James LaBrie - Beautiful Shade of Gray (Due out April or May)

[Kocak]

In a recent interview with PasifAgresif, a Turkish webzine, James LaBrie confirmed that his new solo album, Beautiful Shade of Gray, will come out next Spring. The album will be a "mostly acoustic" effort, featuring just one of his former collaborators Marco Sfogli on lead guitars, in addition to Paul Logue from Eden's Curse, who co-produced the album with James, Kim Pulkkinen on keyboards and Chance LaBrie on drums.

No official announcement yet, but here's the original interview: http://www.pasifagresif.com/2021/09/dream-theater-roportaj/
Google Translate version, for convenience: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://www.pasifagresif.com/2021/09/dream-theater-roportaj/

[MirrorMask]

That late? bummer. But good to know it will come sooner or later!

[HOF]

Title sounds pleasant.

[T-ski]

Title sounds pleasant.

Well played.

[hefdaddy42]

Nice!

[MoraWintersoul]

Nice! I thought it would come out under a different name though. I guess Matt is okay with both projects coming out under James' name.

[WilliamMunny]

Beyond excited for this!

[ReaperKK]

I'll definitely check it out. I was a fan of Elements Of Persuasion but none of his other work really click with me; this sounds like it might sound a bit different.

[ZirconBlue]

Nice! I thought it would come out under a different name though. I guess Matt is okay with both projects coming out under James' name.

To my knowledge, the only thing Matt has said about it was that he isn't involved.  Personally, I think James should have used a different name for this project.

[cramx3]

I'm not entirely sure the name matters if we already have two versions of the band under the same name.  Might as well make it 3 with all 3 sounding different besides JLB's vocals. 

Not entirely sure I have too much interest in an acoustic album.  I'd be happier if he was working with Matt and following up on the last two albums that I really enjoyed.

[SoundscapeMN]

maybe there'll be a reference? 

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

maybe there'll be a reference? 

That was my first thought

[Ben_Jamin]

I'm not entirely sure the name matters if we already have two versions of the band under the same name.  Might as well make it 3 with all 3 sounding different besides JLB's vocals. 

Not entirely sure I have too much interest in an acoustic album.  I'd be happier if he was working with Matt and following up on the last two albums that I really enjoyed.

Ever since cancelling the appearance at ProgPower, it feels as if there is something within that working collaboration that came to a hold, or more a slight detour. And led to Matt releasing those solo songs, and JLB doing this Acoustic project branded as his namesake. It's an amusing thought I had since it was announced they were cancelling their ProgPower appearance.

[gzarruk]

It doesn't really bother me that they're releasing it under James' name since he is a solo artist and not a proper "band". What bothers me is that we have to wait a long time to get it

It'd be cool if, going forward, these two "bands" merge into one big collab album with both Matt and Paul writing the material along with James.

[wolfking]

I'm not sure if I give two shits about this to be honest.

[cramx3]

I'm not entirely sure the name matters if we already have two versions of the band under the same name.  Might as well make it 3 with all 3 sounding different besides JLB's vocals. 

Not entirely sure I have too much interest in an acoustic album.  I'd be happier if he was working with Matt and following up on the last two albums that I really enjoyed.

Ever since cancelling the appearance at ProgPower, it feels as if there is something within that working collaboration that came to a hold, or more a slight detour. And led to Matt releasing those solo songs, and JLB doing this Acoustic project branded as his namesake. It's an amusing thought I had since it was announced they were cancelling their ProgPower appearance.

I've wondered this as well, it does seem odd that they seemed to be working together, they backed out of the show and like you said, out comes two Matt songs that sound very much like the JLB recent albums and now this.  Who knows, but I'm inlcined to think it's all related

I'm not sure if I give two shits about this to be honest.

I think I put it a bit more nicely  but basically, I'm not too sure how much I care about this.  I'd imagine I'll check out the singles but dont expect to get the album unless those singles really hit me good and acoustic music doesn't usually do that other than in a live situation.

[Willthescout7]

James' solo albums changed my life, so anything he puts out is an instant buy. I'm beyond excited.

[ZirconBlue]

It doesn't really bother me that they're releasing it under James' name since he is a solo artist and not a proper "band".

Except that James has said that they only use the "James LaBrie" name because it's more marketable, but that he considers his collaboration with Matt and the others as a band.

[MoraWintersoul]

I don't think there's been a falling out between Matt and James, but maybe Matt has quit or is on hiatus because he wants to focus on his solo stuff and they're just waiting to break the news or to see if he suddenly becomes more available or something. When you listen to inties, the plan was always that Matt would do some solo stuff and they would also do stuff together (does anyone remember a 2019ish tentative date for an EP?), but Matt's only done about three songs so far, and the last one came after a long break.

[DoctorAction]

I'm keen to hear this. I can see his last couple of solo albums were accomplished but the style doesn't work for me. Have always loved James on softer stuff so quite intrigued.

[SeRoX]

Last time I spoke with Matt via Facebook he said he nearly finished all songs for James and he only needs James come and sing in the studio. He already posted this info in his profile back in early 2020.

I don't know what changed since then. I hope there is nothing bad between them.

[Kotowboy]

Spring is only six months away. By the time A View From The Top Of The World is out - that'll seem like nothing.

[goo-goo]

Last time I spoke with Matt via Facebook he said he nearly finished all songs for James and he only needs James come and sing in the studio. He already posted this info in his profile back in early 2020.

I don't know what changed since then. I hope there is nothing bad between them.

Probably Covid since it was early 2020. But now James has a home studio and there could have been some progress with Matt and James' album. Hopefully that's the case.

[countoftuscany42]

Color vinyl pressing of Elements of Persuasion coming 11/26 for Black Friday edition of Record Store Day.  happy birthday to me! 

[goo-goo]

Color vinyl pressing of Elements of Persuasion coming 11/26 for Black Friday edition of Record Store Day.  happy birthday to me! 

 

[SoundscapeMN]

if the Mulmzzler albums ever came out on Vinyl, I would likely pick them up.

[Cool Chris]

James has been an automatic buy for me since EoP. I don't have any idea what this new album will be like, and I am not sure I care. I will support my favorite pirate.

[Fritzinger]

I think James' voice works best in quieter environments (nowadays). I love his later renditions of songs like Wait For Sleep. Not only does his voice sound great there, but his intonation is also always spot on. I saw phone recordings of Wait For Sleep during the I&W&B Tour and they sounded beautiful. So I'm looking forward to hearing acoustic music where his vocals are in the focus.

[Madman Shepherd]

Last time I spoke with Matt via Facebook he said he nearly finished all songs for James and he only needs James come and sing in the studio. He already posted this info in his profile back in early 2020.

I don't know what changed since then. I hope there is nothing bad between them.

Probably Covid since it was early 2020. But now James has a home studio and there could have been some progress with Matt and James' album. Hopefully that's the case.

I don't know anything about Matt and his situation with James, but James has said in a lot of interviews that this new collaboration just sort of happened at a really perfect and inspired time with Paul Logue. Paul had come to see the show in, I think Scotland, and just happened to see James at the airport the next day. James was like, why didn't you contact me? We could have hung out. Paul was like, I did! James realized Paul must have been using LaBrie's old email. So they talked and decided to do an album. A week or two later the world shut down and they did a lot of long distance collaboration.

Then James started work on the new DT album. James seems to work really slow on his own. Not a slam, he just seems like a pretty laid back dude that's not in a huge rush. He was also putting his home studio together.

I can't wait for this new album. It sounds VERY different from his other stuff (from what he's said) which I really love too. I prefer EoP to his latter two albums but each of those still had some great stuff.

[ProfessorPeart]

An entire album of breathy vocals! 

I will probably test this out first before buying. If it was an album with Matt, it would be an auto-buy.

[Cool Chris]

I will probably test this out first before buying. If it was an album with Matt, it would be an auto-buy.

Same here.

[Max Kuehnau]

According to one fairly recent interview with James (in an Austrian newspaper, so it's in German) he said that the album was in the mixing stages, so make of that what we will.

[gzarruk]

Christian, the keyboard player for the new album, posted a few days ago that he was filming a video for the album.
https://www.facebook.com/100063623430206/posts/302147638582682/?d=n

[Dream Team]

An entire album of breathy vocals! 

I will probably test this out first before buying. If it was an album with Matt, it would be an auto-buy.

  So true