So after a week of having the Ultimate Edition Mix on my phone for audio listening, I gotta say - this may be my preferred version to listen to. It's got some of the best parts of TBOL on it with almost all of Forevermore, so it's really the best of both worlds for me. There are a couple of jarring edits in the Overture, and the transition from "Lonesome Rebel" into "Can You Feel It" is a bit off, but those minor things are more easily overlooked than some of the weird and more jarring edits and transitions in TBOL.
Regarding the band performing it live, I see two possibilities:
-They find a way to finally do a Transatlantic Weekend for Morsefest 2021, especially since Neal and/or Mike had originally intended for the band to perform at last year's Morsefest, which would have presumably been just the Forevermore-version of TAU. If they do two concerts for Transatlantic, there's a chance they could perform BOTH Forevermore and TBOL live, one each night, with different second sets. Do Forevermore on Night 1, and play about 60-80 minutes of music from their first two albums, then on Night 2, play all of The Breath Of Life, then come back with most of The Whirlwind and a song or two from Kaleidoscope. It'd be a LOT Of music to learn, but given that it'd be the first (and maybe ever ONLY) Morsefest with Transatlantic, why not play as much as possible?
-OR...they gear up to play the Ultimate Mix on the Cruise To The Edge (are they yet listed as being a part of CTTE 2022?), and maybe try to launch a tour following that performance. If they tour on it, I don't think they'll switch up or alternate the versions of the albums. They might do a song-swap from night to night, like doing "Swing High Swing Low" or "Take Now My Soul", since the music is mostly the same, just the lyrics/vocalists need to change, but if they're going for a long tour, they may want consistency on a nightly basis. Doing a one-off two-night weekend like Morsefest might give them a better reason to do both Forevermore and TBOL, but as I said, that is a lot of music to learn for one weekend, especially for Roine and Pete, who probably aren't used to doing that like Neal and Mike have done for the last 7 years (6 for Mike).
Perhaps it's too early for anyone to go there, but anyone want to do something like top five tracks? I'd name (in running order, not ranked):
Reaching for the Sky
The Darkness in the Light
The World We Used to Know
Owl Howl
Solitude
Honorable mention to Can You Feel It, a song that I worry will become somewhat lost in the shuffle if Forevermore ends up as most people's preferred version.
I'll go along with this (in no particular order):
The World We Used To Know
Owl Howl (Ultimate Version)
Reaching For The Sky
The Darkness In The Light
Rainbow Sky
EDIT - Changed my mind after hearing TDITL again, so now "The Greatest Story Never Ends (Ultimate Version)" becomes an honorable mention, along with "Lonesome Rebel" and "Higher Than The Morning".
-Marc.