Here from day one!

Currently huge artists like Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran etc. might be talented songwriters working with some talented people but the format is bland. Instead of using their ‘elevated platform’ to innovate change they’re doing the same thing musically as everyone else in pop. I’ve loved a handful of artists over the last 20 years - Arctic Monkeys, Editors, Lady Gaga, Sierra Ferrell, The Dead South, The Feeling, Bright Light Bright Light… but mostly these days I’m still discovering the ‘best’ music by looking back. This show alone has reminded me how much great work I missed back in the ‘80’s.

20 zillion, billion plays, top songs classic artists and then reducing massively, so true.

Regarding Marillion’s excellent album, I think Steve Rothery deserved some credit. Great solos, as known, they worked over Fish’s beautiful and unique lyrics, such a great work!

Benny Hill, that’s funny. Although I don’t know what it’s called or don’t remember, I could just hear the popular theme playing in my head when he was mentioned.

Lenny Kravitz is doing the Rock genre great justice, and his work is consistent, with analog sensibilities.

This just tells me the Steven needs to slow his ass down and chill and listen more…be still Steven :)

One area that seems really healthy in the last ten years is guitar based instrumental music; from Polyphia's re-writing of what guitar playing means to Lari Basilio or Cory Wong. I think instrumental music has become more viable with artist presenting their music via KZfaq first and then backing it up via albums and tours.

I like Tim's method of buying stuff 'on spec' still...I've got to say, (as a man of 51), that most of my collection was purchased on that thing of hearing 1 song and then taking a punt on the album. Either that, or buying albums on labels you could 'trust' like 4AD and Factory. Amazingly, there are very few duffers in the whole collection

I listen to whole albums often - while I am walking

what you don't understand about Taylor Swift is that she's backed by the system - you don't get that big organically..

Has Karnivool ever been mentioned on this podcast? If not, they absolutely should be. The absolute best prog released in the last 20 years

I think that new generations of people seem increasingly disconnected from the history of everything from music to cinema to visual art. There is little to no understanding of what has come before and how it all integrates with the present, or even the future. It’s both puzzling and kind of sad to me.

There is a slap back echo on your mics. If your mixer has an automixer/Dugan you should use it. Then there’s only ever one mic on. Failing that use a gate with fastest attack, carefully adjusted threshold, and put the range at -15db. That acts a bit like an automixer if you don’t have one. But actually it maybe more a routing problem. Whatever....something’s wrong.

The way I listen to full-length albums these days, often by Steve Wilson, is to walk around town with noise-cancelling headphones. It's the best way nowadays to disconnect and listen to music... and you also do some sport!

I still allow myself to listen to an album properly. Not as much as I used too but I still do it. The last album was Radioheads A moon shaped pool. That's an exquisite album to melt into especially wearing headphones.

On your show you should add some music extracts.

Taylor Swift is a desperate manufactured attempt at a monocultural figure yet the best she can interest is mentally female tweens.

Dead Can Dance is NOT Goth! It's more a rythmic New Age Esoteric

i learn so much from you guys! thank you endlessly

Great show! Would love to hear the whole thing un-edited.

Been following the Podcast since episode 1. I like these 'Tube vids, but there is something about the Pod that is somewhat magical. Great stuff!!

That’s hilarious, “Quaking with rage” and “Nico’s buried in a coffin in the crypt” 😂

I’ve discovered and even rediscovered through revisiting a quite few albums as a result of this superb Podcast (my favourite in the ‘Podcast genre’) and ‘Common One’ is my absolute favourite. Such a great and influential record. 1980 … only took me 44 years. Thanks chaps! 👍

I’m always kind of pissed off when Steven inevitably say (about modern music) “guitar, bass, drums are over. Electronics are still fresh”. That’s kind of a bulllshit argument. Instruments or sounds are never “over”, rock music has a future. There’s a lot of innovations out there. The fact that he is not willing to partake in it, I respect. But don’t shit on it because you feel stuck in a genre. Those kind of broad generalizations is kind of lame. I can’t help to see it as “hoo I’m gonna say rock music is over and old, it will pissed off the Prog heads”. Love you Mr Wilson but sometimes you’re a bit much. (Sorry if I made mistakes, being French is not easy believe me)

I've really struggled, as well, to find rock albums or hit music that I like in since 2000. I have completely embraced electronic music (Moby, Boards of Canada, Ghosting Season, etc.) and its sub-genres such as the more ambient and jazz-infused. Even Canada's Esmerine & Rebecca Foon (modern chamber music/post punk) I find incredibly interesting to listen to. Beth Gibbons, from Portishead, has also put out some great music. Lots of great music is coming out, I just don't find it in rock music or "hit" music which sounds frightfully repetitive and without soul and grossly autotuned without artistic purpose. I am embracing albums old and new covering many genres from every decade and it has been a real pleasure. To answer your question: I now sit down and fully engage with headphones to listen to my (mostly vinyl) purchases more than I have in decades. I avoid relegating music to background filler. I have created a "vinyl room" for this purpose. I listen to ZERO % of my music on my phone. I want to listen carefully to each instrument being played and who played which instrument, who produced & engineered the album, and absorb the hopefully creative album art. My approach is to fully commit to the music and I am enjoying music so much more than I have in a long long time. Thanks for this podcast discussion.

I try and listen to two albums a week with no distractions whatsoever. I often listen to music while doing things but whenever listening to a new album i want to do so with no distractions.

Best episode 😄 You might do this sort of format from time to time.

What’s up with those sneakers Steve? Lol. Great episode guys.

wrt Power Windows... great music, dated production, and that from a Rush fan. So I was quite aware of where you were coming from with that one. Anyway, great stuff as always!

This podcast is so great and refreshing since I loath classic rock radio in the US and that format had stunted exploration of music by many people.

I listened to albums from beginning to end very often when running 🏃

Steven hit the nail on the head. ‘Most people don’t go beyond the greatest hits.’ And it was always the case. I’m British. In my 50s. Most of my peers - pre streaming obviously- one single: that was enough. They’d buy Fashion by Bowie. But not Scary Monsters. And so on and so on. So, I think streaming is often held up as the new ‘death of the album’…. But people to whom music is important, to whom it is an obsession, a state of feeling, a kick in the head; listen to albums. And always have and always will. For me, it’s not generational; it’s about individuals and always has been. Very interesting and enlightening video.

Brilliant as ever 😀

What bothers me a lot about today's music scene is that it seems like really talented musicians out there have to create at least 2 full albums with awesome songs before they ever get signed to a big record deal that would get them a lot more publicity, media attention, interviews, awards show appearances and so forth. It probably causes a LOT of talented musicians to quit the business. The sheer number of aspiring musicians out there makes it really hard for musicians to "get their big break" and become a big star. I'm amazed that one of my favorite EDM/electronic pop singers named LAUREN SALVO hasn't become a bigger star. She has a big, powerful, soprano singing voice that I think could resonate with a lot of people. She has a pretty face and a fun, cool personality. Unfortunately she's kind of petite and doesn't have a body like Dua Lipa, Halsey, etc. Sadly, she's not in her 20s anymore either. I think she's about 34. Somehow, someway I think she still has a chance to make it big. I hope the biggest stars in EDM/electronic pop work with Salvo and they make it big together. Here's her newest song that I like a lot. Google this ... Metamorphosis - Lyric Video - Salvo. Here's some of her other songs I think are really good. Google this ... Rival - Odd One Out w Whales & Salvo - Official Lyric Video. Google this ... To Be Loved - Official NCS lyric video - Arcando, Maazel and Salvo. Google this ... Unknown Brain and Salvo - Waiting - Feat Lox Chatterbox - Official Music Video. Google this ... Besomorph - 84 ft Salvo - Music Video.

Fantastic stuff, witty, engaging, intelligent and insightful. Listening and watching the podcast has taught me so much of how the current system for delivering music and engagement works. I wish I had been there just to hear Tim say "Fucking Shite' in the classic Cheshire accent. 🙂

Thank you for The Album Years👍it's great👏Steve mentioned can't listen to an album from beginning to the end. I can no longer do that either. This multitasking-thing and the overload of information etc. leads to concentration problems and short attention span. It's a shame ...good music/albums deserve more! I think that this is a common problem these days.

Classical music as never conformed to the Lp/cd/dvd/bluray and now streaming. It's all about the music, live performance above anything else. It may be a niche area but it's always been that way, the music changes a lot over the years, it's still progressive, one of the few areas that still is. Classical music as never been about the album, it's about the symphony or the quartet or the ballet or the opera, never made to fit a particular medium because of length. It's always been about the music, it's always going to be about the music, it doesn't conform and that goodness for that. When I listen to music, I listen, I don't do anything else, I give it the attention it deserves. This says more about the quality of music people are listening to, if it's good, it demands to be listened to. There is far too much shit around that's so easy to access but it's not worth listening to, so people don't put the effort in anymore. That's the issue, the pop music culture now is full of crap. Give me classical music every day, all day long.

It must be the first time Steven has worn footwear on stage 😊😊.

I wonder when these two last went to a small (<100 audience) show. There's still really exciting (rock) music being made, it just doesn't reach the same levels of popularity as music in the 70s, 80s and 90s did.

I kind of like this Post Rock era because of the 3 good looking, super talented sisters in the Gen Z rock band "The Warning". I never thought I'd ever like an all girl rock band this much. Ever since I discovered them in spring 2022 I've gradually gotten to like nearly all of their songs. Check em out on KZfaq. My favorite songs from their first 3 albums are ... Evolve, Animosity, Z, Disciple, Money, Choke, Amour, Martirio, Error, Dust to Dust, Ugh, Queen of the Murder Scene, Crimson Queen, Dull Knives, Survive, Narcissista, Shattered Heart, Show Me the Light, Black Holes and When I'm Alone. My favorite songs so far from their brand new "Keep Me Fed" album are Automatic Sun, Hell You Call a Dream, Satisfied, Burnout, More, Sick and Six Feet Deep. Google this ... The Warning on new music, meteoric rise, fears & superpowers - Alison Hagendorf. Google this ... The Warning - Full Concert Live at "Teatro Metropólitan" (CDMX).

Due to you Steven, I now regularly listen to Zeit with my morning coffee.

David Byrne talks about the confluence of music and form in his wonderful book How Music Works. This would even give me optimism that music will now evolve into something new and human creativity will still make magical moments that impact hearts… even if the form isn’t what we old guys like. 13:37

David Byrne talks about the confluence of music and form in his wonderful book How Music Works. This would even give me optimism that music will now evolve into something new and human creativity will still make magical moments that impact hearts… even if the form isn’t what we old guys like.

I would love to attend (or even ambitiously host) an edition based in the Netherlands.

🫠

Will the FULL episode be made available?

Love this ❤

You need to mention Alice Cooper.

Your recent cursory mention of Prefab Sprout’s “Swoon” album was appreciated. Been listening to that for 2 weeks straight now.