2017 albums!

My fave albums of the year list which I found difficult to put in order. A mixture of old faves and some newer artists but all very 'conservative' prog - that's just what I've mainly bought this year due to cash being tight.

01. Mike Oldfield - Return to Ommadawn
02. Wobbler - From Silence to Somewhere
03. Hawkwind - Into the Woods
04. Cirkus - Wild Dogs
05. Steve Hackett - The Night Siren
06. Peter Hammill - From the Trees
07. Big Big Train - Grimspound
08. Threshold - Legends of the Shires
09. Gandalf's Fist - A Day in the Life of a Universal Wanderer
10. Lonely Robot - The Big Dream

Agh geez. Forgot to mention another.

So for a great reissue/Remaster is the Doors-The Singles.
This is really good. 3cd set that contains an awesome blu ray audio in 5.1 surround (DTS master audio) and the CDs are quite gorgeous sounding with great rare mono mixes and demos.
The reissue/remastering was supervised and done by Bruce Botnick himself!

This is a fantastic proto prog release. :)

Hi all. These are the albums that agreed most with me this year and their fidelity ranged from good to excellent, so an engaging nice listen was present in these, my top 10. I think I'm cool with the order of rank where 1 being the best and 10 being the least.


1) Unreal City-- Frammenti Notturni
2) Eden House--Songs for the Broken Ones
3) Roger Waters--Is The Life We Really want?
4) Depeche Mode--Spirit
5) Hibernal--The Dark Of The City
6) Lunatic Soul--Fracture
7) Hans Zimmer--BladeRunner 2049 (score)
8) Morricone Youth Experiment--A Tale of two Humans
9) IQ--A Very Dark Christmas
10) 3 Teeth--Shutdown e.x.e

Best box sets:
Marillion--Misplaced Childhood
The Smiths--The Queen is Dead

Best Live Album: IQ--A Very Dark Christmas

Best Reissue/Remaster:
Metallica-- Master Of Puppets-3CD SET 'obey your remaster.'
This was a shocker for me. Decent recording. Give it about a 6/10. Usually remasters of classic albums are like a 2 with me cause they are just made louder, which kill the natural dynamics.

Here is also a list of albums where the music is really nice, but unfortunately the audio quality of these albums are absolute sh*t, so a lasting impression could not be possible with me.
1) Threshold--The Legends of the shire( my biggest let down and disappointment this year for me. Love this band but they can't record and release a properly mixed/mastered cd to save their lives. Karl kroom annoys the sh*t out me with his excessive use of pro logics. They have to hire a professional!
2)Leprous--Malina (great vinyl. Bad cd. Mastered hot.
3) Sons of Apollo--Psychotic Symphony(zero dynamics)
4) The Black Angels--Death Song (worst cd mastering I've heard since death magnetic. A miserable experience. )
5) Paradise Lost--Medusa
6) Trivium--Sin & Sentence
7) Ayreon--The Source (why can't he just record the same way he did on the electric castle album is beyond me. No dynamics. :(


Edited by progbethyname - December 22 2017 at 12:46

Nogbad_The_Bad wrote: Just out Vezhlivy Otkaz - Military Verses

Best 2017 album I´ve heard is Lee Ranaldo´s Electric Trim. Really out of Sonic Youth´s style, more like Beatles updated into 2000. Pere Ubus new is also really good, so Boss Hog´s. Have liked also Roger´s, Procol Harums` and Hawkwinds` new albums. Of course Circle´s. Gilmour, Yes and the Who made also really good live records.

Here’s the current list of my top rated (and reviewed) albums of 2017:

 

1. BATTLESTATIONS Vixit

 

2. WESERBERGLAND Sehr Kosmish Ganz Progisch

 

3. CHEER-ACCIDENT Putting Off Death

 

4. FIVE-STOREY ENSEMBLE Night en Face ***

 

5. TREE TOPS Ghosts Don't Dance With Shoes ***

 

6. KOTEBEL Cosmology

 

7. ALIO DIE & LINGUA FUNGI Lento

 

8. WOBBLER From Silence to Somewhere

 

9. THE CONTORTIONIST Clairvoyant

 

10. ALIO DIE They Grow Layers of Life Between

 

11. SEAS OF MIRTH Hark! The Headland Approacheth ***

 

12. SHEN TEH Hide and Seek ***

 

13. BIG BAD WOLF Pond Life ***

 

14. KETTLESPIDER Kettlespider

 

15. SIIILK Endless Mystery

 

16. BENT KNEE Land Animal

 

17. KANT FREUD KAFKA Onírico

 

18. BUBBLEMATH Edit Peptide

 

19. SEQUENTIA LENGENDA Ethereal ***

 

20. ANATHEMA The Optimist

 

21. CAST Power and Outcome

 

22. INNER EAR BRIGADE Dromology

 

23. EYOT Innate

 

24. JORDSJØ Jord

 

25. BIG BIG TRAIN Grimspound

 

*** indicates albums and/or bands that have not yet been admitted/included in the ProgArchives database.

Nogbad_The_Bad wrote: BrufordFreak wrote: Mascodagama wrote: Raff wrote: One of my Top 5 favourite albums = Charlie Cawood's exquisite The Divine Abstract - was released in late October. You can listen to it on the Bad Elephant Music Bandcamp page. Charlie plays bass with Knifeworld (among others), and is an extremely talented individual. If you haven't heard the album, give it a listen - or two, or more. Sheer beauty! This is lovely. Thank you for the tip Raff. Agreed! Thanks, guys! Truly beautiful neo-classical/folk/world music. Reminds me of a toned down Steve Tibbetts. Listening to it again now, lovely stuff, met him at the weekend at an NSRO gig, lovely guy.

Here, here, what a great album! We don't think he can sneak in Crossover (there is plenty of Oldfield in there) as too much world/jazz/folk going on?

BrufordFreak wrote: Mascodagama wrote: Raff wrote: One of my Top 5 favourite albums = Charlie Cawood's exquisite The Divine Abstract - was released in late October. You can listen to it on the Bad Elephant Music Bandcamp page. Charlie plays bass with Knifeworld (among others), and is an extremely talented individual. If you haven't heard the album, give it a listen - or two, or more. Sheer beauty! This is lovely. Thank you for the tip Raff. Agreed! Thanks, guys! Truly beautiful neo-classical/folk/world music. Reminds me of a toned down Steve Tibbetts.

Mascodagama wrote: Raff wrote: One of my Top 5 favourite albums = Charlie Cawood's exquisite The Divine Abstract - was released in late October. You can listen to it on the Bad Elephant Music Bandcamp page. Charlie plays bass with Knifeworld (among others), and is an extremely talented individual. If you haven't heard the album, give it a listen - or two, or more. Sheer beauty! This is lovely. Thank you for the tip Raff.