The album art kind of put me off a little when this album was first announced. I definitely had low expectations coming off TSoAD and TGA, plus Neal's Sola Gratia and TA's The Absolute Universe were good, but didn't quite get there for me compared to his previous work, and I thought I&D would be Neal-by-numbers.
It is not.
All the talk about how Neal's 'sound' is basically the same every album he's on, this album blows that argument right out the water. While the music is not a major stylistic shift, it does give us new things to listen to. New keyboard sounds and textures, Eric has some Petruccisms in his playing in the best possible way. The album is brimming with creative ideas, and I also hear a lot more complex sections than I'm used to with a Neal Morse album. I could really see a very casual Neal fan loving this, like someone who only likes Spock's and early Transatlantic. Not because it sounds like that, but because it doesn't. The Neal Morse Band has its own identity compared to those other bands, and seeks to do something different.
Disc 1 is labelled the 'pop disc' or the 'lighter' disc, but it is plenty proggy and interesting throughout, and it doesn't sound like just pop music to me, 60s pop anyway, aside from a few things here and there. Besides, prog rock grew out of the 60s pop sound. Disc one is merely the first 8 tracks on this progressive rock album, because all 10 songs don't fit on one CD.