It’s quite simple – list five songs, preferably accompanied by a word or two explaining their significance.  Not your five greatest songs of all time, but five songs you’re really into at the moment in time.

• Mostly Autumn – Unoriginal Sin.
  Listening to last years excellent “Live 2009″ album reminded me of just how powerful a piece of music this is; some tremendous multilayered harmonies that show just what a band with three top-class female vocalists can do, and carries an incredible emotional charge.  It’s also one of the relatively few recent Mostly Autumn songs where Heather Findlay is the sole composer of both lyrics and music.  Quite unlike anything the band have done before, I wonder how much this song is an indicator of the sort of direction Heather might take in her solo career.
• Breathing Space – Questioning Eyes
  Breathing Space’s big epic was the Classic Rock Society’s song of the year for 2009, and was a worthy winner.  Like the previous song, it’s one where knowing something of the back-story heightens the emotional impact; for me, just hearing the intro always brings a lump to the throat.  There’s a great YouTube video of the first ever live performance of this song at Bilston Robin 2 last May, a gig at which I was present, and I remember congratulating co-writer Iain Jennings immediately afterwards.
• Panic Room – Dark Star
  Yes, another female-fronted prog song, I’m afraid.  This song is to “Satellite” what “Apocalypstick” was to “Visionary Position“, only with dramatic organ chords instead of the spiralling electric violin.
• Dream Theater – Trail of Tears
  DT’s “Falling into Infinity” album gets some stick for being too slick and radio-friendly, and reeling in the extended muso jams that characterised just about everything else they’ve ever done.  Only right at the end of the album did they get to do a 13-minute epic, and this is that.  John Petrucci’s solo is just jaw-dropping.
• Gustav Holst – Mars, Bringer of War
  Before I discovered rock’n'roll in my teens, I listened to a lot of classical music under the influence of my parents.  I always loved “Mars”, and it’s probably the reason than as soon as I discovered Rock I headed straight for the section labelled “METAL!!”. This may have been written in 1916 and be played by an orchestra, but this is surely one of the first ever heavy metal instrumentals.  And of course, it’s in 5/4 time, which is very Prog.

To join this meme, choose your five songs, and list them on your blog, Livejournal or whatever.  If you don’t have a blog, just leave an entry in the comments here.