Our top 20 or less Abums per Year

Wow, this site is running so slow for me and has been since yesterday... Takes a long time to open pages especially when logged-in.

^ Thanks Jared, I'm much with you on the rating thing (or I might say the over-rating thing. I prefer it simpler, more loosey-goosey. That's not fun for me). I'm not into doing that, especially when it is so fine-tuned -- it's enough that I like it, love it, find it mediocre, find it horrible. Mike's site does come across to me as treating it much more like a precise science than I would. It's art appreciation and I don't wish to "otherthink" my appreciation. Analysing that which I enjoy can lead to me not enjoying it. That happened to me with Film Studies, reviewing music and film can take away the joy of it. I like to "experience" it.

I like to focus on much I love, that which I am passionate about, and that quantity of love may be in in flux depending on the day and mood. Avestin got me into participating in the Album of the Year events with lots of encouragement and recommendations. Some years I participate, some I don't. Over the past few years I have been listening to more contemporary music than previously. I have heard three albums in full for 2025 so far. I still discover new-to-me acts and albums from the past 60+ years.

Although I do appreciate seeing the ratings of others (mostly cumulative which affects the chart rankings and can help me when looking into an artist's discography), especially at RateYourMusic, which has been my main resource for researching and discovering albums over the past few years, I have not been rating albums in years. I have done a few reviews with ratings in the past decade. I rated a lot at PA when the quick rating feature came out. I'm interested in charts even if I am not so interested to add to them often myself and have looked at many charts for the years, especially the albums charts at rateyourmusic and at Prog Archives. I do prefer rateyourmusic for that, but that's also because my tastes are not as focused on the music we have in PA as we find with many members at this site. So much of what I love and excites me is not in PA but also I do find a lot of it progressive in its own way. But again, I digress.

Edited by Logan - 4 hours 52 minutes ago at 07:28

^ thanks, Pedro.

Mt lists over at Awesome prog are quite a bit longer. Here is what I have so far for 20 up for 1974 (and the ranking itself is pretty meaningless) and 1975.

20. Zao - Osiris
21. Mandingo - III [AP Prog-Adj]
22. J.A. シーザー J.A. Ceasar (aka Terahara Takaaki, Julious Arnest Cesar, J.A. Seazer) - Cover art: 田園に死す 田園に死す [AP]
23. Miles Davis - Big Fun
24. Bennie Maupin - The Jewel in the Lotus
25. Can - Soon Over Babaluma
26. Perigeo - Genealogia
27. Placebo - Placebo
28. Focus - Hamburger Concerto
29. Miles Davis - Get Up With It
30. Magma - Ẁurdah Ïtah (Christian Vander)
31. Don Harper - Homo Electronicus [AP]
32. Klaus Schulze - Blackdance
33. Dzyan - Electric Silence
34. Gryphon - Red Queen to Gryphon Three
35. Hawkwind - Hall of the Mountain Grill
36. Sven Libaek - Solar Flares [AP Prog-Adj]
37. Samla Mammas Manna - Klossa Knapitatet
38. Terje Rypdal & Minbul - Whenever I Seem To Be Far Away
39. Gryphon - Midnight Mushrumps
40. The Cosmic Jokers - The Cosmic Jokers
41. Alusa Fallax - Intorno Alla Mia Cattiva Educazione
42. Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
43. Bob James - One [AP]
44. King Crimson - Starless and Bible Black
45. Camel - Mirage
46. Le Orme - Contrappunti
47. Premiata Forneria Marconi - L'isola di niente
48. Arti E Mestieri - Tilt - Immagini per un orecchio
49. Supertramp - Crime of The Century
50. Frank Zappa - Apostrophe
51. Gentle Giant - The Power & The Glory
52. Yes - Relayer
53. Electric Light Orchestra - Eldorado: A Symphony
54. The Residents - Meet The Residents
55. Ralf Nowy - Nowy 2
56. Quella Vecchia Locanda - Il Tempo Della Gioia
57. Eloy - Floating

1975:

20. Lenny White - Venusian Summer
21. Edgar Froese - Epsilon In Malaysian Pale
22. Frank Zappa - One Size Fits All
23. Egisto Macchi - Voix [AP]
24. Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns [AP Non-Prog]
25. Eddie Henderson - Sunburst
26. Apoteosi - Apoteosi
27. Philippe Besombes - Pôle
28. Camel - The Snow Goose
29. Patti Smith - Horses [AP Prog]
30. Egisto Macchi - Violenza [AP]
31. Sloche - J'un Oeil
32. Carpe Diem - En Regardant Passer le Temps
33. Lard Free - I'm Around About Midnight
34. Egisto Macchi - Sei composizioni [AP]
35. Egisto Macchi - Andes [AP]
36. Peter Hammill - Nadir's Big Chance
37. Maneige - Maneige
38. Terje Rypdal & Minbul - Odyssey
39. Quiet Sun - Mainstream
40. Clearlight - Clearlight Symphony
41. Gentle Giant - Free Hand
42. Area - Are(A)zione [AP]
43. Mike Oldfield - Ommadawn
44. Philippe Besombes - Libra
45. Renaissance - Scheherazade and Other Stories
46. Gryphon - Raindance
47. Nektar - Recycled
48. Brian Eno - Another Green World
49. Pulsar - Pollen
50. Pavlov's Dog - Pampered Menial
51. Harmonium - Les Cinq Saisons
52. Crucis - Crucis
53. Malicorne - Malicorne 2 [AP]
54. Steve Hillage - Fish Rising
55. Focus - Mother Focus
56. Rush - Caress Of Steel
57. Robert Wyatt - Ruth is Stranger Than Richard
58. Maxophone - Maxophone
59. Chris Squire - Fish Out Of Water

I stick with 20 otherwise they can become monsters lists, especially with covering as many years as I did. I have Can's Future Days under 1973 and Faust's So Far under 1972, but as you say, the timing of the release may not be accurate to the year presented. Anyway, whatever the year of release, various nice stuff in your lists that I neglected/forgot to include. By Can Movies do you mean Monster Movie? Monster Movie is one of my fave 1970 albums.

In those years I was very small and it was thanks to the internet that I got to know the vast majority of albums I listed. Not because of internet radio, but mostly though charts, recommendations, coming across album and artist names when searching, sometimes through youtube, this forum... I especially got a ton of recommendations from one user here but also many others from other people. There is so much music to access now. I have been streaming a lot. One super kind member at PA sent me a bunch of CDs and so I am going to be using my stereo much more. Vangelis' Earth (1973) is one of them. Excellent stuff. I had put it away when my eldest with partner moved in to live with us a few months ago. I didn't need to clear out as much, but I was rushing to get things ready. Happy to get it set up again even if they are with us. Plus I do have a still working discman, ghetto blaster, and other things that play CDs.

I did get into Focus and Gryphon before I became a teenager and then again as a teenager. In Creative Writing Class in the late 80s the teacher had record player with many albums that we could play. I always put on Focus' Hamburger Concerto or Gryphon's Midnight Mushrumps.

I like lists in part as a way of keeping track, discovering things, and as a way of sharing what matters to us (sharing our tastes). If someone sees a bunch of Exotica in my lists and not AOR, they might know better what to expect from me. I would quite discombobulated sometimes when people would make comments like"Where is such and such?" in my lists of favourites even though I have not indicated that I know or like such music. Sometimes it would be music that is anathema to my tastes that people would expect. The better one knows what people like, the more apt the anticipations can be and the more sensible the expectations commonly.

Edited by Logan - 1 hour 54 minutes ago at 10:26

Logan wrote: ^ Thanks Jared, I'm much with you on the rating thing (or I might say the over-rating thing. I prefer it simpler, more loosey-goosey. That's not fun for me). I'm not into doing that, especially when it is so fine-tuned -- it's enough that I like it, love it, find it mediocre, find it horrible. Mike's site does come across to me as treating it much more like a precise science than I would. It's art appreciation and I don't wish to "otherthink" my appreciation.