Official Neal Morse Appreciation Thread

[kaos2900]

I’d love to see ‘The Door’ from Sola Scriptura as the encore song.

That would be amazing. It does seem that TGA is shorter than TSOAD so it would make sense that they'd have more time for a 30 minute encore. Plus, the heaviness would fit in nice with the darker TGA.

All that said, I bet it's Alive Again.

[KevShmev]

As awesome as Similitude is, because the last tour saw it played in full every night, I don't think any of it being part of the encore is something they would refer to as "special" in this context. I am expecting an epic like Alive Again, The Door or maybe even one of the early Transatlantic ones.  I am sure I will be way off.

[gmillerdrake]

As awesome as Similitude is, because the last tour saw it played in full every night, I don't think any of it being part of the encore is something they would refer to as "special" in this context. I am expecting an epic like Alive Again, The Door or maybe even one of the early Transatlantic ones.  I am sure I will be way off.

It’ll be a (4) song Pantera set.

[KevShmev]

It’ll be a (4) song Pantera set.

[axeman90210]

I’d love to see ‘The Door’ from Sola Scriptura as the encore song.

Yes please. Would very much like to see Eric rip on that Paul Gilbert solo in person.

[The Letter M]

So while I think TSOAD had some stand-out tracks, I think TGA has some strong clusters itself. One of my favorite runs has to be all of Chapter 2, particularly the "Dark Melody"/"I Got To Run"/"To The River". I also really love the pair of "Fighting With Destiny"/"Vanity Fair", with the latter of the two reminding me of some of the quirky bits of Genesis' The Lamb. Heck, "I Got To Run" is so similar to "Broadway Melody of 1974", it's all I can think of when I hear it, but it's got that soaring chorus with Eric singing, so it is definitely different enough!

Whoever said that TGA isn't as proggy as TSOAD probably doesn't know what to look for, as I feel like this is as proggy as TSOAD, if not MORE so. The structures, meter changes, melodic choices, instrument arrangements and uses, lots of powerful playing throughout, makes parts of this record stand out to me. It's only been a couple of weeks since I've started listening to it, but it's beginning to sink in, its themes and motifs are growing within me. I am sort of glad that this album has its own set of themes to stand on, as if it had reused a lot of ones from TSOAD, I feel like it wouldn't have its own identity, despite being a sequel, it's still a different story. Doing what they did with Testimony 2 made sense, because it was still Neal's personal story, but this one needed to have a fresh set of ideas, and I'm glad they churned out a sequel that has a lot of unique ideas apart from TSOAD!

-Marc.

[gmillerdrake]

I’d love to see ‘The Door’ from Sola Scriptura as the encore song.

Yes please. Would very much like to see Eric rip on that Paul Gilbert solo in person.

That would be beautiful to see.

[ytserush]

A half-dozen listens in and I still like disc two better than disc one and I find I like this a lot better without any context as a concept album and and close ties to Similitude.  Don't know what that means yet. Hopefully, I'll have this solved before the show in two weeks.

One question I have:  Are Mike's vocals really auto-tuned?

[gmillerdrake]

Whoever said that TGA isn't as proggy as TSOAD probably doesn't know what to look for, as I feel like this is as proggy as TSOAD, if not MORE so.

Yeah....that was me and I no longer agree with myself.      When I mentioned that I had only two or three listens in....maybe one start to finish listen. The comment was based off of that (outiside of the Overatures) there are no real long extended ‘instrumental’ breaks of prog jamming. Minute or two here and there.....but nothing real long.
 Anyway....after multiple listens and being able to absorb this album more....it certainly hits the quota for prog rock. Loving the album and today I had the chance to listen to it all again I and what stuck out today was the guitar work/solo’s of Eric. He really friggin’ brings it again.

[DT2003]

And so, little by little, and with each passing listen...

TGA > TSOAD, any day of the week.

This will be true for 99 out of 100 fans of NMB.

THAT is some statement.......

and the last part is probably just flt flase.

Yeah it’s incredibly innacurate. Nothing against TGA as it’s a masterpiece as well, but TSoaD is perfect.

I have to apologize for this post. I now have about 10 listens and I am absolutely in love with this album. I honestly thought TSoaD was the peak for this band as that album is simply perfect, but man TGA is possibly just as good. It amazes me the quality of music Neal consistently puts out. I have always said that anything involving Neal and Mike is amazing and this album shows that once again. And the addition of Eric and Bill (and of course Randy) makes it even better.

[Architeuthis]

I've listened about four times now and I agree that it's right up there with TSOAD. I love the curve balls in the musical direction for TGA, it keeps it fresh in the continuation of the story.
So here's the question:  If you combine these two albums into one big album, would this be the biggest, most grand, and epic concept album in the history of Rock-n-Roll??

[SwedishGoose]

I've listened about four times now and I agree that it's right up there with TSOAD. I love the curve balls in the musical direction for TGA, it keeps it fresh in the continuation of the story.
So here's the question:  If you combine these two albums into one big album, would this be the biggest, most grand, and epic concept album in the history of Rock-n-Roll??

Definiteley not.... there are a lot of bands who have done concepts over multiple albums. The 9 Ayreon albums are all part of one grand epic for instance.

[Architeuthis]

I've listened about four times now and I agree that it's right up there with TSOAD. I love the curve balls in the musical direction for TGA, it keeps it fresh in the continuation of the story.
So here's the question:  If you combine these two albums into one big album, would this be the biggest, most grand, and epic concept album in the history of Rock-n-Roll??

Definiteley not.... there are a lot of bands who have done concepts over multiple albums. The 9 Ayreon albums are all part of one grand epic for instance.

Whoa!!  I did not know that.  Are the Ayreon albums as good of quality? If so,  I need to check them out.. 

[Mladen]

So, now that we've had the album for a week, what are your favorite song? These are the ones I like the best:

Welcome to the world
Vanity fair
Dark melody
Fighting with destiny
Welcome to the world 2
A Love that never dies

[DTA]

Venture In Black stands out to me above all the others. I also like Fighting With Destiny, The Element Of Fear, and Freedom Calling. Honestly, I’ve listened probably about 10 times so far and the album is just not grabbing me yet as a whole. I could use a few more throwbacks to some of the Similitude themes for overall conceptual cohesion, and fewer repetitions of the Love Never Dies theme.

[Zydar]

I've spent the weekend almost exclusively with the album, and it's getting better with each listen. I'm really loving it. Can't decide if it's better than TSOAD yet though.

The favourites so far:

Welcome To The World
The Great Adventure
Venture In Black
Fighting With Destiny
Vanity Fair (perhaps my very favourite at the moment, I love the "poppy" feel of it)
The Great Despair
Freedom Calling

[KevShmev]

I like Vanity Fair, but I don't love it. Feels like the hook isn't as strong as it could be. 

Favorites so far:

The Great Despair (I suspect this will hold up as the most popular song from the record)
To the River
Dark Melody
Freedom Calling
A Love That Never Dies
Fighting with Destiny

Looking at my number of plays for the record so far (which updates every time I plug my phone into my computer since I listen to the songs in my car through my phone which is synched up to iTunes), the one song that is clearly the skipper so far is Welcome to the World 2, which has a grand total of 2 listens (every other song ranges from 8 to 14 so far in a little over a week).

[KevShmev]

Looks like the encore last night was..........


SPOILERS BELOW














A chronological medley of songs from every Neal Morse solo prog album and both prior Neal Morse Band albums.

The Land of Beginning Again & California Nights (Testimony)
Reunion (One)
The Temple of the Living God - part 1, segueing into the guitar solo for Part 2 (Question Mark album)
The Conflict - Do You Know My Name section (Sola Scriptura)
Leviathan (Lifeline)
It’s For You (Testimony 2)
Momentum (Momentum)
The Call (The Grand Experiment)
Broken Sky / Long Day Reprise (The Similitude of a Dream)

[gmillerdrake]

Looks like the encore last night was..........


SPOILERS BELOW














A chronological medley of songs from every Neal Morse solo prog album and both prior Neal Morse Band albums.

The Land of Beginning Again & California Nights (Testimony)
Reunion (One)
The Temple of the Living God - part 1, segueing into the guitar solo for Part 2 (Question Mark album)
The Conflict - Do You Know My Name section (Sola Scriptura)
Leviathan (Lifeline)
It’s For You (Testimony 2)
Momentum (Momentum)
The Call (The Grand Experiment)
Broken Sky / Long Day Reprise (The Similitude of a Dream)

That’s going to be insane to see!!!!

[KevShmev]

For sure.

It makes me wonder if they will expand that idea at Morsefest for night 1.

They could do all of the new album night 2 like expected, and then night 1 could be a run-through of the entire NM prog solo/NMB catalogue:

Set 1 (songs from):

Testimony
One
?
Sola Scriptura

Set 2 (songs from):

Lifeline
Testimony 2
Momentum
The Grant Experiment

Encore (songs from):

Similitude

And then they could pull out something really special for the encore on night 2.

[The Letter M]

Well, that is a wild encore, but I totally called the use of "Broken Sky / Long Day Reprise" to end the show, which is a great bookend to the whole night! Now the question is, will they expand it at Tilburg, or play a pre-Testimony song before the rest it?

-Marc.

[Architeuthis]

Gosh I hope they play the Broken Sky/Long Day reprise at the Seattle show!  This is gonna be one epic concert.. I know it's not metal, but   

[gzarruk]

What? I thought this was the Neal Morse Band, why are they playing songs from Neal’s solo caralog? Jaci needs to know about this asap

[The Letter M]

What? I thought this was the Neal Morse Band, why are they playing songs from Neal’s solo caralog? Jaci needs to know about this asap

 

They really should change Morsefest to NealMorseBandfest, as well!

-Marc.

[bluefox4000]

Did Jaci come flying onstage and tackle neal.....rhose are a LOT of solo songs, lol

but really.......those are insane!!!!!

[countoftuscany42]

Is there some joke about Eric’s wife I’m missing here? 

[gzarruk]

What? I thought this was the Neal Morse Band, why are they playing songs from Neal’s solo caralog? Jaci needs to know about this asap

They really should change Morsefest to NealMorseBandfest, as well!

Did Jaci come flying onstage and tackle neal.....rhose are a LOT of solo songs, lol

 

Is there some joke about Eric’s wife I’m missing here? 

Basically she had a tantrum in reaction to a couple reviews of the album (one of them being Bosk’s) because they were giving a lot of credit to Neal for TGA. She just made sure everybody knew this is a BAND effort, how dare them give the credit to Neal Morse for an album released by the NEAL MORSE Band It’s all in the last few pages of this thread.

[Architeuthis]

At least she's zealous for the band and obviously supportive of Erics musical endeavors. I guess it's better than being indifferent and passive about how talented Eric really is.  It's nice to have your significant other in your corner..

[As I Am]

Is there some joke about Eric’s wife I’m missing here? 

Yeah....ridiculously bad ones!

[Zydar]

DT is really going to bring it with Distance Over Time, if they're going to top this as Album Of The Year for me 

[bosk1]

Regarding TGA, I have zero problem with the number of Love Never Dies references.  It's a good theme, the references are well-done, and it is important to the overall story.  I'm not sure why they wouldn't be there.  I also don't see a need for more TSOAD references.  There are enough to tie TGA back to Similitude, and the ones we have are pretty well done. 

Regarding the encore, that's really cool. 

DT is really going to bring it with Distance Over Time, if they're going to top this as Album Of The Year for me 

  Yeah, you know, as much as I like Distance Over Time, I think TGA beats it for me.

And lastly, I think the title of this thread needs to be changed.  I'm going to change it to "Official Neal Morse BAND Appreciation Thread."  I think it's best to acknowledge that everything Neal does is truly a band effort.  And besides, nobody wants any trouble with Jaci.  Nobody.

[Mladen]

I'm slightly confused by all the talk about the Love that never dies theme. If I recall correctly, there are actually three recurring themes that feature the "Love that never dies" line when they're performed with vocals. One of them is great, the other one is fine, and the third one is quite underwhelming. I'm still having a hard time pin pointing at which point which one of the three themes appears. 

[DTA]

The Love That Never Dies theme seems to occur in what feels like every single song on the first disc, I'm not sure what you mean by three different ones. It's all part of the same theme. A Momentary Change, I Got To Run, To The River, The Great Adventure, Venture In Black, Beyond The Borders all contain the same theme with slight variation and that's just what I remember on disc 1. It just seems like overkill and feels more like a lack of ideas and development.

[bluefox4000]

Honestly the Love Never dies beat down (it's what i call it, lol)  is what keeps this album stuck at an 8/10.

it's just a tad lazy.....i mean he always references things but this is a bit much.  it makes this album in a smaller box musically.

if people like it cool....but i hear it at the finale and the impact is DOA for me.

it's my main grip.

[MinistroRaven]

DT is really going to bring it with Distance Over Time, if they're going to top this as Album Of The Year for me 

  Yeah, you know, as much as I like Distance Over Time, I think TGA beats it for me.

Having listened too both albums, I agree 100%