Transatlantic Official Thread

[KevShmev]

My new vinyl arrived in the mail...

[emtee]

Man, I love this album! I spin it once a day and it's like a shot of vitamin H. H=Happy. Not sure about rankings yet, that will be decided over a much longer span of time. However, I feel confident in saying the first third of this album is equal to the best they have ever created,...and in a special way. Melodic earworms that beg me to sing along at the top of my lungs. You should have seen and heard me on the way to the beach this weekend. Glorious happiness sing-along!

[ronnibran]

Now that I've had both versions for quite some time I find myself basically only listening to Forevermore anymore.  It really is damn near perfect.  It doesn't feel too long.  I even grew to like the Roine songs here as much as the Neal replacement stuff (Lonesome Rebel vs Can You Feel It).  If I had to come up with negatives, they'd be very minor.  One, I think the Overture would be better without the "belong better to belong" words in it.  And, I could actually do without the acapella part of The Greatest Story Never Ends.   

I'd rank the TA albums as follows (I'm in the minority for sure as I was never huge on the Whirlwind, although I really love Dancing With Eternal Glory, just not enough to keep it from the bottom as all the TA albums are great):

Bridge Across Forever
The Absolute Universe
SMPTe
Kaleidoscope
The Whirlwind

[KevShmev]

   And, I could actually do without the acapella part of The Greatest Story Never Ends.   

 

Agreed.  I think shortening The Greatest Story Never Ends and chucking that acapella part was the best decision Neal made with The Breath of Life.  The shorter version is waaaaaay better.

[HOF]

   And, I could actually do without the acapella part of The Greatest Story Never Ends.   

 

Agreed.  I think shortening The Greatest Story Never Ends and chucking that acapella part was the best decision Neal made with The Breath of Life.  The shorter version is waaaaaay better.

Yeah, the a cappella section really doesn’t fit there and takes away from the flow of the song. I’m assuming Neal was behind that to begin with ironically.

[The Letter M]

   And, I could actually do without the acapella part of The Greatest Story Never Ends.   

 

Agreed.  I think shortening The Greatest Story Never Ends and chucking that acapella part was the best decision Neal made with The Breath of Life.  The shorter version is waaaaaay better.

Yeah, the a cappella section really doesn’t fit there and takes away from the flow of the song. I’m assuming Neal was behind that to begin with ironically.

It's actually grown on me a lot, and the Ultimate mix combines all the unique parts from both versions into a single version of the song, which is my favorite version, and now one of my favorite songs on the whole album. It's like a slightly less intense "Is It Really Happening?", especially the instrumental part from the TBOL version that really drives the song at the end.

-Marc.

[Kram]

   And, I could actually do without the acapella part of The Greatest Story Never Ends.   

 

Agreed.  I think shortening The Greatest Story Never Ends and chucking that acapella part was the best decision Neal made with The Breath of Life.  The shorter version is waaaaaay better.

Yeah, the a cappella section really doesn’t fit there and takes away from the flow of the song. I’m assuming Neal was behind that to begin with ironically.

It's actually grown one a lot, and the Ultimate mix combines all the unique parts from both versions into a single version of the song, which is my favorite version, and now one of my favorite songs on the whole album. It's like a slightly less intense "Is It Really Happening?", especially the instrumental part from the TBOL version that really drives the song at the end.

-Marc.

It's starting to grow on me too.  What I'm not the biggest fan of is the acappela opening of The Sun Comes up Today.  Too close to The Beatles Because, and I don't feel it was necessary.  Other than that, still loving Forevermore - so much so, that it might eventually overtake BAF as my number 1 TA album.

[MinistroRaven]

For those members in the Neal Morse inner circle:

FROM NEAL MORSE:

Hi, everyone!

Just wanted to share the news of this month’s Inner Circle release that will land on Monday, March 22nd.

As you probably know, for Transatlantic’s The Absolute Universe, I took the lead role in putting together the "Breath of Life" version. If you have the Blu-ray, you will have seen the Making of documentary which mainly focuses on the work we did in Sweden. This month’s IC release tells “the rest of the story” – the long journey from the initial idea to edit in March 2020 to November 2020, when the final mixes were signed off, and everything in between – which includes me catching Coronavirus!

The documentary is around 70 minutes long, and you’ll see me doing some of the lyric rewrites, adding overdubs and chopping and editing this thing!

If you aren’t yet a member of the Inner Circle, you can sign up today. You’ll immediately be able to get the January 2020 release “NMB 3: Some More Adventures” plus get the March release on Monday, the 22nd.

I look forward to hearing what you think of the documentary!

[axeman90210]

Overall I'm really liking The Absolute Universe, been spending a week at a time with each version before switching to the other. One of these days I want to sit down and go back and forth comparing the tracks. My reaction so far is a preference for Forevermore, I really like Rainbow Sky and some of the other choices for songs that are similar in both. One thought experiment I've had is how much different TBOL might be if it was the only version. I wonder if certain things were changed in part just to differentiate it further from Forevermore or how the edits might have gone if Roine had to sign off on them all instead of having his own version to oversee.

[kirksnosehair]

Whenever I listen to this album it's the Forevermore version and I am always struck by how quickly it goes by.  It's one of the shortest-feeling double albums I've ever heard. 

[The Letter M]

Whenever I listen to this album it's the Forevermore version and I am always struck by how quickly it goes by.  It's one of the shortest-feeling double albums I've ever heard.

To be fair, it's only 90 minutes, which is kind of short for a double album in the CD age, especially compared to doubles by Neal (whose last 2 doubles were 105 minutes on average) and Roine (whose longest TFK doubles reach over 150 minutes).

Even listening to the 98-minute Ultimate Edition Mix feels like it goes by faster than The Whirlwind sometimes, and I've listened to both fairly recently. I'm starting to really love TAU as much as The Whirlwind and BAF, and the three of them may rank as three.of my favorite albums of all time. They're so addicting to listen to and I doubt I'll ever get tired of them.

-Marc.

[HOF]

Whenever I listen to this album it's the Forevermore version and I am always struck by how quickly it goes by.  It's one of the shortest-feeling double albums I've ever heard.

To be fair, it's only 90 minutes, which is kind of short for a double album in the CD age, especially compared to doubles by Neal (whose last 2 doubles were 105 minutes on average) and Roine (whose longest TFK doubles reach over 150 minutes).

Even listening to the 98-minute Ultimate Edition Mix feels like it goes by faster than The Whirlwind sometimes, and I've listened to both fairly recently. I'm starting to really love TAU as much as The Whirlwind and BAF, and the three of them may rank as three.of my favorite albums of all time. They're so addicting to listen to and I doubt I'll ever get tired of them.

-Marc.

How does everybody feel about the overture (either version)? I usually end up enjoying it well enough but it feels like it does add some unnecessary length. I’m a little over the formulaic opening overtures on Neal Morse albums in general.

[kirksnosehair]

At this point it's becoming a bit of a worn out thing, I agree, but damn if I ain't a sucker for these concept albums.


You know what I've always thought was kind of funny is I remember seeing an interview with Neal Morse where he was asked (long before he went solo) how he felt about making a concept album and would he ever consider making one with Spock's Beard.  I think this was around the time of the release of "V" and he gave this really long, winding answer about how difficult concept albums are to get right and that he wasn't sure if he would EVER try to make a concept album.

Almost every album he's been involved with since has been a concept album 

[bosk1]

At this point it's becoming a bit of a worn out thing, I agree, but damn if I ain't a sucker for these concept albums.


You know what I've always thought was kind of funny is I remember seeing an interview with Neal Morse where he was asked (long before he went solo) how he felt about making a concept album and would he ever consider making one with Spock's Beard.  I think this was around the time of the release of "V" and he gave this really long, winding answer about how difficult concept albums are to get right and that he wasn't sure if he would EVER try to make a concept album.

Almost every album he's been involved with since has been a concept album 

Neal's general flightiness aside, to be fair, he didn't have Mike Portnoy in the fold back then.  And I think that him having some early inspiration for concepts that meant something to him on a deep level, as he did with those first couple of NM solo albums, combined with having Mike to help him execute on those ideas helped him evolve from "I can't imagine doing that" to it coming naturally. 

[kirksnosehair]

Oh, no doubt.  I don't hold it against him in any way.  I just think it's another case of you just never know what the future may hold.  There he was not even thinking about doing a concept album to just a couple of years later doing "Snow" and then embarking on a solo career that has been dominated by concept albums.   


I TOTALLY get it, by the way.   Having now written two concept albums myself I really loved the challenge of weaving everything together.  I can definitely see how it would be a hard thing to stop doing once you start down that road. 


What amazes me about Neal is the sheer volume of material he puts out while maintaining such a high level of quality.  I mean, looking back over the course of his solo stuff and the Transatlantic stuff, there are only a couple of albums I'm not crazy about and nothing that I'd rank as a complete dud.  Considering the size of his body of work, that's remarkable.

[The Letter M]

Whenever I listen to this album it's the Forevermore version and I am always struck by how quickly it goes by.  It's one of the shortest-feeling double albums I've ever heard.

To be fair, it's only 90 minutes, which is kind of short for a double album in the CD age, especially compared to doubles by Neal (whose last 2 doubles were 105 minutes on average) and Roine (whose longest TFK doubles reach over 150 minutes).

Even listening to the 98-minute Ultimate Edition Mix feels like it goes by faster than The Whirlwind sometimes, and I've listened to both fairly recently. I'm starting to really love TAU as much as The Whirlwind and BAF, and the three of them may rank as three.of my favorite albums of all time. They're so addicting to listen to and I doubt I'll ever get tired of them.

-Marc.

How does everybody feel about the overture (either version)? I usually end up enjoying it well enough but it feels like it does add some unnecessary length. I’m a little over the formulaic opening overtures on Neal Morse albums in general.

Well, I've only really listened to the Ultimate version for the last 2-3 weeks, so I'm almost to the point where I cannot remember what the Forevermore and TBOL versions sound like, even though the Ultimate version uses music from both. I took a (mostly accurate*) screenshot of the 3 tracks in Audacity in an attempt to visualize how the 3 versions look next to each other:



*I didn't realize that the portion of the opening just before the full-band entrance in the TBOL version was the last-half of the entrance in the Forevermore version, so it's placed in the wrong spot, but everything else is accurate

As for Overtures in generally, I find myself enjoying the ones in Transatlantic way more than the ones in Neal's solo/NMB albums. I think the addition of Pete and Roine makes them stand out to be a bit more (though that isn't to say Randy, Eric, and Bill are bad on those albums). The Overture(s) on TAU have been fun to listen to and try and figure out where each theme stems from, considering that the Overture was crafted after the first half of the album was completed (according to the Making Of documentary), which seems to be the opposite of how The Whirlwind was crafted. IIRC, the Whirlwind Overture was written first with themes in mind, and then the themes were expanded upon later on as they wrote the album, crafting songs from those various riffs from the Overture. I think both methods work fairly well.

-Marc.

[KevShmev]

How does everybody feel about the overture (either version)? I usually end up enjoying it well enough but it feels like it does add some unnecessary length. I’m a little over the formulaic opening overtures on Neal Morse albums in general.

I prefer the shorter version.  Part of that is Overture fatigue since Neal has one in nearly every concept album, but I like them shorter and concise most of the time, and the longer Overture feels a bit too drawn out (one of the few instance where I prefer the BOL version).  I do wish some of Roine's guitar parts at the very beginning had survived the shorter version, but Neal obviously couldn't wait to get rid of some of his guitar work when editing the record.

[darkshade]

It's been overdone, but it is still great. Neither TAU overtures are among my favorite overtures of Neal's, but they're good. I do agree with whoever said that there shouldn't have been vocals on the Belong theme during the overture. I definitely thought it was weird when I first heard it, and still don't really think vocals were necessary there, as they come in many times throughout the album anyway, at least on Forevermore, TBOL not as much.

[HOF]

How does everybody feel about the overture (either version)? I usually end up enjoying it well enough but it feels like it does add some unnecessary length. I’m a little over the formulaic opening overtures on Neal Morse albums in general.

I prefer the shorter version.  Part of that is Overture fatigue since Neal has one in nearly every concept album, but I like them shorter and concise most of the time, and the longer Overture feels a bit too drawn out (one of the few instance where I prefer the BOL version).  I do wish some of Roine's guitar parts at the very beginning had survived the shorter version, but Neal obviously couldn't wait to get rid of some of his guitar work when editing the record.

Of course for all we know Roine might have added some guitars to the Forevermore version once it was all under his control.

[The Letter M]

How does everybody feel about the overture (either version)? I usually end up enjoying it well enough but it feels like it does add some unnecessary length. I’m a little over the formulaic opening overtures on Neal Morse albums in general.

I prefer the shorter version.  Part of that is Overture fatigue since Neal has one in nearly every concept album, but I like them shorter and concise most of the time, and the longer Overture feels a bit too drawn out (one of the few instance where I prefer the BOL version).  I do wish some of Roine's guitar parts at the very beginning had survived the shorter version, but Neal obviously couldn't wait to get rid of some of his guitar work when editing the record.

Of course for all we know Roine might have added some guitars to the Forevermore version once it was all under his control.

I think I read/heard in an interview with Roine where he said that the Forevermore version was basically what they left Sweden with, and that there wasn't much in the way of adding things, especially after the decision was made to have Neal make his own cut of the album. I think Roine was mostly in charge of the mix ideas for Forevermore once they decided to release two versions. Now, whether or not the band would've decided to take OUT guitars had they only released Forevermore and had to come to a consensus on the amount of guitar in the mix, we may never know, but from Roine's comments, it sounds like all the guitar that exists on Forevermore was there from the start when he began tracking in late 2019.

And of course, there are some instances of added Neal guitar on TBOL, though I haven't listened to it enough, or lately, to really pick them out, outside of the obvious spots where there was new music (inside the Overture, TGSNE, LMAW Prelude, and of course CYFI). I don't think Roine recorded any new guitar for TBOL, though it seems like Pete and Mike recorded new parts for the new sections/song for TBOL. I hope we get to see some of that in the upcoming IC Video download next Monday!

-Marc.

[HOF]

How does everybody feel about the overture (either version)? I usually end up enjoying it well enough but it feels like it does add some unnecessary length. I’m a little over the formulaic opening overtures on Neal Morse albums in general.

I prefer the shorter version.  Part of that is Overture fatigue since Neal has one in nearly every concept album, but I like them shorter and concise most of the time, and the longer Overture feels a bit too drawn out (one of the few instance where I prefer the BOL version).  I do wish some of Roine's guitar parts at the very beginning had survived the shorter version, but Neal obviously couldn't wait to get rid of some of his guitar work when editing the record.

Of course for all we know Roine might have added some guitars to the Forevermore version once it was all under his control.

I think I read/heard in an interview with Roine where he said that the Forevermore version was basically what they left Sweden with, and that there wasn't much in the way of adding things, especially after the decision was made to have Neal make his own cut of the album. I think Roine was mostly in charge of the mix ideas for Forevermore once they decided to release two versions. Now, whether or not the band would've decided to take OUT guitars had they only released Forevermore and had to come to a consensus on the amount of guitar in the mix, we may never know, but from Roine's comments, it sounds like all the guitar that exists on Forevermore was there from the start when he began tracking in late 2019.

And of course, there are some instances of added Neal guitar on TBOL, though I haven't listened to it enough, or lately, to really pick them out, outside of the obvious spots where there was new music (inside the Overture, TGSNE, LMAW Prelude, and of course CYFI). I don't think Roine recorded any new guitar for TBOL, though it seems like Pete and Mike recorded new parts for the new sections/song for TBOL. I hope we get to see some of that in the upcoming IC Video download next Monday!

-Marc.

Ah, well that answers that question!

[RoeDent]

Something I want to point out and appreciate. The five-note descending motif is a great example of how there are more ways to harmonize one note than there are ways to write a melody for a chord progression. That motif stays the same in its multiple appearances, but the version of it that ends Higher Than the Morning has different chords underneath it than, say, the version that appears in the middle and the end of Rainbow Sky. And the version at the beginning and end of the whole album is different again, the descent down to B major making a tritone clash with the held F in the bass.

[ytserush]

The Breath Of Life has some really great moments but seems a bit fragmented when compared to Forevermore which I think holds together better. Definitely prefer Forevermore but The Breath Of Life is not horrible although I am wondering if listening to Forevermore first affected my perception of The Breath Of Life in any way. The Ultimate Mix will coming next at some point soon.

[kirksnosehair]

The Breath Of Life has some really great moments but seems a bit fragmented when compared to Forevermore which I think holds together better. Definitely prefer Forevermore but The Breath Of Life is not horrible although I am wondering if listening to Forevermore first affected my perception of The Breath Of Life in any way. The Ultimate Mix will coming next at some point soon.

I would say yes, definitely.  Once you get used to the rhythm and flow of a piece of music, any radio edits or remixes always tend to have a sort of "wrongness" to their sound.  I think it's a perfectly natural reaction.  I have listened to both versions now fairly extensively.  Probably 20 times through Forevermore and 10 or 12 times through The Breath of Life and they are both appealing in their own ways, but I find that the Forevermore version seems to flow much more naturally.  But I fully believe that my opinion on that is informed by the fact that I listened exclusively to Forevermore about 15 times in a row before I ever picked up TBOL. 


First time I ever experienced something like this was back in the early 80's when I was playing in a cover band and we had to learn "Frankenstein" by The Edgar Winter Group.  This, of course, was LONG before the Internet was a thing so I had to find my copy of the album and I had misplaced my vinyl of "They Only Come Out At Night" (the album that Frankenstein first appeared on) but my father saw me looking for it and handed me a .45 single of it that he had and I went to work on learning the guitar parts for it, based on the single version.  I literally thought there was something wrong with the .45 and told my father "hey, that record you gave me skips over entire sections of the song!"  He wasn't even aware of the longer version because his top-40 cover band had always played the radio edit and since he wasn't really a fan of Edgar Winter he never bought the album so he had never heard the full version of the song.  When I finally located my vinyl of the album and played the full version of the song for him he was FLOORED by how different it was. 


Frankenstein - album version


Frankenstein - single

[Stadler]

The Breath Of Life has some really great moments but seems a bit fragmented when compared to Forevermore which I think holds together better. Definitely prefer Forevermore but The Breath Of Life is not horrible although I am wondering if listening to Forevermore first affected my perception of The Breath Of Life in any way. The Ultimate Mix will coming next at some point soon.

I would say yes, definitely.  Once you get used to the rhythm and flow of a piece of music, any radio edits or remixes always tend to have a sort of "wrongness" to their sound.  I think it's a perfectly natural reaction.  I have listened to both versions now fairly extensively.  Probably 20 times through Forevermore and 10 or 12 times through The Breath of Life and they are both appealing in their own ways, but I find that the Forevermore version seems to flow much more naturally.  But I fully believe that my opinion on that is informed by the fact that I listened exclusively to Forevermore about 15 times in a row before I ever picked up TBOL. 


First time I ever experienced something like this was back in the early 80's when I was playing in a cover band and we had to learn "Frankenstein" by The Edgar Winter Group.  This, of course, was LONG before the Internet was a thing so I had to find my copy of the album and I had misplaced my vinyl of "They Only Come Out At Night" (the album that Frankenstein first appeared on) but my father saw me looking for it and handed me a .45 single of it that he had and I went to work on learning the guitar parts for it, based on the single version.  I literally thought there was something wrong with the .45 and told my father "hey, that record you gave me skips over entire sections of the song!"  He wasn't even aware of the longer version because his top-40 cover band had always played the radio edit and since he wasn't really a fan of Edgar Winter he never bought the album so he had never heard the full version of the song.  When I finally located my vinyl of the album and played the full version of the song for him he was FLOORED by how different it was. 


Frankenstein - album version


Frankenstein - single

'Course, then your band asked you to play the edit, right?   

[425]

The Breath Of Life has some really great moments but seems a bit fragmented when compared to Forevermore which I think holds together better. Definitely prefer Forevermore but The Breath Of Life is not horrible although I am wondering if listening to Forevermore first affected my perception of The Breath Of Life in any way. The Ultimate Mix will coming next at some point soon.

I would say yes, definitely.  Once you get used to the rhythm and flow of a piece of music, any radio edits or remixes always tend to have a sort of "wrongness" to their sound.  I think it's a perfectly natural reaction.  I have listened to both versions now fairly extensively.  Probably 20 times through Forevermore and 10 or 12 times through The Breath of Life and they are both appealing in their own ways, but I find that the Forevermore version seems to flow much more naturally.  But I fully believe that my opinion on that is informed by the fact that I listened exclusively to Forevermore about 15 times in a row before I ever picked up TBOL. 

Just to confirm this from the perspective of someone who listened to The Breath of Life first: I have no sense of it being fragmented at all.

[darkshade]

I listened to Forevermore first, but I didn't wait too long before popping on TBOL. By doing that, I don't have that weird feeling of knowing one musical production so well that an alternate version sounds "wrong", I'm digesting two different versions almost simultaneously. I'll probably feel that once I get around to The Ultimate Version, though, we'll see..

[HOF]

The Breath Of Life has some really great moments but seems a bit fragmented when compared to Forevermore which I think holds together better. Definitely prefer Forevermore but The Breath Of Life is not horrible although I am wondering if listening to Forevermore first affected my perception of The Breath Of Life in any way. The Ultimate Mix will coming next at some point soon.

I would say yes, definitely.  Once you get used to the rhythm and flow of a piece of music, any radio edits or remixes always tend to have a sort of "wrongness" to their sound.  I think it's a perfectly natural reaction.  I have listened to both versions now fairly extensively.  Probably 20 times through Forevermore and 10 or 12 times through The Breath of Life and they are both appealing in their own ways, but I find that the Forevermore version seems to flow much more naturally.  But I fully believe that my opinion on that is informed by the fact that I listened exclusively to Forevermore about 15 times in a row before I ever picked up TBOL. 

Just to confirm this from the perspective of someone who listened to The Breath of Life first: I have no sense of it being fragmented at all.

I also started with Breath of Life. Not sure I get the sense it is fragmented, but some of the transitions seem a bit rough like the tracks don’t quite fit together the way they should. Some of that is the case on Forevermore too though.

[Ben_Jamin]

It's weird for me because I never really digested either versions fully. I played Forevermore first, then switched to Breath of Life, for the shorter listen. Then, when I actually sat down and listened to both, I noticed what I liked from both versions.

The difference is you can really hear the Morse additions on Breath of Life. You can hear His touch in this version, as he was the one to re-work it.

I don't prefer one over the other as I made my own playlist of the versions I like and with all the songs added.

I only wish I could easily just mix the lyrics of Both Swing High Swing Low and Take Now My Souls chorus's. As I feel both of those fit the melody and the meaning

[MinistroRaven]

I was checking MP Instagram and saw that 2 days ago he posted the following:

OUT TODAY! By Popular demand: The Absolute Universe on standalone blu-ray. Contains “THE ULTIMATE VERSION” which combines both The Breath Of Life & Forevermore into one 100 Min journey in both Stereo and 5.1 mixes along with an Absolute(ly) gorgeous accompanying film...also includes a 1 Hr “Making Of” Documentary taking you behind the scenes for the creation of this mammoth Prog-ject! 🚀 Pick up your copy here: https://transatlantic.lnk.to/TheAbsoluteUniverse-TheUltimateEdition-BluRay

[darkshade]

Yea, my order of the Ultimate edition shipped the other day.

[darkshade]

The bluray finally came in. This new Transatlantic album brings with it all kinds of first world problems. I haven't listened to TAU in weeks, and now I can't figure out if I want to listen to TAUF or TAUU first...

[LudwigVan]

Not to be a Debbie-downer but I find this whole alternate/abridged/ultimate version of The Absolute Universe album to be annoying. Maybe it’s just the grumpy old man in me.

[gzarruk]

Not to be a Debbie-downer but I find this whole alternate/abridged/ultimate version of The Absolute Universe album to be annoying. Maybe it’s just the grumpy old man in me.

I'm not old (maybe a bit grumpy) and find it annoying too

[RoeDent]

I don't. I just accept Forevermore as the definitive and Only version and be done with it.