James LaBrie Prime Cuts

[El JoNNo]

I'm I the only one who has not heard of this?

https://www.metal-rules.com/review/viewreview.php?band=&album=&post_by=Anders%20Sandvall&rating=&month=&year=&pos=360

I turned on Live365 and heard James' voice but on a song I hadn't heard before.


EDIT:
Track listing
Afterlife (extended version)
Red Barchetta
Shores Of Avalon (Radio Mix)
Verterates
A Time And A Place
This Time This Way
His Voice
As A Man Thinks
A Simple Man
No Returning

August 2008
Released: 2008, Magna Carta
Rating: 4.0/5
Reviewer: Anders Sandvall

Singer James LaBrie is in no need of any further introduction. He is the front man of Dream Theater and a busy guest voice on other people's albums. If you look up the word progressive in a dictionary you will find LaBries name and picture beside the word.



The title PRIME CUTS hints what kind of album this is. It's a compilation of LaBries solo songs that he has done for this label and high lights from his long career as a solo artist a singer. This CD is a smorgasbord for all fans of LaBrie and Dream Theatre. The list of fellow musicians that participates on the album is so long that I choose not to count them in the review. But if I mention Mike Portnoy, Billy Sheehan, Steve Morse and Marty Friedman you know that the talent reaches above the stars.



10 tracks are featured on PRIME CUTS and the songs are taken from seven of his solo albums and tribute CD's from this label. Two of them are the extended version of "Afterlife" and a radio mix version of "Shores Of Avalon". The disc is long, it spans over almost 60 minutes. It's an excellent choice of songs and it's for sure the absolute best from all his albums. The material is technical, complex and progressive. LaBrie shows time after time that he is one of the best progressive singers in the world. He has a voice that is out of this world and he can do amazing things with it.



Sometimes I have trouble with appreciating progressive music but after having listened to this album a while I'm convinced that it's a masterpiece and a great way of presenting the best of James LaBrie. Not a fan out there will be disappointed. My personal favorite songs in this pot of gold are "Afterlife", "Shores Of Avalon", "A Time And A Place" and "This Time This Way".



PRIME CUTS will take the listener for a ride that lasts for several hours and it will fill your CD-player with music that never goes out of style. I strongly recommend this album to fans of either James LaBrie or Dream Theater or fans of progressive music. It might be the best compilation disc that includes LaBries solo work, so far. I think that all of the music featured on this album is out of print so this may be the close as you can get to hearing this material today.

[ZirconBlue]

I can't follow your link right now, since it's blocked at work, but the "Prime Cuts" discs are usually just compilations of stuff found elsewhere, basically a cash-grab by Magna Carta. 




EDIT:  Yeah, looking at the tracklist on Amazon, it's just stuff of his from various Magna Carta releases (MullMuzzler, Explorer's Club, Leonardo: The Absolute Man, and Working Man).

[El JoNNo]

It is a compilation but has different versions of songs and songs not released on official albums.

[ZirconBlue]

It is a compilation but has different versions of songs and songs not released on official albums.

See my edit, above.  I don't think there are any unreleased tracks on there, just a couple of edited versions of songs.

[El JoNNo]

Oh I see.

[SeRoX]

It's a compilation, that's all.

Afterlife and As A Man Thinks from Mullmuzzler are kind of different from the original ones. Others are the same.

[ZirconBlue]

Just to clarify:


From, Amazon, (edited for clarity):


1. Afterlife (extended version) (8:32) Artist: MullMuzzler; Album: MullMuzzler 2 (Original Unused Mix).

2. Red Barchetta (6:14) Album: Working Man (A Tribute to Rush).

3. Shores Of Avalon (radio mix) (4:16) Artist: MullMuzzler; Album: Keep It To Yourself.

4. Vertebrates (5:45) (FM Edit) Artist: Explorers Club; Album: Raising The Mammoth.

5. A Time And A Place (6:14) Album: Encores, Legends & Paradox (A Tribute To ELP)

6. This Time This Way (5:07) Album: Leonardo: The Absolute Man

7. His Voice (3:44) Artist: MullMuzzler; Album: Keep It To Yourself.

8. As A Man Thinks (8:11) Artist: MullMuzzler; Album: Keep It To Yourself.

9. A Simple Man (5:21) Artist: MullMuzzler; Album: MullMuzzler 2.

10. No Returning (4:13) (Back Again - An Edit) Artist: Explorers Club; Album: Age Of Impact.

[goo-goo]

The only songs that are different is Afterlife and Shores of Avalon. Afterlife is extended by 3 mins, which I thought it was better (although the trumpet solo kills it for me on this version), and Shores is edited a bit, can't quite remember what section is edited.

The other songs are from other albums like Explorers Club, ELP Tribute, Leonardo The Absolute Man, Mullmuzzler

[ZirconBlue]

The only songs that are different is Afterlife and Shores of Avalon. Afterlife is extended by 3 mins, which I thought it was better (although the trumpet solo kills it for me on this version), and Shores is edited a bit, can't quite remember what section is edited.

So, they take a weak song and make it longer, then edit a great song to be shorter?

[Nel_Annette]

Vertebrates has a radio edit? I didn't even know anything from Raising The Mammoth was radio worthy. 

(For the record I like Broad Decay, just never found anything Explorers Club did to be... memorable.)

[Perpetual Change]

This was released by a label called Magna Carta (now, I think, defunct), and was basically one of their many futile cash grabs. IIRC, Magna Carta was a record label that many guys from DT used to release their solo projects. As part of their agreements with Magna Carta, they were more-or-less required to take part in a projects with other Manga Carta clients. This led to some good things, but mostly some pretty terrible collaborative efforts (see: Explorer's Club). This particular compilation album, IIRC, was released after James and some of the other DT guys bolted from the label, and was just a way I guess for MC to get one last squeeze over what I can only imagine is already a pretty barren James LaBrie solo-project milk cow.  All of the material on it is from JLB's initial solo albums and collaborations with other Magna Carta artists.  If you're really interested in that stuff, you should be able to find most of it for pennies on amazon.com.

There's a Mike Portnoy "Prime Cuts" album out there somewhere, too, which is just a bunch of songs he played drums on.  I saw it once in a Best Buy store and lol'd pretty hard.  Still waiting for a true MP solo project.  As of right now, MP must be one of the very few artists to have a compilation album before he's released any actual solo records.   

[goo-goo]

Magna Carta is still around.

They have Steve Steven, Doug Pinnick, Dave Martone on their roster among others.

www.magnacarta.net

[Perpetual Change]

I could've sworn they'd gone under. Are they back, or am I getting them confused with InsideOut?

[goo-goo]

I could've sworn they'd gone under. Are they back, or am I getting them confused with InsideOut?

They are still around.

InsideOut went under and got picked by Century Media/SPV.

[wolfking]

I got this compilation, not bad, some good song choices.  I only got it because I couldn't get the Mulmuzzler cd's (which I have now acquired online).

Also, I will add, there is nothing redeeming about the pshyical cd and packaging.  Just a slingle flip carboard digipak cover with song titles and credits, no booklet what so ever.  Looking back now, I shouldn't have bothered buying it, just get all his work seperately.

[gabeh1018]

maybe it's just me, but i have a hard time listening to Mulmuzzler, frameshift, madman and sinners because of how James sounds on these CD's
it's not so much the melodies, but more in his delivery, inflection and just the way his voice sounds in general

anyone else get what I am saying?

[SeRoX]

Gabeh, believe me there are many people believe that James sounds better on his side projects than DT stuff. Well, this can be debatable.

I mean, in DT, James was not in the full control to arrange his vocal melodies and style since ADTOE. But Mullmuzzlers and his solo albums fairly presents his true color of voice. He's been in the full control, decided how they sounded.

Other side projects like Frameshift or Magna Carta stuff he shows his operatic side by using mostly his high register. Madman and Sinners is my absolute favoruite. I love his dark and rough sound. It sounds deep as well.

To sum up, I enjoy everything comes from him. And I'm glad there's been many differences in his works. Differences are good.

[MoraWintersoul]

To sum up, I enjoy everything comes from him. And I'm glad there's been many differences in his works. Differences are good.

Yeah. I like him because there's a lot more to him than first meets the ear.

[BlobVanDam]

To sum up, I enjoy everything comes from him. And I'm glad there's been many differences in his works. Differences are good.

Yeah. I like him because there's a lot more to him than first meets the ear.

MORE THAN MEETS THE EAR

[MoraWintersoul]

To sum up, I enjoy everything comes from him. And I'm glad there's been many differences in his works. Differences are good.

Yeah. I like him because there's a lot more to him than first meets the ear.

MORE THAN MEETS THE EAR

I didn't even know I was referencing something!

[BlobVanDam]

To sum up, I enjoy everything comes from him. And I'm glad there's been many differences in his works. Differences are good.

Yeah. I like him because there's a lot more to him than first meets the ear.

MORE THAN MEETS THE EAR

I didn't even know I was referencing something!

Sure it's supposed to be "more than meets the eye", but close enough for me!

[MoraWintersoul]

Sure it's supposed to be "more than meets the eye", but close enough for me!

Whatever makes you happy, Blobble Gobble

[?]

EDIT: Wrong thread

[BlobVanDam]

Sure it's supposed to be "more than meets the eye", but close enough for me!

Whatever makes you happy, Blobble Gobble

Just when you think you've heard 'em all.

[TheGreatPretender]

To sum up, I enjoy everything comes from him. And I'm glad there's been many differences in his works. Differences are good.

Yeah. I like him because there's a lot more to him than first meets the ear.

MORE THAN MEETS THE EAR

Although... Since they are 'prime cuts', shouldn't it be "More than MEATS the ear?"

[wolfking]

Sure it's supposed to be "more than meets the eye", but close enough for me!

Whatever makes you happy, Blobble Gobble

You just reminded me of this fantastic old school game;

[Beowulf]

Speaking of JLB, I can't seem to get enough of "Over The Edge", and would really like to make a ringtone of it.  But I'd really like to find an instrumental version (nothing against the lyrics, but some of the JLB/DT instrumentation is just amazing).  Anyone know where I may find something like that?

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

As a Man Thinks has one of his best performances ever. I really can't have enough of his Mullmuzzler CDs (considering I recently got into them).