NEAL MORSE

A solid, and improved follow-up to last year's The Dreamer: Joseph Part 1. Once again, Neal has brought in many guest vocalists (Ted Leonard, Matt Smith, Jake Livgren, Nick D'Virgilio, Ross Jennings) to round out the cast of characters in his biblical prog rock opera telling of the story of Joseph, along with his Neal Morse band cohorts guitarist Eric Gillette and keyboardist Bill Hubauer to enhance Neal's own multi-instrumental musicianship. Although a long album (16 tracks, 75 min), and certainly dramatic and theatrical in nature, Neal tries to keep things interesting by varying the tempo and musical styles from song to song. That and the different vocalists, keep things moving through the various stylistic choices of Morse and Co. Mixing in familar prog elements (reminiscent of Spock's Beard, Gentle Giant, ELP, etc) with hard rock, choirs, vocal harmonies, orchestration, jazz, and even a bit of latin swing, as only Neal Morse could. Although much of this may seem quite familiar to other projects from Morse, he still manages to surprise occasionally, and entertains quite consistently, as it builds to a rousing and satisfying conclusion, and saves the best songs for the last sequence. Better than expected. Best Tracks: My Dream, the Argument, Make Like a Breeze, The Brothers Repent, Restoration, Everlasting, Dawning of a New Day. Rating: 3.5 stars

Joseph Part 2 just blew me away like no Neal album has for a long while. It's like Neal made exactly the album that he wanted to make; unabashedly all of things that his music gets grief about: bombast, huge key changes, themes being explored to their uttermost. I didn't stick this on for 10 weeks, not sure why, but when I finally did the ending was so epic. I think Neal's voice now he's older really suits his aggressive - almost shouting - parts, it gives it so much emotion. Let's hope it's not a swan song and that there is much more for Neal and the gang.

I am writing this review directly after reviewing The Dreamer (Part One), and many of my critiques (both positive and negative) apply to this album, but only to the first 12 out of 16 tracks, because something very strange to my ears happens to close out the album, and thus I'll structure this review accordingly.

Highlights: My Dream, Dreamer in the Jailhouse, All Hail. Perhaps not surprisingly, the parts that involve Ross Jennings on this album are fantastic. These tracks remind me of some of my favorite, more sinister moments of Sola Gratia, and hearing Ross in there in spots helps the music feels especially fresh to ears that have listened to literally dozens of hours of Neal Morse music. One caveat: Neal's truly terrible falsetto in All Hail--that thing wasn't working 20 years ago and it has only gotten worse, and it's especially annoying because Neal literally has numerous other talented vocalists appearing at other points on this album who would have done a better job here.

Lowlights: tracks 5-11. Every time I listen to this section of the album, I honestly can't believe how bad it is. I don't throw around the word "bad" easily, and I don't think Neal does much that would be considered bad, but whether it's the too-tight-pants Ted Leonard vocals to the awkward vocal round exposition to the poor lyrics (rhyming "grain" with "insane"? Give me a break, Neal!), this is just one tough listen, every time through. You have been warned.

And now for something completely different: tracks 13-16. The Brothers Repent and Restoration is basically 10 minutes of musical whiplash: Here's Matt Smith! Here's NDV! Thanks for coming back Talon! Let's run back this previous theme, but only tease it...also, here's a Testimony-ish, latin-timbale break, but don't get your groove on, because it's back to another leitmotif. Is this objectively good? I don't know, but I think I like it, and I'm having fun. Also, anything I'm still caring about regarding the story seems to be wrapping up. Is it satisfactory? I don't know, but I think I'm done hearing about grain and polygamy, thank you.

Speaking of fun, then comes the real party: Everlasting. Party time. Let's kick up the tempo, get the backup vocalists rocking, get those timbales clanging, get all those Disney characters singing together...and don't forget your whistle...twice! Neal Morse is just Morse-ing the crap out of this. Is it a problem that we've kind of heard this before? Yes, a little bit, but it's still fun, so just go with it!

But unlike the Disney movie, Neal isn't done. At this point in his career, he appears to feel called to more proactively help people walk with God, rather than explaining it in his music and hoping God just takes it from there. I think that's what God Uses Everything for Good represents--just like former addicts rehearsing the Serenity Prayer in difficult times, if people who listen to this album remember nothing more than this simple mantra, perhaps this song might also help people in their most distressing moments.

I think this is ultimately pretty cool, but there are two problems--one thematic and one musical. First, I think that simple message is pretty clear to anyone who has made it to the end of the Joseph albums, so for someone like me, the music better make it worth the extra run time. Here's where this is a clear mixed bag: the closing minutes are truly epic, there's so much going on (strings, horns, harmonized vocals, heavy timpani and symbol swells) that it juuuuust starts to sound a little muddy. However, there is a bigger issue, which is that underlying melody sounds sooo close to a main Testimony melody that the first couple times I heard it, I couldn't help but hum that in my head instead.

Having said all of that, my experience with this album supports two potential conclusions. First, this to me sounds like a musician/composer who might be almost done--go out with a bang, taking all of your signature sounds and cranking them to 11. The other potential conclusion is that Neal is going to at least have to conclude this period of his writing, in which taking a biblical story and Morse-ing it up is at a point of clear diminishing returns.

Will Morse keep going to the drying well, or will he pivot and evolve? Or will he hang it up?

Being a huge Neal Morse fan, it is with some trepidation that I even write this review, but I also don't want to (at least completely) pigeonholed as reviewing only material that I love. This album seems to be polarizing, but not in the usual, "I don't like the Christian themes" way--instead, I think this album is polarizing because of the music. Specifically, for a concept album, I personally don't think this album holds together particularly well. I'm only slightly familiar with Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat, so I'd like to think I'm not particularly biased in any direction in that regard.

First off, when I think of what I like most about Neal's work, my favorite stuff is the grand instrumental themes, which, when teased and supported with other interesting bits that lead to a fantastic crescendo, can rank up there with my favorite musical experiences. Hitting the sweet spot with this approach has obvious potential flaws: too much reliance on repeating or only slightly altered themes, and too much instrumental widdly wankery before you get to the good parts. As you can infer from that, I don't listen to Neal as much for the lyrics, story or concept (although I can feel uplifted by some of the positive, God-affirming moments).

Given that, this album perhaps was not ever going to be for my ears. There are few extended instrumental moments, and the most prominent one (the overture) I would characterize as just mildly interested, and only somewhat melodically linked to what comes later, at best. There is a clear story, and characters, and I find myself thinking about what's happening in the story, and how similar or different a section is to Dreamcoat, rather than just getting lost in good music. Perhaps that part of the intent in Neal's effort here.

Highlights: Before the World Was, Gold Dust City, Ultraviolet Dreams. Aside from the sheer ambition involving numerous guest musicians and vocalists, strings, horns, and multipart vocal harmonies, this album does have some top-notch tunes. Before the World Was is the best of Neal's new gospel trend, and building up to the Steve Morse trademark solo is awesome. Gold Dust City perhaps most effectively merges traditionally good music with the guest vocal and chorus strategy. Finally, Ultraviolet Dreams is another great track, highlighted by some crunchy, memorable guitar from Neal. There are other clear highlights to be found as well, from Talon David's work in Slave Boy (though I don't feel comfortable actually singing this lyric myself, or to picture a young woman seducing much, much older man) to the mega-man harmonies of Heaven in Charge (upwards of 6-parts, perhaps?).

The Dreamer is a great buy, no hesitation, due to the ambition, creativity, and quality production found within. However, it is a story-based album first and foremost, which is certainly fine, but the concept is not strong enough to overcome the uneven quality of the music in the end. Let's see where Part Two goes from here...

Fantastic double album from Prog veterans The Neal Morse Band (Neal Morse-vocals, keyboards, guitar), Eric Gillette (guitars, vocals), Mike Portnoy (drums. vocals), Bill Hubauer (keyboards, vocals), Randy George (bass). Unlike their past couple albums, this one is not a big concept album with an overarching theme, but just a collection of songs, which seems to have freed the band to do more exploring and playing with different styles and sounds, resulting in some more varied and interesting tracks. But the album is still divided into 2 distinctly different sets: Disc 1 (Innocence) consists of 8 'shorter' songs (3-8 minutes each) of varying styles, some more poppy, some more jazzy, etc., but all with strong melodies and virtuoso playing, culminating in a great progressive adaptation of Paul Simon's 'Bridge Over Troubled Water). Disc 2 (Danger) consists of 2 epic Prog tracks, 'Not Afraid Pt.2' (nearly 20 min). and 'Beyond the Years' (more than 30 min), both of which are just fantastic and shows what great bands can do with multi-part, extended length tracks. Whereas disc 1 is very good, disc 2 just takes off and soars with these incredible epic tracks, running the gamut from classical, blues, rock, jazz, pop, all worked into cohesive songs. A highpoint in this band's already impressive discography. 4.5 stars

When I saw the latest Neal Morse solo album was another Christian musical I inwardly groaned, as his 'Jesus Christ The Exorcist' is probably the weakest he has been involved with in all his musical ventures. I have loved his concept albums, both secular and Christian, yet that one managed to fail on so many levels. It may still be a good album but there was just something about which did not gel. Now, I may not be a religious person in any way, but when I was younger I saw my fair share of Christian musicals and loved both 'Godspell' and 'Jesus Christ Superstar', while Neal's own 'Testimony' album is a triumph, so the religious aspect has never worried me, but how would he approach a story made so familiar even to those who do not read the Bible thanks to Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd-Webber?

In his own imitable way, that's how. Here we find Neal fully back on form with one of his most powerful concept albums ever, which in places also reminds me of his wonderful 2002 album, 'It's Not Too Late'. That may not be one of his most proggy, recorded mostly by himself with Nick D'Virgilio, but there are bits and pieces here which remind me of that. He, of course, plays the role of Joseph and has been joined by Ted Leonard (Spock's Beard) as Judah, Matt Smith (Theocracy) as Reuben, Jake Livgren (Proto-kaw, Kansas) as the slave driver, Talon David (who appeared on 'Jesus Christ The Exorcist') as Potiphar's Wife, Wil Morse (Neal's son) as Simeon and Mark Pogue as Jacob. Among the musicians are Eric Gillette and Steve Morse, while drummer Gideon Klein also deserves a special mention. This does not feel like one of his more recent solo releases but takes us back to his early solo days when he was full of confidence of having done the right thing of leaving Spock's Beard and surrounding himself with top musicians to produce a series of albums which showed a direct continuation of 'Snow'.

Interestingly, this album has received a variety of different reviews in that some love it while others think it is quite weak, but there is no doubt in my mind that it has put his last Christian opera deeply in the shade and I for one cannot wait for part two. Here is a rock opera full of passion and wonderful complex and complicated prog which is Morse to the core. If you have enjoyed any of his work over the last thirty years, then this is essential.

As is so often the case with Neal, this record - for me - took a few listens for it to fully marinate - much like with Sola Gratia and even TSOAD. In my humble opinion it is yet again a great album of feel-good prog rock.

Before The World Was, Wait on You and the last track are total Morse classics. Such emotive vocals and pleasing chord sequences. Not crazy about a couple of them but you can't have everything! Long live the one semitone down key change! (which has such an epic effect, and was previously used at the end of Sola Gratia after its guitar solo)

Can't wait to see him at Morsefest UK!

Recorded in Hamburg on their 2022 tour to promote the 'Innocence & Danger' album which was released the previous year, we again find Neal Morse Neal Morse (vocals, keyboards, guitar) in the company of Eric Gillette (guitar, vocals), Bill Hubauer (keyboards, vocals), Randy George (bass, bass pedals, vocals), and Mike Portnoy (drums, vocals). Of course, this being a live album we expect it to be fairly lengthy, and we are not disappointed as this is a triple CD set with a running time of nearly 2 ½ hours. The gig itself was divided in two, so we get eight shorter songs (seven of which are from the latest album ) followed by the two epics from 'Innocence & Danger' before it concludes with the "The Great Similitude Medley" which features highlights from the band's previous two records 'The Great Adventure' and 'The Similitude of a Dream'.

This means that anyone into Morse is going to find plenty on here to enjoy. I was lucky enough to see the original line- up of Spock's Beard a few times, before first seeing Neal on his amazing 'Testimony' tour, which of course also featured Randy and Mike, his long-time sparring partners. That he is one of the most important songwriters and performers to have come into the prog scene in the last 30 years is never in doubt, and the album is all one would expect. I have no idea how many live albums I have featuring Neal (the technical terms is "lots") and he always seems perfectly at home no matter who he is performing with. However, there are some times when it is appears he is almost performing to his own formula, and while there are plenty of fans there who love what he did to "Bridge Over Troubled Water" I must confess to not being in the same boat, as there was something magical about the original which has been lost here. However, that can almost be forgiven when we get into the last three numbers, which have a running time of 22 minutes, 34 and 30 respectively. It is when he allows himself to fully expand and go full prog that he really comes to life as he creates music which is dynamic, full of contrast and power, and it is these where the listener can truly be lost inside.

That this is a great album is never in doubt, but due to the material it is never totally indispensable, albeit thoroughly enjoyable at all times. It is nice to listen to, but there are other live albums of his which are superior.

Is Neal Morse trying to emulate Andrew Lloyd-Webber? A few years ago he released a rock opera based on the life of Jesus, now he turns his attention to Joseph (yes, he of the technicolor dreamcoat). So what to make of this latest release?

The first thing to say is that only one member of the Neal Morse band is utilised here. Eric Gillette contributes some drum parts and one guitar solo. Most of the vocalists from Jesus Christ The Exorcist are involved, and I have to pick out Talon David (who sang Mary Magdalene in JCtE) for particular praise. Here she sings the part of Potiphar's wife on three tracks. Slave Boy is the outstanding one for me. If there is any justice in this world, this young lady should have a stellar career. What a voice!

As for the quality of the music, I would put this as middling in Neal's catalogue. Not up to the heights of Sola Scriptura, Question mark and Similitude, or even its predecessor JCtE, but pretty good nonetheless. Top tracks Gold Dust City, Slave Boy and Heaven In Charge Of Hell. Disappointing tracks the Overture and its reprise, it's not one of Neal's best overtures.

The CD only tells half the story, leaving Joseph in prison after being wrongly accused of sexual assault. Part 2 is due out next year.

I have been listening to this album for years, and have heard nearly all of Neal Morse's discography. This one is by far my favorite of all of his work (from what I have heard so far).

This is the album I would definitely use to try to introduce people to Neal's style. In my opinion this album showcases all of his best elements at the top of their form.

The album is so well structured musically from start to finish. The power of the music can be felt from the get-go with beautiful melodies, hard hitting guitar riffs, and inspirational lyrics. The sections done by the master guitarist Paul Gilbert are 2 of my favorite moments on the album, especially the flamenco section (Two Down, One to go).

In closing, I strongly believe this album is a masterpiece in that it has a little something that would appeal to almost any prog fan!