The music definitely leans much more into what he did with Spock's Beard and Transatlantic than his other solo stuff. I did especially like that first guitar solo in "Eternity in Your Eyes" because it had that bluesy Stolt melody thing going on. I will say that somewhere in the first song is when I simply stopped comprehending the lyrics. I hear the words and sounds being sung but I stopped paying attention to them. I honestly have no idea what the songs are about.
Mongrel dog soils actor's feet
I can take a wild guess.Originally Posted by Splicer
Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.
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I figured but I'm not really listening that intently to them.
I will say that I always feel like I'm rooting for Neal Morse to delivery something that really works for me. I listen and hope.
Mongrel dog soils actor's feet
First listen Friday night, positive overall but not sold on the non-Neal vocals.
I've just listened to the album on Bandcamp. It's quite good. And I totally hear more callbacks to the Transatlantic methods of executing musical ideas than in the last couple of his projects prior to thit one. I guess the fact that the bassist/co-arranger Chris Riley is a huge TFK and Transatlantic fan might contribute to that. However, I think the title epic isn't balanced very well. The first ~20 minutes of it are so insanely tasty that when the song reaches what is supposed to be the big climactic point, and I hear another fricking rehash of the typical Neal Morse mid tempo EPIC REPRISE, it comes off as a tiny bit of a letdown.
One thing I really appreciate about this album is that Neal chose to limit his lead vocal duties at last, giving the co-lead vocalists plenty of time to shine. Johnny Bisaha in particular. That guy has quite the pipes!
He spreads vocals around pretty well on the NMB albums between him, Gillette and Hubauer who all shar lead vocal duties. Also, the D'Virgillio, Morse, Jennings albums they all share lead vocals.
Of all the projects Neil Morse has been a part of, Flying Colors is the only one I revisit regularly. That’s probably because of Steve Morse’s guitar & Casey McPherson’s vocals. Oh! And Dave LaRue on bass.
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IMO Eternity in Your Eyes shows a much greater collaborative input from all the band members and presents a collection of overall stronger musical themes than the title track. Which makes it a way superior song to me. That "smooth jazz" section at around 9:30 minute is magnificent, and quite a breath of fresh air in Neal Morse's prog discography. I'm so digging it!
I wish overtly religious music required a warning label. Also music involving out-of-tune 12-string guitars.
"I have not yet begun to procrastinate."
On Eternity in Your Eyes @ 11:06 I can hear "Neal Morse band".... I guess it is very hard to avoid repeating yourself :-)
Those who are familiar with Spock's Beard's music and history should be aware by now that pretty much anything produced by Neal Morse post-SB is going to contain overt Christian themes.
What is The Resonance? That is, why does it exist in addition to the NMB? Or does the NMB no longer exist? I can't remember if he's done a previous album(s) with this lineup or not.
I guess this kind of side work was already discussed with the rest of the NMB band guys. Anyway, I'm wondering what they think about it... His wife told him to go to work with a local band instead of saying... "hey, what if you call the other guys in your band and make some music together again". May be after dinner he thought... "Better if I go with the local guys instead as you suggested"... :-)
Missing Eric's guitars.
It's a bunch of local musicians he put together that he hasn't worked with before so a new band...
At least my personal criteria was met when it comes to anything I listen to. If I remember a melody, then something worked. There are so many bands I hear that sound OK while I'm listening but then I can't remember a damned second of the music afterwards.
Mongrel dog soils actor's feet
With Mike Portnoy involved with Dream Theater for the foreseeable future, the writing was on the wall that the NMB, TA, FC (bands with Neal and Mike) would be "put on ice" for a bit. Neal probably was looking to do another band thing, so we get the Resonance.
I haven't reached the point where I'm ready to give this one a listen, as I haven't read anything or heard samples giving me the impression that it will be different enough from the NMB.
When he formed the NMB, it got me interested in his music again for a while because there was a kind of chemistry and input from the other members, which I felt had been missing from his solo output since Spock's Beard. I really enjoyed the first 2 NMB albums but felt the band was treading water after that.
I'm not sure this one looks any different but it's probably not a bad thing for him to work with different musicians.
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