Solitude Standing, by SUZANNE VEGA

Year: 1987
Country: USA

On 1 April 1987, the greatest album of the eighties was released, and it came from an unexpected place. The best albums of the previous two decades had both originated from the United Kingdom; this one was from New York, USA. And more importantly, the best albums of the previous two decades had come from giants of progressive rock. This one came from a female singer-songwriter who had nothing to do with prog and had released only one album previously. And, I might add, one that had given absolutely no indication of the greatness that was to come.

A cappella opening song Tom's Diner already caused my jaw to drop back when I heard it for the first time. It is hardly the greatest achievement on the album, but I remember thinking already in 1987 that it was a truly original - can I even say ballsy? - way to open an album. In those days, there were no streaming services: those who were considering buying an album often listened to how it began in a record store, from a real disc. An anti-commercial opening like this hardly improved the odds of a sale.

But, of course, there were other ways of getting acquainted with new music even in those days. One was radio play; the other, music video. The second track of the album is also its best known and probably more widely associated with the album. Selected as a single, Luka wasn't a difficult choice for radio stations to play in a pop/rock rotation. Also, the music video below played on MTV and other satellite channels of the era. It gives the random listener a more accurate impression of what the rest of the album would be like than Tom's Diner.

The somehow light sounding, beautiful song carries a weighty message about domestic violence that gives it a bittersweet feel. The young boy subjected to said violence has not yet given up hope, nor should we, implies the optimistic sounding ending. Don't get me wrong - I like Luka very much and it is essential listening for 1987. But no, I don't think even the best known song on the album is among its very best tracks. Perhaps a bit too easily accessible for my taste, it is nonetheless a fitting choice for a single release.

So, even though I had really liked the first two tracks of Solitude Standing, at this point I still wasn't fully convinced. It took track number three to finally hit me on the head with your proverbial sledgehammer, to finally realize that I was listening to a major masterpiece. Ironbound / Fancy Poultry is a two part song that is not only Suzanne Vega's greatest work ever; it also belongs to my personal all time top 10 list of musical achievements. (Strangely enough, it is NOT my number one song of the eighties; we will get back to that anomaly when we reach 1988.)

Much like Tom's Diner was about creating a realistic sounding memory imprint of a certain place and time, Ironbound does the same in a much more complicated and satisfying way. I have been criticized for labeling Suzanne Vega as art rock, and maybe rightly so when considering her entire recorded output. But for both Luka and Ironbound this label fits perfectly - just listen to that impeccable light rock instrumentation. The electric guitar ends up on top, sounding cold but not soulless.

The second part of the song, Fancy Poultry begins with a much simpler arrangement. Now there are only the singer-songwriter's voice and her acoustic guitar. The long instrumental finale that closes the track is one of the most astonishingly beautiful ever composed, and wisely takes its time to slowly fade out. Even when you think it is over, you can still hear faint echoes, and kind of want it still not to have ended. Jaw, meet floor.

And the most pleasant surprise of all is that, even after rising to unimaginable heights, the album continues on nearly the same quality level for several next tracks. I specifically remember that this was what finally sold Solitude Standing to me as the best album of the decade so far, well before it was even over. Irounbound / Fancy Poultry was its greatest masterpiece, but it is one thing to write one great song and another to follow it up with others that don't pale next to it.

The fourth track In the Eye has been embedded above. It is very much like Luka, only better. And there is never a misstep on the first side of the vinyl version. I will not embed everything so you will need to find some gems on your own. Suffice to say that the fifth song Night Vision is a definite step towards a less accessible direction. An acoustic track with a less immediately memorable tune requires two or three repeated listenings before you can fully appreciate it.

The sixth track that closes the vinyl's A side is the title track and that I will once again embed because there is a music video for it. Another great song with a peculiar, even slightly ominous (or is it just me?) atmosphere would be much better off without that embarrassing "one, two, three, four" at the beginning of the video. It certainly isn't there on the album. And then, this near perfect album side is over. There are a further five tracks on B side.

Of the remaining tracks, three are fully on par with the first six and one of them is such a masterpiece that I will have to embed it. Track number 10, Wooden Horse (Caspar Hauser's Song) is the other key song on the album that you must hear to believe; Calypso and Language are solid pieces of work if not quite on the same extraordinary level as Wooden Horse.

This leaves us with only two tracks that I am able to criticize, if only a little bit. Track number 9 called Gypsy is a perfectly fine song, but sounds average-ish in this group of near or full masterpieces. It feels like it would have been a better fit on Suzanne Vega's self titled debut album that contained several similar songs. Even that said, the melody in the chorus is very beautiful.

And finally, there is the closing track, an instrumental reprise of Tom's Diner. It is still very good, but here it no longer has the strong punch that it had at the beginning because of its completely unexpected format. The instrumental version is not bad, but feels a bit unnecessary. If there was nothing left to say, perhaps Wooden Horse could have ended this masterpiece equally well.

1987: January to July

Some time in 1987, most likely during its first half, one of the strongest Finnish rock and roll songs ever was released as a single. The group that performed it was called Sielun Veljet: a zany post punk outfit that I hadn't been paying much attention to until now. Their new powerhouse love song Rakkaudesta (in English, About Love) quickly escalated their status in my book to major favorites.

The first three months of 1987 were very quiet. It was an extremely cold winter in Helsinki area; I lived in Vantaa, worked in Espoo, and my thesis was closing completion. Then came 1 April, and the best album of the entire decade was released. Remember when I mentioned this in 1977? The eighties were the third decade in a row whose best album release came out in the year ending with number seven. Before this, there were The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967) by Pink Floyd and Going for the One (1977) by Yes.

Now, there was a new masterpiece for a new decade. I am not going to disclose its name yet; instead, let's repeat ourselves and honor it by dedicating a blog entry of its own entirely to it. This also seems to be where the rule of exceptional years ending with seven ends. I think I remember the best album of the nineties coming out already in 1992, and I certainly remember the best album of the 00's coming out in 2002. So, for the next couple of times, the magic year will be the one ending with number two instead of seven.

Only six days after the eighties' greatest album, on 7 April, heavy metal band Whitesnake released the pinnacle of their career, either called 1987 (in Europe) or left without a title (in the US). This was the British heavy metal group's seventh studio album and a major hit, selling over 10 million copies in the US alone.

Even though the group was seeking to inject a more heavy metal sound to their music, the best known tracks on 1987 were ballads like Here I Go Again, Crying in the Rain and Is This Love? However, the opening track Still of the Night was a genuine hard rock / heavy metal masterpiece, pathetic lyrics or not, and featured a killer electric guitar sequence about two thirds of the way in. David Coverdale, who had been close to disbanding the group only a couple of years earlier, had finally achieved his greatest success with them.

Another six days went by. Then, on 13 April, the British-American group Fleetwood Mac released their 14th studio album called Tango in the Night which, on the whole, has always been their most satisfying album to me. Sure, many of their best songs appeared on other albums, but none of those could achieve similar consistency of high quality. Tango in the Night contains one great song after another, with few sidesteps to mediocrity.

This is also the reason why I felt it best to embed the entire album above. How could I possibly choose only one track from so many good ones, like Big Love, Seven Wonders, Everywhere, Caroline, Mystified, Little Lies, Welcome to the Room... Sara and Isn't it Midnight. Come to think of it, Tango in the Night must obviously be one of the Albums of the year, even though it has no chance of winning that particular race.

A couple of weeks after Fleetwood Mac's album release, I officially graduated from the university; I was now what they call a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering. My independent adult life still couldn't quite begin, for reasons we will get to only a couple of paragraphs further down. Before that, let's enjoy Aldebaran from Enya's self-titled debut album, out in May. The song is dedicated to film director Ridley Scott, for a reason not known to me.

A stunning beauty with the voice of an angel, Enya was a new talent whose otherworldly, ethereal new age songs provided an easy target for ridicule but whose artistic merit cannot be denied. Before her solo career, Enya had been a member of the Irish group Clannad. Her debut solo album Enya provided the soundtrack to a BBC documentary series called The Celts and was re-released with that title in 1992 when she had become more of a household name due to the major success of her second and third albums. The debut has been better known with that title ever since.

And here comes the reason for not being able to really begin my adult life even after earning my university degree. As a punishment for having been born a Finnish male, I was imprisoned against my will for eleven months worth of hard labor called army service. My sentence began in the early days of June and ended in early May, 1988. It is for this reason that the next music releases are particularly well etched in my memory: it is quite a different thing to listen to music casually, than it is to use it as a means of mental escape from unjust imprisonment.

The first days went by in a haze. I was in hell, commanded by worst idiots you can imagine and accompanied by many of their like. On 6 June, Heart released their finest album Bad Animals that was filled with great pop songs such as Alone, RSVP and Wait for an Answer. My number one favorite among them has always been There's the Girl, embedded above. The official video doesn't really do the song justice, but this is how they were in those days. Slightly embarrassing, but far from able to spoil the sonic experience.

The first two to three months in the army are the worst. The next album release we will discuss is the one I will always associate with them. 22 June saw the release of Clutching at Straws, the fourth and final album of the Fish era Marillion. It wasn't the masterpiece that the Album of the year 1985 Misplaced Childhood was. In fact, it left me with very mixed feelings. There were several undeniably great songs such as the opening track Hotel Hobbies, embedded above; Warm Wet Circles, That Time of the Night (The Short Straw) and the wonderful closing track The Last Straw.

On top of those, an additional track called Going Under that was inexplicably missing from the vinyl release was added to the CD. It was among the very best songs in the collection, and I always wondered why it had been left out in the first place. There were a number of other songs I would rather have dropped. The rest of the album was a series of disappointments and on the whole, I still consider it only the group's third best at that point; a lot better than the disaster that was called Fugazi (1984) but clearly weaker than the other two.

About one month later, yet another pop classic came out. On 20 July, the British synth group New Order released an excellent single where the B side was almost as great as the A side - but not quite. True Faith, embedded above, became an instant classic and a summer favorite of mine. Please make sure to check out the B side 1963 as well. The songwriting is also there of such high quality that many artists would have been likely to release it as a separate A side. True Faith and 1963 represent New Order's finest hour.

Finally, on 27 July, one more great album came out - so great, in fact, that we will skip it here and dedicate yet another blog entry of its own to it. On any other year it would have been a strong contender for Album of the year. But, having been released this year, it was struggling to maintain even its second place. Both the 1 April release and this one are worthy of their own entry, so before we continue 1987 all the way to its end, we will concentrate on these two masterpieces separately.

1986: July to December

Even though the second half of 1986 contained several memorable new releases, to me it always felt like more than just a little disappointing period in time. Almost everything worth noting at all seemed to be plain pop music. There is nothing wrong with high quality pop, but nonetheless I felt saddened by the lack of ambition on display. Among the nine releases discussed below, there is really only one truly ambitious piece of work, and even that one cannot be called progressive rock.

The lovely single Through the Barricades by Spandau Ballet, out on 15 July, is perhaps a little closer to art rock than most of the other selections here. Excellent sequences with acoustic guitar and great songwriting made this song memorable and one of the essential selections of the summer. The British group, formed in London in the late seventies, would make no more impact on my favorites list but it might be worth mentioning that the Kemp brothers would later go on to star in a brilliant gangster film The Krays.

Another July release worth noting was the debut album by another British group Cutting Crew, called Broadcast. They had an international hit in their hands with (I Just) Died in Your Arms Tonight, which was of course one of the songs on the debut that you just couldn't listen to more than once. Most likely, those who grew tired of that track playing repeatedly everywhere never took a closer look at the rest of the album. I think they should have: it was much better than the oversimple hit single indicated.

I would probably never have known either, had I not heard Life in a Dangerous Time just by chance. It attracted my attention: are these really the same guys that play on that obnoxious radio hit that pisses me off at least twice a week? This is actually good. And that's how I came to realize that Cutting Crew had written several quality pop songs for inclusion on their debut album, such as Any Colour You Like, One for the Mockingbird and in particular I've Been in Love Before. It was just that their most nerve-wracking one had received all the attention.

The next noteworthy release of the year was a little edgier than your average radio hit. Cyndi Lauper had a style completely of her own. Her hair looked like something had exploded in its middle; strong makeup, small build and badass attitude completed the picture. Her best album True Colors would be coming out at the end of September; 25 July saw its title track released as a single. Below, I have embedded the original video which is admittedly a little cheesy. Nevertheless, the song itself is beautiful and remains Ms. Lauper's best work to this day.

August saw the release of a new album by one of my seventies favorites Tangerine Dream. Underwater Sunlight was a catchy, inviting title and the cover artwork could be called lovely. There was now a new member in the group: Paul Haslinger had joined Edgar Froese and Christopher Franke. New directions, perhaps? Renewed inspiration?

Well, not exactly. The new direction was only to make the classic electronic music group sound more contemporary than ever before. Technically advanced production values, electric guitars, percussion; a credit was given even to a computer programmer. And yet, as foreboding as all of this sounds, there were some moments of brilliance contained on the album, which is of course the only reason we are even discussing it.

The second track of Underwater Sunlight, titled Song of the Whale Part 2: ...to Dusk is an 11-minute instrumental that suddenly shows Tangerine Dream's composing skills honed to their very best, but is severely handicapped by an excruciatingly mediocre two-minute sequence in its middle. We begin with a lovely piano introduction, then synthesizers join in with a beautiful main theme. Then, between the 5 and 7-minute marks, drums and guitars are added to play a theme that has nothing to do with the rest of the composition. Were it not for this part, this could have been the Best long track of the year.

We are now entering an important time in my life. At the end of August, I moved away from home to Vantaa to live and work there for nine months, and to use that time to prepare my thesis while working. The first interesting release during this period came out on 8 September and was yet another pop song. I have never even heard the rest of Bouncing off the Satellites by The B-52's, but the single Girl from Ipanema Goes to Greenland felt like a bull's eye in its own genre. And just look at that silly music video.

Only five days later, on 13 September, the only artistically ambitious release of the second half of 1986 that I found likable came out. David Sylvian, the former singer of Japan, released his third solo album, a double vinyl called Gone to Earth which was the first one that I really took notice of. Japan's output had already been perfectly fine art rock with futuristic roots; now it sounded like Sylvian's solo work was developing into something even more ambitious and interesting.

On the other hand, I can fully understand those who dislike the English singer's solo works. He does have a tendency to sound, at times, more than just a little artificial. Even one of my favorite tracks on Gone to Earth, called Laughter and Forgetting admittedly suffers from that. Yet its greatness cannot be denied. But, as a compromise, let's embed the lovely Home from side four of the vinyl release. No one can possibly have anything against it, right? Please enjoy it below.

October saw only a couple of more pop albums. Or actually, in the case of Berlin, it was only one song on their new album Count Three & Pray, out on the 13th. The magnificent opening of You Don't Know creates an oriental sounding mystery that the rest of the song doesn't really match, but it is a very recommendable listening experience in any case. I will not embed it here but please go ahead and look it up.

One week later, on 20 October, it was time for yet another minor classic of pop / dance music. Once again, the classic in question was not an entire album but rather only one song on it. Following the massive success of their first singles a couple of years earlier, Frankie Goes to Hollywood must have been under a lot of pressure to succeed with their second effort. They didn't, but the opening track that begins with a lengthy introductory sequence to the entire album was a minor masterpiece.

It looks like there is no satisfactory video of Warriors of the Wasteland available in YouTube, so the best alternative is to listen to the first 4 minutes and 54 second of the album embedded above. There are all kinds of remixes available but the only one that packs the full punch of the song is the album version. It is a beautifully orchestrated introduction to a mediocre dance music album that promises way more than the rest of the songs actually have on offer.

Finally, there is only one more 1986 album left to discuss. I already mentioned the extremely popular Finnish rock group Eppu Normaali back in 1985. They started their career as a punk rock outfit, then moved on to regular rock and roll and ended up flirting with art rock. Their new album was out on 4 December and was called Valkoinen kupla which is a humorous Beatles reference. In Finland, the Beatles' White Album is generally called Valkoinen tupla. By changing only one letter the White double became a White bubble. And of course, the album cover was all white.

The band's greatest masterpiece En saa mielestä sinua (in English, Can't Get You Off My Mind), embedded above, is even better than last year's Voi kuinka me sinua kaivataan. While it is a great melodic rock song regardless of instrumentation, its crowning achievement is to have added those Spanish sounding acoustic guitars that elevate it way above your average rock and roll single. This was to be the pinnacle of the group's output: for them, it would all be downhill from here.

As great a return to form as So by Peter Gabriel was, it will have to take second place behind Depeche Mode's fantastic Black Celebration which I am happy to name Album of the year. The best short track is not very difficult to choose either: Ultravox wins with All in One Day, easily their best work ever. Finally, in the long tracks category it is Tangerine Dream's flaws, described above, that allow The Enid to win with their well over 18-minute masterpiece The Change.

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR:
Depeche Mode: Black Celebration
Peter Gabriel: So

UNMISSABLE TRACKS OF THE YEAR:
Cutting Crew: I've Been in Love Before
Cutting Crew: Life in a Dangerous Time
Cyndi Lauper: True Colors
David Sylvian: Home
David Sylvian: Laughter and Forgetting
Depeche Mode: New Dress
Depeche Mode: A Question of Time
Depeche Mode: Stripped
The Enid: The Change
Eppu Normaali: En saa mielestä sinua
Frankie Goes to Hollywood: Warriors of the Wasteland
Jean-Michel Jarre: First Rendez-vous
Jean-Michel Jarre: Second Rendez-vous
Madonna: Live to Tell
Peter Gabriel: Red Rain
Peter Gabriel: Big Time
Peter Gabriel: We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)
Public Image Ltd: Ease
Queen: Who Wants to Live Forever?
Spandau Ballet: Through the Barricades
Tangerine Dream: Song of the Whale Part 2: ...to Dusk
Ultravox: All in One Day

Best albums of the year, 1967 to 1986:

1967: Pink Floyd: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
1968: -
1969: Procol Harum: A Salty Dog
1970: Genesis: Trespass
1971: Genesis: Nursery Cryme
1972: Yes: Close to the Edge
1973: Pink Floyd: The Dark Side of the Moon
1974: Mike Oldfield: Hergest Ridge
1975: Electric Light Orchestra: Face the Music
1976: Genesis: A Trick of the Tail
1977: Yes: Going for the One
1978: Genesis: And Then There Were Three
1979: Robert Fripp: Exposure
1980: Talking Heads: Remain in Light
1981: Camel: Nude
1982: Rush: Signals
1983: Ozzy Osbourne: Bark at the Moon
1984: Rush: Grace Under Pressure
1985: Marillion: Misplaced Childhood
1986: Depeche Mode: Black Celebration

Best short tracks (under approx. 12 minutes):

1967: Pink Floyd: Bike
1968: Pink Floyd: Julia Dream
1969: Pink Floyd: Cirrus Minor
1970: The Beatles: The Long and Winding Road
1971: Genesis: The Fountain of Salmacis
1972: Gentle Giant: Schooldays
1973: John Cale: Paris 1919
1974: Mike Oldfield: Mike Oldfield's Single
1975: The Tubes: Up from the Deep
1976: Gong: Chandra
1977: Yes: Going for the One
1978: Genesis: Down and Out
1979: Barclay James Harvest: Play to the World
1980: Saga: Don't Be Late
1981: John Foxx: The Garden
1982: Laurie Anderson: O Superman (For Massenet)
1983: Brian Eno: An Ending (Ascent)
1984: Laurie Anderson: Blue Lagoon
1985: Talk Talk: Time it's Time
1986: Ultravox: All in One Day

Best long tracks (Approx. 12 minutes or over):

1970: King Crimson: Lizard
1971: Van der Graaf Generator: A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers
1972: Yes: Close to the Edge
1973: King Crimson: Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part 1
1974: King Crimson: Starless
1975: Mike Oldfield: Ommadawn, Part 1
1976: -
1977: Yes: Awaken
1978: Popol Vuh: Brüder des Schattens, Söhne des Lichts
1979: U.K: Carrying No Cross
1980: Mike Rutherford: Smallcreep's Day
1981: -
1982: Mike Oldfield: Taurus II
1983: Mike Oldfield: Crises
1984: Jean-Michel Jarre: Ethnicolor
1985: Robert Fripp: God Save the King
1986: The Enid: The Change

Best of 2013, part 2

Welcome to the second part of our Best of 2013 blog entry, where we reveal ProgActive's Top 10 songs and instrumentals from the year ending tonight! Without further ado, let's get right to it...

10. BOARDS OF CANADA: Reach for the Dead (from Tomorrow's Harvest)
Following the 2005 masterpiece The Campfire Headphase, the next Boards of Canada album was waited for with eager anticipation. Unfortunately, for the most part Tomorrow's Harvest turned out to be nothing special. I was more than only slightly disappointed following eight years of silence. Luckily, I found at least one track on the album that works. The brilliant, atmospheric Reach for the Dead is great already on its own and even better when combined with the scenic video embedded above.

9. DREAM THEATER: Illumination Theory (from Dream Theater)
Yes, I know, this is a slightly silly choice for inclusion in the Top 10 but I cannot resist Dream Theater's passion for grandiose, overblown combinations of prog metal and classical music. Rarely have these two fit together as poorly as here, yet there is something endlessly endearing about the effort. It is hilarious and moving at the same time. To be fair, the classical sequence is actually quite beautiful. I think the maker of the video above has accidentally included the "hidden" bonus track at the end of the album. The actual Illumination Theory ends at 19:15.

8. DAVID BOWIE: Where Are We Now? (from The Next Day)
Besides Boards of Canada, another artist who had taken a long break in recording new material prior to this year was of course David Bowie. His previous studio album Reality came out as long ago as 2003 (I actually saw him perform live back then, during the Reality tour). Nearly a decade later, The Next Day came out last spring, even more out of the blue than the new Nine Inch Nails album did. The first single Where Are We Now? remains my favorite, although the closing track Heat is also very strong.

7. GOLDFRAPP: Jo (from Tales of Us)
The sixth studio album by Goldfrapp is a rather uneven affair, but still manages to achieve greatness. And not only once, but twice... Compared to Tales of Us, my favorite Goldfrapp album The Seventh Tree (2008) is very good all the way through but none of its individual songs can quite reach the heights that the best tracks on the two later albums have. Jo is a perfect example of how music can be fairly simple in its format, yet contain undeniable power.

6. HAKEN: Pareidolia (from The Mountain)
London based prog metal masters Haken are the first artist to appear on the list for a second time. Pareidolia was released as a promotional video, embedded above, already prior to the actual The Mountain album. It still remains by far the best prog metal song of the year. It is brimming with ideas, is impeccably played, and contains some of the year's weirdest time signatures. I cannot wait to see what this group can achieve in the future, after having found a new bassist that they are currently looking for.

5. DONNY WHO LOVED BOWLING: Thrombosis Sonata (from Headstone)
Donny Who Loved Bowling is an American two man experimental art rock group whose latest album Headstone contains this stunning instrumental. Thrombosis Sonata reminds me of the works of film composer Howard Shore - namely those he composed to the late seventies and early eighties films of David Cronenberg. From around the two minute mark onward, Thrombosis Sonata sounds like it came from the soundtrack of Videodrome, except that it is even better. Shore did not employ electric guitar in that period, but here it works wonders.

4. COLDPLAY: Atlas (from The Hunger Games: Catching Fire soundtrack)
To be honest, I had already forgotten about Coldplay following the repeated disappointments that their previous recordings caused me over the last few years. And now this. An absolutely perfect pop song in every way, Atlas caused my jaw to drop back when I heard it the first time. It might just be the best song the British group has ever made. And just look at the gorgeous video that accompanies it. Perhaps they have rediscovered their songwriting inspiration, following the two mostly crappy albums they have made since their previous noteworthy album X&Y (2005).

3. GOLDFRAPP: Clay (from Tales of Us)
But, as it turns out, Atlas still isn't the best pop song of 2013. That honor goes to Goldfrapp, who is the second artist to appear on the list for a second time. In Clay, not only is the songwriting of the very highest order, but just listen to that string arrangement. The strings are the icing on the cake that complements the song itself and lifts it way above just about everything else that was released this year. Considering that music of this kind of quality still gets made, perhaps pop music scene is still salvageable.

2. STEVEN WILSON: Drive Home (from The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories))
OK, now is the time to face the facts. Ever since Steven Wilson released his third solo album under his own name, called The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories), no other artist stood a chance. Not only are the two best tracks on the album easily the best two songs of the entire year, but they are further enhanced by the brilliantly animated videos by Jess Cope. Drive Home, embedded above, is a stunning achievement, yet it is the weaker one of the two.

1. STEVEN WILSON: The Raven That Refused to Sing (from The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories))
Steven Wilson is the third artist to appear twice on the list. The unbelievable title track of his new album cannot be beaten to number one, which surely comes as no surprise to anyone who has followed this blog earlier this same year. You can read my thoughts about the song, written down on 9 February, right here. It might be worthwhile to also note the importance of the video: it actually adds and elaborates elements of the song's story that might otherwise be missed. Not only is this the greatest musical achievement of the year; it is one of the greatest ever.

Best of 2013, part 1

Since the year 2013 is now almost over, this should be a good time to take a short break from discussing the best achievements in modern progressive, art rock and pop music chronologically and instead take a look at the best achievements of this very year.

Even though the blog entry's header says "Best of", I should imagine that there are still many hidden gems left that I haven't come across yet. So, when I reach 2013 in my chronological series, perhaps the list will be longer. Let's assume that the following list is really only "Best of... so far".

For now, we will have to do with 16 best songs or instrumentals. All have been released during 2013. Following this very short introduction, let's discuss songs #11 - #16 first, and then reveal the contents of Top 10 tomorrow. In total, there will be 13 different artists performing 16 songs: three artists have been deemed distinguished enough to appear twice.

16. RIVERSIDE: Feel Like Falling (from Shrine of New Generation Slaves)
The Polish prog rock group Riverside has produced a steady output of good albums. Their latest is already their fifth. It came out already in mid-January, so by now it is almost a year old. There are several standouts: my favorites among them are We Got Used to Us, the peaceful Coda - and this song right here that displays the group's more rocking side well.

15. NINE INCH NAILS: Find My Way (from Hesitation Marks)
Trent Reznor's new incarnation of Nine Inch Nails didn't let itself be known to even exist until the new album was almost ready to be published. An old favorite, NIN didn't really satisfy me this time around but there are a few good songs in the new collection here and there. The best of them in my opinion is this one: more quiet than NIN usually is, yet full of underlying tension.

14. HAKEN: Somebody (from The Mountain)
Haken is a British group that has introduced fun into the progressive rock genre. The Mountain is their third album and contains many excellent tracks. This isn't even my number one favorite among them: it is in the Top 10... I felt that both deserved to be mentioned. Somebody's strength lies partly in its structure. The beautiful, quiet opening invites you in and immerses you with well made prog that steadily grows into a goosebump-inducing wall of sound.

13. BLACKFIELD: X-Ray (from Blackfield IV)
Blackfield wrote and performed several of the absolute best songs of the last decade. Since those times, Steven Wilson has no longer been able to actively participate and the former duo has gradually become Aviv Geffen's solo effort. Wilson guest stars on this latest release, but it is actually Vincent Cavanagh of Anathema who sings on this particular track. Wilson sings on Jupiter which is also one of the better songs on Blackfield IV.

12. EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY & DAVID WINGO: Alone Time (from Prince Avalanche soundtrack)
Prince Avalanche isn't a particularly interesting movie - I dozed off at 31 minutes and never resumed watching - but its soundtrack is pure gold. The Texan post rock group Explosions in the Sky has worked with composer David Wingo to produce a melodic and atmospheric background to the boring story of two road workers somewhere in rural Texas. Judging from Explosions' earlier works, a move to film music work sounds like an excellent idea.

11. ÓLAFUR ARNALDS: Sudden Throw (from For Now I Am Winter)
The young Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds was one of this year's big finds for me. His latest album For Now I Am Winter was released already in March, so its compositions may actually originate from wintertime. And they really have a certain kind of icy beauty about them. The opening track of the album, Sudden Throw begins very quietly but then grows in volume to an impressive although a strangely abrupt ending.

This is it for now, please visit ProgActive again tomorrow. This year's excellent Top 10 in music will be revealed some time in the early evening, Finnish time.

1986: January to June

In 1986, the first music release that captured my attention came out already in January, although it was towards the end of the month. Said release had three different titles: the vinyl version was called Album, the cd version Compact Disc, and the cassette version, of course, Cassette.

The release date of the fifth album by Public Image Ltd. was 27 January. By this point the band had in truth become John Lydon's solo project. In the studio, he was accompanied by several famous musicians like Steve Vai, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Ginger Baker. The end result was quite strong: there were several songs well worth embedding here, such as Rise or Fishing, but I ended up choosing the closing track Ease which you can listen to above. It serves as a great example of Lydon's outstanding development as a musician.

I have nothing in my diary for February, so let's discuss the first of this year's two albums whose release dates are unknown to me. We already discussed Ultravox in 1984; now, they have a new album out called U-vox. For the most part, it is nothing too special but there is one song on it that stands head and shoulders above the others. It is the best song by the group ever, and a very strong contender for Best short track of the year: All in One Day.

U-vox closes the group's golden era and is in fact their last release during the eighties. All in One Day serves as its last track which I suppose partially explains the grandiosity of its goosebump-inducing finale. This masterpiece was intended to close the entire album in a big way - and, as it happened, it also closed their recording career for a long time. The next Ultravox album wouldn't be out until 1993.

On 7 March, the action fantasy film Highlander premiered in the US. There were some truly enjoyable songs on its soundtrack, composed and performed by Queen. For me, the standouts were the film's opening track Princes of the Universe and particularly the beautiful Who Wants to Live Forever? I am not aware if there was a soundtrack available at the time but this was the first publication of these songs in any case, as a part of the film where they worked extremely well. I will not embed anything here but please do check these out if you feel so inclined.

Only ten days later, on 17 March, synth pop was finally transformed into a genuine art form when Depeche Mode released their first masterpiece Black Celebration, their fifth studio album overall. An impeccable recording without a single weak track, it immediately became a strong contender for the title of Album of the year. I have embedded my number one favorite song Stripped above, but there are plenty of other masterworks there as well, such as the other two single releases A Question of Lust and A Question of Time, or the harrowing closing track New Dress.

Stripped is an exceptionally striking example of a piece of music designed like a mathematical formula. Pay attention how each of the sound effects and instruments are turned on in a specific order at the beginning of the track, and are then later turned off in reverse order at the end. Stripped ends as it began, as if it could be played from end to beginning as well as beginning to end. Sound effects evoke the later birth of industrial music genre, although noisy aggression is replaced here with a catchy downbeat melody.

In April, it was time for French synthesizer wizard Jean-Michel Jarre to release his follow-up to 1984's Zoolook. His new album was called Rendez-vous. It seemed that Jarre was no longer quite as creative as he had been in the seventies, but even this new album did contain some highlights. Of the six instrumental parts, the first two are excellent and the last one also quite good, bringing back memories from the atmospheric Equinoxe parts 2 to 4 (1978).

Style-wise, Rendez-vous was a return to the keyboard driven compositions of Jarre's first three albums. Gone were the world music influences, samples and short vocal passages of Zoolook, which was perhaps just as well; in spite of Ethnicolor's greatness, they mostly hadn't worked too well on that album. Jarre would go on to publish a couple of more albums with individual tracks worth mentioning here, but later in the nineties his output became increasingly erratic and we will be following it less closely.

Two days before my 23rd birthday, on 19 May, another strong contender for Album of the year title came out. Peter Gabriel had finally given up on releasing only self titled recordings and called his fifth one So (in the US, this had happened one album earlier: over there, Gabriel's fourth was called Security). It continued Gabriel's tendency to succeed admirably on his odd-numbered albums and noticeably less so on his even-numbered ones. This trend would continue on his sixth album.

So is unquestionably a masterpiece, but a very different one from Gabriel's previous releases. It sounded like the former Genesis singer had taken a much more commercial approach with his material than before. The single hit Sledgehammer was a danceable pop song and Big Time, embedded above, displayed a similar sense of humor to it in its lyrics, overall tone and even comically animated music video. There were also more serious songs in the collection, none of them weak. The only track I skipped often was the duet with Kate Bush called Don't Give Up which became a bit of a bore over time.

Before jumping all the way to the end of June, let's discuss the year's other album whose exact release date is unknown to me. Let's just say that some time in 1986, The Enid released Salome, which is my favorite album in their output. I had been following them since the late seventies, but before now, their way of playing classical music with modern instruments had never really piqued my interest. Salome, on the other hand, is a stunning album that saw the group adapt a much more contemporary style.

The opening track O Salome, embedded above, is a good example of what the Enid sounded like at this point in their career. It is not the best track on the album; it is just the only one I could find in YouTube. Tracks 3 and 4, called The Change and The Jack respectively, are the ones that really take this work of art to new heights and successfully combine classical influences with modern art rock. Salome is an album of great beauty performed by skilled musicians and gets a strong recommendation from me.

Then it was summer, and on 30 June one of the greatest pop songs ever was released on a new album by Madonna. The album was called True Blue and the song is of course Live to Tell. Prior to this, I had considered Madonna only a meaningless pop idol, not exceptional in any way. This is something that I now had to swiftly reconsider. Even on this greatest decade of pop, there weren't many other songs that matched the greatness of the track embedded above.

This year, I had a summer job at the university where I was studying. In the summer evenings, I listened. In awe.

1985: July to December

We begin discussing the second half of 1985 with yet another reminder of the fact that, at this particular point in time, the best pop music ever was getting made. The American group Heart, best remembered for the singing Wilson sisters Ann and Nancy, released their self titled album on 6 July. In spite of it being self titled, it was far from their debut. Heart was already their eighth studio album, and a return to form following two less successful efforts.

These Dreams, embedded above, was the third single release (out of a whopping five) taken from the album, as late as in January 1986. In my opinion, it was easily the best. The others were a bit too mediocre and forgettable, but These Dreams displays exceptionally strong pop songwriting and is definitely one of the Unmissable tracks of the year. And, I might add, Heart's next studio album, released two years later, would be even better.

Also in July, the british new wave / goth outfit The Damned had their sixth studio album Phantasmagoria out. It saw them take yet another really long stride forward in their artistic development. The album's absolute masterpiece Sanctum Sanctorum is a simply stunning example of first class music making that clearly shows how far the group had by now progressed from their new wave roots. Please enjoy this awesome song embedded below.

August arrived, and it so happened that there was also another new release from a group that, like the Damned, had started their career as a new wave / punk outfit in the seventies but had by now moved on. The Finnish super group Eppu Normaali had been developing via regular rock and roll towards genuine art rock. They were not quite there yet, but you could already hear that the days of young rebellion were far behind them on their new album Kahdeksas ihme (in English, The Eighth Wonder) which, you guessed it, was their eighth.

The by now very famous Finnish group was paying special attention to meaningful lyrics and seemed to be repeatedly composing somewhat sad and melancholic rock songs about love either already lost or close to being so. The second track on the new album Voi kuinka me sinua kaivataan (in English, Oh How Much We Miss You) was a particularly good example of this new songwriting style. Eppu Normaali would go on to even improve upon it on their next album, out the following year.

Summer of 1985 was nearing its end. On 1 September, Dead Can Dance released their second full length album that started their golden era with a bang. When it came out, Spleen and Ideal was something completely different: art rock with strong ethnic influences from diverse cultures, yet strongly anchored in the unique style and sensibility of group members Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry.

The change from not too original goth rock of the duo's debut, out early the previous year, was amazing. Spleen and Ideal is a surprisingly accomplished recording with a voice completely its own. Starting with a couple of tracks reminiscent of medieval mass, it begins to get more accessible and finally concludes with Indoctrination (A Design for Living), perhaps my favorite track on the album. A better example of its overall soundscape is Enigma of the Absolute that seems to exist between these two extremes.

A couple of weeks later, on 16 September, the new album by Kate Bush was released. Hounds of Love continued Kate's flirtation with progressive rock influences but did so in a sharply divisive method: the first side of the vinyl release contained some more easily accessible songs and the B side allowed more room for artistic ambition.

The best known songs on the first side are radio hits Running Up That Hill and Cloudbusting. As good as those songs were, it was always the over 26-minute magnum opus The Ninth Wave on the B side that fascinated me. A single, continuing work only thematically, The Ninth Wave sounded like an intertwined collection of seven shorter songs, many of which were genuinely experimental. There were some sound effects thrown in, and some of Kate's vocal work was truly unique. Perhaps the best example of this is the third part, called Waking the Witch.

In October, one more brilliant pop song came out. The American singer Jennifer Rush was already well known due to her hit single The Power of Love that had first appeared on her previous album in 1984 and had been released as a single in June 1985. Now it was time to start enjoying her next album Movin' where I found one of its lesser known tracks very likable. It is called Automatic and represents the eighties power pop in its finest form. Do check it out.

On 29 October, two time Album of the year winner Rush released Power Windows, now sounding even more sterile and technical than they had on Grace Under Pressure. Although I once again grew to like many of the songs on the album over time, it was obvious that they wouldn't be able to win for a third time. Good production values are great to have, but I really started to miss the edgier, more raw sounding Rush of their earlier classics. From the get go, my favorite was the opening track The Big Money.

Four weeks later, on 27 November the American pop / rock group Mr. Mister released their second full length studio album Welcome to the Real World. It contained several well received singles and went on to become the group's most commercially successful album. The first single, the absolutely brilliant Broken Wings had actually come out ahead of the album, already on 25 September, but I thought we might as well discuss the entire album here, instead of discussing the single separately. Broken Wings has been embedded below: a stunning effort.

For me, the second single Kyrie was the first introduction to the band; it was out in December. Next year, Is it Love? followed. In addition to these three, Welcome to the Real World also contains a brilliant non-single Uniform of Youth, which I also recommend you to get acquainted with. When Mr. Mister disbanded a few years later, their drummer Pat Mastelotto became the new drummer for the new incarnation of prog legends King Crimson.

Finally, there is only one 1985 album release left to discuss. It is also coming from a group who had until this point been known as a pop group, but who had now started evolving into a genuine art rock ensemble and in doing so, virtually creating a genre of their own. The Colour of Spring by Talk Talk was first released in Germany and the Netherlands on an unknown date at the very end of 1985. In many other countries, release didn't follow until early 1986.

Probably the best known song on the new album is the catchy pop tune Life's What You Make it, and I would fully agree that it is a really good song. My number one favorite on The Colour of Spring has however always been its eight-minute closing track Time it's Time. Yet another Unmissable track for this year, it seemed to bridge the gap between the old Talk Talk the pop group, and the new truly strange one that would fully emerge on their next album in 1988. In fact, the song embedded below is more than just unmissable; it is the best short track of the year.

There are really only two candidates for Album of the year, and the winner is Marillion with their outstanding third studio album. Dead Can Dance is a close second and a good reminder that excellent art rock performers are emerging to present a challenging alternative to plain old prog. Of the short tracks, Broken Wings by Mr. Mister and Sanctum Sanctorum by The Damned were the runners-up. Too bad that Kate Bush's absolutely great The Ninth Wave happened to be released on the same year as Robert Fripp's stunning God Save the King. Had the year been less exceptional, it could have won Best long track.

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR:
Dead Can Dance: Spleen and Ideal
Marillion: Misplaced Childhood

UNMISSABLE TRACKS OF THE YEAR:
A-ha: Hunting High and Low
The Damned: Sanctum Sanctorum
Dead Can Dance: Enigma of the Absolute
Dead Can Dance: Indoctrination (A Design for Living)
Eppu Normaali: Voi kuinka me sinua kaivataan
Heart: These Dreams
Kate Bush: The Ninth Wave
Marillion: Pseudo Silk Kimono
Marillion: Bitter Suite
Marillion: Blind Curve
Mr. Mister: Broken Wings
New Order: Elegia
Robert Fripp: God Save the King
Suzanne Vega: Cracking
Talk Talk: Time it's Time
Tears for Fears: Shout
Tears for Fears: The Working Hour

Best albums of the year, 1967 to 1985:

1967: Pink Floyd: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
1968: -
1969: Procol Harum: A Salty Dog
1970: Genesis: Trespass
1971: Genesis: Nursery Cryme
1972: Yes: Close to the Edge
1973: Pink Floyd: The Dark Side of the Moon
1974: Mike Oldfield: Hergest Ridge
1975: Electric Light Orchestra: Face the Music
1976: Genesis: A Trick of the Tail
1977: Yes: Going for the One
1978: Genesis: And Then There Were Three
1979: Robert Fripp: Exposure
1980: Talking Heads: Remain in Light
1981: Camel: Nude
1982: Rush: Signals
1983: Ozzy Osbourne: Bark at the Moon
1984: Rush: Grace Under Pressure
1985: Marillion: Misplaced Childhood

Best short tracks (under approx. 12 minutes):

1967: Pink Floyd: Bike
1968: Pink Floyd: Julia Dream
1969: Pink Floyd: Cirrus Minor
1970: The Beatles: The Long and Winding Road
1971: Genesis: The Fountain of Salmacis
1972: Gentle Giant: Schooldays
1973: John Cale: Paris 1919
1974: Mike Oldfield: Mike Oldfield's Single
1975: The Tubes: Up from the Deep
1976: Gong: Chandra
1977: Yes: Going for the One
1978: Genesis: Down and Out
1979: Barclay James Harvest: Play to the World
1980: Saga: Don't Be Late
1981: John Foxx: The Garden
1982: Laurie Anderson: O Superman (For Massenet)
1983: Brian Eno: An Ending (Ascent)
1984: Laurie Anderson: Blue Lagoon
1985: Talk Talk: Time it's Time

Best long tracks (Approx. 12 minutes or over):

1970: King Crimson: Lizard
1971: Van der Graaf Generator: A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers
1972: Yes: Close to the Edge
1973: King Crimson: Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part 1
1974: King Crimson: Starless
1975: Mike Oldfield: Ommadawn, Part 1
1976: -
1977: Yes: Awaken
1978: Popol Vuh: Brüder des Schattens, Söhne des Lichts
1979: U.K: Carrying No Cross
1980: Mike Rutherford: Smallcreep's Day
1981: -
1982: Mike Oldfield: Taurus II
1983: Mike Oldfield: Crises
1984: Jean-Michel Jarre: Ethnicolor
1985: Robert Fripp: God Save the King