Mabuta’s fun ‘Finish the Sun’ works in the background at friendly get togethers, but also boasts the kind of musical detail that invites closer scrutiny.

If we’ve had and lost love, we know what it’s like to remember minute details like those in Jimmy Webb’s “MacArthur Park.”

With ‘Fractal Sextet,’ guitarist/composer Stephan Thelen doesn’t necessarily introduce new ideas, but he takes good ideas he already developed and puts them into a new framework. That makes the music that resulted from this sound just as fresh.

Even 45 years later, ‘Chicago XI’ isn’t their best-loved original-lineup album. Yet, for better or worse, it remains one of the most memorable of the era.

‘Masquerading With Dawn’ is definitive proof that a few music aficionados and die-hard Fruupp fans can do something that’s just really cool.

Pink Floyd’s dream-like “Yet Another Movie” is a rare high point from the transitional ‘Momentary Lapse of Reason,’ released 35 years ago today.

All of Brian Eno’s strikingly varied experience was brought to bear 30 years ago this week with an LP that was both booty wagging and intelligent.

Su Andersson’s ‘Brave’ is an album that follows in the great assertive tradition of progressive folk, meeting the blue-jeaned coffee-house muster of old.

Bob Mould’s post-Husker Du band Sugar debuted 30 years ago today with ‘Copper Blue,’ then soon vanished. Here’s where to find everything they recorded.

This concludes Mick Raubenheimer’s series examining ‘Joe Garage,’ the three-part rock opera released by Frank Zappa in September and November 1979.