For anyone interested in hearing Roine and Neal talk about the album and its lyrical content,
here is an interview I saw earlier today from Sonic Perspectives, though it was published over a month ago. I figured seeing it now that many of us have heard the album for about a week and are more familiar with the songs and lyrics, reading Roine's and Neal's thoughts on the album might make more sense.
Regarding the Neal-ish-ness of Transatlantic, I think it's been pretty steady in terms of how he has written for TA since 1999 in that TA has always had Neal's sound. Heck, most of "All Of The Above" and "We All Need Some Light" were straight-up Neal demos. Bridge Across Forever did a lot more to take Neal's demos and twist and change them into a more mixed-influence sound. I've seen the "Building The Bridge" Making-Of Documentary plenty of times over the last 15 years that I feel like I know exactly where each part of that album came from Neal. Sure, most of the two major epics were pre-demoed by Neal, but Roine and Pete definitely added their own touches and parts, and their playing alone definitely sets the songs apart from anything else in Neal's discography up to that point in time, and even since then!
I will say that The Whirlwind definitely leveled the playing field as both Pete and Roine seemed to get more of their material on the album, but of the original 43-minute "Whirlwind" Demo by Neal, only about 50-60% of it made it to the final album (give or take, it's been awhile since I've listened to the demo). Other pieces of The Whirlwind, like "A Man Can Feel", "Evermore", "Pieces Of Heaven", and "Lay Down Your Life" (jam section) were by Roine. Pete also had "On The Prowl", parts of the Overture, and most of "Is It Really Happening?", so I feel like they got more and more of their ideas on that album.
Here is a great interview with Roine from 2010 where he talks about the making of The Whirlwind.. A lot of the other non-demoed music was jammed in-the-room and written by the band, though if it was led by Neal's ideas, you cannot really fault them for going along with it.
As far as Kaleidoscope goes, I will say that it does feel like they took a small step back in terms of how much of Neal's music made it into the album, but it was far less a direct cover of Neal's demos. They really did a lot of chopping up of his demos, and if you didn't know it from the Making Of documentary, "Into The Blue" and "Kaleidoscope" actually originated from 3 separate epic demos over an hour in total length.
In this interview with Roine, he goes a bit more in-depth into how they made the album, and some of his issues with songs being too long, or how he didn't want to put "Beyond The Sun" on the album (which is why Rich Mouser is credited as the slide guitarist and not Roine). Some very revealing stuff, like how the "Dream and Healer" reprise at the end of "Shine" was really Roine's idea! Regardless, if the band didn't think the album wouldn't be better for it, I doubt they'd let Neal's ideas dominate the sound or album. Pete says in the TAU doc that it's not about getting their ideas on the album, it's about making the album strong, and despite Kaleidoscope probably being my least favorite of the five, it's still a fairly strong and good album overall.
With The Absolute Universe, I've watched the documentary thrice now, and I get the sense that, maybe because they recorded in Sweden, that Roine really tried to steer the music in his direction a bit more or push his ideas more, which is why we get a lot more of him on Forevermore. From what I can gather, both Roine and Mike were pro-double-album, and Neal was maybe on the fence about it, but agreed to it initially. Pete definitely seemed to want to tighten the album up, but was more or less out-voted by the others to make it a double album. I guess once Neal had sent his "Am I Crazy?" email out to the others, maybe he felt like he could get Mike and Roine to change their minds since Pete was originally on board with trimming TAU down to a single disc release. I also wonder if Neal had considered that releasing a double album with Transatlantic might draw criticisms for releasing a third double album in four years (after The Similitude Of A Dream and The Great Adventure with the Neal Morse Band).
Regarding the Roine VS Neal aspects of Transatlantic, I think as each album has been made, their input has more or less levelled out, and I feel like The Absolute Universe is as close to an equal input as we may get, at least on Forevermore. Roine has said that he presented over 90 minutes of demos to the band, and it seems like they used around half of them (according to the traditional Mike's Wishlist Whiteboard). Maybe some of them were a bit TOO out there as he said he tried to write and bring demos that weren't typical Roine stuff (i.e. less like The Flower Kings), though some of those demos ended up on Islands anyway (like "Black Swan"). I think they're both amazing singers and songwriters in their own ways. I find things i love and dislike about both, but their strengths far outweigh their weaknesses, and I approach and gravitate to each of their styles for different reasons, but when they come together for Transatlantic, it really hits me in a way that both of them rarely do individually. Transatlantic is definitely greater than the sum of its parts.
Watching the documentary, you can really feel like Roine is more comfortable on his own home turf. He seems more lively and interactive with the others than in the past docs where he kind of just sits in the background and plays along, sometimes nodding along to ideas in the room. I think it was definitely a smart and interesting idea from Mike to have Neal and Roine see their visions of the album come to fruition. It's definitely a "have your cake and eat it too" situation, but I feel like the fans AND the band win on this one. I can't imagine how things would've shaken down had the label not allowed them to release both versions, and I wonder if Neal would have felt slighted if the label was like "No, just release the 90 minutes you have". I guess we may never know, but as a fan of both versions, I don't think I don't ever need to know or wonder.
As it stands, I find myself listening to Forevermore a lot more than The Breath Of Life, but I'm sure I'll swap around a bit more in the coming weeks. I just really love songs like "Rainbow Sky" and "The World We Used To Know" so much that I miss them on TBOL, but the TBOL versions of "Love Made A Way (Prelude)" and "Reaching For The Sky", which is why I've watched the Ultimate Mix BD visualizer three times since Tuesday night already. It just has the best parts of both albums, and at nearly 98 minutes, it's probably the best of both worlds.
As far as TAU sounding like a "Neal Morse album", I think at this point in his career, any album where he is a major writing force will sound like a Neal Morse album, simply by virtue of his involvement. Obviously with Flying Colors, his input is a bit lessened, so it sounds less like a NM album, but with TA and the NMB, of course it'll sound like Neal, but even after 20 years, I think they really solidified their own sound. As Mike has said in the TAU doc, the band really as their own kind of sound, and it's the unique combination of Neal's, Roine's, and Pete's writing, and all four of them playing the music together that kind of sets it apart of a typical Neal Morse album or Flower Kings album. Despite the Flowery nature of Forevermore, it still sounds very Transatlantic to me, and because I love TA just a bit more than TFK, their new music has sunk it far quicker for me than Islands did when it came out a few months ago (not that Islands was bad, it's probably the best TFK album in the last 10 years).
I really hope Neal releases his 90 minutes (according to Pete) of demos he brought to the TAU sessions, just so we can see what was used and what was dropped during the sessions because the documentary doesn't really dive into their demos as much as the last three documentaries did. In fact, it's shorter than any of them, and I kind of wish it was longer than 60-some minutes. The Whirlwind's documentary was well over 100 minutes and had some amazing moments, and I love re-watching it every so often, watching those four create a masterpiece in the studio. The new doc is pretty entertaining regardless, though I do wonder if it was originally longer and they decided to edit it down to 60 minutes?
-Marc.
Topic: Transatlantic Official Thread (Read 531470 times)