Welcome to The Tower – by Dr. B. (Durrell Bowman, Ph.D.), 2024, 47:05: a Progressive, Pop-Rock, Experimental-Electronic Concept Album about One Person’s Path into and Exit from Higher Education. It’s available for streaming and/or download for $7 Canadian (approximately $5 US) on Bandcamp. You can choose to pay more, if you want to. Some of the eleven songs are new or new-ish, but often evoking certain existing styles and/or artists … especially from, say, 1969 to 1984. (I guess that’s my “Eras!” 🤪) Some of the songs are not so recent (one is as old as high school old!), but re-written with new words and re-arranged. The three weirdest pieces were composition-course projects to which I’ve now added words and vocal effects.

The album’s music is like riff-oriented pop-rock in the first six songs, but on keyboards, so vaguely like the Who, Supertramp, the Alan Parsons Project, Rush, aspects of Peter Gabriel and David Bowie, and the darker side of ’80s synth rock, like Ultravox, depending on the song. Later songs are more electronic-experimental or a bit like weird film music, some with spoken or sung, Laurie Anderson-type, sometimes pitch-shifted vocals. The last, bonus song (not really part of the concept) is probably the most prog-like. I do like to put some things in 7, though!

You can listen to a song’s audio and read its lyrics–by clicking the button for that.  There are also album (“liner”) notes about the various, nerdy tools I used. For unlimited streaming using Bandcamp’s free app and for a high-quality download, please purchase the album. The text-based information, including the complete lyrics, is also available as a PDF within a “bonus item” zip file. That also includes the album cover as a separate file, and it appears once you’ve purchased the album. Thanks!

Each song has a lyrics-based video, including images and visual effects. The album’s videos are available on YouTube. Here they are, starting with the opening song.