Official Neal Morse Appreciation Thread

[goo-goo]

Seems like Neal's mother in law passed away.

From Neal's FB:
"My mother-in-law, Sharon Turrentine passed away last night. She was a wonderful, loving support to me, my family and everyone she came in contact with. She was the backbone of our family, Radiant Records, and Radiant Studios! She served every band that ever came through the studio with love and kindness. I wrote a song about her recently that says, “she always encouraged me… even when I was wrong.“
In my entire life, I can’t think of anyone else I could say that about. She ALWAYS encouraged me.. and I am grateful to have known her.

She drew her last breath with her daughter, grandkids and I holding her hand and singing “Amazing Grace”. I praise the Lord today for such a beautiful passing and such a beautiful life lived in his glory."

[ronnibran]

Got the musical in the mail yesterday so listened a few times at work today.  I'm digging it.  First listen, I was a little underwhelmed with the sound, not sure if it is just the mix being so different from other Neal albums, or what.  But that complaint aside, it's a great album.  I'm growing to appreciate the "cheesy musical" feeling it has in parts haha.

I love the singing.  Neal, Ted, and Nick on the same album is great.  And then Matt Smith from Theocracy is a nice bonus as I'm a fan of theirs.  The female singer does great also.  I was lucky enough to see this concert, and she ended up being one of the highlights.  Nick is the other highlight, he really brings it (concert and also the recording).  Kind of bummed that the singer of Petra didn't make it on the album since he had a decent sized role at the concert.  Maybe the timing just didn't work out.  Oh, and the guy that played Satan was also a highlight at the concert and he brought it on the album too.

Story wise, I basically know the story already but admittedly haven't read it in a loooong time.  I thought many parts of it were very moving and the musical really works well in terms of story telling.  It brought the emotion in a few different parts based on the story presentation alone.

Favorite songs:  Seven Devils & Free at Last (together they're amazing!),  Jesus' Temptation, and then two of Nick's songs Heart Full of Holes and Judas' Death.

[KevShmev]

Regarding the sound, I noticed on the pre-release songs that the sound was a little dry and flat; I was expecting a significant upgrade in sound over the demo versions I am used to, but it was a slight upgrade at best.  Once I get the album later this week, maybe I will hear more of a difference.

[bluefox4000]

I got it today......and have spun it. 

obviously i'll need way more listens but i can tell you i do.....on one listen........prefer the this too TGA.

and also will say Nick was underused as Judas on this record.  as someone already said.  his 2 songs on two of the best on here.

i'll have more thoughts as i absorb.  but i LOVE this so far.

[ronnibran]

Not sure if it will surpass TGA for me, but glad I’m not the only one enjoying it. Still getting better with each listen. New favorite track is Gethsemane.

[bluefox4000]

Early Favs

Jesus Temptation
The Woman of Seven Devils
Free At last
He must go To the Cross
Hearts Full Of Holes
Jesus Before Pilate

As a broadway kid first and foremost who did theater in HS and does community theater.  this is cheesy as hell and hits ALL my theater loving buttons.

[ronnibran]

This keeps growing on me, and it about equal with TGA, which was my fav new Neal album in quite some time.  I feel the same way about this one.  No idea how Neal does it!!! I just can't stop listening to this.

edit:  Also wanted to add that I for sure prefer the ending of this to TGA.  The Greatest Love of All > A Love That Never Dies.  And yes, it is almost an eye roll writing that as it feels like the themes are so repeating with Neal's music.  But they sound nothing alike lol.

[bluefox4000]

This keeps growing on me, and it about equal with TGA, which was my fav new Neal album in quite some time.  I feel the same way about this one.  No idea how Neal does it!!! I just can't stop listening to this.

edit:  Also wanted to add that I for sure prefer the ending of this to TGA.  The Greatest Love of All > A Love That Never Dies.  And yes, it is almost an eye roll writing that as it feels like the themes are so repeating with Neal's music.  But they sound nothing alike lol.

I like The greatest Love of All more.

1. i just like the song more.

2.  it's theme is not repeated Ad Nauseum over the album as is A Love that never Dies.  that theme repeated SO much that the finale had little to no impact on me.

[gzarruk]

2.  it's theme is not repeated Ad Nauseum over the album as is A Love that never Dies.  that theme repeated SO much that the finale had little to no impact on me.

This. That theme on TGA is repeated so much that I just laugh every time I hear it again, can't take it seriously anymore.

As for JCTE, I haven't had time to listen to too much from it, but I really the songs that I've listened so far. The mix sounds muddy and not good enough for Neal Morse standards, though.

[KevShmev]

Yeah, the mix does seem a bit muddy and not as pristine as normal.  At first, I couldn't tell if it was my ears or the mix, but I played one of the new songs and then a song from both Similitude and The Great Adventure, and the Exorcist mix is definitely not as excellent as those on most of Neal's other albums.  It's not bad, just not as excellent as usual.

[Fritzinger]

I have to admit am not the biggest fan of the Exorcist. For my taste it's too much bombast, too much rejoice and Jesus. Maybe I'm not getting it (yet)... but I think this will be the first Neal Morse album since .. ever? .. to not stand on my shelf.

Also - am I the only one who is not a fan of Eric's drumming? Sure, he can do awesome fills and definitely has some chops. It works when he sits behind the kit during Stranger In Your Soul and blows everyone away because no one knew the shy guitar virtuoso doesn't only have a great voice but also can beat the hell out of some drums. But in my opinion, it's not enough for keeping it interesting over a 2h double concept album..

[gzarruk]

Also - am I the only one who is not a fan of Eric's drumming? Sure, he can do awesome fills and definitely has some chops. It works when he sits behind the kit during Stranger In Your Soul and blows everyone away because no one knew the shy guitar virtuoso doesn't only have a great voice but also can beat the hell out of some drums. But in my opinion, it's not enough for keeping it interesting over a 2h double concept album..

Completely agree. I get Neal wanted this to be different than the NM “band” albums, so Mike didn’t record the drums, but Eric wasn’t the best choice for the album, specially when you already have Nick freaking D’Virgilio already doing vocals for it. Such a missed opportunity.

[MinistroRaven]

Also - am I the only one who is not a fan of Eric's drumming? Sure, he can do awesome fills and definitely has some chops. It works when he sits behind the kit during Stranger In Your Soul and blows everyone away because no one knew the shy guitar virtuoso doesn't only have a great voice but also can beat the hell out of some drums. But in my opinion, it's not enough for keeping it interesting over a 2h double concept album..

Completely agree. I get Neal wanted this to be different than the NM “band” albums, so Mike didn’t record the drums, but Eric wasn’t the best choice for the album, specially when you already have Nick freaking D’Virgilio already doing vocals for it. Such a missed opportunity.

MP isn't on this album because he was touring SoA when the session took place.

[gzarruk]

Also - am I the only one who is not a fan of Eric's drumming? Sure, he can do awesome fills and definitely has some chops. It works when he sits behind the kit during Stranger In Your Soul and blows everyone away because no one knew the shy guitar virtuoso doesn't only have a great voice but also can beat the hell out of some drums. But in my opinion, it's not enough for keeping it interesting over a 2h double concept album..

Completely agree. I get Neal wanted this to be different than the NM “band” albums, so Mike didn’t record the drums, but Eric wasn’t the best choice for the album, specially when you already have Nick freaking D’Virgilio already doing vocals for it. Such a missed opportunity.

MP isn'y on this ańbum because he was touring SoA when the session took place.

But that's not my point. What I'm saying is that Eric wasn't the best choice for drummer out there. He surely can play, but drums aren't his main instrument and his playing sounds uninspired, specially on a long album like this one.

[ronnibran]

After listening to the album many times, I feel that if the mix was different, the drums would sound better.  I'm not convinced the drumming itself is lacking (I'm no musician, I could be wrong, this is just my hillbilly opinion).

[MinistroRaven]

Also - am I the only one who is not a fan of Eric's drumming? Sure, he can do awesome fills and definitely has some chops. It works when he sits behind the kit during Stranger In Your Soul and blows everyone away because no one knew the shy guitar virtuoso doesn't only have a great voice but also can beat the hell out of some drums. But in my opinion, it's not enough for keeping it interesting over a 2h double concept album..

Completely agree. I get Neal wanted this to be different than the NM “band” albums, so Mike didn’t record the drums, but Eric wasn’t the best choice for the album, specially when you already have Nick freaking D’Virgilio already doing vocals for it. Such a missed opportunity.

MP isn'y on this ańbum because he was touring SoA when the session took place.

But that's not my point. What I'm saying is that Eric wasn't the best choice for drummer out there. He surely can play, but drums aren't his main instrument and his playing sounds uninspired, specially on a long album like this one.

No, but you are saying that MP isn't on the album because NM wanted this to be different than the NM band

[gzarruk]

Also - am I the only one who is not a fan of Eric's drumming? Sure, he can do awesome fills and definitely has some chops. It works when he sits behind the kit during Stranger In Your Soul and blows everyone away because no one knew the shy guitar virtuoso doesn't only have a great voice but also can beat the hell out of some drums. But in my opinion, it's not enough for keeping it interesting over a 2h double concept album..

Completely agree. I get Neal wanted this to be different than the NM “band” albums, so Mike didn’t record the drums, but Eric wasn’t the best choice for the album, specially when you already have Nick freaking D’Virgilio already doing vocals for it. Such a missed opportunity.

MP isn'y on this ańbum because he was touring SoA when the session took place.

But that's not my point. What I'm saying is that Eric wasn't the best choice for drummer out there. He surely can play, but drums aren't his main instrument and his playing sounds uninspired, specially on a long album like this one.

No, but you are saying that MP isn't on the album because NM wanted this to be different than the NM band

Yes, I did, and I was wrong on that, but my point is that Eric's drumming sounds bad here. Nick could've recorded this and the result would've been 1000 times better.

[KevShmev]

No offense, but I have no idea what you are talking about.  No, Eric is not the drummer that NDV is, and he is not the drummer that Portnoy is, but he does a good job on this record.

[bluefox4000]

Well my take on this is........Eric may not be the Drummer Mike is.

but honestly it  was a nice break from the familiar portnoy stylr/fills we hear album after album......granted it works tremendoulsy for Neal/NMB.  but it was a refreashing change.

Re: the mix.

it is slightly muddy.  but i've heard Worse and it does not detract from the album for me.

[DTA]

One listen through and it almost sounded like Eric has MP's style in regards to fills/beats. Makes sense since he was clearly really influenced by Petrucci on guitar, and he most likely was heavily influenced by Portnoy on drums as well. I don't hear anything bad drum-wise, he's holding it together fine and letting the vocals/story be the focus which is what this particular album calls for.

[MinistroRaven]

Message from the artwork creator of JCTE:

“It's been brought to my attention that many of your are having trouble reading the booklet lyrics. I'm including a PDF file with them here. Please note we had no control whatsoever about the quality of the printing in the CD booklet and the vinyl inside area. I asked for the vinyl to be a triple gate-fold instead of a double, so the lyrics will be more readable, but my request was turned down. Anyway, here they are for all of you who purchased this amazing piece of music. And Happy Father's Day for all the fathers around here!”

https://www.dropbox.com/s/edu4bvgmvwjj95f/Jesus%20Christ%20-%20The%20Exorcist%20(Lyrics).pdf?dl=0

[KevShmev]

One listen through and it almost sounded like Eric has MP's style in regards to fills/beats. Makes sense since he was clearly really influenced by Petrucci on guitar, and he most likely was heavily influenced by Portnoy on drums as well. I don't hear anything bad drum-wise, he's holding it together fine and letting the vocals/story be the focus which is what this particular album calls for.

Well my take on this is........Eric may not be the Drummer Mike is.

but honestly it  was a nice break from the familiar portnoy stylr/fills we hear album after album......granted it works tremendoulsy for Neal/NMB.  but it was a refreashing change.

Re: the mix.

it is slightly muddy.  but i've heard Worse and it does not detract from the album for me.

Agreed, with all points in both of the above posts. 

It feels like most of the best musical moments are on Disc 1, which happens a lot with double disc albums, but the whole thing is highly enjoyable.  It won't be one of my favorites by Neal, but it is a most worthy addition to his ridiculously prolific discography.

[kaos2900]

Finally completed a couple of listens of the new album it's definitely another solid release from Neal. All of the vocalists sound great and there are some really great songs. That being said, it seemed a tad too long. ACT I and the first quarter of Act II are really great but the rest of Act II seems to drag. Maybe that will change with more listens. Looking forward to the live release.

Also, I am super impressed and Ted and Eric. Ted sounds fantastic and I knew Eric was a good drummer but he fit the bill perfectly in my opinion.

[Zydar]

I just realised the album is on Spotify. I didn't know he cared about other streaming services except his own Waterfall app.

[goo-goo]

I just realised the album is on Spotify. I didn't know he cared about other streaming services except his own Waterfall app.

JCTE was released through Frontiers Records so they do the streaming part.

[Kwyjibo]

After listening a couple of times to JSTE, this is shaping up nicely. I really like it, it's another quality release from Neal. Maybe not his best, maybe not better than Similitude or Great Adventure but still really good. And althought the music is definitely Neal Morse, the use of different singers shakes things up a bit. And Eric's drumming is really good and fits the music.

[MinistroRaven]

 

[The Letter M]

 

 

Does that make Mike Portnoy Thorin? 

-Marc.

[MinistroRaven]

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[Evermind]

Man, those are some neat prices. I seem to remember there were some issues with Radiant Records shipping though?

Anyway, I ordered 6 CDs (I own nothing from Neal except some Transatlantic) which totaled up to $17 and then the shipping costs were additional $25. I still placed an order, it's still a better deal than our local record store. We'll see how it goes.

[DTA]

I ordered Songs From The Highway, Snow Live, and Send The Fire. I expect to get them around 2021 when the woman who runs it is done vacationing.

[MinistroRaven]

I ordered Songs From The Highway, Snow Live, and Send The Fire. I expect to get them around 2021 when the woman who runs it is done vacationing.

I ordered some too, and contacted them for shipping refund as a friend of mine will be at Morsefest this year, he will pick up my order and he'll bring them to me later this year, so I am not in a hurry to get them.

[ProfessorPeart]

There was only 2 things in the sale that I was really interested in. Went through the process to see what the damage would be and then bailed. I had $10 of merch and they were going to tack on $15 for shipping. Nope.

[bosk1]

I had pretty much considered Radiant on my own personal "ban list," but I'll give them a shot with these discounts to try to pick up some items on the cheap.

[Kwyjibo]

Good prices but buying a cd for 0.99$ and then paying 25$ for shipping isn't really that cheap anymore.