Well... better late than never. Earlier this week, I downloaded "?" off of iTunes. It's everything I expected and more. Really, I for some reason thought that Neal Morse's solo stuff would be a more upfront, less proggy version of Transatlantic. But, actually, I think I like "?" a fair bit better than I like any of the Transatlantic records. That's not me taking shots at TA, as I do love them... but ? is just so much more compact, and the melodies are so much stronger than those on the Whirlwind.
I now feel compelled to spend way more on music this month than I should, and purchase the rest of Morse's solo stuff. Though I won't, because I'm really having a good time digesting what "?" is all about, since the lyrics seem rather mysterious and less "forward" than what I expected.
Funny aside: One of the nurses at the daycare I work at during summer (she's about 60) is very religious and always talking about biblical things to people who will listen. We got on the topic of worship music and she made a comment that she was disappointed with most of it since, in her words, "the spirit is capable of inspiring much more creativity than that stuff."
So, I burnt her a copy of "?" and told her that, while she might not like the music, I'm sure it'd be something out of the box. After listening to it, she returned to work the next day and told me that she hadn't left the house all night because she was listening to it over and over again. She practically had tears in her eyes, and was asking me a bunch of questions about who Neal Morse was, and a bunch of other questions I didn't know the answer to. Then, she went ahead and told me what the album was about
Anyway, thanks for the rec's, guys!