TESTIMONY

I remember the time I bought and judged this album for the first time a few years ago. I expected a lot of it but got disappointed at first. I have an extremely high opinion about this man's abilities so that's why. I expected something like the best Spocks Beard material or like Transatlantic but I got my hopes up a little too much there.

Recently I decided to give it some more tries and I have to say I was a little harsh in the beginning. Because this is not a bad doubler at all. Maybe it was the absence of those great epics he used to write for his band and the Transatlantic project that put me off at first. But that's not quite fair of course, it's much more reasonable to listen to the music thoroughly (and at least quite a few times) and then give the opinion. So that's what I recently did and it made me change my mind I have to say. This is very good music for over two hours. Even the bonus track in my edition is outstanding. Sadly it had to be a cover (Tuesday Afternoon) to do the job (I disdain covers because it's easy scoring to me) but what a cover this is ! I already loved the original by The Moody Blues but this one is even much better so that eases the discomfort.

But the two main disks are more important of course and also with these two he does an unbelievable job. I don't think I will be exaggerating if I call Neal Morse (at least one of) the best progressive composer of the last 25 years. If you can do the trick over and over again without repeating one self or start to bore people then you're doing a magnificent job that deserves all respect and credit.

The only downside to me (but that's very personal, no offence) is the fact that he went solo because of his conversion. To me that killed Spocks Beard and also has as consequence he will be writing lyrics about God and Jesus and I can do without that really. I'm not trying to interfere with his personal life and decisions here I'm just a bit sick of the consequences of it. Although fortunately it didn't really influence his quality of composing music in general I have to admit.

Does all of the above mentioned result in the maximum score ? No, it doesn't because of the mentioned downsides but also the music is still not good enough for the maximum (after all: Transatlantic and Spocks Beard never got the full 5 from me and they were really better). But a solid 4 is well deserved.