Top Albums & Orphan Songs – 2015 From Doc K

Doc K’s  2015 Top 20 Albums

This is one of the best years for progressive rock music in years – especially European prog/metal seems to be strong.  Most of these albums & songs can be found on youtube if you want to sample any of the following – so here goes (LP trax on CD are underlined unless title track):

1.Dave Kerzner – New World Deluxe Edition (2 cd) – this is an amazing Pink Floyd nod from the keyboard player in Point Of Contact (Phil Collin’s son Simon’s band).  While the single CD version came out at the tail-end of 2014, the 2 CD version from this year is the killer.  Download it from itunes, but to get it on CD you must visit his website (davekerzner.com) – it’s worth it.  There are 3 long suites (“Stranded” “Premonition Suite” “Redemption”) that benefit from guests like Steve Hackett, Frances Dunnery & Billy Sherwood.  Kerzner proves he needs no help, however, on “Under Control” doing everything himself.

2.JD McPherson – Let The Good Times Roll – the 2^nd album of great classic 50s type rock (think Little Richard in a white body vocally) – “Bossy”. The moody ballad “Bridgebuilder” kills me – you want the loud riff near the end to go on forever (great piano triplets!).  Saw his crack band with ole pal and drummer Dan C in DC back in February – you must see this band live!  “Shy Boy” “Mother Of Lies”.

3.Chris Isaak – First Comes The Night – by now you know what you are going to get from him, Roy Orbison sound-alike ballads (“Perfect Lover”), Elvis rock n’ roll (“Down In Flames”) or even Mavericks type country“Don’t Break My Heart” (he and Raul Malo are the best singers today for me). This song (“Keep Hanging On”) is the best extra track on the deluxe edition which has 5 more songs.

4.Ghost – Meliora – Swedish cartoonish prog metal band that wear masks & costumes to disguise their identity (singer is Papa Emeritus III).  They have that ‘evil’ Alice Cooper thing going on tracks like “Cirice” but “He Is” is a straight old school progressive song.  The booklet contains some great classic drawings.

5.Sylvan – Home – the 9^th album from German progressive rockers Sylvan.  This is a concept about a woman’s search for a sense of ‘home’.  Minor key long songs like “The Sound Of Her World” & “Shine”.

6.Chaos Magic – Chaos Magic – it’s interesting how European prog metal bands seem to be sprouting up like mushrooms (or after smoking mushrooms).  This bombastic project is helmed by Finn Timo Tolkki with vocals by Chilean singer Caterina Nix.  “I’m Alive” “From The Stars”.

7.Ivan & Alyosha – It’s All Just Pretend – terrible name to remember (taken from Dostoevsky classic) but good band.  Simple guitar based band with excellent production help from Grammy winner Joe Chiccarelli.  Songs like “Bury Me Deep” “It’s All Just Pretend” and “Modern Man” make this a winner.

8.The Gentle Storm – The Diary – an interesting if maddening concept – do an album of the same songs in a ‘gentle’ manner (folky/celtic instruments) and then repeat in a heavier ‘storm’ style with prog metal leanings (hard to choose the best version, I fear).  This is a Dutch project with female vocals about a 1600’s love story.  “Endless Sea” (gentle) and “New Horizons” (storm) illustrate the idea well.

9.Nightwish – Endless Forms Most Beautiful – they keep replacing their female singer, but manage to stay consistent probably due to keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen symphonic style.  Perhaps the top prog metal band, they come from Finland.  “My Walden” and “Elan” stand out for me.

10.Imagine Dragons – Smoke + Mirrors Deluxe Edition – a more adult album than their debut (which means less hit potential but better songs).  One wonders about the downer lyrics. “I’m So Sorry” “Shots” are fine songs.  Odd that my fave track “Thief” happens to be a bonus track not on the standard CD.

11.Bryan Adams – Get Up – he and Jim Vallance have crafted some very catchy pop/rock songs – just not enough of them (9, so he repeats 4 of them in solo acoustic fashion – weak!).  Too bad as with Jeff Lynne (ELO) producing and playing it sounds great. “You Belong To Me” “Brand New Day” rock convincingly.

12.Steve Hackett – Wolflight – since leaving Genesis (before they sold out to pop stardom), he has become one of the premier guitarists in the prog rock field and has put out a string of great albums.  He’s only passable as a singer which pulls down the album a notch.  “Black Thunder” “Heart Song”.

13.Blackberry Smoke – Holding All The Roses – classic 70s style southern rock leavened with some decent ballads (“No Way Back To Eden”).  “Rock & Roll Again” reminds me of Dave Edmunds.

14.The Decemberists – What A Terrible World What A Beautiful World – a fine group of songs though I wish the singer could sing a tad better (or at least would trade off with someone else occasionally).  Interesting that the first song (“The Singer Addresses His Audience”) might be the first time I’ve heard a band apologize for changing their sound.  “Philomena” catchy, but bawdy.  “Easy Come, Easy Go”.

15.Lonely Robot – Please Come Home – a great side project of It Bites/Arena guitarist Paul Mitchell with help from people like Steve Hogarth (Marillion) and Nik Kershaw.  “Airlock” and “Oubliette” stand out.

16.Mumford & Sons – Wilder Mind – they are more Coldplay than folk now – while it drags in the middle, the singles “Believe”, “The Wolf” and “Ditmas” are memorable. Daughter Hilary’s pick.

17.Steven Wilson – Hand. Cannot. Erase. – the current savior of old-school prog rock is so prolific you wish he would pause a bit and put out 1 great album instead of 2 good albums.  At any rate, I preferred his last one (Raven That Refused To Sing) but love the title track plus “Regret #9” has great synth.

18.Have Gun Will Travel – Science From An Easy Chair – an Americana album about the tragic  1914-1916 Antarctic expedition by the crew of Sir Ernest Shackleton and his ship the Endurance.  Vocals okay (check out “Despair & Redemption On Elephant Island”) but my fave is the short instrumental “A Call To Arms”. Really needed liner notes to explain the whole concept, however.

19.Collective Soul – See What You Started By Continuing – good straight guitar rock from Ed Roland and company that would have been higher except for too many ballads. “Am I Getting Through” “This”.

20.Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Chasing Yesterday – former Oasis writer/guitarist’s 2^nd album post-breakup.  Good guitar pop/rock on “In The Heat Of The Moment” “You Know We Can’t Got Back”.

Doc K’s Best Orphan Songs 2015 – these songs downloads, singles, EPs, isolated top tracks on LPs.

1.Big Big Train – Wassail – track from an ep release of the same name, I could hear Jethro Tull doing this (flute, Hammond organ) plus it also has touches of Celtic rock fiddles.

2.Enya – Echoes In Rain Dark Sky Island – lovely album but really getting repetitious sounding (time to add a fiddle or flute or even a guitar).  This track stands out and reminds of early hit “Orinoco Flow”.

3.Brian Wilson (+ Kacey Musgraves) – Guess You Had To Be There No Pier Pressure – the album is pleasant enough, but this duet really stands out with at least some energy compared to the rest of the album.  A real waste to have Al Jardine singing on the album and not at least try to rock a little.

4.Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats – S.O.B. – best song by a Colorado artist.  He looks like a young Burl Ives while the song feels like a tent revival – stomps and claps.  Yes, he says the real SOB words, kids.

5.New Politics – West End Kids Vikings – stooped rock raises it’s head in a new wave 80s sorta way.  Lyrically the rest of the album is so horribly juvenile that I couldn’t include it in the album list.

6.Little Boots – Get Things Done Working Girl – sounds like a GREAT theme song for some ad company  (“we get things done”) with a danceable beat.

7.Lenka – Blue Skies The Bright Side – Aussie singers’ poppy bright single from her 4^th album.

8.Civil Twilight – Holy Dove Story Of An Immigrant – the Gary Glitter beat stomp chorus is what makes it.

9.Jeff Lynne’s ELO – When I Was A Boy Alone In The Universe – a low key album (no “Don’t Bring Me Down” or “Hold On Tight”) with Lynne doing most everything trying to prove he was ELO (he is/was great, but I disagree – this needs the strings, Richard Tandy on keys, Bev Bevan on drums, etc.).

10.Cheerleader – The Sunshine Of Your Youth – no instrumental pyro, just loud guitar based pop from the album of the same name.

11.Adele – Sweetest Devotion 25 – boy, I really don’t see what all the fuss is about this fairly dull album – at any rate, this is the only song that seemed to have any life.  Where is “Rumor Has It” type dance?

12.Brandon Flowers – Lonely Town Desired Effect – surprisingly not as rock as his band the Killers though that’s why it’s a solo release, I suppose – driving synth and drums interplay.

13.Mat Kearney – One Black Sheep Just Kids –  yes, only 1 ‘t’ so don’t fret.  Music hits the Christian charts but not truly religious in nature (just thoughtful/spiritual at times).  Sorta dancey.

14.5 Seconds Of Summer – Hey Everybody Sounds Good Feels Good – young Aussie band proving there is hope for the new generation of rockers – pop/punk.  This track stands out from the rest of album.

15.The Zombies – Beyond The Borderline Still Got That Hunger – 60s British invaders with excellent Colin Blunstone vocal and Rod Argent backup (on his song).  This up ballad is by far the best thing on the LP.

16.Coin – Run – self-titled album is pretty much faceless guitar/synth/pop – track has good stomp drum.

17.Pop Evil – Footsteps Up – falls between grunge and Metallica – the catchiest song on the album.

18.Clutch – X-Ray Visions Psychic Warfare – VERY metallic crunch – they look nothing like they sound.

19.Nate Ruess – Great Big Storm Grand Romantic – fun. is on hiatus so their leader released an album including this bombastic in-you-face chorus song (sorta Muse-like).

20.Walk Off The Earth – Rule The World Sing It All Away – Canadian minor chart band with shouted anthemic feel – some ska band should cover this.

2015 Album Review Potpourri 2 (Dave Kerzner, etc.)

Dave Kerzner – New World (deluxe edition)

If you are a fan of mid-period Pink Floyd (Dark Side… but the David Gilmour/Rick Wright axis), then this 2 CD set will be manna from heaven for you as it was for me.  Kerzner has had a pretty active sideman career thus far including playing keys in Sound Of Contact (great prog band with Phil Collins sound-a-like Simon Collins – yes, his son).  Late in 2014 he released a single disc version of this his first solo album which was great, but this over two hour version is simply amazing.  Most of the songs feature the core of Kerzner on vocals and keys with Nick D’Virgilio on drums and Fernando Perdomo on guitar + bass.  Their work is great on it’s own, but some songs also feature cameos from prog royalty the likes of Steve Hackett or Francis Dunnery on guitar, Keith Emerson on moog, Billy Sherwood on bass, Simon Phillips or Nick Mason (via programming) on drums.  That Kerzner doesn’t need anyone else, however, is evident on my fave song from the album “Under Control” on which he handles all the instruments himself.  The lengthy opener “Stranded (part 1-5)” is pure Dark Side… right down to the wailing female vocals with some added help via Jason Scheff of Chicago and a great growling Steve Hackett solo.  Some of the additions to the deluxe version are merely sonic landscape intros like “Reflection” or longer versions of songs truncated to fit on a single disc, but there are also some excellent new songs like “Premonition Suite” or “Realign”.  There simply has not been a better album release so far in 2015.  To get the full 2 CD set with packaging you must go to davekerzner.com which will give a link for the purchase (it’s not cheap, but it’s worth it), but otherwise a cheaper digital download is available on itunes. The single CD version can be had on Amazon if you must but however you get it you won’t be sorry.

Steve Hackett – Wolflight

Lonely Robot – Please Come Home

These two albums by progressive rock guitar slingers have a very similar production sound to them – sorta bombastic – in-you-face.  Hackett throws in some very nice acoustic guitar and lute which Lonely Robot does not, but both albums feature the guitar side of prog rock.  Hackett is of course the former Genesis string-wiz who has done a great job of staying true to progressive music for over 40 years while Lonely Robot is really John Mitchell from Arena and It Bites.  Both albums a worthy of purchase, but I’ll give the edge to Lonely Robot.  Hackett isn’t a bad singer, but he really needs a stronger singer to pull off the harder-edged songs while Mitchell has a vaguely Peter Gabrielish voice more suited to progressive bombast.  The opening pairing of “Out Of The Body” which goes right in to “Wolflight” is one of the best bits on Hackett’s album as is “Airlock” opener for Lonely Robot.   The only guest of note for Hackett is Chris Squire on bass for “Love Song To A Vampire” while Mitchell uses folks like Steve Hogarth (Marillion) and Nik Kershaw though where isn’t spelled out anywhere.  Perhaps the Lonely Robot album is the most in need of editing with too many so-so songs, but it also has the most memorable songs in “Oubliette” and “Are We Copies” – both outstanding.   “Black Thunder” and “Corycian Fire” stand out on the Hackett album for me, but the closing medley of “Dust & Dreams” and “Heart Song” are my faves overall.  Between these and the Dave Kerzner album, 2015 has been great for prog fans.

The Gentle Storm – The Diary

Back in the halcyon days of my youth, one could buy an album strictly because the cover was great and you figured the music had to be good.  Any more it seems that every cover I like turns out to be some growly voiced metal band so it was great that a nice cover went with an equally nice album.  This is a strange one, but alot of fun – a 2 CD set with the same songs on each however the first CD has “gentle” versions (more acoustic) while disc 2 is the louder blustery “storm” versions.  At first I figured I would generally prefer the quieter ones, but surprisingly the louder ones win out at least half the time for me.  If you have $60 or so, the CD version is an import in a great hardback book basically – or you can save over 2/3 the cost and download it.  The project is fronted by Dutch progressive metal guitarist Arjen Anthony Lucassen (Ayreon, Star One, etc.) with vocals from Anneke van Giersbergen from the Gathering.   The story involves a man sailing away in the 1600’s from his wife and soon the be born son.  The quieter disc really sounds alot like a great lost Renaissance/Annie Haslam album while the louder disc seems like Transiberian Orchestra or even Jethro Tull with a female lead.  The MVP of the whole thing is Ben Mathot on violin whose playing really dominates (his playing on “Brightest Light” for instance is very classical).  It’s interesting to play a song like “Eyes Of Michiel” in both versions and here the almost baroque-ness of one version versus the much heavier arena-friendly louder version.  There really isn’t a bad song on the album – my fave is probably the classical jig in the gentle version of “Heart Of Amsterdam”.

Ringo Starr – Postcards From Paradise

Brian Wilson – No Pier Pressure (deluxe)

New CDs from members of two of the biggest “B” bands of all-time in the Beatles and the Beach Boys.  By now, you don’t expect anyone to buy an album by either of these 70-somethings that isn’t a devoted fan.  Let’s face it, Ringo will never do another “It Don’t Come Easy” and Brian will never do another “Good Vibrations” so either you live with their past music or you try to keep up with where they take you in the 2000’s.  In Ringo’s case, where he takes you is in a pleasant stroll into his past with a tribute to his first starring band Rory Storm & The Hurricanes or into the title track which is just that – a string of Beatles titles made into a song with the help of Todd Rundgren.  A nice fun idea that was done first by Barclay James Harvest on their 1975 song “Titles”.  These two songs might be enough to pull in a fan (it really is nice to do a “spot-the-title search” with lyrics like “I know that we can work it out, there ain’t no need to twist and shout”), but there are a few other goodies here as well like my fave “Touch And Go” which features a Sir Douglas Quintet feel thanks to Benmont Tench’s keys work.  While Ringo’s tunes aren’t very adventurous, at least he tries to rock which is something sorely lacking from Brian Wilson.  His music is pleasant and tunefully wistful, but with ex-Beach Boys Al Jardine (my fave vocalist in that band), David Marks and Blondie Chaplin you would hope they would have at least attempted one rocker (hey Brian, how’s about next album doing a covers set of your fave oldies in a return to 15 Big Ones?).  At any rate of these two albums Wilson gets the edge simply because the harmonies always win out (and vocally he sounds great – autotuned or not).  If the disco version of “Here Comes The Night” is the worst Beach Boys related song ever, then surely #2 has to be “Runaway Dancer” featuring some dude named Sebu.  “On The Island” featuring the twee vocals of “She & Him is icky lounge music followed closely by the next song “Half Moon Bay” with new ager Mark Isham playing horns – pleasant but dull.  Take these three off and add the three bonus tracks and it becomes a decent album.  The 2 songs with Jardine and Marks “Whatever Happened” and “The Right Time” are nice ballads while “Sail Away” with Chaplin and Jardine has a nice “Sloop John B” feel.  The best song on the record is “Guess You Had To Be There” featuring Kacey Musgraves which is a bit more lively and fun.  Speaking of fun, Nate Ruess of that band sings on “Saturday Night”.  “The Last Song” seems to be a lament for something lost and that something may be the Beach Boys (“don’t be sad there was a time and place for what we had, if there was just another chance for me to sing to you … there’s never more time for the ones that you love”).  It’s hard to know if one needs to thank or blame co-writer and producer Joe Thomas as he seems to be leading on the whole thing which doesn’t have the spark you hoped for, but then you always have to add the addendum that considering where Brian was musically and emotionally for so many lost years it truly is amazing how well his solo career has turned out.  That being said, why don’t you call up Jeff Lynne next time and let him produce and rock and roll album?