Official Neal Morse Appreciation Thread

[Stadler]

Can't remember where I saw it, but Randy George supposedly said this album will be different, so fans should prepare themselves.  I am not expecting some radical departure, but would be cool to hear a different type of album structure and whatnot.  I'd love to see Neal, Eric and Bill take on more of an equal parts deal when it comes to lead vocals, which wouldn't surprise me given that Neal's voice is getting older and starting to sound a bit weary at times.  Less lead vocals would help him when it comes to the eventual touring.

They said something similar about The Grand Experiment.
And then they named the album The Grand Experiment.
But the album actually wasn't that grand of an experiment.
It was a typical Morse album with some different singers sometimes singing. And I was and still am completely fine with that!!

I don't know; my daughter thinks "Agenda" sounds like a One Direction song (and I don't disagree with her in some ways).

[425]

I think The Grand Experiment is the most "different" album in the prog Neal Morse/NMB catalog. That's not to say that it's, like, a particularly sharp left turn or anything, but it stands out, in my opinion. There are no songs like Waterfall or Agenda on any other Morse album, the title track definitely has a different edge, and I think the middle section of Alive Again ("The king of surprise and the boredom queen...") is unusual even while the bookends are classic Morse.

[Dedalus]

Can't remember where I saw it, but Randy George supposedly said this album will be different, so fans should prepare themselves.  I am not expecting some radical departure, but would be cool to hear a different type of album structure and whatnot.  I'd love to see Neal, Eric and Bill take on more of an equal parts deal when it comes to lead vocals, which wouldn't surprise me given that Neal's voice is getting older and starting to sound a bit weary at times.  Less lead vocals would help him when it comes to the eventual touring.

They said something similar about The Grand Experiment.
And then they named the album The Grand Experiment.
But the album actually wasn't that grand of an experiment.
It was a typical Morse album with some different singers sometimes singing. And I was and still am completely fine with that!!

 

[KevShmev]

I think The Grand Experiment is the most "different" album in the prog Neal Morse/NMB catalog. That's not to say that it's, like, a particularly sharp left turn or anything, but it stands out, in my opinion. There are no songs like Waterfall or Agenda on any other Morse album, the title track definitely has a different edge, and I think the middle section of Alive Again ("The king of surprise and the boredom queen...") is unusual even while the bookends are classic Morse.

Agreed.  In fact, as samey as Neal's music gets accused of being, the three NMB albums so far have all been different from one another as well.  Even when they did the Similitude follow-up with the Great Adventure, the sequel managed to be just different enough to not sound like a copycat album at all (Similitude was much lighter tonally and The Great Adventure was much darker and grittier). 

[darkshade]

I gave The Grand Experiment a listen yesterday, and while it has some nice moments, it's not necessarily one of my favorite Neal albums. I like that this is more of a band than a Neal solo album, so there is definitely a slightly different feel, but Mike has been playing with Neal for 20 years and Randy's been there on most albums, so the big difference I hear is added vocalists and the Petrucci -influenced style of Eric on guitar, which I think works really well with Neal's music. The Call, while I find it a little cheesy with some of the vocals, is a top notch tune with in the big epic style Neal brings but without it being 34 minutes long. The 'actual' epic Alive Again is still not fully clicking with me but the ending is pretty dramatic. The middle tune, Waterfall, is one of the more original songs from Neal's world over the last 10 years, and is a nice tune with good melody. The other two songs I can take em or leave em. At least on Momentum I enjoy every track on their own. To me, this was always the Neal Morse Band version of Kaleidoscope, very similar album structure, though unlike TA, they didn't really go heavy with the ballads and instead went with weird clunky 'mainstream sounding' rock songs. Having said that, Agenda gets stuck in my head. It's like I want to dislike the song, because I really dislike the title track, but for some reason that one works.

I think they struck gold on their next two albums.

[KevShmev]

I actually think The Grand Experiment is NMB's 2nd best album (behind Similitude).  The Call, Waterfall and Alive Again are all totally awesome, and all, IMO, light years better than anything from The Great Adventure, which I consider very good overall.   No, the title track and Agenda are not world beaters (solid tunes, but fairly unspectacular), but The Call, Waterfall and Alive Again take up over 43 minutes of the proper album's 53 minutes (-ish) running order, and when over 80% of an album is that awesome, that's a major winner in my book.

Note that I am not considering the bonus tracks since they are not part of the proper album, although I will say that had New Jerusalem and Doomsday Destiny been part of the proper album instead of Agenda and The Grand Experiment, it could have been in the convo for Neal's best album (from any of his projects) to date.

[darkshade]

Totally agree. Those two bonus tracks are better songs. For me, TGE has some of his best work and some of his lesser work so for me it doesn't stack up against Neal's best albums, solo or with TA. The Call has to be one of the best openers on a NM related album though, one of his and the band's best tunes, I just wish it didn't start with those acapella vocals. Alive Again to me is an upper mid-tier Neal epic, like World Without End or Kaleidoscope; good, but he's produced better.

[Stadler]

Alive Again is my favorite Neil epic, the only one that comes close is Seeds Of Gold.

[hefdaddy42]

Alive Again is my favorite Neil epic, the only one that comes close is Seeds Of Gold.

Love both of those.

[The Letter M]

Alive Again is my favorite Neil epic, the only one that comes close is Seeds Of Gold.

"Seeds Of Gold" is probably my favorite epic Neal has done outside of Transatlantic. For one reason or another "Alive Again" just never stuck with me, but I like it a bit more than "World Without End", which felt a bit bloated to me.

Out of curiosity, how would everyone rank the following four Neal epics - "So Many Roads", "Seeds Of Gold", "World Without End", and "Alive Again"?

-Marc.

[gzarruk]

Out of curiosity, how would everyone rank the following four Neal epics - "So Many Roads", "Seeds Of Gold", "World Without End", and "Alive Again"?

-Marc.

World Without End
Seeds of Gold
Alive Again
So Many Roads

I haven't listened to SMR more than a couple times I think, but I don't remember liking it that much.

WWE and SOG are wonderful and either could be spot 1 or 2, I just haven't listened to Seeds in a while and World is a bit fresher in my mind.

As for Alive Again being that low... I love the song and I'm actually listening to it as I type this, but it's that dang Bill vocal section that brings it down for me. Can't stand the guy's lead voice (his harmonies are really good tho). I'd take Pete Trewavas singing lead any day over Bill

[DTA]

Alive Again is my favorite Neil epic, the only one that comes close is Seeds Of Gold.

"Seeds Of Gold" is probably my favorite epic Neal has done outside of Transatlantic. For one reason or another "Alive Again" just never stuck with me, but I like it a bit more than "World Without End", which felt a bit bloated to me.

Out of curiosity, how would everyone rank the following four Neal epics - "So Many Roads", "Seeds Of Gold", "World Without End", and "Alive Again"?

-Marc.

Seeds of Gold (absolutely the best out of these 4 imo)
Alive Again
World Without End
So Many Roads

[kirksnosehair]

FANTASTIC:
World Without End
Seeds of Gold


GOOD:
Alive Again


EH, IT'S OK:
So Many Roads

[gzarruk]

FANTASTIC:
World Without End
Seeds of Gold


GOOD:
Alive Again

 
EH, IT'S OK:
So Many Roads

[hefdaddy42]

Out of curiosity, how would everyone rank the following four Neal epics - "So Many Roads", "Seeds Of Gold", "World Without End", and "Alive Again"?

-Marc.

Alive Again
Seeds of Gold





World Without End









So Many Roads

[Stadler]

Out of curiosity, how would everyone rank the following four Neal epics - "So Many Roads", "Seeds Of Gold", "World Without End", and "Alive Again"?

-Marc.

World Without End
Seeds of Gold
Alive Again
So Many Roads

I haven't listened to SMR more than a couple times I think, but I don't remember liking it that much.

WWE and SOG are wonderful and either could be spot 1 or 2, I just haven't listened to Seeds in a while and World is a bit fresher in my mind.

As for Alive Again being that low... I love the song and I'm actually listening to it as I type this, but it's that dang Bill vocal section that brings it down for me. Can't stand the guy's lead voice (his harmonies are really good tho). I'd take Pete Trewavas singing lead any day over Bill

Not to argue, but just as counterpoint, that section - it starts about 16:30 into the song - is far and away my favorite part of the song, and it's why Alive Again is my favorite epic; I think it brings a neat little balance and contrast to the rest of the song. 

[Fritzinger]

Alive Again is my favorite Neil epic, the only one that comes close is Seeds Of Gold.

"Seeds Of Gold" is probably my favorite epic Neal has done outside of Transatlantic. For one reason or another "Alive Again" just never stuck with me, but I like it a bit more than "World Without End", which felt a bit bloated to me.

Out of curiosity, how would everyone rank the following four Neal epics - "So Many Roads", "Seeds Of Gold", "World Without End", and "Alive Again"?

-Marc.

World Without End
Seeds Of Gold
Alive Again
So Many Road

I don't understand why World Without End is so rarely talked about. I think it's up there with the best epics in Neal's entire catalogue.

[Kwyjibo]

World Without End
Seeds Of Gold
Alive Again
So Many Roads

My ranking as well, and yeah World Without End is one of Neal's best epic.

[ronnibran]

So Many Roads - my easy favorite

World Without End / Alive Again - both great I’ll call them equal

Seeds of Gold - maybe the only Neal epic that never really clicked with me. It’s not bad or anything but I never really go back to it.

[darkshade]

Seeds of Gold
World Without End
Alive Again
So Many Roads

I think SoG is one of Neal's best epics, and the others are all good, but I like World Without End the most of the bottom 3. I've brought up WWE at least once in the last few months either here or on the TA thread, and few respond, so I'm not sure why no one talks about it. Maybe because it's on one of his least popular albums with MP on drums?

[425]

I haven't spent a lot of time with Seeds of Gold. Testimony 2 and Sola Gratia are going to be the albums I focus on next time I'm in a NM phase. I'd rank the other three:

Alive Again
World Without End
So Many Roads

I suspect I'll end up putting Seeds of Gold either second or third out of these. It's unlikely that it will beat Alive Again, which I love. I think it has a good chance of beating World Without End, and I'm pretty sure it does beat So Many Roads (which isn't a bad song, but not really up to the standard of the others).

[OpenYourEyes311]

So Many Roads
Seeds of Gold
Alive Again
----big gap----
World Without End

I ended up going to Morsefest 2017 because I was sure they were gonna end up playing my two favorite Morse epics. Glad I was right!

[Mladen]

1. World without end (masterpiece)

2. Seeds of gold (fantastic)


3. So many roads (really great)












4. Alive again (haven't felt the need to listen to it in at least five years)

[Dedalus]

1. World without end (masterpiece)

2. Seeds of gold (fantastic)


3. So many roads (really great)












4. Alive again (haven't felt the need to listen to it in at least five years)

 

WWE
SoG
SMR
AA

[The Letter M]

Just a little self-promotion here - my Neal Morse Survivor has entered into the Consolation Rounds today, which will run for 13 rounds (it'll take about a month to complete), and then we will head into the Finals where you can vote off least-favorite songs until the Top Neal Morse Song reigns! The last time I ran the survivor in 2015, these were the results of the Finals:
1. Seeds Of Gold
2. The Separated Man
3. The Creation
4. World Without End
5. Author Of Confusion
6. The Call
7. 12
8. The Door
9. Alive Again
10. In The Fire
11. The Conflict
12, It's For You
13. Somber Days
14. Sing It High
15. It's All I Can Do
16. Thoughts Part 5
      The Conclusion
18. Oh, To Feel Him
19. Lifeline
20. Leviathan

This time, there will be ten extra songs (due to Neal having released two more NMB albums, and one more solo album), so the Finals will be a bit bigger this time around! Feel free to check out the survivor in the Polls/Survivor subforum here, I would love to see more participants, especially through Consolation and Finals rounds!

-Marc.

[KevShmev]

You're a trooper to persist with that survivor given how few seem to be voting.  I'd vote, but I simply never wander into the polls section of the forum, and even if tried to remember to vote on these, I know I'd forget. 

[DTA]

Can't remember where I saw it, but Randy George supposedly said this album will be different, so fans should prepare themselves.  I am not expecting some radical departure, but would be cool to hear a different type of album structure and whatnot.  I'd love to see Neal, Eric and Bill take on more of an equal parts deal when it comes to lead vocals, which wouldn't surprise me given that Neal's voice is getting older and starting to sound a bit weary at times.  Less lead vocals would help him when it comes to the eventual touring.

They said something similar about The Grand Experiment.
And then they named the album The Grand Experiment.
But the album actually wasn't that grand of an experiment.
It was a typical Morse album with some different singers sometimes singing. And I was and still am completely fine with that!!

I don't know; my daughter thinks "Agenda" sounds like a One Direction song (and I don't disagree with her in some ways).

Agenda reminds me so much of I Love It Loud that I can't believe it's not intentional

[The Letter M]

Neal just shared this upset about 25 minutes ago:

Tomorrow is the official release date of the reissue of Transatlantic’s SMPTe on vinyl.  Unfortunately we haven’t yet received our stock of Cover To Cover, Cover 2 Cover and SMPTe vinyl from the supplier.

Apologies to everyone but I can assure you that when the stock arrives, it will be dispatched as quickly as possible. I know you’ll enjoy them a lot when they arrive and at Radiant, we really appreciate your order and your patience.

-Marc.

[Stadler]

Neal just shared this upset about 25 minutes ago:

Tomorrow is the official release date of the reissue of Transatlantic’s SMPTe on vinyl.  Unfortunately we haven’t yet received our stock of Cover To Cover, Cover 2 Cover and SMPTe vinyl from the supplier.

Apologies to everyone but I can assure you that when the stock arrives, it will be dispatched as quickly as possible. I know you’ll enjoy them a lot when they arrive and at Radiant, we really appreciate your order and your patience.

-Marc.

Typo or no?    

[The Letter M]

Neal just shared this upset about 25 minutes ago:

Tomorrow is the official release date of the reissue of Transatlantic’s SMPTe on vinyl.  Unfortunately we haven’t yet received our stock of Cover To Cover, Cover 2 Cover and SMPTe vinyl from the supplier.

Apologies to everyone but I can assure you that when the stock arrives, it will be dispatched as quickly as possible. I know you’ll enjoy them a lot when they arrive and at Radiant, we really appreciate your order and your patience.

-Marc.

Typo or no?    

Freudian typo.

-Marc.

[The Letter M]

News about Morsefest 2021 from Neal:

Exciting news! As restrictions on all gatherings in Nashville venues are lifting this week, we’ve decided to release more in-person double show tickets for Morsefest 2021. These will go on sale on Wed May 12th at 9:00AM Central at https://www.nealmorse.com/product-category/morsefest/ Don’t miss out on the live premiere of tracks from the new NMB album and many other surprises!

If you wanted tickets but missed out, now is your chance!

-Marc.

[425]

NMB are pleased to announce the release of their much-anticipated fourth studio album Innocence & Danger on August 27th, 2021.

With NMB’s previous two releases being concept albums, it’s perhaps remarkable that Innocence & Danger is a series of unrelated songs, but drummer Mike Portnoy says “After two sprawling back to back double concept albums in a row, it was refreshing to get back to writing a collection of unrelated individual songs in the vein of our first album.”

Indeed, making this album came easy to the band; while the initial inspiration came particularly from Bill Hubauer (keyboards) and Randy George (bass), the ideas flowed from everybody from there on, as George recalls: “I am excited about the level of collaboration that we achieved on this one. We even went in with a lot of ideas that weren’t necessarily developed, and I think in the end we have something that represents the best of everybody in the band.”

In fact – like its two acclaimed predecessors – Innocence & Danger is a double-album by inspiration, rather than design, as Portnoy explains: “As much as we wanted to try and keep it to a single album after having just done two double albums, we wrote so much material that we found ourselves with our third double album in a row! That’s pretty prog!”

There is also plenty: “There's one half hour epic and another that's about 20 minutes long. I really didn't realise that they were that long when we were recording them, which I guess is great because if a movie is really good, you don't realise that it's three hours long! But there are also some shorter songs: some have poppier elements, some are heavier and some have three part acoustic sections. I’m excited about all of it, really.”

The album will be released as a Limited 2CD+DVD Digipak (featuring a Making Of documentary), 3LP+2CD Boxset, Standard 2CD Jewelcase & Digital Album, featuring artwork by Thomas Ewerhard (Transatlantic). Pre-orders start on the 18th June, and the full track-listing is below:

CD 1 (Innocence):

1. Do It All Again 08:55

2. Bird On A Wire 07:22

3. Your Place In The Sun 04:12

4. Another Story To Tell 04:50

5. The Way It Had To Be 07:14

6. Emergence 03:12

7. Not Afraid Pt. 1 04:53

8. Bridge Over Troubled Water 08:08

CD 2 (Danger):

1. Not Afraid Pt. 2 19:32

2. Beyond The Years 31:22

The Neal Morse Band (now NMB) was formed in 2012, featuring long-time collaborators Neal Morse (vocals, keyboards and guitars), Mike Portnoy (drums, vocals) and Randy George (bass), as well as Bill Hubauer (keyboards, vocals) and Eric Gillette (guitars, vocals). The band’s first album, The Grand Experiment, showed both a freshness and maturity that was further developed in 2016’s The Similitude Of A Dream, 2019’s The Great Adventure and 2021’s Innocence & Danger.

Look for NMB on tour in North America in October 2021 and in Europe throughout May/June 2022. Tour dates coming soon!
Blessings,

The Radiant Records Team

[Zydar]

Cool! Another double album then, with two long epics.

[DTA]

Glad the title is somewhat different for this group (doesn't begin with "The ...") and thankfully no Overture. The cover art is pretty interesting also. I'm curious about the decision to stick both epics on the 2nd disc....I'd prefer them to be spaced out and have each disc be more balanced, especially since there's no concept running throughout. This group of musicians works really well together and I'm very excited to hear something non-Similitude for the first time in 5 years.

[Zydar]

I'm curious as to why they named CD 1 'Innocence' and CD 2 'Danger' if there's no concept or theme to the album this time (aside from referencing the album title).