FLYING COLORS

I must admit, when I first heard this album I was extremely disappointed. A group consisting of Dixie Dregs' guiarist Steve Morse (along with his long-time bassist Dave LaRue), former Spock's Beard front man Neal (no relation) Morse, and Mike Portnoy should be a prog fan's dream. But creating deep progressive music wasn't the aim of this band.

Luckily, I waited months before submitting a review. Shelving the album after a few weeks in my rotation, I returned to the disk, and have come away with a somewhat better opinion of the songs.

There are three tracks that seem to reference the three primary members, and their history. Blue Ocean, despite an unmemorable vocal track, seems to represent the Dixie Dregs. LaRue provides a smooth Dreg-like bassline, while Morse plays some tasteful licks. All Falls Down, a prog metal piece, feels like a nod toward Portnoy's famous history. And Infinite Fire plays like a Spock's Beard epic. If these three tracks indicated the direction of the entire album, this could have been one of the albums of the year.

But alas, the remaining eight tracks are good rock songs, with occasional slight hints of the musicians' pedigree. They are fine listenable rock tunes, but my feeling is that the band is striving too hard to be radio friendly. Unfortunately for them, there is not enough plastic in their sound for modern corporate radio to give them any notice.