I liked the first one because it had struck new ground musically. Yes, there was the Beatles in it, and there was pop, and singer-songwriter. Nothing either Portnoy or Morse had done before.
The second one was the opposite, it was exactly what you would expect from a Morse-Portnoy project. Proggy, Morsey, preachy. That pleased people who liked Morse's solo stuff, but I found it predictable and dull.