Part 1: 50-41

A few months ago now I was asked by Graham Harfleet from Progzilla Radio to put together my all-time Top 50 albums for him to broadcast on his show. After some deliberation I agreed, and set about trying to whittle down my collection to the required number - not an easy task!

The list finally coalesced, and then came the task of explaining why I had chosen these particular discs, and why they were placed where they were - an even harder task!

One thing that will be obvious from this collection of albums is that my musical taste is not particularly monochrome. Although this list was put together for a Progressive Rock station there is much here that is outside that genre (if genre distinction is important to you), although I hope much of it could be seen as ‘progressive’ in a broad sense. This is music that has made me; that has stayed with me over many years and many changes; and that at times resonates with key moments in my life’s journey. There are, I think, 43 separate acts in this Top 50, which either shows my breadth of taste or my inability to leave groups out. There may be what some consider to be some glaring omissions in this list, but this is as fair as I could get to demonstrate what makes me tick musically over a long period. I have to confess that I haven’t in a lot of cases found it easy to explain why I like a particular album, or what in particular I like about it, probably because music is essentially a ‘heart’ thing rather than a ‘head’ thing.

Anyway, here we go with the first 10 albums on my list.

50. Tom Waits – Small Change

By his fourth album, Tom Waits’s lifestyle had taken a toll on his voice, but had given it a unique feel that added to his appeal as a songwriter and singer. This is a collection of songs about drinking, lost (and found) love, the dodgier side of advertising and the seedier side of being a performer, sung in a kind of louche lounge bar style. I find all of his first four albums wonderful, but Small Change just tips it with its honesty, simplicity and alcoholic haze!

49. The Beatles – Rubber Soul

For me, this album is where the Beatles as a band started to really develop as songwriters and began to take the band a little off the ‘pop’ route. George develops well as a songwriter, and even Ringo gets a writing credit. But this album sees some of Lennon & McCartney’s best sub-3-minute songs – ‘Michelle’, and ‘In My Life’ – and the start of their experimentation with a more psychedelic sound in ‘Nowhere Man’. This was their turning point album, which led to Sergeant Pepper and beyond.

48. Todd Rundgren – Hermit of Mink Hollow

I had the great joy of seeing Todd Rundgren play at Knebworth in 1979, on the same bill as Led Zeppelin, and had been aware of his music for a few years before that event. Todd is a great versatile musician, and this album is a wonderful mix of rock, pop, soul, prog, lunacy, social comment and apocalyptic love song, thoughtfully written and excellently played. There’s a wonderful depth to this album, which repays repeated listens, which is why I go back to it often.

47. David Bowie – Hunky Dory

The thing with Bowie is that, from album to album one was never sure who he was going to be. This added to the interest, of course, and affected the music that he made. Perhaps the start of his ‘chameleon’ years, Hunky Dory has some of his most enduring songs on it: Changes & Life on Mars were hits for him; Oh! You Pretty Things for Peter Noone; but Fill Your Heart is just as catchy, and Quicksand & Queen Bitch are wonderful examples of his song-writing prowess. And there’s the added attraction for some of Rick Wakeman’s piano playing throughout the album.

46. Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On

An album that shows that the idea of ‘concept albums’ isn’t just a Prog thing. Coming from the depths of the civil rights movement in America in the 60s but also in the heat of the Vietnam conflict and the protests surrounding that war, this strikes at the heart of the problems felt by many then – and sadly still now. Just a beautiful piece of work!

45. Rainbow – Rising

This is an album that takes me back to those days in my youth when my musical taste was developing, and I was pushing a number of doors trying to find what connected with me. Rainbow, with Richie Blackmore at the helm, took me back to Deep Purple, but Cozy Powell’s powerful drumming and those bellows of Ronnie James Dio connected me to the other heavy rock that was part of my musical life. But this is music with depth, and Tony Carey’s keyboards brought that to the fore. This is hard rock but with a progressive edge: not a long album – it would probably be classed as an EP these days! – but it packs so much into 36 minutes!

44. Bob Dylan – Blood on the Tracks

Dylan has always been a poet, and at times a prophet, but always a song-writer – even if his singing voice can be a little marmite for many. One thing he does, particularly on this album, is tell a good story, and it’s probably this aspect that appeals to me in this collection. ‘Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts’ takes me back to Sunday afternoons in my teens listening to Annie Nightingale, as she played it often and it was this, I think, that turned me on to Dylan more than anything else.

43. Neil Young – After the Goldrush

Neil Young’s mixture of country, hard rock and good old-fashioned song writing and story telling is perhaps perfectly epitomised on this his 3^rd solo album. He does have a penchant for downright maudlin – ‘O Lonesome Me’ and ‘Don’t Let it Bring You Down’ (as he described it on 4 Way Street: ‘it kinda starts off real slow, and then just fizzles out altogether…’) – but also for good hard rocking anthems, in ‘When You Dance You Can Really Love’ and the timeless ‘Southern Man’. But it’s the title track, with its Sci-Fi, spaced-out hippie-ness, that stays with me.

42. Annie Haslam – Annie in Wonderland

This was an album that I discovered through the Tuesday night rock night at our local ‘disco’ back in the 70s. The DJ used to throw the odd curve ball in every now and then, alongside the usual Quo, AC/DC, Sabbath, Stairway to Heaven, Freebird etc, and one week he played ‘Rockalise’ from this debut solo album from Renaissance vocalist, Annie Haslam. The combination of her voice and Roy Wood’s production, playing and song-writing in places just amazed me, and I go back to this album often to have my soul lifted.

41. Alan Parsons Project – Tales of Mystery & Imagination

I remember, back in the days of the 5^th form, someone bringing this album into school with a certain excitement. ‘You must hear this’, they said, and proceeded to put it on the common room record player. I was first struck by the album artwork, straight out of the Hipgnosis stable, with a wonderful linear starkness to it, and then by Orson Welles’ stentorian tones in the opening narration. The music moves from rock to funk to classical and is all that Progressive music should be for me.

 

Checking For Echo - The War Is Never Won

With the centenary of the end of the First World War recently marked, there have been a few attempts to analyse the experience and impact of that conflict on those who were directly involved in it, and some of those have been musical ones. Saul Blease's 2018 album 'The Great War', and Freedom To Glide's trilogy, 'Rain', 'Fall' and 2019's 'Seed' are just a couple of examples that particularly stood out for me.

So when I received a copy of Checking For Echo's album, 'The War Is Never Won', I was a little cautious: was this just going to be another version of the same story? But I was pleasantly surprised.

This is the work of Jon Farley, and touches on a number of aspects of the consequences of war in a thoughtful and poignant way. The album opens with an epic-length, multi-part song, 'The War Within', which starts with gentle piano arpeggios before the plaintiff vocals begin, taking us on a journey from childhood innocence, through responding to ones nation's call to arms and the loss of 'friendships barely forged', the desire to return home, and the difference in home and the soldier that war has brought about. The use of the whistle at the start of 'The Whole Nine Yards' and a trumpet sound as reflection begins in 'Field of Souls' are very evocative, as is the contrast in the hope, the realisation and the consequence of 'The Homecoming'. 'The Forgotten Country' touches a little on what we now recognise as PTSD, and the change that war brings to those who fight it and to those who are fought for. One of the most powerful lines says: "The battle comes home and it takes its deadly hold in each mother’s darling son", and at times there only seems one way out from the nightmares... Thoughtful, powerful stuff.

The rest of the album then takes us on a journey through the many conflicts that have followed from 'the war to end all wars'. 'The Greater Good' contrasts the reality with the public voices of those in charge - that this slaughter is for the greater good. Musically this reminded me a little of John Holden's work. Lyrically there's an almost restrained anger at times, without the resort to cynicism or sarcasm, which has a powerful effect. 'Victory's Waltz' is an instrumental interlude of a sort, and it doesn't come across much like a traditional waltz! (I can't quite work out the signature at times) There is attack and drive in it, which raises the mood of the album, which has been a little subdued up to now (understandably). 'Heroes' starts with seagulls screaming and the fleet leaving Portsmouth on its way to the Falklands, and is a tribute to all those who have given their all 'to defend British Isles'. This is not your typical anti-war song, in fact it clearly calls for support for those who serve, which is never a bad thing, however we feel about the morality of war.

'It's a Crude Business' is a delightfully tongue-in-cheek examination of Western (but more specifically, US) foreign policy where defending commercial interests seems to be far higher on the agenda than perhaps it should be in most decisions to go to war. The music gives a light-hearted, funky feel to what is a very serous subject. 'Imaginary Evidence' is billed as another instrumental track, but behind it are sound clips around the controversial decision of Blair to send troops to Iraq, and the questions over Saddam's 'weapons of mass destruction'. 'The Falling Man' is a poignant reflection on one the the most haunting images that came out of the events of 9/11, from the perspective of that man, and musically it begins with echoes for me of Pink Floyd's 'Nobody Home'. The album closer is another epic, 'The Greatest Freedom', which moves its focus to Helmand Province. We open with the sound of helicopters, then muted keyboards, as the narrative seems to flip between a young, naive soldier and a Jihadi warrior. A muezzin's call and the sound of  a dulcimer set the scene, as we settle on the soldier, as he makes his first patrol, always on the watch for ambush and IEDs - a watch he ultimately fails in: "My role in today’s patrol is to be on prime time on the BBC, to show the world the hidden danger, a victim of an IED" The soldier tells of his return to 'the land of my place of birth' where he is paraded through the streets of Wotton Bassett, draped in the Union Flag. For him, and maybe for his adversary, 'The greatest freedom it’s often said will come to us all when all else is dead.'

This is a thoughtful, keyboard-driven collection of songs that tackle to deeper issues around war in its modern context. Quite low-key overall, there are some uplifting moments, and Jon must be commended for the effort he has put into this project both in composition and performance. Every listen brings new insights and new delights, and I would heartily commend it to you. You can find it on Bandcamp here.

John Holden - Rise and Fall

It's an age-old conundrum: when one's debut album had received such considerable critical acclaim, how do you follow it? For John Holden, whose 2018 album 'Capture Light' garnered much praise, that thought may well have been in his mind as he prepared to unleash his sophomore release on the unsuspecting but highly anticipatory public.

How do you follow it? Do you stick with the winning formula and give the people what they love? Well, in John's case, in terms of the ensemble of musicians, yes and no. Still there are Oliver Day on guitars; Peter Jones, Jean Pageau and Joe Payne on vocals; Oliver Wakeman on piano & keyboards; and Billy Sherwood, providing bass this time rather than guitar, but there are a while raft of new musicians added to the crowd, including Michel St-Pere, Vikram Shankar, Sally Minnear and Nick D'Virgilio among many others. This time John has shared the music writing duties in places with Vikram Shankar and Oliver Day, and as before the lyric writing is by John and his now wife Elizabeth.

But what of the music? John has a knack for story-telling, both lyrically and musically, has been evident throughout his output, and this has not changed here. He delves into the more esoteric areas of history with a story of a monk who longed to fly; into addiction, mythology, politics and 'fake news', cultural terrorism, and an overview of earth's history from the perspective of a passing comet.

The opening piano motif to 'Leap of Faith' - a part called 'The Comet' - sets a beautiful contemplative note at the start of the album, reminiscent for me of Danny Manners' work in the opening bars of East Coast Racer (Big Big Train), but the rest of the song opens up in a less abrupt way than the tale of Mallard. The rest of the song is brought wonderfully to life by the vocal talents of Peter Jones, who can himself tell a great story, and the tune soars with the monk, until the realisation: "We can all fly, 'til we hit the ground."

'Rise and Fall' bring the voice of Jean Pageau from Mystery, who gives the song a heartfelt, soulful edge. There's some mournful bass from Jon Camp, a melody that doesn't always go where you expect it, and blistering guitar solos from Oliver Day on lap steel and guitar.

'The Golden Thread' is a quite stunning piece: gentle, lyrical, and orchestral; a love song contemplating the frailty and fragility of life, beautifully sung by Joe Payne and Lauren Nolan. I was privileged to hear this song about 6 months ago, and was struck then by its beauty and simplicity, but the words written by Elizabeth speak very clearly to me now, at a difficult time for my parents. This is just what I need right now.

'The Dark Arts' is a more rocky tune, opening with the wonderfully maleficent tones of Ian Richardson in the guise of Francis Urquart from the BBC's 'House of Cards', and explores the 'fake news' culture that infests modern politics. This is certainly the most up-tempo song so far.

'Heretic' begins with a distinctly Arabic air to it, and touches on religious extremists destroying cultural artifacts that don't fit with their world view, and the pain of those who seek to protect their heritage against such barbarism. Understandably with the subject matter, the mood is somewhat subdued, though there is a note of hope and optimism in the chorus, and an almost strident defiance in the face of the horror. This is a song of hope (as Robert Plant once said...)

'After The Storm' begins, unsurprisingly, with the sound of a storm, then moves into a pleasing 3/4 acoustic guitar tune with what sounds like violin, before piano and guitar take over. The melody is a simple repeated phrase, but Sally Minnear's voice gives it power and passion, with a quite dreamy mood overall. Some very fast guitar work during the instrumental section gives way to ethereal keyboards, before a return to the initial melody. A song about moving on, literally and metaphorically.

'Ancestors and Satellites' has a space-y feel to it to begin with, with synths taking us on a journey into distant realms, both in time and space. Peter Jones leads us from ancient camp fires into the depths of space. The chorus, with its staccato lines, has a slight  vintage Yes feel to it to me, and gives a great shape to the song, and as the liner notes say, it "imagines the chants and magic of those gathered around the ancient fire and how those primitive feelings of belonging, communication and the need to share our stories is still deep within us." The song ends by drawing together the threads of the album, and quietly restating the piano motif from the opening track before an echo of 'We can all fly...'.

This, like its predecessor, is a grower: every listen reveals more depth and wonder to the listener. The songs showcase some amazing talent in the music scene at present, but also an amazing song-writing pair in John & Elizabeth. This is progressive music at its best - up-to-date yet rooted in the measures and patterns of the past. This album will, I have little doubt, be high on many lists come the end of 2020. Thank you, John, for another stunner!

My Albums of the Decade - 2010-2019

As we approach the end of 2019 I've been looking thought my year end reviews for the last few years with a certain amount of interest. I started doing these reviews in 2011, but that year's was very general in its approach. I started publishing a ranked list in 2012, and have done so every year since.

Looking at my Top 3 albums for those 8 years certain bands cropped up on more than one occasion - unsurprisingly to me Big Big Train and The Tangent. As there wasn't any 'list' for 2010 or 2011, I looked through my collection and came up with some albums from those years that I could include, to make a decade-wide list possible.

Three major criteria were used in drawing up this list: they had to be albums in my collection; they had to have featured in my Top 3 in the year they were released; and I would only include one album by any one band. I'm not going to try and rank these albums in any order of merit - simply alphabetically. But these are the bands/ artists & albums that have particularly appealed to me over the last 10 years.

Abel Ganz - Abel Ganz (2014)
Anderson Stolt - Invention of Knowledge (2016)
Anglagard - Viljans Oga (2012)
Big Big Train - English Electric (2012/13)
Kate Bush - 50 Words for Snow (2011)
Echolyn - Echolyn (2012)
Freedom to Glide - Rain/ Fall/ Seed trilogy (2013/ 16/ 19)
John Hackett & Nick Fletcher - Beyond The Stars (2018)
Lazuli - 4063 Battements (2011)
Pat Metheney - Orchestrion (2010)
Moon Safari - Lover's End (2010)
Oak - False Memory Archive (2018)
Opeth - Heritage (2011)
Chris Potter - Circuits (2019)
Snarky Puppy - We Like It Here (2014)
The Tangent - Proxy (2018)
Colin Tench Project - Hair on a G String (2016)
Tiger Moth Tales - The Depth of Winter (2017)
Andy Tillison Diskdrive - Electric Sinfonia No 2 (2014)
Tinyfish - The Big Red Spark (2010)
Theo Travis Doubletalk - Transgression (2015)
Unitopia - Artificial (2010)
Steven Wilson - Hand. Cannot. Erase. (2015)
Wintergatan - Wintergatan (2013)

There's obviously much I've missed out, but that's my stab at a Decade list from my eclectic and at times quite strange taste in music. Do let me know what you think... (but please be kind...)

Music of 2019

2019 reaches its end, and here is my look back at the albums that have entranced me - or at least mildly entertained me - during the year. If you're a regular reader of my incoherent ramblings here, you will know that I've been doing a brief review month on month (apart from November & December): below are my November gigs, and then my year-end list.

2019 has been a good year for live music, thanks at a) being retired now, and b) living about 200 yards from one of the best live music pubs in Sheffield, The Greystones. As well as the gigs I've already reported on, November saw me at another seven shows. Steve Hackett and his band gave a stellar performance of Selling England By The Pound and Spectral Mornings, along with other stuff from his latest album, At The Edge of Light, and other solo stuff, at the City Hall. The following night I was at the Greystones for Gordon Haskell, briefly a vocalist with King Crimson (a part of his life he doesn't like to be reminded of, as I discovered...), who put on a great show featuring songs from his Harry's Bar album and some new material, with just an acoustic guitar and an accompanying saxophonist. Later that month, with a large amount of South Yorkshire under water, there was a trip to Kimberworth in Rotherham for the inaugural show by Moonspinner, a project of John Hackett & Howard Sinclair, aided and abetted by Matthew Lumb on keyboards. They performed music from John & Howard's repertoire, alongside some Steve Hackett, Genesis & King Crimson material. A real shame the weather kept many away, because it was a great night. The following week it was back to the O2 Academy for Steve Hillage supported by Gong. Like Al Stewart the month before, it was another spine-chilling nostalgia-fest for me, and it was well worth 4 hours standing at the front of the stage for the experience. Then the John Hackett Band (again), and finishing the month (and the year) with an as-always stellar show from Australian Pink Floyd - the next best thing to the real thing, imho, and the small matter of a trip down the M1 for the opening night of DanFest to see Encircled and The Emerald Dawn, both of whom were wonderful!

Steve Hackett

Gordon Haskell

Steve Hillage

John Hackett Band

Australian Pink Floyd

The Emerald Dawn

 
So, now to my top albums of 2019. I've tried to keep the number down a little, but in compiling the list I found I'd identified 26 albums worthy of note, and couldn't decide which to leave out to give you a Top 25. So here's my Top 26, with 26-11 in alphabetical order, and the Top 10 ranked.

Cheeto's Magazine - Amazingous
John Coltrane - Blue World
The Emerald Dawn - Nocturne
Farmhouse Odyssey - Fertile Ground
Fat Suit - Waifs & Strays
Gong - The Universe Also Collapses
Grand Tour - Clocks That Tick (But Never Talk)
Steve Hackett - At The Edge of Light
IZZ - Don't Panic
Kaprekar's Constant - Depth of Field
Red Bazaar - Things As They Appear
Nad Sylvan - The Regal Bastard
Thieves Kitchen - Genius Loci
This Winter Machine - A Tower of Clocks
United Progressive Fraternity - Planetary Overload Part 1
Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Colorado

And the Top Ten...

10. Rosalie Cunningham - Rosalie Cunningham
The former Purson front-woman picks up on the psychedelic vibe of the Purson album and takes it further.

  9. Jon Anderson - 1000 Hands Chapter One
There's just something about this album that makes me feel better about life every time I listen to it.

  8. Cirrus Bay - The Art of Vanishing
Gentle, melodic, symphonic progressive music, carrying on the great work of their earlier work.

  7. Nova Cascade - A Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
An album which should increase the band's reach into both the ambient and progressive schools of music.

  6. The Far Meadow - Foreign Land
Some quite spectacular modern progressive tunes, rooted in the heritage of the past yet looking clearly forward to what Progressive music might become.

  5. Bruce Springsteen - Western Stars
A wonderful example of The Boss's knack of telling moving stories through simple melodies. More Mid-West than East Coast, but some of his best material in years.

  4. Moron Police - A Boat on the Sea
What can I say about this album other than captivating and bonkers! Some wonderful songs here, some of which go off at wild tangents, other that have echoes of Elton John for me.

  3. Chris Potter - Circuits
Every now and then a jazz album comes along that simply astounds me by its breadth, style and musical dexterity, and in 2019 that album was Circuits. Chris Potter, with Eric Harland, James Francies & Linley Marthe, simply blew me away!

  2. Big Big Train - Grand Tour
Ten years on from their breakthrough album 'The Underfall Yard', this is Big Big Train at their best in terms of composition, atmosphere and musicianship, and an album that was underscored by stellar live performances on their first tour this year.

  1. Freedom To Glide - Seed
Few albums, in all my years of listening, have affected me as much as this one, from the first listen through and on subsequent visits afterwards. The third of the band's trilogy reflecting on World War 1, this is an absolutely stunning work, tinged with reality, pathos, anguish but above all hope for a better world


I hope to be able to put together a 'Best of...' for the past decade, and even for the 21st Century (so far) at some point, but that may take some time... In the meantime, have a happy new year, and I hope, like me, you're looking forward with anticipation to what 2020 has to offer musically.