This award is up there with my favourites, and features every year.

The “Topographic Oceans” award, so named after the classic Yes album which featured four songs on four sides of vinyl and virtually singlehandedly gave punk rock an excuse to exist.

Only tracks in excess of 20 minutes qualify for this, and they have to be good - damned good.

The Windmill absolutely push every single button, and their Fear wins this award hands down. From my review:

“Fear starts us off, over 22 minutes of music, so an “uber-epic”. It is very strong Scandinavian symphonic rock music, the soundscapes curated and presented with loving care and strong playing in the manner of classic bands of yore, with Clason especially providing for a classy Tull flavour on his flute, the narrative talking of a dream of freedom within a conversational context, the subject wanting to be like the object of his admiration, running free. Viita when he appears has a very expressive voice, and the length does not deter the listener at all, flowing beautifully (the sensitive passage twelve minutes in is quite lovely, developing into a musical narrative worthy of comparison with Camel at their height), a collective which sounds deeply comfortable with each other, and this wonderful track is certainly in the frame for this website’s “Tales from Topographic Ocean” award in 2024, this the prize given to those lengthy tomes which put one in mind of the tome to end all tomes”.