The Official Flying Colors Thread

[The Letter M]

I mean conceptually it's fine as a stand-alone thing, but when you start lining up all of his albums and they all follow the same structure, it gets annoying.

Well, first of all, this is an album by Flying Colors, not Neal Morse, and sure his name is attached to it, but there's also the minds of Portnoy, LaRue, Morse and MacPherson as well. For all we know, one of the other guys wrote that song. Neal has admitted to taking a bit of a backseat on this project, and from the sound of it, I hear more guitar and vocals and bass than I do keys, and none of the samples from the EPK even have lead vocals from Neal, so this be a case where Neal isn't a majority here.

Also, Neal's albums are all about as different from each other as his albums were with Spock's Beard (which seem to be a bit more similar in of themselves, especially The Light through V). However, they are a bit similar to OTHER albums he has done...
Testimony - Double album with chunks of music (Parts) that tell different sections of the story (Classic Concept Story album, like Snow)
One - Album with a few long songs/epics, a lot of short songs, and none of them segue
? - A "single-song" album with each movement divided into 12 smaller parts (This format revisited later with The Whirlwind)
Sola Scriptura - Album with 3 huge epics, and one small song (kind of like Bridge Across Forever)
Lifeline - Opening epic, followed by 4 short songs, a HUGE epic, and closed with a short song (this format, aside from the closer, is similar to V)
Testimony 2 - Structurally similar to Testimony, but for obvious reasons, as it is a continuation.

To me, each of his albums are all structurally different, despite them SOUNDING the same in some parts (like a theme in "The Creation" sounds a bit similar to a theme from Testimony), but that's just how Neal writes. His songs tend to influence each other, but I think having Mike on his albums helps keep him from repeating himself lately (as noted in Randy's recent Studio Diary entry).

-Marc.

[theseoafs]

Dancing with Eternal Glory is a closer with vaguely spiritual lyrics. Infinite Fire is a song -- also a closer, mind you -- that may or may not be written by Neal Morse about God.

Don't tell me you guys don't see it. The structures are identical.

[darkshade]

? - A "single-song" album with each movement divided into 12 smaller parts (This format revisited later with The Whirlwind)

Overall, I agree. However, what they did within that 12-track framework is completely different than what Neal did on "?" (besides being 17 minutes longer)

[Ħ]

Lots of cut-and-paste overtures: Testimony, Testimony 2, The Whirlwind.

Lots of reprises, whether they are in the album or an individual epic: Testimony, Testimony 2, ?, The Whirlwind, One (kind of), All of the Above, Stranger in Your Soul, Duel with the Devil, So Many Roads, Seeds of Gold.

And from the looks of it, it seems like 'Infinite Fire' is along the same lines.

[bosk1]

Just get out now

[Ħ]

[The Letter M]

Lots of cut-and-paste overtures: Testimony, Testimony 2, The Whirlwind.

Lots of reprises, whether they are in the album or an individual epic: Testimony, Testimony 2, ?, The Whirlwind, One (kind of), All of the Above, Stranger in Your Soul, Duel with the Devil, So Many Roads, Seeds of Gold.

And from the looks of it, it seems like 'Infinite Fire' is along the same lines.

I mean, that's just the way he writes. You could throw in all his stuff from Spock's Beard in there as well - The Light, The Water, The Healing Colors Of Sound, and The Great Nothing, as well as his solo-album effort A Whole 'Nother Trip.

You could probably make "connections" to many Yessongs and point out things like that and say that Jon Anderson did a lot of similar things in all his songs throughout his career with Yes. It's just that some people have a certain way of writing. I'm sure one could point out similarities even in DT's career between songs and albums. I think Neal tries his best to keep things fresh from album to album, but when he writes an epic, he just uses what he knows, and it just happens that he bases his epics on the Overture-Themes-Development-Recap-Finale formula, that MANY artists have used over the decades for epics.

Also, did you like V or Lifeline? Because those albums have fewer "reprises" across the album, just within their respective self-contained epics. And you'd be happy to know the next solo album will be of similar structure, and not a full album-length concept.

-Marc.

[Ħ]

I haven't heard V. Lifeline was okay. There were some good songs.  So Many Roads is pretty good. Lots of bad songs though.

[ZKX-2099]

I hope you guys bashing Neal's reprises don't listen to Devin Townsend.

[The Letter M]

I hope you guys bashing Neal's reprises don't listen to Devin Townsend.

Does Devin do that a lot? I keep seeing his name pop up all over this place but I have yet to listen to ANYTHING this man has done...although that album cover with the alien sure made me think his music was probably pretty silly (in a fun way).

-Marc.

[Jamesman42]

Lots of cut-and-paste overtures: Testimony, Testimony 2, The Whirlwind.

Lots of reprises, whether they are in the album or an individual epic: Testimony, Testimony 2, ?, The Whirlwind, One (kind of), All of the Above, Stranger in Your Soul, Duel with the Devil, So Many Roads, Seeds of Gold.

And from the looks of it, it seems like 'Infinite Fire' is along the same lines.

How are you coming to this conclusion? I feel like I am being trolled.

[KevShmev]

I hope you guys bashing Neal's reprises don't listen to Devin Townsend.

Does Devin do that a lot? 

No.  He did it on the four DTP albums because they were all connected to one another (and he did reprises in a far different way than Neal does), but he normally does not really at all, despite what ZKX was wrongly implying. 

[ZBomber]

Didn't see the cover until just now, but that is really cool.

[Ultimetalhead]

This is fucking tasty stuff.

[Jamesman42]

This is fucking tasty stuff.

I know, the cover is very nice!

[Dimitrius]

This is fucking tasty stuff.

Agreed!

[Zook]

This is fucking tasty stuff.

Agreed!

Hell yeah.















I love Cinnamon Teddy Grahams.

[skydivingninja]

I hope you guys bashing Neal's reprises don't listen to Devin Townsend.

Does Devin do that a lot? 

No.  He did it on the four DTP albums because they were all connected to one another (and he did reprises in a far different way than Neal does), but he normally does not really at all, despite what ZKX was wrongly implying.

There are also a few nuggets elsewhere in his music:
-There's a rhythm from the SYL song "Info Dump" that spells "OM" in morse code.  The same rhythm is used in "Color Your World" during the "YOU ARE A PUPPET" bit.
-The SYL song "Decimator" contains borrowed vocal melodies from "Depth Charge" and "Gaia."
-The "away away away away away" bit in "OM" is taken from a riff in "Regulator."

I'm sure UMH knows a few more.  But they're in a much different way than Neal does, as Kev mentioned. 

[darkshade]

Lots of cut-and-paste overtures: Testimony, Testimony 2, The Whirlwind.

Lots of reprises, whether they are in the album or an individual epic: Testimony, Testimony 2, ?, The Whirlwind, One (kind of), All of the Above, Stranger in Your Soul, Duel with the Devil, So Many Roads, Seeds of Gold.

And from the looks of it, it seems like 'Infinite Fire' is along the same lines.

you must hate Frank Zappa

[Nihil-Morari]

you must hate Frank Zappa

Yeah, because he writes a lot of epics and uses overtures and reprises like a madman.


 

[Ultimetalhead]

you must hate Frank Zappa

Yeah, because he writes a lot of epics and uses overtures and reprises like a madman.


 

Let's face it, What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body (reprise) is a total cop out.

[Nihil-Morari]

 

[darkshade]

But he DOES use a lot of reprises. Conceptual Continuity?

[Nihil-Morari]

Aaah, if you're talking about CC then I understand.

But mostly the Conceptional Continuity is speculation by fans, ánd it's not often done within the music, more within recurring 'lyrical' themes (ie. the poodle, or references to Eddy (are you kidding me))

[skydivingninja]

This is pretty good stuff.

[unklejman]

On track 2 now and I'm absolutely loving this stuff.

[skydivingninja]

Just finished listening to the whole thing and while there's a lot of stuff that I really like there are some aspects that I don't.  More detail once I've given the album a few more spins.

[Dark Castle]

Son of a bitch, you guys are making me jealous. I really want to listen to this.

[Jamesman42]

Son of a bitch, you guys are making me jealous. I really want to listen to this.

Yeah, the album art is really good.

[Dark Castle]

Son of a bitch, you guys are making me jealous. I really want to listen to this.

Yeah, the album art is really good.

Oh yeah, I googled that, I liked it a lot, it kind of fits how I feel in life at the moment actually.

[Nekov]

Just finished listening to the whole thing and while there's a lot of stuff that I really like there are some aspects that I don't.  More detail once I've given the album a few more spins.

Keep rubbing it on our faces.....

[unklejman]

I just kinda had to lol at Fool in My Heart. First the MP vocals, and then does Neal doing those harmony bits sound like Weird Al to anyone else? 

[Dimitrius]

Just finished listening to the whole thing and while there's a lot of stuff that I really like there are some aspects that I don't.  More detail once I've given the album a few more spins.

Keep rubbing it on our faces.....

I've listened to it too! Oh yeah! Get some rubbing!!

[skydivingninja]

I mean, it all SOUNDS pretty good, and there are plenty of good parts, but there weren't any moments I can recall that made me go "wow!"  Maybe if they do a follow-up, when they're all more comfortable with each other, we'll get a real masterpiece.  But there is promise.  Especially in the vocal harmony, jazzy prog, and catchy chorus departments. 

[unklejman]

There were a few wow moments for me. I'll have to note which songs, I've only listened through a couple of times.  I can say now Kayla is a homerun in my opinion.