2025 Number 1: Moron Police

Gemma's Top Ten Albums of 2025

Number 1: Moron Police - Pachinko

If I look at my favourite albums of 2025, it appears to have been another fairly conservative year. Many of the Big Names released albums that have been worthy, often even a return to form. IQ, Dream Theater, Spock’s Beard, Gazpacho and Karmakanic: They have mostly played it safe, perhaps feeling that, as their careers approach their later stages, they better play to their strengths and stay close to the sounds that made them big. You can’t fault them for it. But I’ve spent most of 2025 looking for an album that truly excites me.

Enter Moron Police. They’re a young band from Norway that’s shown promise in the past, and here’s that great big album that delivers on that promise, and then some. There’s a dinosaur on the cover, so it has to be a winner. This album is totally unstoppable, just filled to the brim with energy, a mad cocktail of pop, metal and prog but with only the good bits, more hooks in three minutes than most bands manage over an album and a creative whirlwind not seen since the early years of the Flower Kings or Moon Safari. It’s hard to pinpoint exact highlights when every song is great, and most songs aren’t even that long. The songs all flow together as a joyful whole that keeps finding new ways to be awesome at every turn. This is the most addictive album of the year. Give it up for the first Norwegian band that tops my list!

There’s bits of prog, metal, country, J-pop, house, bits that sound like Primus or System of a Down, bits that sound like synthwave and bits that sound like Thank You Scientist. None of it should go together but it really, really does. It’s even a bit of a concept album, though what exactly the concept is I’m not entirely sure. Something involving Japanese arcade games, cormorants and kittens, the absence of God, and probably late stage capitalism. I’m not finding any actual dinosaurs in there. Nothing’s perfect!

Although it’s a lighthearted, silly and bouncy album, this one is unique in their catalogue for having an undercurrent of tragedy, as Moron Police lost their drummer in an accident a few years ago. I think that loss can be heard on the album, too. There’s a heartfelt maturity underneath the youthful energy. Whatever the concept is, at the end of the day this is an album that is about living life to the fullest and refusing to let your head down, in spite of everything. Maybe that’s what I was looking for most in 2025. 

I’ve heard many great albums this year, but this is the one I can never wait to listen to again! And that for a band called “Moron Police”, who once wrote songs such as “Omnivorous Sexosaurus” and “T-Bag Your Grandma”. There is hope for us all.

2025 Number 2: IQ

 Gemma's Top Ten Albums of 2025

Number 2: IQ - Dominion

 

Have I been taking IQ for granted? I’ve seen them live a few times, and they are consummate professionals, but it’s been a hot second since I’ve really fallen in love with their work. 2004’s Dark Matter stands as one of my all time favourite albums, but I’ve been famously lukewarm on their output since, which for me has taken on a darker, colder, more distant feel.

With Dominion, I feel like I’m on board again. Whereas I felt previous albums to be ponderous and oppressive, this one feels much more open, subtle and melodic. Like a load has fallen off it. We have an expansive, cinematic prog album here where giant, bombastic tracks are alternated with light acoustic ballads. Structurally, I think it’s the first time they’ve put the big epic at the start. Other than that, I’m hearing that classic IQ sound that you can love or hate. After so long, this material manages to hit that spot again that Ever and Dark Matter did.

IQ are, in the best possible way, a band out of time. Nobody really sounds like them. They will occasionally nod to Genesis, but they don’t sound like a seventies band. They don’t sound much like Marillion (songs called “Neverland” notwithstanding) or any of the other remaining bands of their generation, either. And they certainly don’t sound like any of the newer prog bands. They are retro and timeless at the same time. Peter Nicholls has the ultimate prog voice – complete with the “aquired taste” label – and yet he barely sounds like anyone else. Nobody plays guitar quite like Mike Holmes. IQ are an island unto themselves.

Their albums are few and far between and therefore Events. I’m glad I’ve been enjoying one of these Events again. You can’t take them for granted. 

 

2025 Number 3: Jacob Roberge

Gemma's Top Ten Albums of 2025

Number 3: Jacob Roberge - The Passing 

I can’t help but feel my own generation has produced relatively few progressive rock stars. There’s plenty of gen-X proggers to go around, while us burnt-out, avocado-munching, diamond-mine destroying prog millenials have very little to our name. True to form, probably. But at least the new generation is showing promise.

Take Jacob Roberge here. He’s a twenty-year-old French Canadian, too young to have seen Spock’s Beard with Neal, the same way I was too young to have seen Marillion with Fish. He’s been killing it on YouTube for a while, and he’s made one of the most impressive, accomplished debut albums I’ve heard in a while.

The songs ebb and flow with great sensitivity, a lot of piano, occasional harder edges and a great ear for composition. Jacob has some of his roots in classical music, and it shows. What strikes me most is the extremely high production values, almost unheard of in an independent debut album. Like yesterday’s Jonas Lindberg, he’s listened a lot to Neal Morse, but whereas Jonas is mostly incluenced by his sound and vibe, Jacob takes his arranging and composing style in his own direction.

But there’s a poise to it all, an elegance, like he’s not quite going all out… until the last song. You have to admire the ambition of an artist who lets his debut album end, not just on an epic, but a ruddy 30 minute one! I’ve seen this go badly wrong before, but Jacob here completely knocks it out of the park. The Passing is an instant classic, full of brilliant transitions and a dynamic range that every prog master would take their hat off to. Clearly this is where his strength lies. I hope it will be celebrated as the great work it is, my single favourite song of the year and one I see myself play many times more after the year is done.

If this is your first album, it’s an amazing achievement. Doesn’t talent skip a generaton?

 

2025 Number 4: Jonas Lindberg

Gemma's Top Ten Albums of 2025

Number 4: Jonas Lindberg & The Other Side -  Time Frames

Neal Morse hasn’t been on my year-end list for ages. Last year, he made an album with young men, this year he made an album with old men, next year he’ll make an album with his regular band and it all goes in one ear, out the other. 

I’m much more interested in the impact he’s having now that a generation of musicians influenced by him are coming of age. Jonas Lindberg is one, tomorrow’s featured artist is another. Jonas Lindberg, just like Monika Roscher, started his band as a school project, and has gone from strength to strength since.

Everything that’s good about Neal Morse is what’s good about Jonas Lindberg. It’s catchy, it’s enthousiastic and energetic, it rocks and grooves and there’s no shortatge of instrumenal freakouts and great, spacy keyboard solos. As a musician, I notice that this guy sure loves his lydian mode… just like Neal. It all sounds very open and inviting, it’s instantly enjoyable but rewards repeat listens. And, of course, you have to have that big old epic at the end.

Is it the most original thing ever? I don’t need every single album I listen to to be on the bleeding edge of avant garde, man. I’m just glad stuff like this is still being made by people other than the old guard. This is the kind of music I fell in love with as a teenager, and now I’m falling in love with it again. Lindberg brings his own youthful energy to the table, an effortless fluency that makes it all sound easy. He’s got the right voice, too. The well of Swedish prog talent still has far from run dry.

 

2025 Number 5: Steven Wilson

Gemma's Top Ten Albums of 2025

Number 5: Steven Wilson - The Overview

Every two years, like clockwork, Steven Wilson gives us a new album. And every two years, like clockwork, the fans and lapsed fans get a new puzzle to solve. How the heck are we going to interpret this one? How does it fit into his wide discography? How well does it make good on his galaxy-sized talent? How arrogant can he afford to be for the coming two years? And how well does it wash the taste of The Future Bites out of our mouths?

After the long, expansive, alienating Harmony Codex, he has now presented us with an album built like an old LP, with two side-filling suites. His Misplaced Childhood, his Thick as a Brick? If you expect that modest 40-minute running time to mean a pointy, wordy, song-based album like the previous examples, you got Wilson’d. Quite a lot of this is instrumental, experimental and often ambient. It’s very much in the vein of Harmoy Codex, though more consistent and easier to digest.

Meant to invoke the existential loneliness of the astronaut who contemplates his insignificance when confronted with the terrifying vastness of space, The Overview is haunting and melancholy. There are also elements of witty irony, thanks to XTC’s Andy Partridge’s lyrics. His contribution to the first suite ends up being the heart of the whole album, the wry human touch that counterpoints Wilson himself, who drifts ever further into space like a latter day Major Tom.

The album has an otherworldly beauty to it that works very well with its own existentialist concept. There’s aslo many great, exciting musical passages in here that please the old proghead in me. I’m very comfortable calling this my favourite of his since the underrated To The Bone. That was a very grounded album, and I’m ready for Wilson to come back down to earth again. I can’t deny that these days his albums seem more meant to analyze and scrutinize than to simply enjoy. But I likewise can’t deny his output is always unpredictable and exciting.

2025 Number 6: Karmakanic

Gemma's Top Ten Albums of 2025

 

Number 6: Karmakanic - Transmutation

Have Jonas Reingold and John Mitchell never crossed paths before? It was only a matter of time before the two men with the longest resumés in prog this side of Steven Wilson would team up. The man from The Flower Kings, the Steve Hackett band, Kaipa, The Tangent and The Fringe asked the man from Arena, It Bites, Lonely Robot, Kino, Frost and the John Wetton band to sing on his new Karmakanic record, and the result is quite curious. Curious to hear this quintessentialy English voice work his way through lyrics written by a Viennese Swede, for whom English is perhaps his third language. 

 

Nevertheless, it largely works, and Jonas opens a full can of tasty prog for us. Pointy tracks and proggy tracks galore, always with a great ear for melody and hooks. It doesn’t break with tradition much; we’re firmly in celebratory, indulgent Third Wave Prog territory here, even with a second-wave vocalist. Mostly melodic and upbeat, in the style of Yes but always just a tad more rocking.

The guest list is a veritable Who’s Who of prog rock superstars, featuring Simon Phillips, Craig Blundell, the omnipresent Randy McStine, Luke Machin, Uncle Tom Cobley and all. The fact that Jonas himself is one of the greatest living bassist is certainly a great added value.

One great thing about 2025 is this: the epics are back! There were a few years there when the big names in prog seemed to eschew the side-filling rock symphonies, but everyone’s back doing twenty minute pieces, and Karmakanic’s title track Transmutation is a very fine example of the form. Jonas Reingold learned the art from Roine Stolt at The Flower Kings, and this is the year he has matched and perhaps surpassed the master. Long live the King.

2025 Number 7: Spock's Beard

Gemma's Top Ten Albums of 2025

Number 7: Spock's Beard - The Archaeoptimist

I have to be honest, I was very surprised to hear from Ryo Okumoto that Spock’s Beard was still an ongoing concern. Nobody wants to admit it 25 years into their Post-Neal period, but the harsh truth is that the band have always struggled without their most talented member. And after that one time they did make a bona fide Post-Neal masterpiece in X, another big lineup change threw everything into disarray all over again. The fact is, I’ve never vibed with any of their albums in their Ted Leonard line-up, and so many years after the underwhelming Noise Floor I expected we’d seen the last of the once-mighty Beard. All its members are happily working on solo albums and other projects such as Pattern-Seeking Animals, so is there anyone who was really clamouring for a return of the Beard?

Well, not only are they back, they’re back with a fantasitc album, surely their best one post-Neal along with X. Whereas the MVPs on previous albums were Dave Meros and his writing buddy John Boegehold, this time around it’s Ryo who pulls most of the compository weight along with new “shadow member” Michael Whiteman, of I Am The Manic Whale fame. Ryo was always the band’s jester, mostly writing instrumental novelty tracks, and I wasn’t a huge fan of his latest solo album, but he’s really pulled it out of the bag with this one.

The album is full of nods to classic Beard, but it feels earned. The anarchy, unexcpected twists and pure joy of playing that so characterized the band in their heyday is back again, stronger than it’s ever been before. There’s the tunes to carry it all, too, with the titular epic a very strong centerpiece that gives an otherwise lightweight album some needed gravitas. The influence of Whiteman also gives this very American band a certain sense of British thoughtfulness that works unexpecteldy well for them.

There are still questions around the future of the Beard. Especially listening to the last song, which speaks about bowing out with grace and moving on, sort of alluding to the possibility that the end of Spock’s Beard might be near after all. Damn, now I don’t want them to stop anymore. But if this is it, they picked a high note to go out on. Ryo is Rock ‘n Roll!

2025 Number 8: Gazpacho

Gemma's Top Ten Albums of 2025

Number 8: Gazpacho - Magic 8-Ball 

 

 

Rating a new Gazpacho album is always a tricky one. Their albums need months, years, to percolate and mature. Their best one remains 2007’s Night, and that’s an album that took me years to appreciate.

This one strikes me as a more song-based and immediate album… by Gazpacho standards, so not very immediate at all. Nevertheless, a song like We Are Strangers nestles itself in your brain. Gazpacho were always a warm, organic sounding band, but even with electronics, vocoders and synthesizers they manage to conjure up their signature otherworldly beauty.

After a cluster of strong opening songs, the album downshifts a bit into some slower songs that don’t really seem to have as much going on on the surface, but don’t let it lull you into a false sense of security. The title track has a surprising bite to it, and then the closing salvo of “Immerwahr” and “Unrisen” go straight for the throat, reminding us all why Gazpacho is a band that inspires so much devotion around the world. 

Will this turn out to be another timeless Gazpacho classic in the long run, or is this to be one of their less essential releases? We may not know until another few years have passed. But I like what I’m hearing, so a place in the lower regions of the top ten seems my safest bet. Putting an album called "Magic 8-Ball" at number 8 is too good not to. Expect more Norwegians on my list.

 

 

2025 Number 9: Dream Theater

Gemma's Top Ten Albums of 2025

Number 9: Dream Theater - Parasomnia

 

Something weird happened to me this year, something I thought would never happen... I became a Dream Theater fan. I’d never been a Dream Theater fan before. I don’t know exactly why but the biggest prog metal band in the world always kinda passed me by, with their oversinging vocalist, solos-before-tunes approach, paper-thin lyrics and certain less-than-mature elements to the fanbase. You know who you are!

But hey. I’ve matured, at least. Someone has to. Good old Mike P returned to his stool, competently kept warm by Other Mike, and I thought I might as well give them another shot. And, you know what? Turns out I do like Dream Theater after all. James LaBrie, the worst vocalist in prog? Actually, he sounds fine. The tunes are fine. The lyrics are fine. And the solos are, indeed, awesome. I think I just like heavy metal more than I used to. You can probably thank Haken for that.

I went back and checked out some of their classic albums, and this new one can stand among them comfortably. It isn’t a world-shattering masterpiece, but as a consolidation for the prog metal giant that just got their most legendary line-up back together, it doesn’t have to be. It just needs to re-establish why Dream Theater are probably the best band at being Dream Theater, and it does a great job of that. A tad safe, perhaps, but warm and comfortable.

On the scale of Heavy Metal Loudness, this one ends up on the “very loud” end, and, considering how much I’m enjoying Train of Thought, that’s apparently how I like my Dream Theater. Tasty stuff. I may have missed out on their heyday, bu I’m glad I still get to enjoy the biggest prog metal band in their second youth.

 

 

2025 Number 10: Yungblud

Gemma's Top Ten Albums of 2025

Number 10: Yungblud - Idols 

 

Is Yungblud prog? I don’t know. He looks a lot better with his shirt off than most prog rockers do, that’s for sure. 

Every generation needs a young upstart who will try to bring rock back to the masses, and if we must have one of those I’d much rather have someone like preening, posing, sentimental Yungblud than whitebread bores like Imagine Dragons. This guy at least has some passion to him, and some genuinely queer vibes that so many artists forget is part of the makeup (in all senses of the word) of rock ‘n roll.

I haven’t heard much from him from before this album, but from what I understand he used to be more playful and swaggering and lighthearted. This one is big and grand, talking of love and passion and death with utterly wild abandon, every moment more important than the last.
Of course, it’s the lengthy opener “Hello Heaven Hello” and the proggy “Ghosts” that draw me in the most. I want more than just verses and choruses.

While the Cool Britannia swagger and irony will be the thing that catches the eye of the magazines and tastemakers, it’s the genuine passion that will build up a real fandom, and our boy here is well on his way with this album. Apparently a second part is coming later. I’ll be listening.

Yungblud, like so many before and after him, is destined to fail gloriously in bringing rock back to the mainstream, but he will look damn good while doing it. Especially with his shirt off.

Gemma's Top Ten Albums of 2025: Honourable Mentions

Gemma's Top Ten Albums of 2025: Honourable Mentions 

 My name is Gemma, and this is what I do.

Foto Rene Secreve

Foto Rene Secreve

Foto Rene Secreve

Currently, my own musical endeavours mostly concern covering the prog rock classics of the 70s and 80s. As a singer, I always try to bring some exuberance and flamboyance to the table. Prog rock is big, showy music, after all.

My fiancée is a classical musician, and increasingly I'm beginning to see myself as someone who does something similar. The same way a chamber choir or a symphony orchestra would bring the compositions of baroque musicians or classical auteurs to the stage, bring it back to life, keep this older music circulating in live settings for people to enjoy and experience live in the room, so too does a rock covers band keep the music of past composers alive and circulating on the stages of the world. Someone has to.

Consider Genesis. When those boys from Charterhouse started out, they never intended to be a live band at all. They considered themselves a collective of composers, writing songs perhaps for other people to perform. Destiny had other plans and Genesis ended up legendary rock stars, but now that they are older and (maybe?) retired we can begin to view them as the composers they always intended to be. We treat their body of work the same way a philharmonic orchestra might treat the symphonies of Beethoven.

How do we play these songs? What do the sounds and words mean to us, in the modern day? How do we keep old music sounding fresh and exciting? What do you put on a live setlist, and what do you leave off? Why is that keyboard solo in Firth of Fifth so damn difficult? How can a musician mediate between the audience and some tricky music?

And can we turn it into more than just a nostalgia trip?

I understand the need for nostaligia in a scary world. I also understand the desire to see and hear older music performed - I don't know if you've seen the pop charts lately, but it's a wasteland! The slow burning death of rock music has been foreseen for ages, the sudden onset death of pop music took even me by surprise. No wonder nostaliga is booming. What else is there? But I also see our nostalgia being used against us. Our warmest memories reheated, repackaged and sold back to us, for profit, and for our sedation.

As a rock covers singer, am I complicit in this? I see the problems with nostalgia, but I am not immune. Is it better to retreat into the past, endlessly looping our familiar tunes, spiraling out of the present day while all that we hold dear is grinded down and regurgitated by the slop machine?

Maybe that's why I am more excited than ever to present to you my Top Ten Albums of the year. As always, we will count down to the new year and share my number one on new years' eve. 

For all that I celebrate the music of days gone by, I still get very excited about new releases every year, and I even get a little indignant when people tell me "they don't make music like they used to". Pardon me? They very much do! You just aren't listening!

Well, I did. I always try to to pay attention and listen to the newest releases, and here's what I found. Nothing could be more wothwhile than to celebrate those artists still standing, still believing that there is a place for new music, new progressive music, in the age of Slop.

After all, no one really wants to listen to music made by AI.

 

Here are some albums I liked this year that just about didn't make it to the actual top ten. That should tell you it's been another year full of strong releases. Give it up for: Magic Pie, The Flower Kings, Sleep Token, Flor de Loto, Nuova Era, Phase Transition, Dim Gray, Smalltape and Cardiacs.

Tomorrow I will share my number 10 favourite album of the year. 

2024 Number 1: Big Big Train

Gemma's Top 10 Albums of 2024: Number 1
Big Big Train - The Likes of Us

Yes, Big Big Train. Again.

When we lost David Longdon three years ago, it hit me hard. Big Big Train had been my favourite band of the 2010s and played an important role in me rediscovering my love for music. And, needless to say, his voice was a big, big part of it. I never got to see Big Big Train live – I still haven’t. I was going to and then Covid came. And then fate took him away.

I’ve not been able to face listening to Big Big Train, until another twist of fate took me to Winchester, the city that’s been such a source of inspiration to the band’s tales of history and folklore. I took the path to the top of the hill, followed the trail and looked to the West. I played the song, heard that voice again, and found a way to mourn.

I was still pretty agnostic towards the current line up of BBT, until I finally caved and gave this years album – the first of new material featuring Alberto Bravin – a shot. Damn. From the moment thirty seconds in the famous horn section started playing, I knew the album would be at the top of my list.

The Likes Of Us. I wonder if it's a nod to "Driving The Last Spike", off the last Genesis album with Phil, sometimes called "the first Big Big Train song". They'll never see the likes of us again. And we never did. But their heirs are still here, and they're going to give it a damn good go.

So, it turns out this Bravin fellow can sing a bit. He shines beautifully in these songs that were written for his voice. His dynamic and emotional range is really impressive. He also turns out to be a more than capable songwriting companion to Greg Spawton.

The songs are once again indescribably beautiful, led by Spawton. Expertly crafted and full of warmth, many sonic nods to Genesis with the 12-strings and lush melodies, but also a bit of Crimson and ELP in the wilder moments. The origanic sounds of the violins and horn section give it that BBT flair.

The spectre of loss inevitably hangs over the album. Even the traditional whimsical song of childhood fun - "Skates On" - is imbued with the bittersweet taste of mortality. We're only here for so long.

Rikard Sjöblom hasn't written any music for this one - he left his best stuff for Beardfish this year - but his guitar work is always on point. Add the wondrous talents of Oskar Holldorff and singing drummer Nick D'Virgilio, and it's obvious Big Big Train are still Big Big Train.

It's not the most difficult album they ever made. As their grand opening statement of a new era, one of bittersweet retrospection mixed with careful optimism, they cast a wide net and made a celebratory, jubilant and accessible record that touched me emotionally in a way that I really didn't know they still could.

So the most British band in the world (even though they are a British-Italian-Swedish-Norwegian-American collaboration) continue to be the standard bearers for the music I like best. I'm sure David would have been pleased.

2024 Number 2: Kyros

Gemma's Top 10 Albums of 2024: Number 2
Kyros - Mannequin

Few bands have been killing it as hard as Kyros this year. They were unknown to me before now but I've become a big fan.

First of all. Shelby Logan Warne. She is a rock star. One of the most exciting, charismatic, talented singers and musicians in the UK scene right now. And she bought her own studio this year, too. What a legend.

Second, this is an album bursting at the seems with energy. It starts out with a sweet ballad, for the rest it turns it up to eleven. Musically it's a mix of prog rock and synthwave, elaborately produced, with a certain pop sensibility but also a tendency to veer into Haken-like instrumental chaos. And ultimately, they just write the bops.

Third, and most personally relevant of all: perhaps unsurprisingly, Kyros' words of personal struggle, growth and change have resonated deeply with me. I don't have to look for hidden, unintended double meanings to have songs that I can freely and openly relate to. And yet there's a universality to the words that everyone can probably find something in.

The album generated a fair bit of hype, but if you missed it: don't. Plus an honourable mention to the companion EP Fear and Love, which reprises a few of the themes found here. Total prog move. I see what you did there.

2024 Number 3: Meer

Gemma's Top 10 Albums of 2024: Number 3
Meer - Wheels Within Wheels

There's two ways of describing Meer. The hard way is this.

Cinematic. Refreshing. Elegant. Intense. Exhilarating. Unique and still familiar. Highly cool.

They play the kind of baroque, cinematic rock music with a progressive edge that is instantly warm and likeable. Add it to a high standard of songwriting, songs that seem to get only more and more intense as the album progresses, and some of the best singing I've heard this year.

Another thing that makes them unique is that their singers are a dueling sister and brother combo, Johanne and Knut, who seem to have made a bet as to who gets to be the most impressive rock vocalist in Norway. Knut's melancholy wail is magnificent, but Johanne's raw power frequently steals the show.

Frequently the songs seem deceptively simple, with verses and hummable choruses, but the sonic palate is so layered, the instrumental sections so elaborate, the melody lines so beautiful, that it's an album you can keep listening to. It works on both the immediate level and the level of deep immersion that us progheads value most of all.

The easy way is this: It's really, really good music.

2024 Number 4: Beardfish

Gemma's Top 10 Albums of 2024: Number 4
Beardfish - Songs For Beating Hearts

Comeback albums. They always do well on this blog.

I followed Beardfish during their initial run of albums, since the Sleeping in Traffic days. They were always a promising band… but I never felt they completely lived up to that promise. All of their albums – and they had plenty – seemed to fall just short of the major league to me, although Mammoth and Comfortzone got pretty close. There was something that wasn’t quite there. Great, energetic prog songs always sat alongside meandering pieces, grungy bits that were too gnarly for comfort, or things that felt a bit clunky or overwritten.

There was also a comedy aspect to Beardfish. The humour was often compared to Zappa (some songs even shout him out) but that comparison never really rung true for me. There was a menace about Zappa, kind of a mean streak perhaps, while Rikard Sjöblom (to his credit) is a cuddly teddy bear. There was never that nasty edge to him.

By the time Beardfish broke up, Sjöblom had already joined Big Big Train, most definitely a major league prog band, and he otherwise occupied himself with his Gungfly project. Did he still need Beardfish in his life? Did we, for that matter?

Well, here’s the proof of the pudding. Songs for Beating Hearts might be Beardfish’ best album yet. It's certainly their most consistent. Biggest change? They yeeted the overt attempts at comedy. Maybe the fans won’t like that but honestly, it’s about time this band stopped hiding behind the funny and start playing with conviction. But there’s still plenty of energy, warmth and joy to be found here.

The strong opening song, the mighty centerpiece epic, the heart-wrenching ballad and the powerful closer, all is present and accounted for. It's played with emotion and that playful edge that Beardfish is known for. Whether or not we needed them back, it's good to have them back.

Also, if I had a nickel for every song called "Oblivion" with Rikard Sjöblom on it that came out in 2024, I'd have two nickels. Which is not a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

2024 Number 5: Barock Project

Gemma's Top 10 Albums of 2024: Number 5
Barock Project - Time Voyager

I hear you like symphonic progressive rock. Well, have I got an album for you.

Barock Project started off as a typical Italo-prog group, but they switched to English early on in their career. I'm not familiar with their previous work, but it's obvious I've been missing something. This is the kind of album on which everything goes right.

From the grand opening onwards, it's obvious that there's masters at work. They have it down to a fine art form, exactly the right sounds at exactly the right moment. Bombastic or playful, simple or complex, a breather at exactly the right time. A nod to Genesis here, a bit that sounds like Queen there, a perfectly tasty organ solo, a folky bit, a rocky bit, everything is put together so expertly that they almost make it seem too easy. It's a long album but it positively flies by.

It's almost impossible to be at all interested in prog rock and not be impressed by this album in some capacity. It hits the exact sweet spot with such expert precision that, actually, I find I have kept it at an arms length. I do that with albums that are too good. This is music that serves my every whim, maybe I want to be challenged.

In fact, this album probably would have made it into the top three, if not for the fact that they're using AI images as cover art. Lame lame lame! Lame, and unethical, too. There's such a dedication to craftsmanship on display on the musical front, the disdain for the visual arts is heartbreaking. On the list of things musicians should stop doing, that is number one.

In fact, as an aside, I'm less than impressed by most of the cover images on my list. What happened to the Mark Wilkinsons, Roger Deans and Storm Thorgersons of this world? I know that, with the end of physical media, cover art has become less important, but does that mean we can't be arsed to pay a proper artist at all anymore? Surely there's some added value left to actual artwork? 

Time Voyager is a very fine album that is sorely undersold by its own cover.

2024 Number 6: Ritual

Gemma's Top 10 Albums of 2024: Number 6
Ritual - The Story of Mr. Bogd, Part 1

Let's have a concept album on our prog list. Always a staple of the genre. This one tells of a rich man who is propelled by fate to change his life and become a better person, a fable for our times indeed.

Like Viima, Ritual are folky and Scandinavian, but their approach is completely different. Ritual are among the great maximalists of prog, bringing lots of energy, Gentle Giant-like canons and musical chaos into a swirling whirlwind of an album. Of course, there are also sedate, reflective moments in this story of introspection, but it's mostly a wild album full of crazy fairy tale adventures. It's like going to the Efteling on amphetamine.

Lots of acoustic instruments are hidden in the mix, but there's moments of mad rock 'n roll too. The singer understood the assingment and has gone full theatre kid on this one (which he also did on the previous Ritual record, which came out a cool 16 years ago). Being Part One, the album doesn't really have a satisfying ending. It just closes in the middle of the story.

Yes, Ritual take their time to craft albums. They are one of the oldest bands on my list, going back to the nineties, but this is only their fifth album. This means that it's entirely possible we might have to wait a while for part two. I have no doubt it'll be worth waiting for.

I also believe that releasing part one and two separately rather than as a double album was the right call. Two hours of this would have been a little too intense. But part one is a deeply enjoyable, energetic adventure.

2024 Number 7: Kendrick Lamar

Gemma's Top 10 Albums of 2024: Number 7
Kendrick Lamar - GNX

Yes, I’ve got a hip hop album on my prog rock list now. It’s my list, folks! If you can’t deal, I have a proper prog rock album for you tomorrow.

There’s no power move quite like releasing an album out of nowhere with no hype or buildup whatsoever, and if there’s one artist who can pull it off surely it’s the guy who this year proved that, without a shadow of a doubt, there’s no big three, just big him. We all enjoyed the spectacle, but what comes after the victory lap?

Drake is alluded to briefly, but he’s mere dirt on the foot of a man who’s always ready to move on. GNX is a punchy, snappy album that varies widely in tone, mood and subject, but it all flows together quite beautifully. It’s more of a backwards-looking album than a forwards-looking one. Legends like Tupac are duly honoured in “Reincarnated”, the album’s emotional centerpiece. The whole thing is a love letter to the West Coast hip hop tradition. There’s a waft of nostalgia to it. There’s something refreshingly free of trend chasing here, barring the trends that Kendrick himself has created.

I’m not steeped in hip hop culture and I won’t pretend I get all the references, or even most of them. I just vibe with it. The sentiment expressed I related to the most is the feeling of being out of empathy for the other side, tired of being asked to compromise who you are, and choosing to prioritize yourself, your own authenticity and development, maybe your own mental health, over endlessly pleasing people who almost certainly wouldn’t do the same for you.

In less capable hands, Kendrick’s move away from heady concept albums like TPAB and Mr. Morale into more song-oriented, straightforward fare might have seemed like a semi-conscious capitulation to the only punch Drake threw at him that almost kinda-sorta nearly stuck: Kendrick just opened his mouth / somebody hand him a grammy right now. Maybe he deliberately positions himself less as an auteur who appeals to the beard stroking intelligentsia, and more as a pop star, someone for the people?

It slides off him anyway. Kendrick is just too good, too good at writing rhymes that make you think and analyze, that make you share in his melancholy or righteous anger, that make you want to listen over and over again. All the while he’s staying firmly in the realm of authenticity and knocking out, what’s the word, bangers, almost as an afterthought. He can do whatever he wants. Maybe he felt he needed to prove it, maybe he didn’t. I wouldn’t say he makes it look easy, the man is intense, but he does make it seem inevitable. I can understand why lesser rap arists (a category that includes basically everyone else) get infuriated by him. So be it. The king rules, the goat bleats.

 

2024 Number 8: Jon Anderson and The Band Geeks

Gemma's Top 10 Albums of 2024: Number 8
Jon Anderson and The Band Geeks - True

No one knows how much time they’ve got left, sang Steve Hogarth a few years ago. Some rockstars seem immortal, but you never know when their latest album is going to be their last. For instance, Chris Squire’s parting gift to this world was the Heaven & Earth album, one of the more regrettable releases Yes have ever put their name to. I’d prefer to remember him for almost everything else he ever did.

While Yes’ subsequent albums have been less embarassing, they are still struggling mightily without Jon Anderson, who’s thrown in his lot with a bunch of much younger professional musicians. These are people who live and breathe progressive music, and who actually know what Yes is supposed to sound like. They tour together playing Yes classics, but a new album was too good an opportunity to pass up.

The result is a Yes-with-the-numbers-filed-off Yes album that is probably the best Yes-related release since… shit, Magnification maybe? Notwithstanding the pretty awful album art, we have a top quality album here. Jon was 79 when he recorded this, and you can occasionally hear the slightest hint of gravel in that angelic voice, but other than that his range and tone have been utterly untouched by the years. That spiritual, healthy, meditating lifestyle he’s leading is clearly working for him, so as a lifelong sceptic of all things new age I humbly tip my hat.

It doesn’t think outside the box very much. It’s a seventies-style Yes album updated to the production standards of the 21st century, with not much happening that you wouldn’t expect from this description. There’s not even the pretense of this album being in any way original or forward-looking. But is that a bad thing? The songs are well written, and the musicianship is high. All the musicians get a chance to shine; it's not just Jon monologuing gibberish at you (which is where his album with Roine Stolt went slightly wrong).

What it is, is a chance finally to hear this voice sing on this kind of music again, and do it with integrity and passion, and no musical missteps. That really hasn’t happened in a very long time. It’s a gift. Cherish it. I hope Jon has many more years left in him – and wouldn’t it be a credit to his lifestyle if he did? – but if this is to be the last album to bear his name he’s got nothing to be ashamed of.

2024 Number 9: Willow

Gemma's Top 10 Albums of 2024: Number 9
Willow - Empathogen

It was quite surprising to see Willow Smith’s music gain so much momentum at the beginning of the year. It’s easy to be skeptical of the success of a showbiz kid, especially when their father is one of the most famous actors in the world. Surely she owes her buzz to her family name rather than her talent? But her music was discussed favourably by many muso YouTubers and I, too, have to deal with the fact that the person who once made a rather awful single called “Whip My Hair” is, in fact, a legitimate musician.

This is a fairly ambitious neo-jazz-fusion album that occasionally rocks, and at this point, what's the functional difference between that and prog rock? The songs are short and pointy, befitting of her generation, but always have lots going on.

It must be said that the singles, "Symptom of Life" and "Big Feelings", are the standout moments. In my world, that's always the sign of a slightly lightweight album. That doesn't lessen the impact of a surprisingly intriguing artist. She's got a great voice, and she knows her way around a tricky arrangement. Worth checking out.