Year in review: 2012!

2011 was a great year for new music, but 2012 has trumped it in almost every respect. It goes without saying that top 10 lists are highly personal and unscientific, so I...erm, won’t say it (unless I have already, of course...). Anyway, there are obviously loads of potentially fabulous albums I haven’t heard at all, and others I haven’t heard enough to pass final judgement on, but the below all made an impact and, as with all great albums, continue to reveal more of themselves with each subsequent listen. If two or three (or more) are on your own personal lists you could do far worse than check out the rest (as you clearly have taste – well done!).

Top 10 Albums of 2012

10: Ten – Heresy and Creed: Long-time followers of Ten seem to agree that this doesn’t match the band’s first three albums for quality, but if that’s the case those albums must be pretty special indeed. Personally I rate this one slightly higher than last year’s Stormwarning, which I also enjoyed immensely. Choice cut: The Lights Go Down.

09: Martin Page – A Temper of Peace: The definite winner of the ‘under the radar’ award for the year, I only discovered that this album was out after randomly checking Page’s Wikipedia entry (strangely enough the same way I found out about 2008’s In the Temple of the Muse, the only difference being that this time I was two weeks, rather than two years, behind the times!).  Page pulls off the conceit of performing every instrument himself better than most (although I’d always rather have Jimmy Copley on drums than a machine, take note for the next one please Mr Page!!) and uses this as an excuse to take a few stylistic left-turns (notably on The Washing of the Heart and Soulprint) with great success. Fans of his previous albums will undoubtedly enjoy this just as much as, differences aside, it is another first-rate adult-contemporary album from a much overlooked artist. Choice cut: When the Harvest is in.

08: Ian Anderson – Thick as a Brick 2: What could have been the worst idea in the world – a belated follow-up to 1972’s classic original Brick -  turned out to be an inspired reflection on the various paths a single person could have followed to reach middle-age. A ‘mature’ work, but with plenty of style and wit to it. See my review of the album and tour for more on this one. Choice cut: Thick as a Brick 2. ;-)

07: The Reasoning – Adventures in Neverland: A band I’d foolishly ignored prior to their support set for Marillion in September (see the top 5 support acts list below), this was one of my pleasant surprises for the year. I have no idea how it stacks up against their earlier efforts, but I’m looking forward to finding out. Choice cut: No Friend of Mine.

06: Robert Lamm – Living Proof: Who needs a new Chicago album (okay, I still do...) when keyboardist/vocalist Lamm is creating solo works as immense as this? The only album that I’ve devoted a full review to this year – months later and I stand by every word. Choice cut: I Confess.

05: Asia – XXX: When the supergroup reconvened with its original line-up for their 25^th anniversary in 2007 nobody believed they’d get past that tour, yet here they are, celebrating another anniversary with their third post-reformation studio album (one more than they managed on the first pass) and easily their best since their debut (well I still love Astra and several of the John Payne albums, but I’m talking the (full) original line-up here). It builds on the success of 2010’s Omega, but is trimmed of the filler that dominated the final third of that album. If you haven’t paid much attention to Asia since 1982, it’s high time you gave them another listen. Long term devotees will be well-pleased indeed. Choice cut: Bury Me in Willow.

04: Anathema – Weather Systems: I was first exposed to Anathema at last year’s High Voltage festival – and as you can tell from my review I came away from it with some curiousity intact, but no burning desire to investigate further. But this album generated such a buzz that it was impossible to ignore and I’m glad I ultimately gave in and bought it – it’s as powerful, emotional and beautiful as it’s many advocates proclaimed. So another band with a back-catalogue worth exploring (although not as far back as their death-metal days methinks!). Choice cut: The Beginning and the End.

03: Magnum – On the 13^th Day: Having provided 2011’s album of the year with The Visitation my almost-favourite band struck gold yet again this year – and returned to the UK top 50 for the first time in 20 years to boot. This time around the songs are slightly more concise (some would say commercial) but all contain the hallmarks of classic Magnum at their best – and they’ve been back at their best now for four albums in a row. In any other year this would also have made it to the top spot on my list, but the two above it were just too good. Choice cut: Dance of the Black Tattoo.

02: Rush – Clockwork Angels: Rush are undeniably a great band, but I’ve never quite fully embraced them as I have with my other favourites, perhaps because they often appear slightly removed emotionally from their material. That isn’t the case with this, their first ‘proper’ concept album (with a concept so sprawling it’s needed a full novelisation to let the story be fully realised), which like the Ian Anderson album is striking for its maturity – the sentiment behind Wish Them Well being only one example of a song that (sadly) couldn’t be conceived by a younger band. Despite being set on a different world the album plays on universal themes of hope, disappointment and redemption and is immensely relatable as a result. Choice cut: The Garden.

01: Marillion – Sounds That Can’t Be Made: Just because Marillion are my favourite band of all time does not make their appearance at #1 here a fait accompli by any means, but they’ve outdone themselves with this one. The title track is simply the best thing I’ve heard all year, and is definitely on the list of 50 Marillion songs that *might* be my very favourite – along with almost every other track on this album, from the tour de force opener that is Gaza to the elegiac, heartstring-tugging The Sky Above the Rain. They took their time with this one and the result is simply superb and not to be missed. The deluxe edition is also a thing of beauty and well worth owning whether you are a die-hard Marillion fan or not. Choice cut: Sounds That Can’t Be Made.

5 other great songs from 2012:

Europe – Bag of Bones

Flying Colors – Everything Changes

Steve Hogarth/Richard Barbieri – Only Love Will Make You Free

Tyketto – Faithless

Dante Fox – Who Stole the Innocence?

The top 10 gigs of 2012:

2012 wasn’t the greatest gig year for me, a combination of health issues for most of the year, and a lack of gigs in London due to the Olympics meant that things really only picked up in the last few months. Nevertheless I still managed to attend a healthy number of brilliant gigs, of which the below stood out:

10. Ian Anderson (Hammersmith Apollo, 27 April)

09. Darren Hayes (Brighton Dome, 29 September)

08. The Reasoning/Touchstone (The Garage, 12 October)

07. Flying Colors (Shepherd’s Bush Empire, 21 September)

06. h Natural (Cargo, 18 December)

05. Europe (Shepherd’s Bush Empire, 01 December)

04. Firefest Friday - Lionville, Dante Fox, Ten, Tyketto (Rock City, Nottingham, 19 October) REVIEW

03. Paul Simon (Hard Rock Calling, Hyde Park, 15 July)

02. Magnum (Bristol, 18 November) REVIEW

01: Marillion (Sheffield, 14 September) REVIEW

The top 5 support acts of 2012:

(headliners in brackets)

05. DeeExpus (Marillion, London)

04. Trillium (Magnum, London)

03. Mr. So & So (Marillion, Sheffield)

02. Chris Ryder (h Natural, London)

01. The Reasoning (Marillion, Cardiff)

5 albums from 2011 that I listened to more in 2012:

There are always albums that you don’t get around to listening to properly the moment they come out- or just come out too late in the year to be compared fairly with everything that’s come before (this year Jimi Jamison, Neal Morse and Lionville are such cases for me), so these are albums that gave me more pleasure this year than last -  only one of them featured in my 2011 round-up.

05.Alice Cooper – Welcome 2 My Nightmare

04.Work of Art – In Progress

03.Fergie Frederiksen – Happiness is the Road

02.Edison’s Children – In the Last Waking Moments...

01. Serpentine – Living and Dying in High Definition

Plenty of proof then for the doubters that good music is in as healthy a state as ever – you may need to work a little harder to discover it than the days when they simply played it on the radio – but it is there. 2013 is another year that has a very tough act to follow, but with new releases in the next few months from the likes of Steve Lukather, Heaven’s Basement and Steven Wilson I suspect it will do okay...so happy new year and ROCK ON!

2011 Summer of Gigs #11: High Voltage Festival - Day 1

Last year’s inaugural High Voltage Festival was sublime, and enabled me to see many of my favourite bands (Marillion, Magnum, Asia, Uriah Heep – to name a few) live for the first time, as well as introducing me properly to the likes of Pendragon, Wishbone Ash and Gary Moore (not a moment too soon in the latter’s case, sadly). This year’s second outing then was going to struggle to match it, so I quickly determined to try and avoid all comparisons with the previous event and just enjoy what was on offer. Which, as it turns out, was plenty. While I briefly (and it has to be said, not very seriously) considered giving the Saturday a miss this year, as I wasn’t already a fan of more than a couple of scheduled acts, common sense quickly asserted itself and I found myself with another weekend pass.

I therefore had most of Saturday afternoon to check out what the festival site had on offer, as well as to investigate a lot of music that, regardless of how long ago it was first performed, would be new to me – most of which, it has to be said, was on the Prog Stage. I still don’t consider myself to be that much of a proghead, but my progness has definitely been in ascent in recent years…I blame Marillion…

Michael Monroe

Knowing that the day was going to be filled with prog I elected to start at the main stage, where opener Michael Monroe really got the festival off to a rocking start. Looking like a rock star should (albeit a little on the girly side) and leaping about and beyond the stage like a madman (exemplified by his mid-set scramble up the scaffolding with microphone cord in mouth-set, and not missing a note on his descent) Monroe’s high-energy set was a crowd-pleaser. I wouldn’t say that I’ll be rushing out to explore his catalogue, but the set was great fun, and he was the consummate showman, if ever there was one. (8/10)

So to the prog stage, where Amplifier were far more restrained, but put in a good solid set, and although it didn’t make a huge impression on a first-time listener, there was enough there to suggest further investigation could be well-rewarded. Anathema were more of a mixed bag, with some good songs and a couple of duds. Continued attempts from various band members (but especially the guitarist) to convince us that this was good ‘clap-along’ material grated after a while, as, to be frank, they were wrong. Regardless, both bands seemed to go down pretty well with the crowd (well, apart from the trio of morons who decided talking loudly about nothing in particular was a better use of their time than actually listening to Anathema – thankfully the dirty looks they were getting finally convinced them to sod off!). (7/10 each)

Sandwiched in between these two acts was Caravan, who turned out to be the revelation of the day for me. I had heard of them (although only very recently, especially when you consider that they formed in 1968 – me being just a bit slow, as usual!), but still knew next to nothing about them. The songs were captivating, particularly 20-minute closer Nine Feet Underground, and while the lead vocals could perhaps best be described as passable, the musicianship on display was astounding, and more than made up for any minor shortcomings in the vocal department. Multi-instrumentalist Geoff Richardson impressed most of all, proving equally adept on violin, guitar, flute and, erm, the spoons! A great set whichever way you cut it, and they definitely jumped straight to the top of my ‘must investigate further’ list.  (9/10)

Caravan

If there was one act that made sure I’d be there for the Saturday it was Neal Morse and he did not disappoint in the slightest. Performing most of his recent Testimony 2 album (a few sections had to be dropped due to time constraints), Morse and band demonstrated that their blinder of a gig in London last month was no one-off. Superb playing from one and all, not to mention the highly impressive multi-layered vocal s on Time Changer which deservedly gained much applause. Having been caught out last time, I was mentally and emotionally prepared to get through Jayda without bawling, which I more or less managed. Something I was certainly not expecting was for Morse to leave the stage during The Truth Will Set You Free. Even though he’d done this in London, coming into a smallish club crowd is one thing, but going for a ‘singing wander’ through a festival crowd is quite another! Maybe he just really wanted to go and say hello to his ex-Spock’s Beard bandmates, who he’d spotted from the stage earlier in the set. Morse seems to be a bit ‘marmite’ judging by comments I’ve seen online, but he was definitely the highlight of day one for me. (10/10)

Neal Morse during Jayda

Rounding off the Saturday line-up (at least on the prog stage) was John Lees’ Barclay James Harvest, who suffered slightly for following Morse, but still put on an excellent gig. I had seen them as recently as last November, and while I enjoyed that gig more, I was nonetheless pleased that they had completely revamped their setlist – indeed, there may have been as few as three songs that they played on both occasions (Poor Wages, Mockingbird and Hymn were the ones I spotted). This time there was more of an emphasis on the earlier BJH material, especially the Once Again album (honoured due to it celebrating its 40^th anniversary this year). It’s very easy for veteran bands to get stuck in a rut with their setlists, so such a shakeup gets a ‘highly commendable’ rating from me.  John Lees is another whose vocal range has decreased dramatically over the years, but his guitar playing remains as good as ever. Craig Fletcher, on bass and vocals is a much stronger singer, and also contributes a great deal of the ‘fun’ side of the band both during and between songs. By comparison, Lees isn’t quite Graham Nash’s ‘man with no expressions’ but it’s a close thing at times! While I couldn’t help feeling that Neal Morse should have been the Saturday headliner, this was still a fine way to close the first day, especially with the final number being the crowd singalong that was Hymn. (8/10)

BJH's Craig Fletcher (and son?)

BJH's John Lees

Outside of the music there wasn’t an enormous amount of extras this year (which is fine, I doubt there’s many people heading through the gates who aren’t mainly there for music and/or beer in the first place) but a great Ferris Wheel was situated close to the mainstage to the annoyance of many, and elsewhere there were plenty of decent food stalls to choose from, as well as a handful of market stalls for something to browse through. Oh, and Morris dancers, who can forget the Morris dancers…anyway, a better overall layout than last year, and a great atmosphere throughout. All in all a great day but (most of) the best was yet to come...