I think for fans who discovered the band before 2009 were probably more likely to love The Whirlwind than those who discovered the hand after the fact, mostly because TW came after nearly a decade long wait after BAF. I became a fan around 2005, so my wait for a new album was only 4-5 years, but even with high expectations, they still managed to release an album that blew me away.
-Marc.
Well, I’m a fan since Bridge Across Forever came out (picked up the first two around the same time). For me The Whirlwind just doesn’t have the same magic as the first two. But I do think a lot of that is just life situation/age/stage of life. The first two were my introduction to Neal and Roine and that style of prog. I got hugely into Spock’s Beard after that and when Neal left and started doing solo prog stuff I just didn’t feel like his music had the same spark. I stopped buying Neal’s music altogether after being really disappointed by One. I also stopped buying DT’s albums around that time after being disappointed by Octavarium. And I never really got into The Flower Kings despite buying a couple of their albums around that time.
So by the time Transatlantic reunited, I had stopped buying anything new by Neal or Mike, and was really only following Marillion of the 4 members’ bands (who had pretty much become my favorite band in the interim). I just didn’t have a lot of faith that they’d recapture the magic. I still felt very fondly about the first two TA albums, and I just decided I didn’t want to be let down so I never got The Whirlwind. The only reason I eventually picked up Kaleidoscope was Radiant had a deal and I got it for like $3 a few years after it came out. That album did nothing to make me think I had missed anything with The Whirlwind unfortunately.
Fast forward a few years later, and I started exploring The Flower Kings more, and that got me more interested in a new Transatlantic album when they announced they were working on one. I had also had some better experiences with Mike and Neal recently (Flying Colors, The Winery Dogs, but not so much Neal Morse Band). So then I decided I really ought to hear The Whirlwind. And like I said, I do think it is pretty good. But it’s still missing something of the magic from those first two albums. It’s *probably* missing my youth more than anything (back then, a new album was an event, and I probably would have been able to spend a lot more time focusing on it), but that’s where I’m coming from on that album.
That's interesting, and I'm not sure if there is any sort of correlation or coincidence, but after discovering Transatlantic (by way of DT/MP), I found and fell in love with Spock's Beard and The Flower Kings, and have been a fan of all of their releases since 2005. But Marillion... they were the one parent band of the four that I had a harder time getting into. I enjoyed the Fish era well enough, but as I went along through the H era, I had a harder time really diving into them. I enjoyed some of their albums, like This Strange Engine, Anoraknophobia, and Marbles, but I never really got into them the same way as I did SB and TFK (and DT of course).
Maybe because I was deeper in the SB/TFK side of Transatlantic's music that I was able to fall in love with The Whirlwind when it came out, and even to this day, still love it as much as ever. I always juggle that and BAF for my favorite TA album, that's how much I enjoy The Whirlwind as a whole. Kaleidoscope was good, and I still revisit it because, of their four albums, I still find it fresh (despite being over 6 years old now) mostly because I haven't over-listened to it, which I almost had done with TW in the time between it and Kaleidoscope.
To each his own. 
I think the magic is there on The Whirlwind. Sure, none of the individual songs are as awesome as the long epics like All of the Above, Stranger in Your Soul or My New World, but tracks like The Wind Blew Them All Away, On the Prowl, A Man Can Feel, Rose Covered Glasses and Is It Really Happening? are all pretty much all kinds of awesome. IMO, of course. 
Those are all great tracks, but for me, I find it much better to enjoy the whole thing, and I rarely find myself listening to just bits of it, but if I do, the first track is always a good snack if I don't have time for the whole meal, as well as "Is It Really Happening?" and "Dancing With Eternal Glory", which is as good of a 20-minute-chunk of TA as any other IMO.
Nad Sylvan interviewing Roine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjxHJ-j_3Ak&feature=youtu.be
Not a bad interview, per se, but I got the distinct impression that Nad hadn't really listened to the album yet, or hadn't really listened to it a lot, because there weren't a lot of TAU-specific questions from what I recall. It was definitely neat to hear some of Roine's perspectives on Transatlantic as a whole, but you can also tell he doesn't remember much about his time with the band (saying things like "The Whirlwind" was only like 65 minutes long, or that it was only 6 or 7 years ago), either because his mind doesn't really retain that kind of encyclopedic knowledge (like Mike does), or maybe he just doesn't care to remember specifics - it definitely reminds me of how loose his guitar palying tends to be when compared to his studio takes (which can both be a good thing and a bad thing). Still, a very interesting interview!
I suppose we will get Pete's interview sometime in the next couple of weeks before the album comes out, and hopefully with one more pre-release single. Any bets on who will interview Pete? I'm gonna say John Mitchell, mostly because he is also another Inside Out artist, and they've worked together in Kino, so there is some familiarity there already (like Nad has with Roine from Agents Of Mercy, and I believe the Steve Hackett band as well). Also, any bets on which track might be the next single?
-Marc.
Topic: Transatlantic Official Thread (Read 528408 times)