Fun fact: Despite my newfound love for Gong and its associated spinoff Pierre Moerlen's Gong, they did also make what may just be the worst album of all time, 1986's Breakthrough. Unsurprisingly omitted from their Spotify and iTunes selections, this plasticky, misguided cheese-synth album retains only the shallowest hint of Moerlen's creative prog-jazz-fusion masterpieces (and none at all of the original Gong). Most mind-bending is "The Road Out" which consists of Moerlen reading the words of none other than L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics in a stuffed-up, heavily accented, barely-melodic voice over what sounds like VHS workout tape music. It's followed by the bizarrely-named Romantic Punk, which is neither romantic nor punk and sounds like a hesitant attempt to sprinkle some vibraphone onto a sample backing track that abruptly ends after barely 2 minutes.
Albums of the year
2025
Shamal - Gong
2024
Bon Voyage - Melody’s Echo Chamber
Petunia - Tonstartssbandht
Turn This Mutha Out - Idris Muhammad
2023
Emily’s D+Evolution - Esperanza Spalding
The Dreaming Room - Laura Mvula
2022
2021
2020
The Smile Sessions - The Beach Boys
Summer Flings
Albums that debuted in the Top 10 but were eventually demoted
Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer - Of Montreal