The New Neal Morse Appreciation Thread

Just viewed Thoughts pt. 5 and I shouldn't be surprised at this point that he continues to crank out amazing stuff, but I am impressed. The two songs he's released sound very Spock's Beard-esque, which is good. Hopefully the rest of the album is this awesome!

Master of Time wrote: They just posted Thoughts Part 5 on Neal's Facebook page, it sounds awesome.

 

Lofcaudio wrote: Based upon the three songs that have been "released", it would seem that Morse has taken a much different approach lyrically with this album as the content is not overtly Christian.

Praise the lord!   I hope this is true.  Not that I'm terribly bothered by Christian lyrics really, I just find his "concepts" to be incredibly repetitive these days (which is probably why my favorite is Sola Scriptura as it deviates a little bit from the normal praise lyrics he writes for every song).

I happen to like his praise lyrics, but I pretty much love anything he does period...

infandous wrote: AlexDOM wrote: I happen to like his praise lyrics, but I pretty much love anything he does period... Obviously you are not alone.  I just find no creativity in his lyrics on his solo albums.  He's  been repeating the same theme, same concept, over and over again on every album.  I just don't understand why he can't write about something else once in a while (other Christians do it, Glass Hammer, for example).

AlexDOM wrote: infandous wrote: AlexDOM wrote: I happen to like his praise lyrics, but I pretty much love anything he does period... Obviously you are not alone.  I just find no creativity in his lyrics on his solo albums.  He's  been repeating the same theme, same concept, over and over again on every album.  I just don't understand why he can't write about something else once in a while (other Christians do it, Glass Hammer, for example). That's him sharing his life story, His testimony, its so personal...  What Christ did in his life. I fail to see how that's repetitive and not creative. And the albums that aren't his story are incredible creative, Sola and ? are awesomely creative. One, though a familiar concept is done so so well... (sorry I would agree Lifeline is a little sub par, but still is solid)

AlexDOM wrote: infandous wrote: AlexDOM wrote: I happen to like his praise lyrics, but I pretty much love anything he does period... Obviously you are not alone.  I just find no creativity in his lyrics on his solo albums.  He's  been repeating the same theme, same concept, over and over again on every album.  I just don't understand why he can't write about something else once in a while (other Christians do it, Glass Hammer, for example). That's him sharing his life story, His testimony, its so personal...  What Christ did in his life. I fail to see how that's repetitive and not creative. And the albums that aren't his story are incredible creative, Sola and ? are awesomely creative. One, though a familiar concept is done so so well... (sorry I would agree Lifeline is a little sub par, but still is solid)

Hence my two favorite solo albums of his are Sola and ? 

I understand what you are saying, but........it's been done many times before, is I guess what I'm saying.  I find his music incredibly formulaic as well........but what a GREAT formula!!  The music is almost always fantastic (though Lifeline, as you mention, is less than fantastic for me, except for a couple tracks), so I generally just accept and deal with the lyrics.  I actually enjoy the autobiographical nature of the two Testimony albums, and wasn't put off by the lyrics much at all (except near the end of the first Testimony......but that is to be expected).

I guess I just prefer lyrics that are open to interpretation, which Morse's are most definitely not.

infandous wrote: AlexDOM wrote: infandous wrote: AlexDOM wrote: I happen to like his praise lyrics, but I pretty much love anything he does period... Obviously you are not alone.  I just find no creativity in his lyrics on his solo albums.  He's  been repeating the same theme, same concept, over and over again on every album.  I just don't understand why he can't write about something else once in a while (other Christians do it, Glass Hammer, for example). That's him sharing his life story, His testimony, its so personal...  What Christ did in his life. I fail to see how that's repetitive and not creative. And the albums that aren't his story are incredible creative, Sola and ? are awesomely creative. One, though a familiar concept is done so so well... (sorry I would agree Lifeline is a little sub par, but still is solid) Hence my two favorite solo albums of his are Sola and ?  I understand what you are saying, but........it's been done many times before, is I guess what I'm saying.  I find his music incredibly formulaic as well........but what a GREAT formula!!  The music is almost always fantastic (though Lifeline, as you mention, is less than fantastic for me, except for a couple tracks), so I generally just accept and deal with the lyrics.  I actually enjoy the autobiographical nature of the two Testimony albums, and wasn't put off by the lyrics much at all (except near the end of the first Testimony......but that is to be expected). I guess I just prefer lyrics that are open to interpretation, which Morse's are most definitely not.

I've pre-ordered Neal's new album. Very much looking forward to it.

Glad to hear that he seems to have not solely focussed on writing Christian lyrics this time around. That said, I wasn't a massive fan on Neal lyrically in SB either. I prefer the Genesis style witty/amusing/storytelling lyrics or the Yes  mystical/nonsensical style. I can't really explain it, for some reason it ads to the experience singing along to something that appears to make absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Oh well, the lyrics equate to about 1/1000th of the album's importance. Hope there's some great music. Wait, what am I saying? This is Neal Morse! Looking forward to some great music!

zumacraig wrote: AlexDOM wrote: zumacraig wrote: AlexDOM wrote: infandous wrote: AlexDOM wrote: I happen to like his praise lyrics, but I pretty much love anything he does period... Obviously you are not alone.  I just find no creativity in his lyrics on his solo albums.  He's  been repeating the same theme, same concept, over and over again on every album.  I just don't understand why he can't write about something else once in a while (other Christians do it, Glass Hammer, for example). That's him sharing his life story, His testimony, its so personal...  What Christ did in his life. I fail to see how that's repetitive and not creative. And the albums that aren't his story are incredible creative, Sola and ? are awesomely creative. One, though a familiar concept is done so so well... (sorry I would agree Lifeline is a little sub par, but still is solid) well, that's one of the problems with hyper-religiousity.  it gets repetitive and it was only a matter of time before neal dug into some other subject matter.  although some have done it, there's only so much praise jesus music you can make and only so much an audience member can take before they take off and another one comes and replaces them.   although i'd like to...i won't get into the 'what christ did in his life' comment.    All the subject matter deals with Christianity, just different themes or subjects. But his passion for solid rocking prog epicness and Christ shows through all His albums. Oh yeah and His book Testimony is incredible so neal is Christ?!