progressive pop

Graeme Thomson’s Revised ‘Under the Ivy’ Captures Kate Bush’s Complexity

Graeme Thomson’s Revised ‘Under the Ivy’ Captures Kate Bush’s Complexity

While Kate Bush’s work and life defy clichés and easy categorization, Graeme Thomson chronicles her story while conveying its inherent ambiguity and mystery.

A Fanatic’s 10 Best Supertramp Songs

A Fanatic’s 10 Best Supertramp Songs

During their heyday, Supertramp created a run of progressive-pop albums so intricate and irresistibly catchy, as to redefine what AOR radio could sound like.

Ramones and Devo: Sonic Reduction as Resistance

Ramones and Devo: Sonic Reduction as Resistance

Ramones’ Ramones uses reduction as a means to end, to bring rock back to its roots, whereas Devo’s Q: Are We Not Men? uses reduction as the end itself to mirror society’s decline.  

The Mars Volta Reimagine Themselves As an Acoustic Latin Ensemble

The Mars Volta Reimagine Themselves As an Acoustic Latin Ensemble

The Mars Volta’s Que Dios Te Maldiga De Corazon has the same tracklisting as The Mars Volta but presents acoustic arrangements of each song.

Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’ and the Power of I as Other

Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’ and the Power of I as Other

Kate Bush’s 1985 embrace of the Other in “Running Up That Hill” resonates with Gen- Z’s ethos by questioning the binaries of our programmed genders.

Racializing Rock: The ’60s and the White Sounds of ‘Pet Sounds’

Racializing Rock: The ’60s and the White Sounds of ‘Pet Sounds’

The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds is not a racist text, but its impact was racist because it further encoded rock as a white genre, perpetuating the institutionalized prejudice that relegated African Americans to the margins of rock.

‘Cosmologica’ is the First Great Prog Album of the Century

‘Cosmologica’ is the First Great Prog Album of the Century

If post-1978 prog-rock resembles a parched desert, Circe Link and Christian Nesmith represent our binary Moses: desperately awaited and here to lead us out of the wilderness.

Genesis Ride Into the Sunset With a Compilation to Cap Their Career

Genesis Ride Into the Sunset With a Compilation to Cap Their Career

Genesis compilation The Last Domino? The Hits reminds us of a time when rock music, be it progressive, popular, both, or neither, was afraid to stay stagnant.

Field Music: Making Pasta Sauce As a Metaphor for Recording an Album

Field Music: Making Pasta Sauce As a Metaphor for Recording an Album

Field Music’s last album Making a New World concerned subjects like the Dada movement, social housing reforms, and sanitary napkins. Flat White Moon‘s subject matter is a little closer to home.

10cc’s Kevin Godley on Crowdsourcing and Going Solo After All These Years

10cc’s Kevin Godley on Crowdsourcing and Going Solo After All These Years

Having long moved on from his days in 10cc, Kevin Godley took decades to unleash a solo record. He solicited songs from random people and tells us how he's in good contact with Gotye and how he can't stand happy music.

Kate Bush’s Splendidly Transitional ‘Never For Ever’ at 40

Kate Bush’s Splendidly Transitional ‘Never For Ever’ at 40

Kate Bush's Never for Ever served as the stepping stone for the artist to reach her full potential as a bona fide musical genius.

The Academy of Sun Combine Goth, Musical Theater, and Prog on ‘The Quiet Earth’

The Academy of Sun Combine Goth, Musical Theater, and Prog on ‘The Quiet Earth’

The Academy of Sun's The Quiet Earth is an interesting mish-mash of styles. Singer-songwriter-pianist-bandleader Nick Hudson prefers to use "Gothic dystopian post-punk" to describe the band.