Here's what I've gotten so far this year:
Big Big Train - Welcome To The Planet
Star One - Revel In Time
D'Virgilio Morse & Jennings - Troika
The Flower Kings - By Royal Decree
Marillion - An Hour Before It's Dark
Pattern-Seeking Animals - Only Passing Through
Of those six, I'd say BBT and P-SA are my favorites so far, but the new Marillion is really good too. The one I have neglected so far has been the new Star One, which I've maybe listened to once or twice. I just haven't been in the mood for prog metal lately, but I'm sure I'll give it it's due later this year.
Looking forward, I cannot wait for new albums by Porcupine Tree, The Tangent, Muse, and Ryo Okumoto (whose previous solo album Coming Through, is a favorite of mine). 2022 is shaping up to be another good year of music from bands/artists I love!
-Marc.
Well, in the last three months since my first post in this thread, I've only gotten the new Tangent and PT albums, so not many new ones since then, but I'll go ahead and rank these 8.
Big Big Train - Welcome To The Planet
The Tangent - Songs From The Hard Shoulder
Pattern-Seeking Animals - Only Passing Through
Porcupine Tree - Closure/Continuation
The Flower Kings - By Royal Decree
Marillion - An Hour Before It's Dark
D'Virgilio Morse & Jennings - Troika
Star One - Revel In Time
-Marc.
Well I haven't posted in here since mid-July, and the only new albums I've gotten since then have been Kaipa's
Urskog, The Neal Morse Band's
Morsefest 2021, Lonely Robot's
A Model Life, Coheed And Cambria's
Vaxis II: A Window Of The Waking Mind, The Aristocrat's
With Primuz Chamber Orchestra, Ryo Okumoto's
The Myth Of The Mostrophus, Tim Bowness'
Butterfly Mind, Steve Hackett's
Genesis Revisited Live: Seconds Out & More, James Labrie's
Beautiful Shade Of Grey, Muse's
Will Of The People, The Mars Volta's self-titled reunion album, David Longdon's
Door One, Big Big Train's
Summer Shall Not Fade, and most recently, the King Crimson At 50 BD/DVD/CD box set.
Of course, I'm not including any re-issues like the 40th Anniversary Box Set for
Moving Pictures or the 12-disc IQ
Archive Collection, or the recent Ayreon remix/remaster of the
Universal Migrator albums. And while I've gotten those above albums, I'll admit I have probably only listened to a few of them once or tiwce (like JLB's album, or the new CAC). I'll rank the ones that I've really gotten into, though:
Big Big Train - Welcome To The Planet
David Longdon - Door One
Big Big Train - Summer Shall Not Fade
The Tangent - Songs From The Hard Shoulder
Pattern-Seeking Animals - Only Passing Through
Ryo Okumoto - The Myth Of The Mostrophus
Porcupine Tree - Closure/Continuation
The Flower Kings - By Royal Decree
Marillion - An Hour Before It's Dark
D'Virgilio Morse & Jennings - Troika
Star One - Revel In Time
Lonely Robot - A Model Life
Muse - Will Of The People
For the rest, I definitely need more time to really think about how I feel about them, but the ones listed above I've given plenty of time to so I feel comfortable with their relative rankings and placements. I know it probably comes off as being a huge fanboy, but the music out of the BBT camp this year has been amazing, and features the last studio performances by David Longdon (that we know of), so they'll definitely be treasured albums for sure. The Tangent is always a top-album for me whenever they release new music, and Andy is hard at work on more music for 2023! Both P-SA and Ryo are filling in the void left by Spock's Beard, and the PT reunion was suitably well-received by me (even going so far as to order the big artbook version). The rest is fairly in the same order, but I threw in Lonely Robot and Muse at the bottom - with LR, it's definitely more of the same from the John Mitchell project (though that's not a BAD thing), and with Muse, while fairly enjoyable (with a couple standout tracks), its short length and otherwise middling song writing sits at the bottom of albums I've listened to this year.
I feel like I didn't get into as much music this year as years past, but maybe there just wasn't much coming out as many bands were either touring or just in the studio for an album NEXT year (looking at Riverside, Haken, Dream Theater and more), so 2023 should prove to be another exciting year for new music from the bands that I love.
-Marc.