| 5.0 classic |
| ABBA ABBA Gold |
| Amon Duul II Wolf City |
| Amon Duul II Yeti |
| Ash Ra Tempel Ash Ra Tempel |
| Black Sabbath Paranoid |
| Black Sabbath Master of Reality |
| Caravan In the Land of Grey and Pink |
| Cocteau Twins The Pink Opaque |
| Dead Can Dance Within the Realm of a Dying Sun |
| Donovan H.M.S. Donovan |
| An album of children's songs and poetry songs, done very spare. Piano, guitar, voice. A few songs add a few other elements. Children's songs, poetry from Lewis Carroll, William Blake, and a clutch of English poets set to very catchy melodies, and some Donovan originals. Amazingly captivating melodies throughout. There's nothing like this in the universe. Only snag is two lesser tracks: a long tape loop experiment and pseudo rock song forced on him by his producer. The rest is sheer genius. |
| Elder (USA-MA) Lore |
| Fleetwood Mac Tusk |
| Misunderstood at the time, perhaps, as just another good Mac album but over-indulgent. But the years have been really kind to this platter: all the songs hit and play off of each other, Buckingham's touches are all over and brilliant, and the non-Buckinghams all bring their A game. It's just a straight-up, indelible classic. |
| Fu Manchu The Action is Go |
| Hawkwind Hall of the Mountain Grill |
| Hawkwind Doremi Fasol Latido |
| Interpol Turn on the Bright Lights |
| ISIS Panopticon |
| ISIS In the Absence of Truth |
| John Prine The Missing Years |
| John Prine John Prine |
| John Prine Great Days: The John Prine Anthology |
| Kyuss Welcome to Sky Valley |
| Perfect mix of woofer-chewin' heaviness and exploratory psych. Indelible. |
| Kyuss Blues for the Red Sun |
| Le Orme Felona e Sorona |
| Led Zeppelin Physical Graffiti |
| Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin IV |
| Miles Davis Bitches Brew |
| Miles Davis In a Silent Way |
| Miles Davis Filles de Kilimanjaro |
| Miles Davis Steamin' With the Miles Davis Quintet |
| Miles Davis Kind of Blue |
| Neil Young Sleeps with Angels |
| Neil Young On the Beach |
| Neil Young After the Gold Rush |
| New Order Movement |
| Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark Architecture & Morality |
| Dark, moody, and a bit experimental, yet also hopeful and very tuneful. An indelible classic. |
| Psychotic Waltz Into the Everflow |
| Queen Queen |
| Scorpions Taken by Force |
| The Rolling Stones Exile on Main St. |
| Tina Brooks True Blue |
| Waxahatchee Saint Cloud |
| Yes The Yes Album |
| Yes Close to the Edge |
| 4.5 superb |
| Alphaville Forever Young |
| Ash Ra Tempel Join Inn |
| Ash Ra Tempel Le Berceau De Cristal |
| Athemon Athemon |
| Black Sabbath Sabotage |
| Black Sabbath Vol. 4 |
| Blue Oyster Cult Blue Öyster Cult |
| Brass Construction Brass Construction |
| Sublimely great dance funk from the mid-70s. Killer bass, great grooves that keep developing, and a horn section to take it all home. |
| Bremer and McCoy Natten |
| Bruce Springsteen The River |
| Can Ege Bamyasi |
| Carbon Based Lifeforms Seeker |
| This invites endless replays. Has become my favorite by them. |
| Cocteau Twins Victorialand |
| Cocteau Twins Blue Bell Knoll |
| Cocteau Twins Treasure |
| Dawnwalker House of Sand |
| Dead Can Dance Dionysus |
| Dead Can Dance Aion |
| Dead Can Dance The Serpent's Egg |
| Deadly Carnage Endless Blue |
| Donovan A Gift From A Flower To A Garden |
| A two album tour. The first record is terrific Donovan firing on all cylinders, just classic and evocative song after another, including the genius of There Is A Mountain. Record 2 is just as good, but it was Donovan's attempt at appealing to children (and it was later released separately as For Wee Ones). This is absolutely awesome stuff, although he would perfect this approach on HMS Donovan. Donovan is often misunderstood: he wasn't a dopey hippie at all; he renounced drugs pretty quickly, for instance. Instead, he used psychedelia to explore innocence, whimsy, happiness, humor, and verse in a very English/Scottish manner. |
| Elder (USA-MA) Reflections of a Floating World |
| Emerson, Lake and Palmer Emerson, Lake & Palmer |
| Eneferens The Bleakness Of Our Constant |
| I broke down and procured the vinyl. This is pretty amazing and I keep playing it regularly. Is he ever going to release another album like this? |
| Fu Manchu In Search Of... |
| Genghis Tron Dream Weapon |
| Gentle Giant Acquiring the Taste |
| Gentle Giant Octopus |
| Gentle Giant Free Hand |
| Grant Green Green Street |
| Guadalcanal Diary Walking in the Shadow of the Big Man |
| Cool tunes, REM-ish jangle, but their own sound, especially the massive and awesome drums. |
| Hawkwind Warrior on the Edge of Time |
| Hawkwind Space Ritual |
| Iotunn Access All Worlds |
| Liked it well at first, but it kept growing on me, and now it's my 2021 AOTY. Massive sounding. As Christgau said of the first Van Halen record, this sounds like it was recorded on an aircraft carrier. That's high praise! |
| Joe Walsh Barnstorm |
| The mixture of clean and distorted guitar, in a way that is both psych-oriented hard rock and folky americana, is indelible. Hangs together as an album of strong songs and a coherent mood probably better than anything else he ever did. Has the first version of "Turn of Stone," a hit when redone on *So What*. |
| John Prine Bruised Orange |
| John Prine Sweet Revenge |
| Klaus Schulze Deus Arrakis |
| This is Schulze's last album, and while it doesn't bring any revelations, it is almost surprisingly quite good. Fairly mellow, but with a good bit of sequencer work to keep things moving, with cerebral and moving cello and "voice noises." Deserving of more love. |
| Klaus Schulze Moondawn |
| Kyuss ...And the Circus Leaves Town |
| La Dusseldorf Individuellos |
| La Dusseldorf La Dusseldorf |
| La Dusseldorf Viva |
| La Maschera Di Cera S.E.I. |
| Rooted in Rock Progressivo Italiano from the 70s, but with contemporary sensibilities. Layered, complex, evocative--and great songwriting. Their best yet. Would go great following the new Wobbler album. |
| Le Orme Uomo di pezza |
| Le Orme Contrappunti |
| Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin III |
| Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin |
| Makaya McCraven In These Times |
| Mastodon Crack the Skye |
| Miles Davis Relaxin' With the Miles Davis Quintet |
| Miles Davis Jack Johnson |
| Miles Davis Sorcerer |
| Miles Davis E.S.P |
| Miles Davis Workin' With Miles Davis and the Quintet |
| Miles Davis Sketches of Spain |
| Miles Davis Cookin' With the Miles Davis Quintet |
| MJ Lenderman Ghost of Your Guitar Solo |
| This is a wack classic splitting Americana and indie. "Infinity Pool" and "Someone Get That Grill out of the Rain" are instant classics. |
| Morphine The Night |
| Neil Young Freedom |
| Neil Young Tonight's the Night |
| Neil Young Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere |
| Neu! Neu! '75 |
| Neu! Neu! |
| New Order Power, Corruption and Lies |
| Pink Floyd Animals |
| Popol Vuh Das Hohelied Salomos |
| Jangling, searching, keening--earthy but also ethereal, improvised but also catchy. Mostly piano, guitar, percussion, with Renate Knaup doing vocals on some tracks. |
| Portico Quartet Monument |
| Psychotic Waltz Bleeding |
| Queen Queen II |
| Queen Sheer Heart Attack |
| Quella Vecchia Locanda Quella vecchia locanda |
| Quella Vecchia Locanda Il tempo della gioia |
| Rain Parade Emergency Third Rail Power Trip |
| Rain Parade Explosions in the Glass Palace |
| Robert Plant and Alison Krauss Raise The Roof |
| Rymden Reflections and Odysseys |
| Very grounded prog-jazz. A good bit of improvisation, but not flashy like fusion; it's all worked into the songs. A lot of the songs have very propulsive bass and percussion, too. I can play this 2-3 times in a row and not get bored. Great to work to. |
| Scorpions Lovedrive |
| Shriekback Oil and Gold |
| Simple Minds Sons and Fascination |
| Nice mix of groove bass, innovative synth, and alternatively hypnotic and edgy songwriting. Killer postpunk on the verge of alternative. |
| Simple Minds New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) |
| Skyforest A New Dawn |
| Stereolab Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night |
| Stereolab Dots and Loops |
| Sufjan Stevens Seven Swans |
| The Chronicles of Father Robin The Songs & Tales of Airoea – Book I |
| Excellent with many excellences. Making my top ten of the year. Old school prog done for today. |
| The Dave Brubeck Quartet Time OutTakes |
| Alternate versions of the sons Dave Brubeck Quartet's 1959 classic, Take Five. Plus a couple new tracks. A completely different drum solo on the famous title track, too. Not essential, but great anyway. |
| The Moody Blues To Our Children's Children's Children |
| One of their best and most consistent albums. Opens with the sound of a Saturn V taking off, and at volume, it'll rattle your windows bigtime. But lots of quiet moments, too. Only bad moment is that line about "ten thousand butterfly sneezes." They'd like to have that one back, I bet. |
| The Moody Blues In Search of the Lost Chord |
| The Moody Blues Days of Future Passed |
| The Sea And Cake Nassau |
| The Thirteenth Sun Stardust |
| Recently discovered this. Strong engaging and shifting songwriting. Evocative, heavy, explorative, light, dark. A new fave! |
| Thelonious Monk Palo Alto |
| Thin Lizzy Black Rose: A Rock Legend |
| Tigran Hamasyan The Call Within |
| Uriah Heep Salisbury |
| Uriah Heep Demons and Wizards |
| Uriah Heep Look at Yourself |
| Vista Chino Peace |
| Wobbler Dwellers of the Deep |
| You can still spot all the older prog influences--Yes, Genesis, Anglagard, even some Italian prog--but it's so baked into great songwriting that Wobbler just sounds like Wobbler now. Their apotheosis, possibly. |
| Yes Tales from Topographic Oceans |
| Yes Relayer |
| Yes Going for the One |
| 4.0 excellent |
| A Light In The Dark A Long Journey Home |
| A Light In The Dark Insomnia |
| The guy who does this goes by initials B.M.--does other projects such as Skyforest and Abstract Void. This is a smooth, ethereal black metal project, with the rough edges polished out and the energy and mystical feeling pushed forward. Great album for driving, going for a run, etc. |
| Abstract Void Forever |
| Perfect mix of black metal guitar and drumwork with 80s synthwork--think Signals-era Rush. |
| Alda A Distant Fire |
| All Them Witches Nothing as the Ideal |
| Amon Duul II Tanz Der Lemminge |
| Ash Ra Tempel Schwingungen |
| Baroness Gold and Grey |
| Black Sabbath Heaven and Hell |
| Black Sabbath Black Sabbath |
| Blue Oyster Cult Spectres |
| Borknagar True North |
| Boucle Infinie 直線移動 |
| Boucle Infinie Summit |
| This album rules--atmosphere, beats, enjoys of endless repeats. |
| Brass Construction Brass Construction II |
| More dance funk, almost as good as the first, maybe as good. Grooves, then some grooves, and then some more grooves. |
| Breidablik Alduorka |
| Like prime Tangerine Dream, with some Floydian elements, but with modern production values and other contemporary touches. Much better than most of this kind of work. |
| Club d'Elf You Never Know |
| Cocteau Twins Heaven or Las Vegas |
| Cocteau Twins Love's Easy Tears |
| Cocteau Twins Echoes in a Shallow Bay |
| Cocteau Twins Tiny Dynamine |
| Cocteau Twins and Harold Budd The Moon and the Melodies |
| Countless Skies Glow |
| Surprised this doesn't have a review yet. Perfect mix of prog and heavy. The clean vocals are amazing. The mixture of clean and harsh on the opening song is a total earworm. |
| Cynic Ascension Codes |
| Dawnwalker Ages |
| Dawnwalker Human Ruins |
| In Nov. 2023 Dawnwalker remastered this, and it sounds much better. Improved dynamic range, smoother, punchier production. Recommended. |
| Dead Can Dance Spleen and Ideal |
| Dead Can Dance Toward the Within |
| Dodheimsgard Black Medium Current |
| Dominic Sanderson Impermanence |
| Donald Byrd Byrd In Hand |
| Donald Byrd Byrd in Flight |
| Donald Byrd Ethiopian Knights |
| Dozer Drifting in the Endless Void |
| This album deserves a review... so much better than the so called "stoner rock" that keeps clogging the review cycles. Vocals with real melodies mesh with riffs that kick and evolve and build off beats and synths that do something like actual songs ought to do. |
| Dzo-nga Thunder In the Mountains |
| Elder (USA-MA) Omens |
| Elder (USA-MA) Innate Passage |
| Fenella The Metallic Index |
| Creative, compelling, sometimes haunting ambient, often with beats. Every bit as immersive, imagistic, and colorful as the cover art. |
| Firienholt White Frost and Elder Blood |
| Fleetwood Mac Mirage |
| Fleetwood Mac Future Games |
| Fu Manchu King of the Road |
| Punk energy meets Sabbathy fuzzdoom and goes to a beach with laconic catchy vocals over the top. Goes to 11. |
| Fu Manchu Eatin' Dust |
| Funkadelic Standing on the Verge of Getting It On |
| Gentle Giant In a Glass House |
| Gentle Giant The Power and the Glory |
| Hallas Isle of Wisdom |
| Hawkestrel Presents Pre-Med |
| Hawkwind Levitation |
| Hawkwind Quark, Strangeness and Charm |
| Hawkwind In Search of Space |
| Hawkwind Stories from Time and Space |
| HEALTH RAT WARS |
| Helga (SWE) Wrapped in Mist |
| Humanotone A Flourishing Fall in a Grain of Sand |
| ISIS Wavering Radiant |
| Jethro Tull The Jethro Tull Christmas Album |
| John Prine The Tree Of Forgiveness |
| John Prine Diamonds in the Rough |
| Julian Lage View with a Room |
| Great listen. Can listen to on repeat. Endlessly absorbing--mellow energy, great improvisation. |
| Kauan Ice Fleet |
| KMFDM Nihil |
| KMFDM Angst |
| KMFDM Naïve |
| Kosmischer Läufer Volume One |
| Supposedly recovered tapes of early 1970s kosmische (aka krautrock) used to accompany Olympic training for East German athletes, but really it was done in the 2010s. Excellent recreation, with that moterik beat and very creative synth and other instrumental work. Actually good for running, among other things! This is the first of five albums so far. All excellent. |
| Kosmischer Läufer Volume 3 |
| Led Zeppelin In Through the Out Door |
| Kinda think ITTOD is underrated overall--South Bound Suarez is okay, I'm Gonna Crawl not as great as Tea for One, their last great slow blues--but all other tracks are pretty great. Leaves Hot Dog as the weak track. And if they had switched that out for, say, Wearing and Tearing (off Coda)? Bet this would be really elevated in a lot of people's minds... |
| Led Zeppelin Presence |
| Led Zeppelin Houses of the Holy |
| Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin II |
| Legendry Time Immortal Wept |
| In the band picture the guitarist has a Jimmy Page special--a nice looking double-neck. Says it all right there. Great album. |
| Legendry The Wizard and the Tower Keep |
| Great epic metal. Title track is an earworm: "the wizard and the tow-er kee-e-eep..." |
| Leon III Antlers in Velvet |
| Lindstrom and Prins Thomas Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas II |
| "Cosmic disco"--I really dig this. Electronica with cool psych explorations, grounded in propulsive beats. |
| Lowrider Ode to Io |
| Martin Sturtzer Theta Serpentis |
| This one stands out a bit from the pack. Dude's prolific, no doubt. This one has a better mix of sequencers and light beats against the keys and pads. |
| Mechina Siege |
| Megaton Sword Blood Hails Steel - Steel Hails Fire |
| Is this bottom feeding, with swords? But for some reason most of the songs sound pretty damn good, starting with the cool first track, alternating a moody arpeggio with a slamming riff. |
| Miles Davis Porgy and Bess |
| Miles Davis Get Up with It |
| Miles Davis On the Corner |
| Miles Davis Nefertiti |
| Miles Davis Pangaea |
| Miles Davis Agharta |
| Miles Davis Dark Magus |
| MJ Lenderman Boat Songs |
| Moon Duo Stars Are The Light |
| Neil Young Homegrown |
| Neil Young Harvest Moon |
| Neil Young This Note's for You |
| Neil Young Harvest |
| Neil Young Zuma |
| Neil Young Comes a Time |
| Neil Young Trans |
| Neu! Neu! 2 |
| Onsegen Ensemble Fear |
| This is killer dark(ish) prog/psych. Excited about the new 2022 album that just dropped. |
| Orochen Anthroposcenic |
| This album bangs. Surprised there's no love for it. It's in my top 20, maybe 10 of the year. |
| OU II: Frailty |
| Pelegrin Ways of Avicenna |
| Psychotic Waltz Mosquito |
| Psychotic Waltz The God-Shaped Void |
| Queens of the Stone Age Era Vulgaris |
| Queens of the Stone Age Queens of the Stone Age |
| Reformat Precursed |
| Hybrid mix of electronic and alt-metal, melodic and moody, sometimes heavy, but with some shades of light. Not too distant from what Genghis Tron was doing on Dream Weapon. Compelling stuff. |
| Reformat The Singularity |
| A creative mix of heavy metal, electronica, and prog, but with short songs that consistently evolve. Robo-futuro vocals, strong beats, some of them glitchy. Compelling and diverse keyboard work. They have a gift for song titles: The Nevergator, Hot/Knives, System Terror, Vectrex. |
| Rymden Space Sailors |
| Piano/electronics-bass-drums jazz, with some added instruments and a strong prog sensibility--just check the song titles. Improvisation within a good bit of song structure. About half the songs have driving, propulsive bass, too. A re-imagining of what cosmic-prog jazz can be. |
| Scorpions Animal Magnetism |
| Sgaile Traverse the Bealach |
| Sgaile Ideals & Morality |
| State Azure Stellar Descent |
| Spacey and cool ambient techno. Great, layered synthwork that's immersive. |
| Stereolab Mars Audiac Quintet |
| Stereolab Sound-Dust |
| Sufjan Stevens Illinois |
| Sufjan Stevens Michigan |
| Sylvaine Nova |
| Sylvaine Atoms Aligned, Coming Undone |
| Szun Waves Earth Patterns |
| Tangerine Dream Alpha Centauri |
| Tangerine Dream Zeit |
| Tangerine Dream Green Desert |
| Tangerine Dream took old, unfinished recordings from the mid-70s and reworked them in the 80s to create something both well written yet up to date. Really quite good, far better than most of their 80s or 90s output. |
| The Chronicles of Father Robin The Songs & Tales of Airoea – Book II |
| The Comet Is Coming Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam |
| The Future Sound of London Dead Cities |
| The Moody Blues On the Threshold of a Dream |
| The Moody Blues A Question of Balance |
| The Moody Blues Seventh Sojourn |
| The Sea And Cake Oui |
| The Sea And Cake The Biz |
| The Sea And Cake The Fawn |
| Thin Lizzy Bad Reputation |
| Thin Lizzy Fighting |
| Thin Lizzy Johnny the Fox |
| This Mortal Coil It'll End in Tears |
| Uriah Heep Very 'eavy... Very 'umble |
| Uriah Heep The Magician's Birthday |
| Uriah Heep Sweet Freedom |
| Vemod The Deepening |
| Vitskar Suden The Faceless King |
| The opening is a bit slow and lugubrious, but things pick up majorly around track 3--well written dark proggy psych. |
| Vulkan Technatura |
| Vvon Dogma I The Kvlt of Glitch |
| Wilderun Veil of Imagination |
| Wilderun Epigone |
| A grower. Took a couple months of on and off casual listening to really gel. Very different than Veil, tho--different musical/conceptual foundations. |
| Yes Yes |
| Yes Fragile |
| Yes Drama |
