The Official Flying Colors Thread

[yeshaberto]

really loving this album!  only on my 2nd spin, but looking forward to many more
excited to see them on Thurs!

[TheAtliator]

I'll be seeing them Thursday also. Super excited! I still don't think this album lives up to the first, though. The first album alone made them one of my top 10 favorite bands.

[KevShmev]

Much to my surprise, Best Buy had this, and for only $7.99. Woohoo!!

So, I snagged this and the new DT DVD for less than 30 bucks combined.

[The Letter M]

Much to my surprise, Best Buy had this, and for only $7.99. Woohoo!!

So, I snagged this and the new DT DVD for less than 30 bucks combined.

  Good deal! Only $7.99? Must be a release-week sale or something, as Best Buy usually has.

-Marc.

[As I Am]

Without getting into that nonsense about JP (whose playing is still plenty emotional), I'll agree that Steve Morse's playing on Second Nature is pretty great.  Plenty of tasty solos.

Sheep

[Zyzzyva17]

This album definitely has a different feel, and although I like it just as much as the first if not more, I can see why people would prefer the first album. The important thing about the first album for me was not so much the poppiness, but more the catchiness. This album is not as poppy, but it is still catchy, so I'm happy with it.

I have to listen more before I decide my rankings.

[King Postwhore]

Much to my surprise, Best Buy had this, and for only $7.99. Woohoo!!

So, I snagged this and the new DT DVD for less than 30 bucks combined.

My Best Buy let me down.  No Flying Colors.  Then they say they have 2 Blu Rays of the new DT but there were DVD's and I had to point that out.  They were so confused. 

So I drove t a local shop and picked up those 2 and new Enchant.  Paid a little more but I had to have them.

[Jaffa]

I really fucking love this band. 

That being said, I definitely prefer the debut album over Second Nature, by a pretty wide margin.  The new one is a great album full of consistently very good songs, but nothing on it comes close to my favorites from the first album.  Of course, FC1 is possibly one of my favorite albums of all time, so it was a very hard act to follow for me.

At any rate, though, I'm still very happy with the new release as well. 

[KevShmev]

  Good deal! Only $7.99? Must be a release-week sale or something, as Best Buy usually has.

 

Yep.  I wasn't even gonna get it there - I was gonna order it online this week - but I figured since I was there to get the new DT DVD, I'd see if they had this, on the off chance, and was shocked when they did.

My Best Buy let me down.  No Flying Colors.  Then they say they have 2 Blu Rays of the new DT but there were DVD's and I had to point that out.  They were so confused. 
 

They've probably never heard of a Blu-ray.

This album definitely has a different feel, and although I like it just as much as the first if not more, I can see why people would prefer the first album. The important thing about the first album for me was not so much the poppiness, but more the catchiness. This album is not as poppy, but it is still catchy, so I'm happy with it.

I have to listen more before I decide my rankings.

I really fucking love this band. 

That being said, I definitely prefer the debut album over Second Nature, by a pretty wide margin.  The new one is a great album full of consistently very good songs, but nothing on it comes close to my favorites from the first album.  Of course, FC1 is possibly one of my favorite albums of all time, so it was a very hard act to follow for me.

At any rate, though, I'm still very happy with the new release as well.

Good comments, fellas.

[Zyzzyva17]

Current overall rankings (highly subject to change):

1. Infinite Fire
2. Open Up Your Eyes
3. Blue Ocean
4. A Place in Your World
5. The Storm
6. Mask Machine
7. Better than Walking Away
8. One Love Forever
9. Forever in a Daze
10. The Fury of My Love
11. Love is What I'm Waiting For
12. Kayla
13. Peaceful Harbor
14. Everything Changes
15. Lost Without You
16. Cosmic Symphony
17. Fool in My Heart
18. Bombs Away
19. Coulda Shoulda Woulda
20. All Falls Down

[ThatOneGuy2112]

I'm really glad I'm not the only one who regards Infinite Fire as a true gem. I know cause it's straight up prog it's gonna get a lot of flak, but dammit, it's amazing, eh?

[yeshaberto]

Tonight was so amazing!   Clean sound and vibrant energy.  Must see!

[ariich]

I know cause it's straight up prog it's gonna get a lot of flak

Huh? On this forum?

Infinite Fire seems to be very popular here. Personally I find it ok, but not that exciting. Same for Open Up Your Eyes, which again seems to be pretty popular for its proggyness. I think there's something about both that's, as rumborak would say, a bit too generic-Neal-Morse. And I'm far from NM'ed out, I just don't think those two songs are very exciting.

On the other hand, I love Cosmic Symphony - I think that's a case where they've made something more proggy and really interesting. You could call Peaceful Harbor proggy too, and that's a strong contender for my favourite FC song.

[Mladen]

Tonight was so amazing!   Clean sound and vibrant energy.  Must see!

Ooh, that's great to hear. Do you remember the set list?

[ThatOneGuy2112]

I know cause it's straight up prog it's gonna get a lot of flak

Huh? On this forum?

Infinite Fire seems to be very popular here. Personally I find it ok, but not that exciting. Same for Open Up Your Eyes, which again seems to be pretty popular for its proggyness. I think there's something about both that's, as rumborak would say, a bit too generic-Neal-Morse. And I'm far from NM'ed out, I just don't think those two songs are very exciting.

On the other hand, I love Cosmic Symphony - I think that's a case where they've made something more proggy and really interesting. You could call Peaceful Harbor proggy too, and that's a strong contender for my favourite FC song.

Probably could have worded it better. It seems most don't really want more prog in the vein of Neal Morse's typical stuff since the debut for FC established the group as having a unique blend between more accessible pop and rock with prog tendencies. What I meant was is that when they stray from that accessible sound and into "generic NM prog", it isn't met with the best of receptions, even by die-hard prog fans.

[KevShmev]

I would never think of Infinite Fire as your "typical Neal Morse epic" or anything like that.  For one, the song is built around Steve Morse's recurring motif, the likes of which you never hear in a song on a Neal Morse solo album, and for two, Casey's lead vocals give it a very different feel.  Same thing, regarding the latter, with Cosmic Symphony, where the 2nd part sounds Neal-ish, in large part because he sings it, but the first and third parts don't sound Neal-ish really at all. 

Personally, I like both of those songs a lot cause, aside from just being really good tunes, they are in that 10-12 minute window, which is the perfect length for a great proggy song.  It's long enough to have that epic feel, but not too long to where it feels like work to get through it (which is a problem with some of Neal's 20-minute plus tunes). 

[Mladen]

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/flying-colors/2014/james-armstrong-theater-torrance-ca-4bcf67fe.html

Great set list. 

[Tick]

As much as I liked the first album, I think this one is even better.

The first listen blew me away

[KevShmev]

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/flying-colors/2014/james-armstrong-theater-torrance-ca-4bcf67fe.html

Great set list. 

Hmmm, I thought they'd play more songs, and thus more from the first album, but that still looks good.  Good to see they chucked two of the three clunkers from the first one, although I am surprised that Blue Ocean didn't make the cut.

[Tick]

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/flying-colors/2014/james-armstrong-theater-torrance-ca-4bcf67fe.html

Great set list. 

Hmmm, I thought they'd play more songs, and thus more from the first album, but that still looks good.  Good to see they chucked two of the three clunkers from the first one, although I am surprised that Blue Ocean didn't make the cut.

This exactly.

[hefdaddy42]

I've only gotten the chance to listen through once.  Lot to digest, I definitely need another listen or twenty.

[Nick]

So, the show tonight was incredible, definitely better than the first time around. They did an Alpha Rev song that led into Peaceful Harbor and that was certainly the highlight of the night for me. That song wasn't my favorite going in, but likely will be going forward. From the new album I'd say Fury of My Love and Mask Machine also went especially well.

[Nick]

And speaking of that particular point in the show...

www.wpapu.com/sounds/FC2014-10-04ARPH.mp3

Included Casey's intro as I thought it was rather nice.

Edit: And what the hell, one more for good measure.

www.wpapu.com/sounds/FC2014-10-04FoML.mp3

I have to say, liked Casey before, but he grew on me even more this show. Nothing overly flashy, but a great fit to front this band.

[ariich]

Which Alpha Rev song did they do?

[King Postwhore]

I love his voice.

[Mladen]

Sounds like he's getting more comfortable with communicating with the crowd.

[Nick]

Which Alpha Rev song did they do?

Colder Months, audio is in the first link I posted.

[RoeDent]

I have my copy!

-------------

New post, but editing this one to save double-posting.

I love the song, but I think I've worked out why I felt a bit strange about Open Up Your Eyes at first. The three vocal sections starting from Neal Morse's section all feel like climactic final choruses to me. It's like, when is this thing actually going to end? And when it does end, it's kind of abrupt.

[KevShmev]

Agreed.  When the song speeds up around 9:47, it should have led up to the ending crescendo right there, instead of doing a reprise of another vocal melody and then having that overly busy ending.  I might actually make an edit that fades the song out around the 10-minute mark.  I think that will be much more satisfying for me to listen to.

[The Letter M]

At first, I thought the ending to "Open Up Your Eyes" was weird, and seemed more like something that (without much knowledge of Steve or Dave and their work) SM and DL would cook up since it didn't really sound too NM-ish to me. It's a weird way to end the song, but rather than give it that typical slow-fade-out, jamming on the same chords deal that Neal likes to do, it's a unique ending to the opener. It's less of a "here's the epic finish" and more of a "here's a fun way to end the song and show our chops", which is FINE by me since it's not an epic in the sense of ending a side of vinyl or closing an album. It'd feel weird, like if they put "Cosmic Symphony" as the opener. So in that sense, I'm glad the ending is the way it is, something unexpected and fun, and I've come to enjoy it.

-Marc.

[RoeDent]

Overall, this is a brilliant album! Favourites right now: Mask Machine, Bombs Away (great groove in the main riff), The Fury of My Love (this album's Better Than Walking Away), and Lost Without You (wonderfully "sunny" chorus).

Casey McPherson really shines in particular. Really comes forward as the band's frontman.

[smegolas]

GREAT album and I wish that JP would give a listen to Steve Morse play on this album and remember back during the FII/SFAM days, when he played with emotion and spirituality. I've really missed that with his playing since and the constant mind numbing shredding that has become his signature. He stood out for me when he played with more emotion.

+1.  Flying Colors is the direction that I've always wished DT would move in as they aged / matured.  Yes JP still has his moments, but I think the shredding has overshadowed everything else.  Morse shreds, but he picks his spots, which adds to the effect instead of just shredding your face off.

[smegolas]

This…is…Majestic.
These guys all really need to quit their day jobs and make this thing permanent.  Because this is way better than their day jobs.
Pretty surprised to see people complaining about the prog element on this website.  I think its a great mix of prog and more accessable melodic awesomeness.  Casey is great.
Is there a place in your world for Flying Colors? Hells Ya!

[Bolsters]

So, Peaceful Harbour is pretty great.

[hefdaddy42]

So, Peaceful Harbour is pretty great.

I agree, that is fantastic.