LMR

When I saw there was a new album with Tony Levin and Jordan Rudess I had to hear it right away. Levin is my favorite bassist, especially when he's on the Chapman Stick. Being a huge DT fan Rudess is also one of my favorites. I didn't know anything about Marco Minnemann going in but when I saw he is the drummer who also provided some guitar work I knew he couldn't be all bad. It does have a similar sound to the Rudess-Morgenstein project which makes sense since a lot of the melodies and layering of sounds are done by Rudess. But here there are a lot more varieties of sounds from his keyboards and synths.

Twitch is a cool fast paced song with a bunch of interesting little add-ins, making the name very appropriate. Levin has one section that stands out to me just tearing it up. Frumious Banderfunk is another outstanding track. Afu Vulu has a lot of different sounds mixed in there like steel drums which I usually think are a good addition to any song that can make them work. Scrod is another one of my favorites with some nice drawn out guitar notes with a faster synth/drum/bass line in the background along with some really awesome solos by Rudess. Orbiter is a slower song with some higher notes on the bass that really set the tone for a spacey little jam. This is another one where the title fits very well. On Enter the Core Rudess uses a variety of sounds to build up the song from a slow start and again on this song they layer a faster rhythm with a slow and somewhat spacey melody. Minnemann kills it on guitars and drums on Ignorant Elephant and Levin and Rudess lend some great support, overall a great tune.

If you're a fan of any of these guys going in I'd say that every song on this album is worth listening to. They do a great job of mixing it up throughout the album so you won't be listening to 14 songs that sound exactly the same. This is also probably my favorite new album of 2013 and I'd love to hear more from these guys in the future. While I do really like this album and it I really have nothing bad to say about, it is not one that is on my top 10 albums and will probably never reach anywhere near that in most ratings. I don't see it being an album that I'll listen to over and over for years to come but will be great to revisit every once in a while so I give it 4/5.