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19. Devin Townsend - "PowerNerd"

Mr Townsend is no stranger to these lists. I adore his bombastic and often irreverent output. He is a prolific musical creator, churning out albums that exist right across our music’s wide spectrum. This is studio album number twenty-two. It was envisaged as his party metal album, a quickly recorded serenade to loud hedonism. Unfortunately, life, as it does, got in the way.

A quick succession of personal tragedies waylaid the creative gestation of this record and pivoted it towards being about resilience and self-reflection. What we get is a dialled-back version of Devin. Lots of his technical acrobatics of the past are conspicuous by their absence. It is still a rich and intricately layered album, but it has forgone his usual madcap race around a dozen genres.

To say it is straight forward is to do “Powernerd” an injustice, but the time signature swaps and tempo realignments are few and far between. Instead, Devin uses the rich diversity of Prog to paint an evocative and deeply personal account of his state of mind. Devin Townsend doesn’t do simple albums, but this is certainly his most uncomplicated for a long time. Still wonderfully arousing, the eccentricity is kept to the bare minimum allowing vulnerability and self-doubt to take centre stage. “Powernerd” is the sound of a complex soul laid bare and is all the more enjoyable for it.