The Progwinds Top 15 albums of 2025
So that was another year gone in the blink of an eye! It only seems like weeks since The Progmeister and I were in Stourport for Fusion 2025 and here we are only 10 weeks away from Fusion 2026! Will we be there? Of course we bloody will!
Personally 2025 has been pretty good, I’m retired so ‘should’ have plenty of time to listen to music and write about it! LOL! Think again! Apart from the usual family commitments I am now a member of the local Village Association which means I now spend a lot of time updating Facebook, website, painting the walls and recently spending an afternoon up to my armpits in a blocked drain! At least I now have somewhere to store my drumkit so wifey is happy!
So what about 2025 musically? Well it was a very good year for Prog in general with releases by a number of high profile Prog glitterati, however, it is not down to how far up the Prog tree you have climbed, there are also a number of releases by bands that have barely got above the lower branches that caught my eye (or ear) this year! I’m not going to say here who they are, I will leave it up to you to work that one out! Do I have to do all the bloody work around here or what?
As in previous years I have restricted my choices to studio albums. I don’t include live albums, re-releases or compilations as I think that skews the chart and is not representative of current releases! That said. I may do a Live album (of all time) chart at some time.
Thanks to everyone who has visited this site since I relaunched it and thanks to the many people in the ever growing Prog community who I am proud to call friends! You all know who you are!
Finally, I hope you have all had a great 2025 and a very Happy New Year to you all. Here’s hoping to meet many of you (again) at gigs in 2026! Let’s face it, the Prog community is the most friendly and welcoming group of people I have ever had the fortune to come across! We are just one big happy family and long may that continue! Love you all!
So here we go, The Progwinds Top 15 Albums of 2025 (IMHO)!
- Dave Bainbridge – On the Edge (of What Could Be
- Solstice – Clann
- Karmakanic – Transmutation
- Magic Pie – Maestro
- Steven Wilson – The Overview
- Gazpacho – Magic 8 Ball
- Hawkwind – There Is No Space For Us
- Lunatic Soul – The World Under Unsun
- Ghost of the Machine – Empires Must Fall
- The Wood Demons – In Rabbits and Corners
- Discipline – Breadcrumbs
- Auri – Candles & Beginnings
- IQ – Dominion
- The Emerald Dawn – The Land, The Sea, The Air
- Mostly Autumn – Seawater
Bubbling Under and Honourable Mentions
- Spriggan Mist – The Glare
- The John Hackett Band – Red Institution
- Dream Theater – Parasomnia
- Atomic Rooster – Circle the Sun
It’s like this …..
I am nearly at the end of compiling my top 15 Prog albums of 2025 …or so I thought!
Let me explain. The way I do it is as albums come out and I listen to them and like them I might add them to a playlist on iTunes! Don’t get me wrong I don’t download music for free, I purchase it because I firmly believe that if the artist has put their time into creating this music and I am enjoying it then the least I can do is to recompense them for their efforts.
What happens in the playlist stays in the playlist, sad to say the scoring goes onto a paper list. I give every album points out of ten as I listen to them, sometimes on a second or third listen (fourth or fifth even) points may be added or deducted! And what do points mean? Yeah … me scribbling away on an A4 pad sometimes until the early hours of the morning!
So anyway, here’s me thinking I’m all sorted and the top 15 is coming together nicely thank you then a certain band that shall be nameless – (check my Facebook page) release an album in the last week of November! I think I might have referred to it as “throwing a fucking curveball”! Anyway, panic over, it didn’t cause any major difficulties in the scoring! You see I am nicely situated because I can take this right up until 31 December before I publish the results. Having worked in the printing and publishing domain I can feel sorry for Jerry Ewing et al at PROG Magazine who are tied to the constraints of having to meet deadlines in order to get a printed copy out to the masses! BTW you do a bloody great job Jerry!
I digress! As I said I thought I was sorted, the top 5 are all but set in concrete give or take a late night listening but they will only move up or down minimally! So lets have a look at the rest….! This is where I took another look, then another look, then demanded a recount! I have 15 albums all on seven points! As I looked at the list I noticed a couple languishing below with six points which I immediately upgraded to sixth place, along with 16 others! Is there such a thing as VAR for Prog?
You see my problem! The easy (cowards) way out would just to make them all equal sixth but that’s not fair! The only fair way is for a serious listening binge! Sorry Ali (my wife) but this means listening in the kitchen while cooking, in the car, in the mancave and on headphones via the ancient iPod in bed! On a sidenote Alexa can fuck off! I’ve tried her with albums I have purchased on Amazon and she gets three songs in then throws a wobbler and tells me what the weather is at the moment where I live! I already know FFS Barry! We have windows and I have been out with Progdog! Yes I know it is fucking raining thank you!
Calm down Johnny you will get there!
I will, and I promise this years Progwinds Top 15 Prog albums of 2025 will be published before the final bell of Big Ben on New Years Eve. Right, headphones on and I’m off to bed!
Goodnight and Prog on
Johnny XX
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