If you are a fan of West Ham United Football Club, please don't sing/play/stream the club anthem while you are reading this post. Its music hall style wouldn't mix well with the progressive symphonic rock on Clearlight's second album, Forever Blowing Bubbles. https://open.spotify.com/album/7KkzZ9XnykpxNy1hm11H7f?si=YZxqU4v8TfW9rDk-cwAzMw Clearlight was founded by Cyrille Verdeaux in 1973. VERDEAUX, native of France,…Read more Forever Blowing Bubbles
progressive
The Land, the Sea, the Air
The cover art for The Land, the Sea, the Air How many band leaders are also professional circus performers? Not many, I imagine. I only know of one: Katrina "Tree" Stewart is both a trapeze artist and the founder of the prog and symphonic rock band, The Emerald Dawn. The band's latest album, The Land,…Read more The Land, the Sea, the Air
Mail Order Quarks
This Quark is far too handsome to be on mail order, I think. What the skibidi is this? An American band called French TV offering Star Trek characters by mail order? No, it's just a tongue-in-cheek title for a 10-minute musical composition constructed in the Zappa mould. It's one of those slightly zany flights of…Read more Mail Order Quarks
Speaking in Song
Of all the singers known to Crotchety Man, Leonard Cohen has to be the one whose songs speak loudest. But there's more than one way for musicians to get a message across. In their recent album, Speaking in Song, Musictellers dispense with words altogether. https://open.spotify.com/album/4WiGa7ZR3JnNtdutwYSodL?si=Q_qd0cWAS-ipOt4MBKoU2A Eight songs without words (1st July 2025) The band is…Read more Speaking in Song
A Romantic’s Guide to King Crimson
My first encounter with King Crimson was at a free concert in Hyde Park, London, in 1969. They were the only band to make enough noise to fill the open arena, and they stole the show, playing In the Court of the Crimson King, 21st Century Schizoid Man and Epitaph. I have been a fan…Read more A Romantic’s Guide to King Crimson
Truce <3
In these burdened days of climate change and political upheaval, the divisions between us grow ever deeper. Misogyny and racism fuel social media; armed conflicts break out around the world. Death and devastation spread across the globe. And, in the midst of it all, the voice of truce is but a whisper in the deep…Read more Truce ❤
Olivia Ruth
Could this be Olivia's Shop? Let me introduce you to Olivia Ruth. She has a shop that sells everything you'll ever need. Or so Brendan Perkins tells us. https://open.spotify.com/track/2z5dCwXmkbhenm5YAA1sZB?si=7299d11393094792 A track from Brendan Perkins new album, Stories from the Old Church Lane. Now, the name Brendan Perkins is new to me. But, apparently, his latest…Read more Olivia Ruth
Kontraster
It's not often that you find multiple genres on a single album (outside of loose compilations, of course). And it's even rarer for two bands with contrasting styles to each provide one half of an album. But that's what the Norwegian bands, Jordsjø and Breidablik, give us with Kontraster. And to challenge prospective listeners even…Read more Kontraster
Phantom Limb
If a ghost loses an arm or a leg, would he still feel the pain of a phantom limb? That's a tongue-in-cheek rhetorical question - I don't believe in ghosts - but perhaps the Swedish band, Hooffoot, would like to tell us why they chose to call their latest album, Phantom Limb. That probably does…Read more Phantom Limb
Emergent
Who's emerging from the Gordian Knot? Emergent is the second album by Gordian Knot, a band with a fluid line-up assembled by Sean Malone in 1998. Malone was an exceptionally accomplished multi-instrumentalist, proficient on bass guitar (fretted and fretless), Chapman Stick, guitar and keyboards. He was the American equivalent of the UK's Steven Wilson. As…Read more Emergent
Crotchety Man 