Neal Morse's Lifeline opinions

anyone?

Neal Morse's forum itself barely discusses this album. When "?" or "Sola Scriptura" came out, there was a lot of excitement.

I'm very pleased with it but plan to explain my excitement in my forthcoming review. 

I like it and especially love "So Many Roads", but it's not as good as the others.

E

^^What have you heard?

I've never had a problem with Neal's subject matter of late, but I do think it's time to do a more secular album or even a Transatlantic reunion. Pete may be busy with Marillion, but have Randy George step in. That guy is a monster bassist.

E

Well, I heard the samples and singles, and let me tell you: I'm gonna save my money..

Lifeline (title track)'s single format shows a derivative intro that blends Sola Scriptura's intro with Endless Dream's (a Yes song). Not bad but the vocal melodies are surprisingly unmemorable and the chorus was poppy in a bad way, and that there were many moment where it felt 'too familiar'. For example: a main melody reminded me of "Duel of the Devil"

Leviathan had a guitar/synth unison riff that is extremely similar to "Party to the Lie", but nowhere as effective. blah. And I can't believe Mike Portnoy is beginning to sound samey as well: such a great drummer.

Apparently the album is yet again about the same thing, does he have to repeat the 'testimony' concept and the theme of being troubled and being rescued by God? (Testimony, One, possibly Snow). I'd like to hear him speak about certain current issues like fighting poverty, religious intolerance, etc ... or at least something a bit different. I'll give you an example: a fictional concept album of a church group collecting donation money for a member who doesn't have health insurance and has cancer ... eventually influencing not just the church but the people in the community being more active and serving the community with good deeds ... i dunno, some album about the good side of humanity no matter the religion of the people in the community.

Unless Neal Morse finds some inspiration to write something different, I'm not sure if I'll keep buying albums. I'd rather give a spin to "?" if I want Neal Morse playing his formulaic style at his best


Edited by Zitro - October 09 2008 at 23:42

As my review explains, I thought it was pretty awful. Some of the material is solid, but this is the first time I really find Neal uninspired musically. I've never agreed with those who've said he's repeating himself until this album dropped also.

Just posted a review.

chocomancer wrote: Sola Scriptura still presented a lot o' fresh ideas and is NOT repetitive.

I agree completely. Sola Scriptura and ? are absolutely wonderful releases, while One is pretty good, Testimony is okay, and Lifeline is poor. The only problem with this repetitive release strategy is that every time I hear something new by him that's not new at all, the old stuff gets less interesting too. It's not supposed to happen, but ever since I got Lifeline, for example, I haven't even been tempted to listen to anything he's ever touched.

Really? Still not released? It's been out since the end of September, if I remember right. Why do they have a month's difference there? I thought Europe was more up on that sort of thing. Hm.

Yeah, see, I knew of it working that direction, where prog albums come out earlier in Europe, but it still is surprising that it takes so long for an internationally well-known prog act like Neal Morse to take a month between releases. Hm.