The Top 10 Albums of 1975

If you aren't hip to the fact that Reza Mills from Clean Sheets and Sleeping Shaman has been breaking down the decades with me to uncover our top 5 songs in the pivotal anniversaries for these years, then you uare missing out, and you should check out our insights here...

 

Here I am taking my top 5 choices and expanding them into the top 10 albums of 1975, and also ranking them in order of their impact and staying power, so here are my top 10 albums of 1975. Be sure to check out the episode above for a more in-depth look at the top 5 here. 

10-Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow- "S/t"

Some of Dio and Blackmore's best work. 

 

9-Aerosmith-"Toys in the Attic" 

The radio hit might have worn out this one , but the deeper tracks are gold. 

8-Fleetwood Mac- "s/t'

 Lyndsey Buckingham steals the show on this classic.

 

8-the Grateful Dead -"Blues For Allah."

Not a Dead head but developed a deep enough appreciation for these guys, and this is my favorite album from Jerry and the Boys, as it is like free-form prog. 

 

7-Roxy Music- "Siren."

The pulse of this album proves that not only was love a drug, but also drugs were drugs. 

 

6-Elton John-"Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy."

John's most epic songwriting is dramatic and passionate, while almost going prog.

 

5-Pink Floyd- "Wish You Were Here'

Not Sure how I overlooked this one in the top 5 originally, though it's neck and neck with John's stellar songwriting, but the pristine guitar tone edges the Rocket Man out.

   

4-Alice Cooper - "Welcome to My Nightmare." 

Cooper's creepy cabaret beats out David Gilmore's pristine guitar tones

 

 3-Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti

If you ever doubted Jimmy Page, this is the album to set things straight as the scope of his guitar mastery is broader than you think.

 

2-Black Sabbath "Sabotage"

I regard this album as Sabbath's best work, as it hits with power while bringing the trippy experimentation that had begun to dabble in

1-David Bowie -"Young Americans." 

Bowie recreates soul music in his own image and brings more sensual grooves to the party with his best vocal performances yet. 

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The Top 10 Progressive Albums of 2024

When it comes to prog, few bands actually progress. Most that claim to be a part of this genre just wank around with an overabundance of guitar solos that the songs are merely bookends for, rather than serving songs that go somewhere.  The bands that made this year's top 10 list are taking you places with their songs. There are some guitar solos here and there, but shredding is not the emphasis, nor is using odd time signatures for the sake of just doing so. Some of these bands are more metallic, and a few albums even flirt with pop at times. These are not the coolest prog albums, but the best, fuck what other blogs say,  

After sorting through the top 10 albums of all the respective genres, I use those lists to compile the top 10 albums of 2024. The fact that these bands made it on the list speaks to how great these albums are, so it's not a slight that the number 8 album is above the 9th album; there is something that just gives it an edge that makes me want to listen to it more. After all, we can try to look cool and pick the hippest bands for a list, but at the end of the day, what makes an album the best is that it makes you want more, and you look forward to listening to it again. You might find your next favorite on this list, and I have included links to reviews of these albums if you want to check out the audio on these guys. Anyway, here are the top 10 Progressive albums of 2024.

10- Blood Incantation- "Absolute Elsewhere" 

Sure combining Pink Floyd with Morbid Angel is a great idea. This album seems to have gotten enough hype due to it, and it certainly deserves an honorable mention here. But The rest of this list feels more original to me, and wears their influences less on their sleeves .

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/10/blood-incantation-absolute-elsewhere.html

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9-Trelldom- "...By the Shadows..." 

 It can be hard to keep up with all of Gaahl's varied project's over the years, despite him being one of my favorite Black Metal vocalists. This project is more diverse than Gorgoroth, and I think makes excellent use of his voice. The members of this band have also played in God Seed, with the drummer Kenneth Kapstad having covered the most ground. I would  not call this band black metal, though they are dark, but a flowing progressive sense flows through them. The shadowy drone they sweep you away in is very cool. This is the perfect mood for me. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/12/trelldom-by-shadows.html

8 Julie Christmas -""Ridiculous and Full of Blood" 

If you do not know Ms. Christmas from Made out of Babies then I am going to just go ahead and assume you know her from the album she did with Cult of Luna. The musicians she recruited to help her with this album provide a reasonable expectation of what sonic zip codes it's going take us in, as they include the guitarist from Cult of Luna, the drummer from Spotlights, KEN Mode's bassist, and John from Candiria adding guitars as well. So pretty every genre with post in front of it. Julie adds a playfully unhinged enthusiasm to her vocal performance, that reminds me a little of Rasputina. But with less baroque wistfulness. 

 https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/06/julie-christmas-ridiculous-and-full-of.html

7- Chapel of Disease- "Echoes of Light" 

The German band is a fairly interesting progressive death metal band, that wacky time changes aside and a penchant for rock n roll riffs are not too far out in left field. They are at times like a less gothy Tribulation. The guitarists are calling the shots here are the guitar is the centerpiece of the songs, often wandering f pocket very tastefully until things explode with the climax. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/03/chapel-of-disease-echoes-of-light.html

6-Xiu Xiu - " 13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips"

My thoughts on Jamie Stewarts' experimental art vehicle range from respect to love to wishing he would stop fucking around and write songs as great as what was on "Dear God I Hate Myself". Here the band proves that they do not have to abandon their weird to write songs and launch into some genuine prog, enough to earn this a space on this list and not the post-punk list or the electronic list which both sub-genres the share common ground with. 

 https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/08/xiu-xiu-13-frank-beltrame-italian.htm

 

5 -Mamaleek - "Vida Blue" 

These guys are going further down the Tom Waits rabbit hole. The guitar is carried with a jazzier tone. There is a jammy abstract element that gets broken up by their heavier tendencies. As far as musicianship goes their game has really been stepped up. It's a weird collision of prog with punk. In fact, this album leans toward jazz more often than not with the gruff vocals the only thing anchoring it to the sound you are used to, which is progress, thus their place here. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/09/mamaleek-vida-blue.html

4-Crippled Black Pheonix - "'The Wolf Changes Its Fur But Not Its Nature"

I gained a new appreciation for this band since the darker turn their past few albums have taken.  This time around they sprawl out from a creeping post-rock, into a more grandiose throb. Not as dark as what I expected after the last album but it works. Excellent production brings all the sounds into focus for this sonic adventure.  

 https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/09/crippled-black-phoenix-wolf-changes-its.html

3-David Gilmour - "Luck and Strange" 

You might not know that Pink Floyd is one of my favorite bands,  which created a high bar for this album,. At 78  guitarist David Gilmour, is not fading away. The title track of his new album rivals almost any Pink Floyd song that is not on "Animals". It's some of Gilmour's best guitar work. Even his voice sounds great, he's not afraid to reach up into his head register for a few notes here and there. This is the last recording keyboardist Richard Wright appears on before his death. This album is almost as much Pink Floyd as the 'Division Bell' is

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/11/david-gilmour-luck-and-strange.html

 

2-Opeth - "The Last Will and Testament"

14 Albums later Akerfeldt is the only original member but I am willing to count anyone who has been playing since "Deliverance" so that makes two. The return of the growl, is not the best part as that feels like they are dialing it in, they are never going to be a death metal band again, and this album is not on the level of  "Blackwater Park", but it works thanks do some strong jamming grooves. Plenty of prog chaos, but more focused songwriting. , 

 https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/11/opeth-last-will-testament.html

1-Sleepytime Gorilla Museum - "Of the Last Human Being" 

When I place one of my favorite bands on the pedestal of what other bands should aspire to, said band must then meet these exalted expectations. If they are one of the best bands I have ever seen live then expectations are even higher. If they are coming back 17 years later, after you lived thinking their last album was the final chapter, then you can only hope for the best album ever. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum reopened in an attempt to make their best album yet. 2007's "In Glorious Times" is a perfect album, so they were wise not to take it head on but in a more mature step forward with the emphasis on more of the chamber music side, while employing all the creepy dissonance they are known for. It's not just the best prog album of the year, but perhaps the best album of the year. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/02/sleepytime-gorilla-museum-of-last-human.html

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David Gilmour : "Luck and Strange"

 

At 78 Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, is not fading away. The title track of his new album rivals almost any Pink Floyd song that is not on "Animals". It's some of Gilmour's best guitar work. Even his voice sounds great, he's not afraid to reach up into his head register for a few notes here and there. This is the last recording keyboardist Richard Wright appears on before his death. But the challenge is, will the rest of the album live up to this? This question is what we seek to answer in this review. Even regular readers Pink Floyd is one of my favorite bands. 

Gilmour's wife, Polly Samson, wrote most of the lyrics. The ambling "The Piper's Call" has more movement than the single. What he did with Pink Floyd is true without being confined to it. While I have not listened to much of Roger Water's more recent solo work, it's hard to imagine it being more like Floyd than the jams this song goes of into to highlight Gilmour's playing. Thus lies the question what makes you think of Pink Floyd more Gilmour's playing or Water's sardonic wit. I accept both "Momentary Lapse of Reason" and "Division Bell' as great Floyd album, so Gilmour's playing is what defines it to me.  Lyrically his wife penned the theme to explore aging and death. At his age, it's a closer reality, though I certainly expect him to outlive Ozzy, as he looks healthier in recent clips. "A Single Spark" is the first song you can hear the age in his voice. 

His daughter Romany sings on "Between Two Points".  She has a decent enough folk voice. The song is mellow and flowing.  'Dark and Velvet Nights' is a grooving blues tune, that allows him to rip out honey-sweet lick with an immaculate tone. The only thing about solo albums is you will find a foray into more conventional songwriting without Waters or Wright to balance him out, thus the song "Sings" , which nothing is wrong with it just sounds like your average middle-of-the-road meandering ballad. 'Scattered' is closer to something Pink Floyd might have done. His lyrical style of guitar soloing is highlighted in this song. The last song is just a more folk-inflected ballad to his daughter also lends her voice, which works well enough. The strong moments from this album and his stellar playing make me give this album a 10. He continues to amaze me. 

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The Sound of Me Before You

Music is obviously important to me . I commit an average of 12 hours a week just writing about it for this blog, not to mention the others . Music is the fuel of my soul. So for me to share music with someone , what I am really saying is these are the pieces of me that I don’t have words for as they are an amalgamation of my thoughts and emotions relating to sonic vibrations. Music can always take me back to a place in time. When I first hear a song. Due to my heavy drugs use earlier in life I have large blank spots of time not accounted for , this makes my sense of the past somewhat hazy when it comes to recalling specifics. So I tend to organize these by thinking about the music I was listening to at the time. So these would be songs from the first ten years of my life. This is not a weekly playlist but a 4 part sonic scrap book you dear reader are being a voyeur for. While I have organized it in terms of the year these songs are released . The story they tell is somewhat loose. But if I had to make a soundtrack to my life I think these songs would work well. This is me giving these songs as token to someone of what was inside me before they knew me. This is what my life sounded like before I met them.





Welcome to my Nightmare





Fool to Cry




Fun It




 Mother





Ashes to Ashes




A World Without Heroes "






Something in the Water Does not Compute





Mr. Roboto





Shout At the Devil




 the Fire Still Burns 

Roger Waters : " Is This the Life We Really Want"

Right from the first song it's obvious Roger Water's has more Pink Floyd in his pinkie than the other three did when left to their own devices. I have only flirted with his solo stuff giving albums like 'the Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking" and "Amused to Death" only passing listens. While Waters sounds aged in his mid range , he sounds pretty great in his lower register and most surprising his upper register which is what age normally takes first. At times in his middle register he sounds like Bob Dylan, but "Deja Vu" is still a solid first song. Odd radio samples riddle the mellow tones he unfolds.As the album progresses, Waters retain his familiar sense of dramatics with "the Last Refugee " sounds like warmed up left overs from "the Final Cut". There is a more  "Wall" like tension to "Picture That". Musically he summons ghosts from every era of Floyd here. Lyrically he casts a sardonic shadow over current events. So if you wondered what Roger Waters thinks about things today...well now you know.

He goes back to campfire folk on "Broken Bones". When it got to the ballads on "the Wall" aside from "Comfortably Numb" they hit and miss for me, though in some ways this owes more to "Pigs on A Wing". He knows his dynamics and doesn't just let it sit in the acoustic strum but builds it up to Broad Way proportions. Waters is approaching his first solo album in 11 years with a lot of smarts by bringing in  Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich to help out. It's hard to argue against the smooth groove of the title track. The grooves keep coming with the atmospheric pulse of "Bird in a Gale". Water's voice sounds great here and it's not surprising he keeps the grooves going as a bass player. "The Most Beautiful Girl" falls into the ballad zone that I am not as enthralled by.  I need something more like the "Dark side" funk of "Smell the Roses".

He drops back into introspection on "Wait For Her". Which is well done for what it is, it's just not what I like the most from him. However I am good with him keeping the acoustic guitar out for "Oceans Apart". I think it's the more melancholy tone that works for me, There is a similar tone for the closing "A Part of Me Died" . So the 3rd act of the album ends with him getting a little too mellow for me, but I also don't smoke pot. If you do then go ahead and round this up to a 9, I'm giving it a very respectable 8.5. So next time you hear someone complaining about their favorite rock stars sucking because they have gotten old , point them in the direction of this album.

Prog Magazines' Prog Rock Awards

So I was asked to cast my vote with the rest of the press for Prog Rock Magazine's Orange Amplifier sponsored Prog Rock Awards . It seemed like most of the albums these bands released were from last year, but any ways here is how I voted.



   "Limelight Award"...up and coming bands



Maybeshewill
MoeTar
 Bend Sinister
 Fuzzy Nautilus
 Dream The Electric Sleep
 Perfect Beings
 A Formal Horse
 Heights
 The Physics House Band
  Sumer

I voted for ... A Formal Horse "Vanguard Award" ...break out artists so more established than previous category

 Nominees And so I Watch You From Afar
  Solstafir
Soen
 Nordic Giants
 Lonely Robot
 Native Construct
 Pubic Service Broadcasting
  Purson
Iamthemorning
 Trojan Horse

 I voted for ... Purson "Anthem Award" ...the best song

 Nominees

Vennart- "Operate"
 Von Hertz Brothers - "Hold Me Up"
 Dave Kerzner - "Stranded'
 Big Big Train - "Wassail"
 John Lodge - "In My Mind"
 Tin Spirits - "Summer Now"
 Steve Hackett - "Love Song to a Vampire"
 Mew - "Satellites"
 Public Service Broadcasting - "Gagarin"
 Christina Booth - "The Light"

 I voted for ...Mew - "Satellites" Live Event

 Nominees

  HrH Prog 3
 Muse at Download
 Devin Townsend at Royal Albert Hall
  RoS Fest
  Cropredy
 The Enid Present the Bridge
  Marillion Weekends
 Anathema Cathedral tour
 King Crimson Us Tour
 Kate Bush - Before the Dawn Tour

 I voted for ... Kate Bush - Before the Dawn Tour
 Album of the Year Nominees Periphery - "Juggernaut" Sweet Billy Pilgrim- " Motorcade Amnesiacs" Flying Colors - "Second Nature" Opeth - "Pale Communion" the Pineapple Theif - "Magnolia" Amplifier - "Mystoria" Night Wish -"Endless Forms Most Beautiful" Pink Floyd -"The Endless River" Steven Wilson - "Hand Can Not Erase" Beardfish -" 4626 Comfort Zone" I voted for ... Pink Floyd "the Endless River" Band/Artist of the Year the nominees Opeth King Crimson Flying Colors Threshold Between the Buried and Me Steven Wilson Pink Floyd Steve Hackett Von Hertzen Brothers Kate Bush ... since Kate Bush and King Crimson only toured and did not release new music I voted for ...Pink Floyd "The Storm Thorgerson Grand Design Award " ...for album covers Nominees Pink Floyd- "The Endless River" Soft Machine - "Live 1970" Hawkwind -"This is Your Captain Speaking" Jethro Tull -" Minstrel in the Gallery" Anthony Philips - "Harvest of the Heart" King Crimson - " Starless" Steve Wilson - "Hand.Can Not. Erase" Rush- 'R40" Yes - "Progeny" Bill Nelson " Noise Candy" I voted for ... Yes