What are some of your favorite indie/emo albums?
American Football's self titled debut is definitely one of my favorites, and they dropped a follow-up album this year which I actually really liked despite some mixed reviews overall. Touche Amore is a band I like a lot and they also dropped a great album from this year. The World is a Beautiful Place & I am no Longer Afraid to Die (longest band name) is another indie/emo band I've been very happy with, both their albums are really great. Going more indie than emo, The National is a great band, and there's other classics like Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea and Brand New - Devil & God are Raging Inside Me. Indie Rock can sometimes also cross territories into singer/songwriter (where one ends and the other begins might be blurry) and my all time favorite there would be Mark Kozelek - who has put out some incredible albums with Red House Painters (sadcore, slowcore, indie) and Sun Kil Moon (indie/folk). There's a lot of good music there, I would recommend Rollercoaster with Red House Painters and either Ghosts of the Great Highway or April with Sun Kil Moon. Another great album from 2016, and probably in my top3 is Damien Jurado's Visions of Us on the Land. It's a great mix of indie rock and psychedelic rock.
What is the last time you can recall being genuinely excited about a new prog album?
In terms of being excited I don't think I have to go back that far. I really liked Grace For Drowning, so when SW announced Raven, I was obviously very excited for it. Didn't quite live up to my expectations (I still enjoy it enough, 7/10 or so) but the hype beforehand was there mainly based on my appreciation for Insurgentes and Grace. However, I have felt a sort of prog fatigue in the last few years. There's usually 2 or 3 albums per year that I really like, but often I find myself disappointed unfortunately. A mix of too high expectations and nostalgic feelings for the genre I think. The genre is in a bit of a stand still and I'm waiting for someone to take a few steps forward rather than going back 40 years for inspiration, but I usually find something to appreciate at least. Also I feel like there's not a prog band right now that has delivered several amazing albums in a row. Usually there's a really good album surrounded by OK to decent albums. For example I loved Dear Hunter's Act IV, but only found myself liking Act V. Still maybe 7 or 7.5 out of 10 for me (which is good), but there hasn't been that one band delivering solid "top10 album of the year"-albums in a row on the prog front, which has happened in some other genres.
I am feeling cautiously optimistic about the new Pain of Salvation because from the teaser and from interviews, it feels like they left the 70s influence behind to return to a more modern sound, and in a world of Road Salts, SW's 70's trip, Opeth's 70's trip and so on, it would be great if PoS did indeed return to that style. Apart from that, I really liked Mike Vennart's (Oceansize) solo album from last year, and I think it was a nice mix of prog rock and alternative rock.