Top 250: #71 - #80

Excitement rises as we move higher and higher up on the list. Masterwork follows masterwork. Without further introductions, let's get right to it.

80. A Smart Kid, by Porcupine Tree
(Stupid Dream, 1999)

Last time, we had no Porcupine Tree tracks listed; instead, three of the Steven Wilson side projects appeared. It is therefore high time that we rank a genuine PT song for a change. This one is particularly memorable to us. We actually somehow kind of missed A Smart Kid because it was "hidden" close to the end of the Porcupine Tree's 1999 album Stupid Dream. Later on, when attending the group's live performance in Helsinki, in December 2007, they played it and we didn't recognize it. After that incident, it has been played a lot and hence, it was able to secure a position in our all time top 80.

79. Skeletons at the Feast, by Spock's Beard
(Spock's Beard, 2006)
This instrumental track from Spock's Beard's ninth, self titled studio album represents to us a great example of how much fun true progressive rock can be. On this track, the group is exceptionally metal sounding but actually that fits its fast pace and complicatedness very well. There are some truly impressive guitar sequences as well as great drumming. Overall, this album is our number one favorite in Spock's Beard's catalogue, and this track is in its top three. Of those other two, All That's Left (#102) we already discussed, and the other one is a little further up, to be discussed in this very same blog entry.

78. A&E, by Goldfrapp
(Seventh Tree, 2008)
Oh, cool! A song on our list actually has an official video. It is so rare these days. Few other artists are anywhere as good in creating perfect pop songs as Goldfrapp. They have already appeared on the list twice, with Felt Mountain (#108) and Time Out from the World (#116). A&E is the most recent one of these. Released six years ago, it is a relatively simple but absolutely beautiful pop song that used to be one of our most played songs for a few months back then and is still doing very well on the list. Goldfrapp has released two more albums since, but their best recent tracks have not yet had time to climb this high.

77. This is the New Shit, by Marilyn Manson
(The Golden Age of Grotesque, 2003)
Another surprise entry, this industrial / extreme metal track from over a decade ago was also a big hit at the time here at ProgActive. What makes This is the New Shit so exhilarating is not only its extreme aggressiveness - although that does have something to do with it - but the delicious contrast between its verse and chorus. One sounds like almost any ordinary techno oriented track, and then the other almost literally explodes with furious riffs and Manson's strong vocals. The man has a perfect voice for a heavy metal singer.

76. Twilight Coda, by Steven Wilson
(Insurgentes, 2008)
Then comes a time to discuss Steven Wilson once again - but neither through Porcupine Tree's side project nor PT itself. Twilight Coda is the beautiful instrumental track that has been placed near the end of the first solo album SW made under his own name six years ago. It could be used to define the term atmospheric - as you can very well hear when playing the fan made video embedded above. This will not be the last we hear of Wilson or even Insurgentes the album - there will be another track of his only three places from here, albeit from a different album.

75. Satellite Anthem Icarus, by Boards of Canada
(The Campfire Headphase, 2005)
Another track from Boards of Canada's stunning peak album, Satellite Anthem Icarus is one more memorable instrumental that has played a little less at ProgActive during recent years, but was one of our major favorites around 2006 and 2007. Out on 17 October 2005, this third full length studio album by Scottish brothers Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin remains one of last decade's essential music releases. It is certain to appear again further up on the list as two of our biggest favorites on it have not been ranked yet.

74. Shadow Memory / The Departure / Unraveling / Elevation, by Goldbug
(The Seven Dreams, 2010)
This combination of several tracks from Goldbug's masterful 2010 album The Seven Dreams is one of the most dumbfounding 11-minute musical sequences in recent memory. They were originally put together like this by an internet radio station; we didn't want to split the end result into individual tracks since they worked so well when played back to back in this particular order. Besides, there are a couple of other 11-minute tracks on the album as well, so this one feels like their companion piece. We have never been big fans of improvisation, but here it works wonders.

73. The Raven That Refused to Sing, by Steven Wilson
(The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories), 2013)
So, it is Steven Wilson again, and the greatest achievement of his musical career so far. This is how far up this song has managed to climb during the year and a half since we first heard it. We have already gushed about the song at length back then, but it might still be worthwhile to once again point out that this is one of the greatest achievements of mankind in the area of music during this decade. Do not miss it. Also, please do enjoy the wonderful animated video by Jess Cope, embedded above, to take in the entire experience.

72. Picture of Three Life, by Yasushi Yoshida
(Secret Figure, 2006)
There is no YouTube video or Spotify link for Japanese composer Yasushi Yoshida's masterpiece, but you can listen to it either on Grooveshark by clicking this link or go to Yoshida's home page where it can be streamed. Yoshida has already appeared on the list once, with Parade (For Closure, #149) and who knows, he might appear again further up. This absolutely beautiful instrumental is our favorite track on Yoshida's 2006 debut album. On his later releases, he has made more experimental music but  on this one he has excelled in simplicity, creating non-complicated yet memorable melodies.

71. The Slow Crash Landing Man, by Spock's Beard
(Spock's Beard, 2006)
Here is the other track from Spock's Beard's self titled 2006 album that we already referred to above. Very different from Skeletons at the Feast, this song proves that the group was at the time also able to write beautiful melodies that are not necessarily that complicated. We feel that this is the American prog group's high point, following which we think it is unlikely - although not impossible - that they will appear again on the list. Listening to this song, as well as other tracks from this album, it sounds like the group peaked right here.

Top 250: #81 - #90

Time to move further up on the list. There are already several masterpieces to discuss, even though we are still only between positions 81 and 90 - mind boggles when you think what lies further ahead.

90. One for the Show, by Echolyn
(As the World, 1995)

There is little to add here to what we already wrote earlier about that other Echolyn song Entry 11-19-93 (#121): it is an absolutely wonderful track that practically demands to be played in succession with the next song on the same album As the World, called One for the Show. Combined, these two make one hell of a ten-minute sequence for the listener. Shuffle plays must have somehow separated these two great songs on the list but here is the other one at last: every bit as good as the first one. Don't miss them.

89. Random Summer, by Múm
(Yesterday Was Dramatic - Today is OK, 2000)
The Icelandic group Múm has already appeared once on the list, with their wonderful Green Grass of Tunnel (#118). This second appearance of theirs looks likely to be the last: Random Summer is arguably the group's greatest masterpiece from their 2000 debut album. A wonderfully breezy, somehow airy instrumental, it marks one of those moments in music history that transcends all definitions and pre-defined genre limitations. We don't know what it is, but is is lovely. Like a colorful butterfly flapping its wings around us for a brief moment.

88. Hello, by Blackfield
(Blackfield, 2004)
For a short while in the mid-2000's, Blackfield was easily Steven Wilson's most successful side project outside Porcupine Tree. His talent, combined with that of Israeli singer-songwriter Aviv Geffen produced stunning results bordering between art rock and regular mellow pop. Hello was the first single taken from the duo's near perfect debut album, and was therefore also graced with an official music video, embedded above. Wilson and Geffen were major favorites of ours at the time of the introduction of the iPod, so it can be deemed an absolute certainty that there will be several other songs of theirs further up on the list.

87. Hyvinkää, by Sister Flo
(The Healer, 2007)
Now here is something that truly moving - for us, at least. One of the best Finnish pop / rock songs ever has been dedicated to ProgActive's home town of Hyvinkää. We found Sister Flo only about two or three years ago, but that has been enough to give this masterpiece of theirs a reasonably good ranking of #87 on the list. The band Sister Flo was actually from a neighboring town in the north, Riihimäki, about 15 kilometers away. They have however disbanded since the release of The Healer, their 2007 album that contains this beautiful song.

86. Drag Ropes, by Storm Corrosion
(Storm Corrosion, 2012)
Another side project by Steven Wilson, Storm Corrosion released their self titled debut album two years ago and immediately got our attention - in fact, we named Storm Corrosion's opening song Drag Ropes the best track of that year. Here's what we wrote back on New Year's Eve, 2012: "Anticipating a heavy prog metal album and then hearing this as its opening track was one of those all too infrequent moments that are the artistic equivalent of being hit on the head with a large wooden board." The musical masterpiece is complimented by Jess Cope's masterful video, embedded above.

85. Song for a Dead Friend, by Kevin Gilbert
(Thud, 1995)
Ah, this is the beauty of getting higher and higher up on the list. Every song is a masterpiece already. Song for a Dead Friend is one of the most beautiful sad songs ever written and recorded, and the reality of what happened makes it all the more heartbreaking. First, the American singer-songwriter composes this song in remembrance of his real life friend Danny. Then, in less than two years, he tragically dies himself. Knowing about these events of course affects the listening experience, but makes this song no less a masterpiece it is.

84. Crawl from the Wreckage, by Engineers
(Three Fact Fader, 2009)
At the time of this writing, Engineers' new album Always Returning has come out five days ago and sounds like a significant improvement over 2010's In Praise of More. Still, it is nowhere near matching the towering greatness of Three Fact Fader, filled with minor classics. Crawl from the Wreckage is one of them, and hardly the last on this list. It exemplifies all that is great about Engineers: an easy to remember, catchy melody combined with powerfully designed instrumentation.

83. Olisitko sittenkin halunnut palata, by Regina
(Katso maisemaa, 2005)
Already a second Finnish track in this group of ten, this one is a real anomaly on the list. We don't even know how it has come to remain this high up. But yes, this quirky pop song used to be a big favorite of ours in 2006 and there's no denying that we have some kind of a fetish when it comes to grown up women singing in a little girl's voice. Nothing to do with progressive rock, but very entertaining nonetheless. Regina has never recorded anything even remotely as good as this later on and we aren't sure if they are even active today.

82. Wonderland, by Frost*
(Experiments in Mass Appeal, 2008)
Wonderland is yet another song we have already covered back when listing the Top 20 Long Prog Masterpieces. Here is what we wrote about it back in June, 2012. It reached #18 there, and also has a pretty good position on this list. The song itself is a schizophrenic one: its first part is a hard rocking Frost* song which is then followed by the "hidden" second part that completes the track as well as the entire album Experiments in Mass Appeal with calmness and exceptional beauty, ending in an extremely slow, unforgettable fade out.

81. Soft Shoulders, by No-Man
(Flowermouth, 1994)
Already the third side project of Steven Wilson in this group of ten alone (!) No-Man is the oldest one of them all and was in fact active as a real group even before Porcupine Tree. The lovely Soft Shoulders is located somewhere between art rock and pop, very much like Hello discussed above. Flowermouth was released at a point when the violinist Ben Coleman had left the group that had only two remaining members: Wilson and singer Tim Bowness. Following this release, No-Man would take a sharp turn from pop to genuine art rock, and has continued as a duo to this day.

Top 250: #91 - #100

Finally, we are entering the top 100. Tracks that have made it this high up on the list must have exceptional qualities. Let's change the format a bit. From now on, whenever possible, there will be a link to the track itself, and also we will display all related album covers from now on. This may look a bit silly on most times since there will be no difference between the two, but will be very useful when there is one.

100. Beside You in Time, by Nine Inch Nails
(With Teeth, 2005)

The 2005 album by Nine Inch Nails was not met with high praise, and even we at ProgActive felt it was far from their best work. Yet there are some individual nice tunes on it and one of them we found close to the end. Beside You in Time shows some of Trent Reznor's best songwriting and also its relatively low key first half gives the listener an enjoyable feeling of anticipation: an explosion is sure to come before the end. When it does arrive, there will be plenty of goosebumps.

99. Woven Tears, by This Will Destroy You
(Moving on the Edges of Things, 2010)
The Texan post rock group This Will Destroy You has reached a surprisingly high position on the list considering we found them only two or three years ago. This track, taken from their 2010 EP Moving on the Edges of Things, sounds very much like industrial rock - not metal, but the instrumental track is still more involved in sound effects than actual composition. The plentiful drumming gives it a nice, ominous atmosphere.

98. Forever is a Lonely Thought, by Kayak
(See See the Sun, 1973)
This lovely song marks the first appearance of Dutch symphonic progressive rock group Kayak on our list. It used to be our big favorite around 2005 when we originally found the band. Now it doesn't get played much any more, but anyway this relatively recent introduction resulted in a place in the top 100. Forever is a Lonely Thought is a melodic continental prog song from over 40 years ago. Another recommendable song from the same album is called Lovely Luna.

97. In This Twilight, by Nine Inch Nails
(Year Zero, 2007)
Another NIN track in a short space is from the next album following With Teeth that we liked even less than its predecessor. Yet Year Zero has paradoxically appeared on the list already twice: Hyperpower! (#186) and Survivalism (#162) were both listed. Even a fourth appearance seems likely, and it should actually take place quite soon. In This Twilight is another quieter NIN song, with a pessimistic world view and hence, extremely cynical lyrics.

96. The Great Satan, by Ministry
(Rio Grande Blood, 2006)
This brilliant heavy metal track was at one point so popular with us that it featured in the playlist of top 25 most played tracks that iTunes collects and keeps up to date automatically. And this was not a short visit there, either - The Great Satan must have spent over a year there. It doesn't get played a lot any more, but is definitely an exhilarating piece of heavy rock with a heavy message. At this point in their career, virtually all Ministry songs had the same message.

95. Mei, by Echolyn
(Mei, 2002)
This masterpiece is currently also in YouTube but will probably be removed soon because the song comprises an entire album, so we'll link to Spotify this time. As you can see above, the song runs almost 50 minutes, so it seems like a minor miracle that it has been able to climb to the top 100 - and yet it has. We have taken the required time to listen to it over and over again. Echolyn has already appeared on the list a few times and is very likely to appear again further up on it.

94. The Show of Our Lives, by Caravan
(Cunning Stunts, 1975)
Many seem to think that Cunning Stunts was only an afterthought following a great career that culminated much earlier, at the beginning of the seventies. We here at ProgActive beg to differ. Not only was this album truly great, but its opening track The Show of Our Lives the single best thing the Canterbury proggers were ever able to achieve. Impeccably arranged and played, it represents absolute perfection in symphonic prog leaning towards more easily accessible art rock.

93. Snowman, by Frost*
(Milliontown, 2006)
One more entry from the debut album of British proggers Frost*, Snowman is their least aggressive song on that album, aggressiveness in this case being of course a positive thing. It sounds about as good as the other songs and was easy to like but admittedly hasn't played very much in recent years. As great as Frost* is, Snowman seems slightly oversimple and obvious among their other works. Easy to like, sure, but also perhaps a bit too easy to forget.

92. Epochs in Dmaj, by Caspian
(Tertia, 2009)
Here is another American post rock group whose most melody driven track got us excited five years ago. Unlike This Will Destroy You, they do not employ percussion but instead rely on a beautiful melody played using keyboards and guitar as solo instruments. Tertia is the second studio album of the Massachusetts based band. Since then, there has been a third one as well as a few EP length releases.

91. The Beginning of the End, by Nine Inch Nails
(Year Zero, 2007)
Here is Nine Inch Nails completing their hat trick with the third pick from Year Zero that we already referred to; perhaps our favorite track on the album. We have a couple of other favorites on this final NIN major label release, but it seem unlikely that they would appear further up on the list. However, running into other tracks from other NIN albums seems almost a certainty; the group has been one of our favorites during recent years.

1992: January to July

On 13 January 1992, American singer-songwriter Tori Amos released her debut album Little Earthquakes and immediately got my attention. She was not a newcomer to music, having begun her singing career already in 1980 but not as a solo performer. Apparently she had worked on her own material for some time since the debut felt surprisingly accomplished and contained numerous excellent tracks. Let's embed one of them below.

The lovely song above is called Winter, but we could have just as well chosen Girl, Silent All These Years, Precious Things, China or Leather which goes to show how evenly great songs there are on Little Earthquakes. I suppose Tori Amos appeals to the same kind of sensibilities that Suzanne Vega does. This was the beginning of an interesting career that spawned several other noteworthy music releases that we will be getting back to in due time.

The new album by Public Image Ltd. came out on 10 February in the U.S. and precisely two weeks later in the UK. It was called That What is Not and would be the last PIL album to come out in 20 years. Overall, I wasn't completely convinced, but there were nonetheless two standout tracks that must be mentioned. The first one of them was the album opener Acid Drops which was not only a great rock song but also memorable because of its ingenious sampling of Anarchy in the UK. The other standout track is embedded below.

Cruel was always my favorite song that I associate with this time and the point in PIL's career. At the time, I had no access to satellite channels or MTV but there was a regular program in Finnish television that played new music videos occasionally, so I was familiarized with the song and its official video almost as soon as it was released. Great, fun song in much the same way as Disappointed. And with this, it is goodbye to PIL, unless I hear their 2012 reunion album at some point and it turns out to contain something really good.

Between the US and UK releases of That What is Not, Shakespears Sister released their second album Hormonally Yours on 18 February. Last time, we discussed their debut because it contained one of the most perfect pop songs of the late eighties in Run Silent, Run Deep (1989). This time, there were two excellent pop songs on the album, although neither one of them was quite that perfect. Of them, Stay got way more MTV play, so let's go against the flow and embed the other one below.

Hello is the beautiful closing track of the album. Although at the time I preferred Stay, over time I have come to like Hello more. Both are excellent pop songs from the early nineties. And there is an interesting connection to PIL: not only do both of these new albums contain only two really great tracks, but also they precede a long recording hiatus. Like I already wrote, PIL did not release another album in 20 years; Shakespears Sister paused for 13 years. Their third album didn't come out until 2005.

The next important date for us is in June, so let's use this empty period of nearly four months for discussing two albums with unknown release dates. First of them is a really interesting modern classical album, an EP called Music for 3 Pianos, by Harold Budd, Ruben Garcia and Daniel Lentz. Their piano instrumentals are mesmerizing. The album was recorded within a single day, 2 March, and was probably relatively easy to post produce so it might have been in the stores before summer. Here is perhaps the best track on the EP, Somos Tres.

The other new album with an unknown release date is more important when one considers the development of progressive rock. We already briefly mentioned the American group Echolyn who debuted with their self titled album in 1991. Now, they released their sophomore effort Suffocating the Bloom, sounding much like Gentle Giant and paving the way for progressive rock's glorious return a little later on. It probably isn't that hard to imagine the excitement among prog fans of the time.

Suffocating the Bloom contains an amazing 21 tracks, although the last eleven are presented under a common title A Suite for the Everyman. The creativity on display as well as the diversity of the music itself never fails to impress. Embedded below is the album's single longest track Memoirs from Between for maximum enjoyment but there would have been a number of other excellent tracks to choose from. In particular, A Little Nonsense is a well known example where the group sounds exactly like Gentle Giant.

The next important date in our 1992 calendar is 8 June which marked the release of not only Album of the year but also Album of the decade. Yes, the best album of the nineties came out this early! There is nothing more to wait for, best to concentrate on waiting for 2002, when the best album of the 00's will come out... No, just kidding. Even though the race for the very best of the nineties is now over, there will be plenty of excellent music to check out still. There will be a separate entry for this one, so we can move on for now.

You see, another album worth mentioning came out on the same date. It was the new release by the American heavy metal group W.A.S.P. - not to be confused with the best album of the decade! Yet there is one simply brilliant track on The Crimson Idol, called The Idol which displays an obvious desire by the band to evolve into something more than just an average heavy metal group with aggressive live performances and slightly ridiculous appearances.

Next, we move on to 7 July, which is when Dream Theater released their second album Images and Words. This release marks a big step ahead for the future prog giants and it is well liked among their fans as well. While I will admit that the album is a definite improvement over the first one and contains several good tracks, I find nothing important enough on it to be worth embedding here, so I suppose we will simply note the album's release and move on.

In this case, we only need to move forward one week. On 14 July, the American industrial metal group Ministry released one of their key albums, the aggressive Psalm 69 that contains many of the key metal tracks of the era. Or, to be more precise, the album is filled with them. Many of them carry a weighty message but my favorite is just a fun metal track that I will embed below and close this blog entry on a high note. Please enjoy Jesus Built My Hot Rod!