Doing a bit of math for the five of us who have put up our rankings of Neal's 8 solo prog albums, here's how they average, out of a total 40 points:
Except that Jesus Chris the Exorcist is a Neal solo prog album, so even if you want to cherry pick and only count certain albums, as if the others never happened, you still left one off. Or is this where we cherry pick some more and say The Exorcist doesn't count because it used different singers? "Oh no, Neal did an album that sounds different than all of the others!!!!"
Neal fans are a strange bunch. I have seen it elsewhere online as well. I have never seen the fanbase of another artist go out of their way to rank albums by ignoring certain albums for the sake of it. And it seems like they know that Neal gets accused of his music being too samey, yet their exercise of ranking his prog albums pretty much eliminates all of the albums that do not sound like his "normal" prog albums, so they ironically only reinforce that narrative about Neal.
This would be like if someone started a thread called "What are your favorite debut albums?" and someone said, "Well, Opeth's album with growls are different than the ones without, and Damnation was the first totally without, so I am counting that as their debut!" 
I don't know that it's "cherrypicking" so much as Neal just has had a lot of different projects that are different degrees of similar, and fans like things to fit into neat little boxes, but we don't always agree about what the boxes are or what should go into each one. To me, the singer-songwriter albums feel like they go in a different category than Neal's solo prog stuff, just because they are a different genre (or at least subgenre) of music. And Neal seems to feel this way too, it seems, since he rarely if ever includes any of those songs in his sets when he tours for his solo or NMB tours. So those just feel like separate entities to me.
Solo prog and NMB are a bit tricker to me. Yes, there are different players from the early albums. And they appear to be set up as separate entities legally, I think. And the songwriting his handled differently. But overall, the music is virtually indistinguishable, there is considerable overlap in players, and Neal seems to treat the music from the two as completely interchangeable when he tours. To me, these
don't feel like two separate things for most purposes.
Since it was mentioned, I will acknowledge that JCTE is a bit of an oddball. There were lots of additional players brought into the mix, and the format is really different. Neal practically views this as a separate one-off project that was in the works for a long time. But that said, it really isn't all that independent from his other stuff. So I would include it in the big ball of "Neal solo prog" and NMB.
So all that said, I completely get that people feel differently about some of those classifications. And I'm not going to scream too loudly if others see it differently. At the end of the day, I don't think it really matters. The above are my opinions only, and I don't think that taking a hard line one way or the other is fruitful, especially since I see a lot of grey rather than clearly defined lines.
So, for me, lumping the solo prog stuff and the NMB stuff together, here's my ranking:
1. One: All time favorite album
2. The Great Adventure: I have really enjoyed Neal's output through the years, but this just took things back to a level I hadn't felt in a LONG time.
3. Sola Scriptura: Could be #2 on a different day.
4. Testimony: Nostalgia probably plays a big role in ranking it this high. But I love it. Yes, it feels overly long. But when you take time to truly understand and appreciate the story, I think it becomes apparent that it is long and plodding for a reason. It's kinda like Lord of the Rings in that way. If you are looking for conciseness or action, it isn't the thing for you. But if you can be patient and understand that the long, plodding nature of the journey itself is kinda the point, it is pretty rewarding.
5. Similitude: Really solid album. I was not expecting TGA to top it and was surprised when that one was so good. But I really like this one as well.
6. JCTE: Hard to rank. There are some things that bug me about this album. And some parts that don't do a lot for me. But the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. So at least for now, it feels like it should be about here.
7. Testimony 2: Feels like it pales in comparison to the original. And, for the most part, little if any of disk 2 has stuck with me. But there are some really great moments as well.
8. The Grand Experiment: This album doesn't really feel "special" like a lot of Neal's albums do, but it is just a fun, enjoyable listen.
9. Momentum: Same comments as TGE. These two are almost interchangeable for me.
10. Sola Gratia: Some things on here confuse me, but there are some great moments too. I feel like Neal could have done more with this concept than he did. Almost seems like he was distracted.
11. Innocence & Danger: Maybe I just haven't gotten used to it yet. It's a perfectly fine album. But nothing stands out to me yet. But admittedly, the problem is that it came out at roughly the same time as DT's new album, so I have barely given this one the time of day. Maybe it "deserves" better, but it is what it is.
12. ?: Some really cool moments, but doesn't do it for me overall.
13. Lifeline: Leviathan is not a good song. It just isn't. I have no idea why Neal thinks otherwise and keeps playing it. And not much else on the album stands out to me or has stood the test of time.
Topic: Official Neal Morse Appreciation Thread (Read 555102 times)
