Prog Lists: My 40 Favorite Albums from the 1990s

These are my 40 favorite prog-related albums of the 1990s: They're not all pure prog but all have contributed greatly to the forms and sounds that has became known as "progressive rock music."

1. STEREOLAB Dots and Loops (1997)

2. LANDBERK Indian Summer (1996)

3. PAT METHENY Secret Story (1992)

4. LANDBERK One Man Tells Another (1994)

5. SADE Love DeLuxe (1992)

6. ECHOLYN Suffocating the Bloom (1992)

7. OZRIC TENTACLES Jurassic Shift (1993)

8. SIGUR RÓS Ágætus Byrjun (1999)

9. BONDAGE FRUIT  I (1994)

10. JANET JACKSON Janet. (1993)

11. PÄR LINDH PROJECT Mundus Incompertus (1997)

12. BARK PSYCHOSIS Hex (1994)

13. PAT METHENY Imaginary Day (1997)
14. COLLAGE Moonshine (1994)

15. KINGSTON WALL III: Trilogy (1994)

16. JEAN-LUC PONTY, AL DIMEOLA, STANLEY CLARKE The Rite of Strings (1995)

17. AFTER CRYING Megalálzottak és Megszomorítottak (1992)

18. THE FLOWER KINGS Flower Power (1999)

19. ANGRA Holy Land (1996)

20. BONDAGE FRUIT II (1996)

21. JON ANDERSON Change We Must (1994)

22. HÖYRY-KONE Huono Parturi (1997)

23. DEAD CAN DANCE Aion (1990)

24. PORCUPINE TREE The Sky Moves Sideways (1994)

25. QUIDAM Quidam (1996)
26. IN THE WOODS... Omnio (1997)

27. AFTER CRYING Föld És Ég (1994)
28. ART ZOYD Häxan (1997)

29. FATES WARNING A Pleasant Shade of Gray (1997)

30. ANTHONY PHILLIPS Slow Dance (1990)

31. DEAD CAN DANCE Into the Labyrinth (1993)

32. COLLAGE Baśnie (1990)

33. VOLARÉ The Uncertainty Principle (1997)

34. MR. SIRIUS Dirge (1990)

35. BRUFORD LEVIN UPPER EXTREMITIES B.L.U.E. (1998) 

36. AFTER CRYING Overground Music (1990)

37. AFTER CRYING De Profundis (1996)

38. MR. BUNGLE Mr. Bungle (1991)

39. THINKING PLAGUE In Extremis (1998)

40. DISCIPLINE Unfolded Like Staircase (1997)

Honorable Mentions:

ÄNGLAGÅRD Epilog (1994)

ULVER Kveldssanger (1996)

CYNIC Focus (1993)

TOOL Ænima (1996)

DREAM THEATER Awake (1994)

Prog Lists: My Favorite Albums of the 2010s

These are my 40 favorite prog-related albums of the 2010s: they're not all pure prog but all have contributed greatly to the forms and sounds that has became known as "progressive rock music."

1. HOMUNCULUS RES Limiti all'eguaglianza della parte con il tutto (2013)

2. UNAKA PRONG Salinity Now! (2018)

3. THE AMAZING Gentle Stream (2011)

4. DEMEN Nektyr (2017)

5. FIVE-STOREY ENSEMBLE Not That City (2013) 

6. ALIO DIE & LORENZO MONTANÀ Holographic Codex (2015)

7. TONY PATTERSON Equations of Meaning (2016)

8. LAGARTIJA Particelle (2011)

9. BENT KNEE Shiny Eyed Babies (2014)

10. CICADA Light Shining Through the Sea (2015)

11. MICE ON STILTS Hope for a Mourning (2016)

12. VOTUM Harvest Moon (2013)

13. BATTLESTATIONS The extent of damage (2015)

14. AXON-NEURON Metamorphosis (2016)

15. FAUN Eden (2011)

16. GHOST MEDICINE Discontinuance (2016)

17. GHOSTS OF JUPITER The Great Bright Horses (2016)

18. MIDAS FALL Evaporate (2018)

19. MEER Meer (2015)

20. SEVEN IMPALE City of the Sun (2014)

21. RYUICHI SAKAMOTO async (2017)

22. JAMBINAI Onde (2019)

23. AMOEBA SPLIT Dance of the Goodbyes (2010)

24. BROTHER APE A Rare Moment of Insight (2010)

25. THE GABRIEL CONSTRUCT Interior City (2013)

26. BATTLESTATIONS Vixit (2017)

27. FAUN Luna (2014)

28. STEVEN WILSON Hand. Cannot. Erase. (2015)

29. THE PSYCHEDELIC ENSEMBLE The Dream of the Jongleur (2011)

30. EDISON'S CHILDREN The Final Breath Before November (2013)

31. ANATHEMA Falling Deeper (2011)

32. CORDE OBLIQUE A Hail of Bitter Almonds (2011)

33. FUNIN Unsound (2010) 

34. IAMTHEMORNING ~ (2012)

35. STEVE HAUSCHILDT Strands (2016)

36. FROGG CAFÉ Bateless Edge (2010)

37. KATE BUSH 50 Words for Snow (2011)

38. ANTOINE FAFARD Ad Perpetuum (2014)

39. KANT FREUD KAFKA No tengas miedo (2014)

40. AIRBAG The Greatest Show on Earth (2013)

Honorable Mentions:

IAMTHEMORNING Lighthouse (2016)

STARVING DAUGHTERS Strange Valleys (2018)

TREE TOPS Ghosts Don't Dance with Shoes (2017)

STARSABOUT Halflights (2016)

IVAR BJØRNSON & EINAR SELVIK Hugsjá (2018)

Prog Lists: My Favorite Albums of the 1960s

These are my 30 favorite prog-related albums of the 1960s: they're not all pure prog but all contributed greatly to the forms and sounds that became known as "progressive rock music."

1. STRAWBERRY ALARM CLOCK Incense & Peppermints (1967)

2. KING CRIMSON In The Court of the Crimson King (1969)

3. LILY & MARIA Lily & Maria (1968)

4. THE ASSOCIATION Greatest Hits (1968)

5. THE COLLECTORS The Collectors (1968)

6. SIMON & GARFUNKLE Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme (1966)

7. JOHN COLTRANE My Favorite Things (1961)

8. THE MOODY BLUES Days of Future Passed (1967)

9. DON ELLIS ORCHESTRA 'Live' at Monterey! (1967)

10. THE PRETTY THINGS S.F. Sorrow (1968)

11. DON ELLIS ORCHESTRA Electric Bath (1967)

12. JOHN COLTRANE A Love Supreme (1965)

13. KALEIDOSCOPE Tangerine Dream (1967)

14. ULTIMATE SPINACH Behold & See (1968)

15. TERJE RYPDAL Bleak House  (1968)

16. CHICAGO Chicago Transit Authority (1969)

17. FRANK ZAPPA Lumpy Gravy (1967/8)

18. SOFT MACHINE Volume Two (1969)

19. STRAWBERRY ALARM CLOCK Wake Up … It's Tomorrow (1968)

20. H.P. LOVECRAFT II (1968)

21. SANTANA Santana (1969)

22. RENAISSANCE Renaissance (1969)

23. THE PENTANGLE Basket of Light (1968)

24. JOHN COLTRANE A Love Supreme (1965)

25. THE BEATLES Magical Mystery Tour (1967)

26. JEFFERSON AIRPLANE Surrealistic Pillow (1967) 

27. THE DOORS The Doors (1967)

28. GENESIS From Genesis to Revelation (1968)

29. IRON BUTTERFLY In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (1968)

30. LOVE Forever Changes (1967)

 

31. ULTIMATE SPINACH Ultimate Spinach (1968)

32. YES Yes (1969)

33. THE BEATLES Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)

34. TONY WILLIAMS LIFETIME Emergency! (1969)

35. CARAVAN Caravan (1969)

36. COLOSSEUM Valentyne Suite (1969)

37. FRANK ZAPPA Hot Rats (1969)

Favorite Album Covers/Album Art from the 2020s

Album cover art has always been something I've appreciated and enjoyed. I can remember sitting in the 1960s and 1970s with an album cover and, if it had one, its inner sleeve liner notes for the 17 to 34 (Todd Rundgren albums) minutes it took to hear the music of the day's vinyl albums. I have my favorites: Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, Todd Rundgren's Something / Anything, The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour, and all of Nina Hagen's albums. (Nina's 1982 album release, NunSexMonkRock, is without a doubt my all-time favorite album for its liner notes.)

    In recent years it seems as if album cover art has taken a sharp rise in interest and creative competence. To celebrate this trend, I've decided to post some of my favorite album covers from the 2020s.

2023

HOMUNCULUS RES Ecco l'impero dei doppi sensi

LUMSK Fremender Toner

BARONESS Stone

THE MERCURY TREE Self Similar

IO EARTH Sanctuary 

THE CHRONICLES OF FATHER The Songs & Tales of Airoea Book I: The Tale of Father Robin (State of Nature)

OIAPOK OisoLün

AISLES Beyond Drama

JORDSJØ Salighet

DEPOSED KING One Man's Grief

2022

DREADNAUGHT The Endless

SIIILK Eemynor

THE TANGENT Songs from the Hard Shoulder

ANTIMATTER A Profusion of Thought

AREA The Theory of Molecular Inheritance

ELDER Innate Passage

2021

CAST Visigemus

MONOBODY Comma

KONOM Konom

THE EMERALD SKY To Touch the Sky

INNER PROSPEKT Canvas Two

JOHN HOLDEN Circles in Time

KANT FREUD KAFKA Historias del Acantilado

BEAUTIFUL BEDLAM Beautiful Bedlam

ANTONY KALUGIN Chameleon Shapeshifter

CICCADA Harvest

2020

FRENCH TV 13: Stories Without Fingerprints

MAGICK BROTHER AND MYSTIC SISTER Magick Brother and Mystic Sister

ARNAUD BUKWALD La marmite cosmique six

ABEL GANZ The Life of the Honeybee and Other Moments of Clarity

ESP Phenomenon

VESPERO The Four Zaos

STEVE THORNE Levelled - Emotional Creatures Part 3

HAIL SPIRIT NOIR Eden in Reverse

DAI KAHT II