The New Neal Morse Appreciation Thread

Lofcaudio wrote: infandous wrote: Will be spinning that one tonight.   Well...?

Sounds excellent.  It will need a couple more plays, but after one full listen, I'm quite pleased with it.  Much better reaction than Testimony 1, anyway.

Does anyone know who played the marvelous guitar solo on 12 from Question Mark?  I know Neal brought in Steve Hackett, Roine Stolt and Alan Morse to play a little guitar on the album.  

great song

Okay, Testimony 2 is excellent.  Predictable, but excellent.  Actually, Neal's predictability is something I actually enjoy 

Testimony 2 has allowed me to appreciate Testimony 1 a lot more. It used to be just above Lifeline, now I think it'll move up. I'm listening to it now, probably for the first time since Testimony 2 came out. The themes that go back and forth between both albums is awesome. T1 just sounds better with context of T2.

I've got to say, I really love Neal Morse in all three of his forms. Transatlantic are probably my favourite of his (main) works but there simply isn't enough material for it not to get old and quickly if over listened.

As for his solo outputs, the music is fantastic (though, I've only heard T1, T2 and Sola Scriptura) and in Testimony albums especially the lyrics are a little annoying. I'm sure his excessive use of religious themed lyrics has been discussed to death in here but although it's obviously important for an artist to write about what's important to him, it just saddens me he couldn't find something else more important to him instead. Well, anything I didn't blatantly disagree with. But, in any case, the lyrics are tolerable for the music he produces.




Edited by TrickedTail - August 07 2011 at 06:16

Spock's is still my favorite. I like his solo, but it gets older quicker, because the arrangements are so over the top.

I'm liking how diverse, musically, the first Testimony is. I mean disc 1 has like 20 different styles, and now I'm on disc 2, and I just went from prog madness, to 70s brass rock, now bluegrass.

Same here. I'm not much of a lyrics guy, if the music is awesome that's all I care about; the lyrics are sometimes like a bonus.

Yes the music is very uplifting, and at times, can match the music perfectly. Sometimes Neal's music will take me out of a slump and put me in a great mood
I don't like the overtly religious lyrics, but sometimes they are vague and can be interpreted to mean almost anything.

But it's all about the music. I consider some of Neal's compositions to be the best in the symphonic prog genre, both solo and as Transatlantic. Spock's Beard is great too, but for some reason doesn't impact me as much, I don't know why... Generally just as good though, especially The Light and The Kindness of Strangers.

^ yes Neal has created his own niche sub-sub-genre. Sure there's some classic prog influence, but it's very much modern, and Portnoy's powerful drumming separates his work with Spock's a great deal (sorry, but Nick is still great)