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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
