The New Neal Morse Appreciation Thread

i think neal's most accessible solo stuff is disc 2 of testimony 2.  two awesome prog pop tunes and an epic that is compelling all the way through.

Testimony 1 is still my favorite Neal Morse solo album.

I don't know. One's flow feels weird, and I feel like it should be over after The Separated Man, but there's still like 4 more songs, 25 more minutes of music. Testimony 2 flies by for me.

AlexDOM wrote: darkshade wrote: I don't know. One's flow feels weird, and I feel like it should be over after The Separated Man, but there's still like 4 more songs, 25 more minutes of music. Testimony 2 flies by for me. The story would be so so so incomplete if that happened... I can see like musically the later half is not as powerful and proggy, but lyrically its the best and ends the story

infandous wrote: TrickedTail wrote: Roj M30 wrote: This thread appears to have been hijacked by the Flower Kings thread crew .   I don't have any Neal solo albums, and think it's about time I took the plunge. I was tempted to get Momentum as it was cheap in HMV, but I think it's best to ask those in the know what they'd recommend.   For those who don't me, I'm a big fan of TFK  and also like Transatlantic.  I like SB to a lesser extent but very much enjoy V and Snow, both are great albums.   Any recommendations? I'd say go for either One or Sola Scriptura. Of the three (non-Whirlwind) Transatlantic epics, if you prefer Stranger go for Sola Scriptura but if you prefer Duel or Above then go for One. Funny, my favorite TA song is All Of The Above, and my favorite Neal solo album is Sola Scriptura.  I'm not that crazy about Stranger In Your Soul, and One is probably my least favorite Neal solo album.  "?" is pretty much tied with Sola for me. Still, I started with One and thought it was okay, though it did keep me from getting another one until Sola came out (when I bought both that and "?" at the same time).

Ah, I liked Sola Scriptura but found parts of it to be too heavy for my poor soft little ears. There is a part just like that in Stranger. Like you, I prefer All of the Above out of the three, but One is probably my favourite NM Album. Strange .

Incidentally, I've only ever listened to ? twice through, and it never grabbed me. I'll have to give it another go given how highly everyone seems to rate it.

This thread could easily be renamed to "Authors of Confusion", haha...

If anyone seeks here what to listen and what to avoid from Neal's discography, he'll certainly be confused.

God bless his creativity...

Outshined wrote: This thread could easily be renamed to "Authors of Confusion", haha... If anyone seeks here what to listen and what to avoid from Neal's discography, he'll certainly be confused. God bless his creativity...

Well, hopefully what people unfamiliar will take away is that fact that ALL his albums are extremely similar.  He has a formula that he sticks to no matter what.  If you like that formula, like I do, then you are always happy and know what to expect (though it doesn't always work for me, Lifeline being the best example of that for me).

It's a bit like the Ozric Tenticles.  Once you've heard one album, you've heard them all.  If you like it enough, you'll want more.  If not, then you won't need to bother checking out anything else.  Though to be fair to Neal, his albums are not THAT similar (unlike the Ozrics), seeing as how I don't care for Lifeline and find One to be just okay.  So it pays to at least try a couple to see if anything moves you.

yeah, neal basically takes riffs and plays them for 4 measures each.  one to the next.

And I will give my top five list of Neal Morse 

^With Mike Portnoy as well! It's going to be awesome!