ONE

This progressive record is very long, lasting nearly 80 minutes. Globally, it sounds like the Transatlantic and Kansas bands: it is not surprising since Mike Portnoy plays the drums and Neal Morse himself sings and plays the guitars and the keyboards. The keyboards are really vintage, featuring piano, mellotron, Fender Rhodes, moog and organ, among others. There are sometimes horns & strings arrangements that add some grandeur to the ensemble.

The album starts with an amazing progressive epic track "The Creation", lasting nearly 20 minutes; IMO this track is among the best ones from this record; it contains some impressive strings & horns arrangements, which give an "American patriotic" character to the song.

On the soothing & acoustic "Man's gone", Neal's vocals are just the male version of Amy Grant's; as this was not enough, this folkier track is a toss between the beauty's stuff and Kansas' "Dust in the wind".

"Author of confusion" starts with a very energic set of electric guitar riffs, which reminds me a slower Liquid Tension Experiment. The song has a VERY impressive vocals interplay that has nothing to envy from the Gentle Giant's "On Reflection" song; it is immediately followed by a sublime & relaxing part where the Fender Rhodes sounds a bit like the one on the early Vangelis' albums, like Earth and The Dragon.

The epic "The separated man", lasting around 17 minutes, is a bit unequal and slightly less addictive and catchy: the first 8 minutes have some unconvincing mellow bits containing Fender Rhodes and vocals, which could have been shortened or arranged differently; when the piano enters at the 8th minute, then things seem to get better: many parts sound like Kansas, as reveal the typical violin and the acoustic guitars arrangements.

"Cradle to the grave" is a folkier ballad that gradually increases in intensity, beauty and emotion: Neal co-sings with Phil Keaggy, who has a very good voice too.

"Help me/The Spirit and the Flesh" contains a very addictive rhythmic piano; there are some excellent backing vocals a la Kansas, some impressive Spanish guitar arrangements; again, the Transatlantic similarity is more than obvious.

The many strings arrangements on "Father of forgiveness" embellish this graceful track.

The rhythmic horns parts on the first half of "Reunion" give an interesting & different facet regarding how Neal can be versatile; the EXCELLENT second half of the song illustrates the perfect combination of structure, refinement and elegance, applied on the miscellaneous male & female vocals involved; the symphonic end is just simply bombastic!

It certainly takes more than one listen to really digest this quasi-masterpiece!

Rating: 4.5 stars