One of my favorite surprises of 2020 was the arrival of Galahad Electric Co., When the Battle is Over.  The band is a subset/offshoot of Galahad, and Stu Nicholson gives us his all—not surprisingly—on this intriguing release.  Again, like the above mentioned albums, it is an album filled with subtlety and brilliant soundscapes, strangely resembling something that might fit the soundtrack of the first two seasons of Stranger Things.

If you’re looking for old world, old school, old timey (but wonderfully produced) prog, look no farther than Wobbler’s hyperkinetic and hyperaural Dwellers of the Deep.  There’s no Talk Talk on this album!  Well, except maybe for some echoes of the hardest parts of “Desire.” This is a purely rocking (in a very prog manner) album. It feels like Traffic on steroids.

Kansas, Absence of Presence.  This is the kind of album that wants me to scream, obnoxiously, “Kansas is back!!!!!!”  A lovely album.

Let us now praise famous Andy Tillisons.  Honestly, could this red-headed mischievous Englishman get any more interesting?  The Tangent, Auto Reconnaissance, is an excellent album by one of prog’s finest bands.

Though only half an album, IZZ’s Half Life deserves a mention of the best albums of 2020. As with everything IZZ-related, even three new songs from the band deserve our praise and our screaming from the rafters.

While not prog (though, it has some proggy elements), I absolutely love the new Psychedelic Furs album, Made of Rain, the band’s first album since 1991!  Stunning rock in all the glory that is rock. This is no nostalgia trip, though—it’s the real deal.

Given that COVID nearly killed the live music scene (or, it’s trying to do so), there were some excellent live releases this year: Circuline’s energetic New View; and Riverside’s Lost n Found, Live in Tilburg top the list, along, of course, with the already mentioned Empire from Big Big Train.

2020 also saw a number of releases of classic material, most of which was remixed by Steven Wilson.  Tears for Fears’s Seeds of Love, Ultravox’s Vienna, and Porcupine Tree’s Delerium Years all impressed me, as did Frost*’s 13 Winters. I’m most taken with the PT re-release, as it comes with a 140-page hardback book with liner notes by Humphries (the same who recommended Loma). The whole package has heft.

Though I’m not the world’s biggest Dream Theater fan—though I respect the talent of the band members immensely—I am excited to dive into Jordan Blum’s new book on the band, Dream Theater: Every Album, Every Song (2020). I also read—with much pleasure—Rich Wilson’s band biography of Porcupine Tree, Time Flies.

Was 2020 a great year?  No one in their right mind would claim it to be one.  Yet, it had its moments—many of them great and proggy.  Glad to have made another revolution around the sun.