Long Earth hail from Scotland, and their fourth (and easily finest) album, Towards the Sky has been wowing the progressive world.

The album is inspired by all things astronomical, including exploration of space (and hasn’t this year been wondrous for those of us who dream of a better future beyond the confines of this planet?).

The lineup is Maaike Siegerist, whose vocals are simply stunning, Renaldo McKim on guitars & backing vocals, founder Mike Baxter on keyboards, David Mclachlan on bass, and Kenny McCabe playing drums and providing backing vocals.

There is well over an hour of music to enjoy here, with eleven tracks. It has just been released, and you can obtain both digital and physical copy at https://longearth.bandcamp.com/album/towards-the-sky and it is recommended that you go over there.

Seahorses starts us off, a song for those of us who consider themselves to be a little different, and don’t wish to be tied in by so-called “normality” in today’s ever noisier corporate societal expectations. Anyone would think this lot had spoken to me! Immediately you are hit by a blast of proggy goodness, guitar & keys in harmony, a thumping rhythm section, certainly in mood capturing those halcyon days of the early second wave of UK prog, and this is an extended intro before Siegerist first delights us with her lovely voice, expressing the concept of individuality perfectly (BE YOURSELF!), with sympathy and emotional connection. The whole track moves along at a fair old pace and has the not altogether unwelcome effect of making this listener happy. It all sounds fresh as a daisy, and for this we must acknowledge Matt Harvey at Maybank Studios.

‍Breathless is a paeon to our beautiful planet, travellers in space looking upon it and concluding that it is to be treasured and protected. I played this on my radio show last month, and the dramatic organ is a great way to start a song, the ghostly guitar rising above it, the voice dancing with our sense of wonder gazing at the incredible sights we take for granted too often. We have an official video for this embedded below for you, and this is a contender for this website’s “single of 2026” award. I really do like the guitar solo which takes us into the final third and, indeed, then closes proceedings, bright and breezy.

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Artificial Child is a rumination on the now somewhat ubiquitous AI by its co-creator. Where will it take us? Lyrically, of course, it could also be a philosophical take on how God regards His creations. Musically, this is a fine slab of pop/prog, the keys particularly raising the mood, the voice sensuous in its melodic joy.

Wanderlust chronicles a journey from The Netherlands to Scotland, the subject deciding to stay at the green end destination, having started off at oil refineries and ports, via London, sating the urge to travel through simple happiness where she came to. Its mood takes me back even further to those heady days of the more commercial Renaissance material and Strawbs, McCabe shining here in particular with his timekeeping alongside Mclachlan’s bassline. The synths are kind, the guitars are rhythmical, the solo is uplifting, and it is simply a joyous piece of music.

Colours is a love song, and I love the line “and all the colours are brighter, when you step into the room”. Again, they could have been talking to me, because this is precisely how I feel when the love of my life comes in. Sentiments such as this are so important. Yes, all of us like ruminations on world events, the injustices which surround us, but Long Earth perform a very important service here by reminding us that sometimes simply enjoying the moment and love is fundamental to our health and happiness, and that word is just how I feel when I hear the voice on this track, lilting and deadly serious. The mid-song instrumental passage is a symphonic delight, synth-led, pulsing away, some thundering skins work at play as well, the type of track we shall see whether a reconstituted Asia can still do as well with the imminent release of their new opus. You are still tapping your feet and nodding your head long after.

Monochrome laments our destruction of the world’s rainforests, the lungs of the planet, and warns us that painting the world in human monochrome will have desperate, unintended consequences. This is a similar message to that given by The Emerald Dawn in their recent environmental opuses, and the riffs beneath the voice give rise to a sense of urgency, the quieter passages thoughtful and as complex as the output from that venerable band, thus showing in very clear terms the progressive roots of Long Earth, the guitar and synth counterpoints of particular interest. It is embedded at the foot of this review.

First Casualty is interesting, paying tribute to those brave journalists who not only risk their lives to brings us reportage from war zones (the first casualty of war, of course, being the truth), but pay the ultimate price, and the exceptional Marie Colvin came to mind when considering this track, although the victim here is male. The track is just shy of the epic length and has at its heart a very cool bassline groove. Naturally, given the subject matter, this song loses a lot of the lightness in the pieces which preceded it, but there is still a melodic core here, the guitar solo lamenting, rather than screaming, the vocal cries ghostly and mournful as the intensity rises a strong passage led by the guitar as the ambulance arrives.

Moon and Mars considers the likes of Bezos and fellow billionaires as they travel into space, dreaming young boys’ dreams, and the lightness of touch returns, the voice and band combining to soar to the heavens, with a quite wonderful guitar solo the ship’s engine. The closing segment is delightfully pretty.

We conclude with epic time, and The Astronomer, which is the story of Galileo Galilei, whose observations brought down upon him the wrath of the then all-powerful Catholic Church. The opening passage is pastoral prog wrought large. Close your eyes, and you can see the ghost of Genesis 12-string delights rising from their slumbers, and I must say with this track, Big Big Train have a serious rival for my affections in vying for favourite passages of such music in 2026, and most certainly, this beautiful voice taking us on this journey must be regarded as a highlight of the year. The synth soundscapes take us to the objects this genius of men observed all those years ago, and the guitar work is simply classic prog fans dream in this, a TOTT or WAW for our time.

What a wonderful, warm album this is. What a delight to put it on and lose yourself in the universe Long Earth discuss and take us to. Sometimes, it is simply enough to listen and enjoy, to allow the joy of life to flow over you musically. This album is a very good representation of that basic need. Very highly recommended.