My 2014 in Review essay

lazland wrote: A really nice piece, as ever, Raff. Sorry to hear about your dark moments. However, the important thing is that you are through them, and our beloved genre helped in this. I have struggled with such dark thoughts and times myself in 2014, and music and a renewed faith have definitely helped me. Anyhow, I would respectfully make the point that even the classic Neo acts in Britain do not just churn out "same old" neo. As with the best of all musical acts, they have progressed, pardon the pun.

Thank you for the kind words, Steve, and glad to know you are also feeling better! I have to admit to not being an expert in Neo, but I can assure you I have listened to a lot of those albums that other members and collabs have mentioned in your "best of 2014" lists. Unfortunately, they did not manage to hold my attention for long, and therefore any innovative features in their music eluded me. I think it just boils down to a question of individual taste. As I pointed out in one of the introductory paragraphs, my tastes have changed a lot over the past ten years, and a lot of "classic-sounding" prog doesn't do a lot for me.

Tony R wrote: micky wrote: how long have you been married to me...  some of my proclivity for shameless self-promotion should have rubbed off on you by now.   At least you have something though to promote.  I'm not really sure what I am doing. oh yeah..  I guess you could call it that. http:////en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet) Bah, you're just a minnow at that game!

bah....   if a list of greatest internet trolls were ever done. Damnit I should be nominated.  Anyone can be a normal troll... the special ones manage to troll.. and get promoted... add to the site.. and yet still TROLL with the best of them. Not to mention become tight with the one of the greatest TROLL killers ever seen on the internet

Besides... PA's is not the only entry on my resume..   I've had my fun on other sites as well

  Great to see you around Tony.  We talked via PM before we went off to lunch but let it be said.  You were the first 'absentee' I noticed when I returned. Be sure you stick around, like me, you put your work in for the site. Now it is time to sit  back and just enjoy it.


Edited by micky - January 04 2015 at 12:35

Great essay, although I got that sad feeling that I still didn't listen to much music from last year
I'll have to listen to that Ut Gret album

micky wrote: how long have you been married to me...  some of my proclivity for shameless self-promotion should have rubbed off on you by now.   At least you have something though to promote.  I'm not really sure what I am doing. oh yeah..  I guess you could call it that. http:////en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)

Bah, you're just a minnow at that game!

OK, time for some shameless self-promotion! As I have been doing for the past four years, I have just published my "year in review" piece on my blog. It was a lot of hard work - not only  the actual writing (and trying not to forget any important albums), but adding all the hyperlinks, most of which will lead you to a page where you can listen to the album in question. As I said in one of the introductory paragraphs, there are a lot of albums I have missed, or that I just didn't find interesting enough to mention, so I apologize if any of your personal favourites are missing from my overview. Anyway, here's the link: http://progmistress.com/2015/01/04/a-light-in-the-black-2014-in-review/. Enjoy!