Official Neal Morse Appreciation Thread

[Dedalus]

Oh yippee another double album...

So I know it sounds petty but my issue with NMB and like 90% of prog albums today is that the albums are just too damn long. The real tragedy of losing the physical album format is that it forced artists to self edit, trim the fat. So the album is 100 minutes- I bet there’s probably 55 minutes of killer, amazing music buried in a big chunk of fluff and half baked ideas...

Similitude and Great Adventure are nearly perfect- but just too damn long to be enjoyed in one go around.

I think I can condense the best of Similitude and GA into just one CD (I said one CD, not two CDs).

I think a lot of fans were lukewarm to Sola Gratia because (a) they were burnt out on Neal's music, and (b) it isn't one of his best, and also maybe (c) people had high expectations being related to Sola Scriptura, an album that is considered his heaviest and the closest to prog-metal he's gotten. However I don't think it is anywhere near his worst either, and I think it's a solid Neal Morse album, and it came out around the time I was getting back into his music, so I had fresh ears. It wouldn't be a bad album for someone's first foray into his vast discography.

But is there any record from his progressive production that isn't? 

For an artist to have controversial work like St. Anger, Risk, Chameleon, The Astonishing, etc. it takes at least a little daring.

Neal makes his type of music in his comfort zone. The probability of him releasing something that is mostly considered bad or controversial is practically zero. 
The most he can get is lukewarm 

[KevShmev]

And that is a bad thing??

I think it's a testament to how good of a songwriter he is that he never releases bad albums (talking his official releases, not the online worship albums). 

As for being controversial or daring, I remember the reaction when he left Spock's Beard, and the release of Testimony less than a year could have easily tanked his fandom.  While it wasn't an intentional daring move on his part (he was following what his heart was telling him to do, for whatever that is worth based on your belief system), it was still a career move that could have backfired on him in a big, big way.  I would call that daring.

[Dedalus]

It's not a bad thing... and neither is it a virtue (at least in my opinion).

It's just a statement. If he knows how to do what he does and doesn't risk leaving his comfort zone (and I don't think he does, at least musically - leaving SB had less to do with music and more to do with faith) it's logical to expect the results are minimally consistent.

Whether people think this is ideal or not, then it's up to everyone. I tend to have more admiration for daring artists. All my favorite bands have records that are very controversial. Just a way of looking at things.

I only commented on this because darkshade said that SG is a solid album, indicating this with a positive point. Ok, I got it. But in my view, all are minimally solid. If everyone is like that, then that is not a quality in and of itself. This is expected.

It's as if Motorhead still existed, they released a new album and someone pointed out as their main quality the fact that it was a solid Motorhead album. Well, yes... all other records are like that.

[RoeDent]

I cannot wait for this! I literally got butterflies when I read the news about the release. I can't remember the last time that happened.

[goo-goo]

I guess I'm the only one bummed about being a double album. I'm a bit burned out by Neal's music (except Transatlantic). I was hoping for a bit of less is more approach and reignite that Neal flame.

[Fritzinger]

I guess I'm the only one bummed about being a double album. I'm a bit burned out by Neal's music (except Transatlantic). I was hoping for a bit of less is more approach and reignite that Neal flame.

Not exactly Neal's kind of approach 


Honestly, the thing that bugs me most about the announcement (apart from the random cover and title) is this statement:

Indeed, making this album came easy to the band

[King Postwhore]

I guess I'm the only one bummed about being a double album. I'm a bit burned out by Neal's music (except Transatlantic). I was hoping for a bit of less is more approach and reignite that Neal flame.

Not exactly Neal's kind of approach 


Honestly, the thing that bugs me most about the announcement (apart from the random cover and title) is this statement:

Indeed, making this album came easy to the band

Yeah but that last album they talked about their struggles in the writing process so I think they are just being honest.

[Stadler]

I'm excited about this release.   Big time.

[Kram]

I guess I'm the only one bummed about being a double album. I'm a bit burned out by Neal's music (except Transatlantic). I was hoping for a bit of less is more approach and reignite that Neal flame.

He pretty much did that with Sola Gratia.  That was quite short by NM standards.  Count me as one who says more is better (that's assuming the "more" is good).  But I have faith in these guys that it will be "good" - Similitude and TGA were both great IMO

[bosk1]

Agreed.  I mean, you can't spell "Morse" without "more."

[kirksnosehair]

Neal has said on many occasions that he writes way more music than he can realistically release, so the double album is no surprise.  I can't think of another musician who is this prolific

[gzarruk]

Neal has said on many occasions that he writes way more music than he can realistically release, so the double album is no surprise.  I can't think of another musician who is this prolific

Which is why I don't see the need for them to record/release covers regularly, specially when they're in the "main" album like this time. It's not like they have shortage of ideas.

[Dedalus]

Frank Zappa, Buckethead, Willie Nelson, Omar Rodríguez-López, Prince, Tangerine Dream, etc.

[KevShmev]

Which is why I don't see the need for them to record/release covers regularly, specially when they're in the "main" album like this time. It's not like they have shortage of ideas.

I suspect they do the covers for fun, but I agree that it seems a little odd to have a cover on this album right in the middle of it.  My guess would be that they were gonna do a cover or two for the bonus disc, and then ended up having enough new songs to expand the proper album to a double one, so they said to heck with it and made Bridge... a part of the regular album.

[425]

To me, it's not really that unusual for an album to have one cover in amongst the listing of original tracks. I could probably name 10 albums like that off the top of my head without too much difficulty.

It's an artistic choice, and in my opinion it's one that's not inherently good or bad. To me it depends on how well the cover fits in with the original material, which, of course, I can only judge by hearing it in context.

[emtee]

I love Neal and I love Mike. And I love Neal and Mike together. But...I'm kind of overdosed at this point. Their output is to be admired but for me it has reached oversaturation. There just isn't enough variation from album to album for me to keep buying everything.

[KevShmev]

To me, it's not really that unusual for an album to have one cover in amongst the listing of original tracks. I could probably name 10 albums like that off the top of my head without too much difficulty.

It's an artistic choice, and in my opinion it's one that's not inherently good or bad. To me it depends on how well the cover fits in with the original material, which, of course, I can only judge by hearing it in context.

Excellent points. 

I love Neal and I love Mike. And I love Neal and Mike together. But...I'm kind of overdosed at this point. Their output is to be admired but for me it has reached oversaturation. There just isn't enough variation from album to album for me to keep buying everything.

I always buy it all, and am happy to do so, but I hear what you are saying, and to pull Transatlantic into this for a minute, that was one of the drawbacks with Neal's version of The Absolute Universe.  The Forevermore version sounds very much like a Transatlantic album, while The Breath of Life sounds more like a Neal solo album with guests (IMO), which make the overall project sound a little less special and a little more of the same old, same old.

[darkshade]

You may be tired of it, but you'll be glad it all exists when Neal is no more.

I agree, the best bands do take chances at least once in a while, musically.
But Neal is like Taco Bell (I feel I've used this analogy before) there's so many ingredients to mix and match, but in the end, it's still Taco Bell food.
But you go to Taco Bell (or whatever comfort food you prefer) because it's consistent. You want something to challenge your taste buds, you try a real Mexican restaurant, or try a nearby food truck.

You know there's more experimental or more adventurous prog rock out there, but you know you can always pop on some Neal Morse related music when you want his heavy, symphonic type of prog music. I've seen some call his music "comfort prog", it won't necessarily challenge you if you're well versed in prog rock, but you know it'll be good. Like, yea, I could listen to Genesis instead of Neal, but Neal does stuff Genesis never did, and sometimes that's what I want. Plus, Genesis stopped making prog rock (consistently) almost 50 years ago.

Compared to most modern music, especially in "mainstream" circles, Neal is the second coming of Beethoven in comparison.

[The Letter M]

Neal revealed in his May IC Newsletter (which I got today, June 3rd...) that, along with the preorders for I&D, he will be releasing a limited run (1000 only) of the complete Morsefest 2019 shows on 2BD/4CD set.

I guess I'll be ordering the bundle that includes both Morsefest 2019 and I&D.

-Marc.

[bosk1]

Is that for IC members only?

[KevShmev]

Those annoying overlay effects that seem to do engulf most Neal Morse live video releases nowadays have kind of put me off buying any of them for the time being, but I don't watch concert DVD's/Blu-rays as often as I used to anyway, so I don't need every single one. 

[The Letter M]

Is that for IC members only?

I don't think they will be, but given that there's only going to be 1000, I imagine they might sell out fairly quickly.

-Marc.

[bosk1]

I really want one of those.

[The Letter M]

I really want one of those.

Same! Having the complete Morsefest 2019 weekend on CD would be great.

Just be sure to set a calendar reminder for June 18th, that's when the preorders go up, and from what I can gather from Neal's IC Newsletter, you can preorder it with I&D in a special bundle, which probably means a small discounted price of like $5 off or something minuscule.

Here's the full blurb about Morsefest 2019:

MORSEFEST 19
2 Blu-ray 4 audio-disc set! We finally got it together, pulled it out of the archives, remixed the audio and re-edited the video. Morsefest 19 is also going to be coming out at the same time as the new NMB Innocence & Danger album!

So, what you need to know about this one is that none of the big labels picked it up (both Mascot and Inside Out gave me the rights to put it out only on my website.) There's a short run of only 1000 units and that's all there is ever going to be, unless something really insane happens.

This is your chance to nab the ultimate version of the entire Morsefest weekend, including the full Flying Colors set, complete with string quartet and all the other accoutrements, as well as NMB doing The Great Adventure and "The Great Encore," behind-the-scenes, and other wonderful extras that only our illustrious team headed up by the fabulous Thad Kesten and Scott Henry can produce!

The audio has been mixed very, very finely by Mr. Jerry Guidroz and the whole thing is a first-rate production of a first-rate weekend... if you were there, you know what I'm talking about.

You can preorder both of these for a special bundle price on June 18.

-Marc.

[ErHaO]

This might sound a bit odd, but is anyone slightly less interested in the album given the bigger contribution from the remaining members of the band? I am aware of everyone's talent and general input, but I hope the album isn't deprived of the Morse magic, if that makes sense. Hopefully my point didn't come across as harsh, since that is not the intention.

Isn't this the case for all The Neal Morse Band albums? (the whole reason why there is a branding disctintion between NM and TNMB). And I think most at the very least will agree their three albums thus far are good (and include all the elements that people love NM music for).

My understanding is that for TSOAD and especially for TGA, Neal brought demos and the rest of the band made contributions. On TGE and I&D, the band wrote together without Neal bringing in a bunch of existing ideas.

Ah, in that case I understand the distinction. Still, I think TGE is great as well and it sounds like Neal Morse music (in my opinion it would not be a bad thing to deviate a bit further every now and then).

[425]

I really want one of those.

Same! Having the complete Morsefest 2019 weekend on CD would be great.

Just be sure to set a calendar reminder for June 18th, that's when the preorders go up, and from what I can gather from Neal's IC Newsletter, you can preorder it with I&D in a special bundle, which probably means a small discounted price of like $5 off or something minuscule.

Here's the full blurb about Morsefest 2019:

MORSEFEST 19
2 Blu-ray 4 audio-disc set! We finally got it together, pulled it out of the archives, remixed the audio and re-edited the video. Morsefest 19 is also going to be coming out at the same time as the new NMB Innocence & Danger album!

So, what you need to know about this one is that none of the big labels picked it up (both Mascot and Inside Out gave me the rights to put it out only on my website.) There's a short run of only 1000 units and that's all there is ever going to be, unless something really insane happens.

This is your chance to nab the ultimate version of the entire Morsefest weekend, including the full Flying Colors set, complete with string quartet and all the other accoutrements, as well as NMB doing The Great Adventure and "The Great Encore," behind-the-scenes, and other wonderful extras that only our illustrious team headed up by the fabulous Thad Kesten and Scott Henry can produce!

The audio has been mixed very, very finely by Mr. Jerry Guidroz and the whole thing is a first-rate production of a first-rate weekend... if you were there, you know what I'm talking about.

You can preorder both of these for a special bundle price on June 18.

-Marc.

Can anyone speak to how the NMB performance at Morsefest 2019 compared to the standard tour show that's captured on The Great Adventour? I don't really care about Flying Colors, so the deciding factor for me on this release will be whether the performance of TGA is sufficiently different from what I already have.

[The Letter M]

I really want one of those.

Same! Having the complete Morsefest 2019 weekend on CD would be great.

Just be sure to set a calendar reminder for June 18th, that's when the preorders go up, and from what I can gather from Neal's IC Newsletter, you can preorder it with I&D in a special bundle, which probably means a small discounted price of like $5 off or something minuscule.

Here's the full blurb about Morsefest 2019:

MORSEFEST 19
2 Blu-ray 4 audio-disc set! We finally got it together, pulled it out of the archives, remixed the audio and re-edited the video. Morsefest 19 is also going to be coming out at the same time as the new NMB Innocence & Danger album!

So, what you need to know about this one is that none of the big labels picked it up (both Mascot and Inside Out gave me the rights to put it out only on my website.) There's a short run of only 1000 units and that's all there is ever going to be, unless something really insane happens.

This is your chance to nab the ultimate version of the entire Morsefest weekend, including the full Flying Colors set, complete with string quartet and all the other accoutrements, as well as NMB doing The Great Adventure and "The Great Encore," behind-the-scenes, and other wonderful extras that only our illustrious team headed up by the fabulous Thad Kesten and Scott Henry can produce!

The audio has been mixed very, very finely by Mr. Jerry Guidroz and the whole thing is a first-rate production of a first-rate weekend... if you were there, you know what I'm talking about.

You can preorder both of these for a special bundle price on June 18.

-Marc.

Can anyone speak to how the NMB performance at Morsefest 2019 compared to the standard tour show that's captured on The Great Adventour? I don't really care about Flying Colors, so the deciding factor for me on this release will be whether the performance of TGA is sufficiently different from what I already have.

I assume it included strings and brass as part of thr arrangements. Maybe someone here who went to the show can speak in more detail about it. I'm sure there's a gig review somewhere online as well.

Edit - here's one review: https://progreport.com/morsefest-2019-from-the-storm-to-the-great-adventure/

-Marc.

[kirksnosehair]

Neal has said on many occasions that he writes way more music than he can realistically release, so the double album is no surprise.  I can't think of another musician who is this prolific

Which is why I don't see the need for them to record/release covers regularly, specially when they're in the "main" album like this time. It's not like they have shortage of ideas.

Oh, I'm not $o $ure about thi$ - I can think of $everal rea$on$ why he'd keep putting out album$ of cover tune$. 

[gzarruk]

Neal has said on many occasions that he writes way more music than he can realistically release, so the double album is no surprise.  I can't think of another musician who is this prolific

Which is why I don't see the need for them to record/release covers regularly, specially when they're in the "main" album like this time. It's not like they have shortage of ideas.

Oh, I'm not $o $ure about thi$ - I can think of $everal rea$on$ why he'd keep putting out album$ of cover tune$. 

I'm no expert but don't artists need to pay something or some of their earnings go to the original artists when they record/sell a cover song?

[The Letter M]

Regarding the inclusion of "Bridge Over Troubled Waters", Neal had kicked around the idea of the cover once they had finished writing the bulk of the album and Mike said they had about 90 minutes of material once they had (apparently so quickly and easily) poured out a ton of music during their sessions. They felt 90 was a bit short for a double album (is that a jab at TFK's Islands, which sits at 93 minutes?  ), so Neal put up the idea for the cover, and then the band also wrote "The Way It Had To Be" (which has an eerily similar title to a Dream Theater song), and so their full double album was born.

Also in the recent IC Newsletter, Neal said his wife really enjoyed the first disc of I&D, and when they were done listening to it in the car, she said "That's not the whole album?" and Neal replied "No, that's just disc one." She replied "Wow... that's a lot of music for just one disc!" and Neal came back with "Good! I'm sure the prog fans will be very happy about that!". Needless to say, it sounds like disc one will be full of good melodic songs, while the super proggy stuff might be all on the two epics on disc two. Either way, it sounds like it'll be good.

Neal also said his original idea for the album title was Destination, but the band didn't like it so they pitched a bunch of other ideas. He said "by the time Innocence & Danger came up as a possibility, I was tired of talking about it and said, OK, whatever!" so it sounds like he just sort of let it go and let the band have the final say on the album title, but he eventually warmed up to it and now thinks it's cool. The artwork was worked on by Thomas Ewerhard and Mike.

-Marc.

[Mebert78]

I've been revisiting The Great Adventure over the past few days, and I literally can't stop listening to it. Whenever I have a few free minutes, I find myself pulling up the album on my iPod and just diving right in wherever I left off earlier in the day.  It's amazing that the band even came close to replicating, if not equaling, the amazingness that is The Similitude of a Dream.

[gzarruk]

I've been revisiting The Great Adventure over the past few days, and I literally can't stop listening to it. Whenever I have a few free minutes, I find myself pulling up the album on my iPod and just diving right in wherever I left off earlier in the day.  It's amazing that the band even came close to replicating, if not equaling, the amazingness that is The Similitude of a Dream.

My only complaint about the album is that they used the "love that never dies" theme SO MANY TIMES that it just gets annoying

[El Barto]

I really want one of those.

Same! Having the complete Morsefest 2019 weekend on CD would be great.

Just be sure to set a calendar reminder for June 18th, that's when the preorders go up, and from what I can gather from Neal's IC Newsletter, you can preorder it with I&D in a special bundle, which probably means a small discounted price of like $5 off or something minuscule.

Here's the full blurb about Morsefest 2019:

MORSEFEST 19
2 Blu-ray 4 audio-disc set! We finally got it together, pulled it out of the archives, remixed the audio and re-edited the video. Morsefest 19 is also going to be coming out at the same time as the new NMB Innocence & Danger album!

So, what you need to know about this one is that none of the big labels picked it up (both Mascot and Inside Out gave me the rights to put it out only on my website.) There's a short run of only 1000 units and that's all there is ever going to be, unless something really insane happens.

This is your chance to nab the ultimate version of the entire Morsefest weekend, including the full Flying Colors set, complete with string quartet and all the other accoutrements, as well as NMB doing The Great Adventure and "The Great Encore," behind-the-scenes, and other wonderful extras that only our illustrious team headed up by the fabulous Thad Kesten and Scott Henry can produce!

The audio has been mixed very, very finely by Mr. Jerry Guidroz and the whole thing is a first-rate production of a first-rate weekend... if you were there, you know what I'm talking about.

You can preorder both of these for a special bundle price on June 18.

-Marc.

Can anyone speak to how the NMB performance at Morsefest 2019 compared to the standard tour show that's captured on The Great Adventour? I don't really care about Flying Colors, so the deciding factor for me on this release will be whether the performance of TGA is sufficiently different from what I already have.

Significantly different? I'd say yeah. Better different? Doubtful. I'm not up to speed on the Adventour show, but the local show that we caught had more of an "intensity" to it. It felt like a rock concert. The Moresfest version, despite having backing musicians and vocalists, seemed a bit more low-key, I thought. It felt like a rock band playing in a church, with parishioners sitting in. And I honestly didn't find the backing musicians to be an improvement. Part of the appeal, to me at least, is seeing them do it all themselves. I'd certainly love to have a DVD of the show, I was there and all, but if the only way to get it is the full package deal, I'm definitely out.

One thing I will throw out is that if it really is the complete weekend, don't discount Steve Morse's set as an added value.

[axeman90210]

Yeah, I was wondering about that, would love it if Steve (and Randy for that matter) had their sets included.

[tuto]

So, since preorders for Innocence & Danger start next Friday I think it's safe to assume that they will also release the new single/music video they've been teasing on that date, right? Right? 😁