Transatlantic Official Thread

[hefdaddy42]

I've been trying to think of another band who has done something like this with the multiple versions of the "same" album and I'm coming up empty.


Has this ever been done like this before?

Not that I know of.

[HOF]

I've been trying to think of another band who has done something like this with the multiple versions of the "same" album and I'm coming up empty.


Has this ever been done like this before?

According to MP, it's unprecedented!

[kirksnosehair]

He might be right.  I've been trying to think of another band who has done something like this ever since they announced it and I'm coming up with nothing.

[Ben_Jamin]

I've been trying to think of another band who has done something like this with the multiple versions of the "same" album and I'm coming up empty.


Has this ever been done like this before?

The closest I could think of is The Gentle Storm - The Diary. There are two versions, one called Gentle, which is more calmer and stripped back, almost acoustic, and folky. And The Storm, which is more in the metal vein, energetic, and a bit more epic.

It is interesting how we only got these versions because of circumstance. If Covid hadn't happened, we would've gotten Forevermore, and since it did happen, it brought The Breath of Life to fruition. Which leads to Mike Portnoy wanting to combine both, if he is someone like me who likes to combine two different versions.

It's what I did with The Gentle Storm. I combined both The Storm and Gentle versions of The Storm into one song.

[HOF]

I've been trying to think of another band who has done something like this with the multiple versions of the "same" album and I'm coming up empty.


Has this ever been done like this before?

The closest I could think of is The Gentle Storm - The Diary. There are two versions, one called Gentle, which is more calmer and stripped back, almost acoustic, and folky. And The Storm, which is more in the metal vein, energetic, and a bit more epic.

It is interesting how we only got these versions because of circumstance. If Covid hadn't happened, we would've gotten Forevermore, and since it did happen, it brought The Breath of Life to fruition. Which leads to Mike Portnoy wanting to combine both, if he is someone like me who likes to combine two different versions.

It's what I did with The Gentle Storm. I combined both The Storm and Gentle versions of The Storm into one song.

The closest thing I have in my collection is PFM used to release English and Italian versions of their albums. That was obviously a pretty different thing, but the songs were re-recorded for the English versions and the lyrics were actually new lyrics in English, not a translation of the Italian lyrics. In the case of Photos of Ghosts (English version of Per Un Amico), there was also one original new song released and the song Celebration was an English version of a song off Storia di un Minuto, so that was kind of a totally different release in a lot of ways even though a lot of the music was the same as on Per Un Amico.

[Setlist Scotty]

I've been trying to think of another band who has done something like this with the multiple versions of the "same" album and I'm coming up empty.

Has this ever been done like this before?

According to MP, it's unprecedented!

Given MP's elephant memory for music, it's quite possible.

The only thing that is remotely similar that I can think of are the US and UK versions of Whitesnake's Slide It In album, but the circumstances leading to the two versions were very different, and even some of the guys in the band were different. So I wouldn't really count that.

[kirksnosehair]

Perhaps it will start a trend in the prog world?  It appears to have been quite successful for Transatlantic 

[Stadler]

I think The Gentle Storm is the only thing close.   Slide It In (and MSG's Built To Destroy) were American/European versions, as opposed to alternate versions everywhere, so not that.   Shania Twain did two versions of one of her records, but that was closer to SII, since they were the same songs, one set "countrified" and one set "pop". 

Oh, wait:  I got one:  Zareeka by The Flaming Lips.   It was a four CD set. All four CDs were variants on the album, and Wayne Coyne had the idea that you could set up four CD players around you (like quad sound) and play them simultaneously. Or you could listen to just two or three of the parts, or listen individually.   The set even came with warnings that this was new and if you had a seizure, that was on you!   

I never listened to the quad version, but I had the idea to combine them all on Garageband, I just never bothered to. 

[gzarruk]

I've been trying to think of another band who has done something like this with the multiple versions of the "same" album and I'm coming up empty.


Has this ever been done like this before?

The closest I could think of is The Gentle Storm - The Diary. There are two versions, one called Gentle, which is more calmer and stripped back, almost acoustic, and folky. And The Storm, which is more in the metal vein, energetic, and a bit more epic.

It is interesting how we only got these versions because of circumstance. If Covid hadn't happened, we would've gotten Forevermore, and since it did happen, it brought The Breath of Life to fruition. Which leads to Mike Portnoy wanting to combine both, if he is someone like me who likes to combine two different versions.

It's what I did with The Gentle Storm. I combined both The Storm and Gentle versions of The Storm into one song.

The closest thing I have in my collection is PFM used to release English and Italian versions of their albums. That was obviously a pretty different thing, but the songs were re-recorded for the English versions and the lyrics were actually new lyrics in English, not a translation of the Italian lyrics. In the case of Photos of Ghosts (English version of Per Un Amico), there was also one original new song released and the song Celebration was an English version of a song off Storia di un Minuto, so that was kind of a totally different release in a lot of ways even though a lot of the music was the same as on Per Un Amico.

I had completely forgotten about The Gentle Storm and the two versions of the album, nice call, Ben_Jamin

Opeth also did the two versions of the same album but in different languages thing, but I don't like the band, so I don't know how different both versions are.

Bela Fleck & The Flecktones made a 3 disc concept album titled Little Worlds and were asked by their label to release a shorter version, which was only 10 tracks/1 disc called "Ten From Little Worlds", with a few abridged versions/remixes. It's the closest thing to TAU I could think of.

Apart from that, I've seen a band make a studio album, and then release a live album of it, an acoustic version of the album and also the remixes album, but that wasn't anything related to prog

Perhaps it will start a trend in the prog world?  It appears to have been quite successful for Transatlantic 

I wouldn't count on it being a new trend, or at least I hope it doesn't become one

I think it went relatively well fot TA because it's a novelty, but I can definitely see people getting pissed if all of the sudden many bands start to do this in order to sell more versions of their albums

[kirksnosehair]

I guess, but it's not like they'd be forcing anyone to buy anything.  I consider more options to always be a win

[Ben_Jamin]

I think The Gentle Storm is the only thing close.   Slide It In (and MSG's Built To Destroy) were American/European versions, as opposed to alternate versions everywhere, so not that.   Shania Twain did two versions of one of her records, but that was closer to SII, since they were the same songs, one set "countrified" and one set "pop". 

Oh, wait:  I got one:  Zareeka by The Flaming Lips.   It was a four CD set. All four CDs were variants on the album, and Wayne Coyne had the idea that you could set up four CD players around you (like quad sound) and play them simultaneously. Or you could listen to just two or three of the parts, or listen individually.   The set even came with warnings that this was new and if you had a seizure, that was on you!   

I never listened to the quad version, but I had the idea to combine them all on Garageband, I just never bothered to. 

(Goes to find find the album)...

Now I want to get the album just so I can do this...

[Setlist Scotty]

I guess, but it's not like they'd be forcing anyone to buy anything.  I consider more options to always be a win

Exactly. While I don't expect it to happen, there's a part of me that wouldn't be surprised to see other artists doing this - at least initially in prog circles (because of MP's popularity/influence and to a lesser degree to the other guys) - as another means of making some extra money. I mean, we already see many artists coming out with multiple packages of the same album on release day, so the next logical step is to start producing different versions of the album. And when my favorite bands do that, I'll be more than happy to pick up the different versions (as opposed to multiple packages of the same exact thing) to support them.

[darkshade]

I've been trying to think of another band who has done something like this with the multiple versions of the "same" album and I'm coming up empty.


Has this ever been done like this before?

Frank Zappa. For many of his albums, there are two different versions, sometimes three. That's the simple explanation at least.
Sometimes it was different mixes, sometimes different track order, and sometimes it was music not found on one of the versions, and vice versa, similar to TAU.

[bosk1]

I guess, but it's not like they'd be forcing anyone to buy anything.  I consider more options to always be a win

Exactly. While I don't expect it to happen, there's a part of me that wouldn't be surprised to see other artists doing this - at least initially in prog circles (because of MP's popularity/influence and to a lesser degree to the other guys) - as another means of making some extra money. I mean, we already see many artists coming out with multiple packages of the same album on release day, so the next logical step is to start producing different versions of the album. And when my favorite bands do that, I'll be more than happy to pick up the different versions (as opposed to multiple packages of the same exact thing) to support them.

Assuming their respective record labels allow them.

[KevShmev]

Would be interesting to hear what one of my favorites could do with this when doing it by design where a whole band is all-in on the idea, rather than the accidental way this one came about, which was basically Neal dismantling the finished product and coming up with his own shorter version.

[Nel_Annette]

Other bands have done things like Gentle Storm did, though sometimes as separate releases. The Bravery's second album had "Sun" and "Moon" versions of the album, The Shins' last two albums were the same album but wildly different interpretations, and Manchester Orchestra released Cope and followed it up with the reinterpretation album "Hope". We're not even getting into artists revisiting old albums years later or the multitude of bands that had acoustic versions of albums.

The way Transatlantic has done it though? Where it's basically the same album except there will be a new/different track, or instrumental part, or a different singer on a familiar lyric? I can't recall anything like this album being done before.

[ErHaO]

Other bands have done things like Gentle Storm did, though sometimes as separate releases. The Bravery's second album had "Sun" and "Moon" versions of the album, The Shins' last two albums were the same album but wildly different interpretations, and Manchester Orchestra released Cope and followed it up with the reinterpretation album "Hope". We're not even getting into artists revisiting old albums years later or the multitude of bands that had acoustic versions of albums.

The way Transatlantic has done it though? Where it's basically the same album except there will be a new/different track, or instrumental part, or a different singer on a familiar lyric? I can't recall anything like this album being done before.

This is my thought as well. It kind of is the musical equivalent of a theatrical release and a director's cut (film), releasing at the same time.

There have been instances where a short and long version of an album release at the same time (Symphony X with Iconoclast, for example, 1 disc vs 2 discs), but to my knowledge releases like that usually feature identical versions of songs.

And I like the idea. I wouldn't mind alternate versions of my faves at all.

[kirksnosehair]

Yeah, for me it just boils down to more choices for the consumer = win/win.  Some consumers like me will just instantly gobble up Dream Theater's next album if they released 3 versions of it with different elements on all three that were not on the other albums.  I could get one now, maybe get another one later then complete the set after I've listened to the first two for a few months.  It would probably make me listen to the album a LOT more times than I would with a single release.  I know this latest Transatlantic album with 3 versions has been played more frequently than ANY Transatlantic album that came before it, just by virtue of the fact that there are three different versions. 


And with the music business being pretty much a shit show, inside a dumpster fire, on the Titanic, during a hurricane, I kind of like having the option to buy some extra stuff from one of my all-time favorite groups.  I see it as a win/win.  The artist makes more money and the consumer gets more choices.  There's really no downside to this for anyone.

[emtee]

I see and appreciate the win/win aspect of this release. However, as I've stated, I find it difficult to go back and forth. It's jarring. I think it stems from all my years of listening, dissecting and analyzing so I could learn how to play the drum parts. In this way, I forged a tight relationship with the music. This is the first release in my whole life where there are multiple versions.

[ariich]

Yeah, for me it just boils down to more choices for the consumer = win/win.   

I pretty much agree. For me, the Forevermore version is the least good thing TA have made (though don't get me wrong, it's still good). Whereas the tighter, punchier TBOL version is better and on a part with their other stuff. The fact that I was able to easily make my own combined version that's mainly TBOL with 3 tracks from Forevermore added in where all the transitions work well (as well as they do on either actual version anyway) is especially great as that combined version is up their with their best stuff.

[kirksnosehair]

Well, I've got all three versions of it now and in the end I'll probably end up listening to The Ultimate Edition the most and The Breath of Life the least.  There is nothing wrong with any of them I just tend to like longer pieces. 


I wonder if they'll do this again with a future release?  I tend to think it was a 1-time thing because of the pandemic situation maybe, but you never know.  If it made them more money than previous albums it's going to be hard to resist the urge to do it again.

[Nel_Annette]

I wonder if they'll do this again with a future release?  I tend to think it was a 1-time thing because of the pandemic situation maybe, but you never know.  If it made them more money than previous albums it's going to be hard to resist the urge to do it again.

I'm hoping it was just because of the pandemic. Could you imagine? Something like

The Whirlwind: Tornado (Abridged Version)
The Whirlwind: Hurricane (Extended Edition)

[Mladen]

I think doing something like this again will diminish the magnitude of The Absolute universe. As far as I am concerned, this album should remain one of a kind, it truly is a special project in that regard.

[darkshade]

Next album there will be 4 versions, each overseen by each member of the band, then an ultimate version that takes everything from all four albums and even some music not found on any of the 4 individual versions for a 3 hour long song.

Also, will the next album artwork feature aliens or an alien planet being that's where the Transatlantic ship seems to be heading?

[Mladen]

Given that they have four singers, maybe they can do a KISS.

The Even Absoluter Universe: Neal Morse
The Even Absoluter Universe: Roine Stolt
The Even Absoluter Universe: Pete Trewavas
The Even Absoluter Universe: Mike Portnoy

[425]

I see and appreciate the win/win aspect of this release. However, as I've stated, I find it difficult to go back and forth. It's jarring. I think it stems from all my years of listening, dissecting and analyzing so I could learn how to play the drum parts. In this way, I forged a tight relationship with the music. This is the first release in my whole life where there are multiple versions.

Maybe I'm weird, but I kind of like being jarred in that way. It was really interesting to me when I listened to Forevermore the first time after getting used to The Breath of Life, getting through the overture and noticing some differences but nothing too shocking, and then going into Heart Like a Whirlwind expecting Neal's "Where were you when everyone / Crashed and burned / And fell into the silence of the sun" and instead getting blindsided by Pete's completely different verse. Then working to pick up on what was going on in this version before being able to come back and sing along on the title line.

[Skeever]

Does anyone have any good takes on why these had to be different?

I enjoy both (Breath of Life moreso, though). The differences are there, but it seems a bit odd that they considered these two visions for the album so far apart that they couldn't come to a compromise.

[HOF]

Does anyone have any good takes on why these had to be different?

I enjoy both (Breath of Life moreso, though). The differences are there, but it seems a bit odd that they considered these two visions for the album so far apart that they couldn't come to a compromise.

As far as I can tell, Pete initially had reservations about the length of the album, and then during the shutdown (after Forevermore was essentially written and recorded), Neal had a vision for a shorter version where he could address the COVID situation lyrically. Since there were two in favor of the shorter version and two in favor of the longer version, they split it into two separate projects.

[gzarruk]

I think they could've just compromise a bit and make a single disc, 80 min version of the album, but I guess Mike and Roine were too excited with the idea of making the first TA double album.

[SwedishGoose]

Got all three versions but listen mosttly to Forevermore, I would probably listen more to The Ultimate mix if I could rip it and put it on my phone with the others.
Unfortunateley I don't have a BR player in my computer. Almost bought one just for this but did not pull the trigger yet.

[Fritzinger]

I think they could've just compromise a bit and make a single disc, 80 min version of the album, but I guess Mike and Roine were too excited with the idea of making the first TA double album.

I couldn't agree more. In addition to the double album idea, I think they really wanted to do something unusual/new. MP often said things like "you have to give us credit for trying something new". But honestly, this concept just shows inconsistency. I don't want to sound too harsh, but those two version give off an unfinished, half assed vibe for me. In my opinion, they should have come together one more time to create one consistent 80 minute long "ultimate" edition of their written music.

[darkshade]

I think Forevermore sounds complete, they just didn't stick the finale as well as they usually do. They definitely could have worked on that a little more.

[kirksnosehair]

I think Forevermore sounds complete, they just didn't stick the finale as well as they usually do. They definitely could have worked on that a little more.

It's really my only criticism of the album.  The finale is weird.  After all that epic music all he could come up with is stretching out the last chord for 4 minutes?  I always turn it off LONG before it ends.  Lately I've taken to skipping that entire "Love Made a Way" track at the end, same as I do with The Whirlwind's last track. 

[hefdaddy42]

Does anyone have any good takes on why these had to be different?

I enjoy both (Breath of Life moreso, though). The differences are there, but it seems a bit odd that they considered these two visions for the album so far apart that they couldn't come to a compromise.

They weren't trying to come to a compromise.

[darkshade]

I think Forevermore sounds complete, they just didn't stick the finale as well as they usually do. They definitely could have worked on that a little more.

It's really my only criticism of the album.  The finale is weird.  After all that epic music all he could come up with is stretching out the last chord for 4 minutes?  I always turn it off LONG before it ends.  Lately I've taken to skipping that entire "Love Made a Way" track at the end, same as I do with The Whirlwind's last track.

Stretching out that last chord is hardly the main criticism I would give to the finale. I think it's that there was too much reprising of all the main themes throughout the album, that by the time of the last song, it's been beaten over our heads with, and it doesn't seem like there was any creativity left on that last song, it sounds very cut and paste (which is what the entirety of TBOL sounds like btw.) With so much reprisals, Neal or Roine should have crafted more original ideas or changed the ending entirely. It also didn't seem we were rewarded a grande finale with any lead up to it, like on The Whirlwind. It's just, 'ok, we've decided to end the albummmmmmm.......................... HERE!'.

It's unfortunate that this album was sat on for a while, and none of the members said "hey, the finale of this whole thing isn't as strong as other efforts, the payoff isn't there." after letting the music settle for a while. Maybe they're getting old, or that they don't want to touch a piece of music if it's already "finished" and recorded. TBOL only adds and edits out music, but doesn't change any overall structure or revamp an entire piece of music.