One of the great joys of music is discovering an album that anybody in the United States is rarely familiar with. Such an album is “Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds,” a recording that springs with life, excitement, brilliance and the telling of a definite story.

Based on the legendary science fiction novel by H.G. Wells, this album is a retelling of a journalist’s accounts of 19th century London being invaded by martians of the planet Mars.

British composer, producer, and arranger Jeff Wayne combines the talents of a full orchestra, the elements of progressive and symphonic rock and familiar British actors and artists, such as six-time Oscar-nominated Richard Burton (the journalist), to recreate Wells’s fascinating story.

Released in 1978, the album became more familiarized with The United Kingdom, and it was a hit.

Since then, its popularity has gained a following all over the world with stage tours and even a video game.

Upon listening to it for the first time, I found myself to be thrown into the album itself and coming down an hour and a half later, breathless from its magnitude and ability to sweep its audience into the story, and it never lets go.

This album is truly one of the best I’ve heard this year, and I’d recommend it to anyone interested in the annals of science fiction and progressive rock. It is a masterpiece to another world.