Tag Archives: Neal Morse

Neal Morse, Life & Times. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It is our own story that we dance to, that we sit and think back over all the occasions we did something extraordinary, that we perhaps didn’t live up to our own sense of self or impossibly high standards. It is the Life & Times in which we remember over a large glass of smoky whisky, with friends staring into the fire as we toast marsh mellows, when we are alone and the darkness comes calling, it is the Life & Times in which we must celebrate or in which we must atone.

Neal Morse, Life & Times. Album Review. full post

(404 words, 1 image, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

Neal Morse, Morsefest 2014 Live. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The extravaganza of it all, the performance, the gala festival, when it all boils down it no amount of words can quite possibly describe the flowing momentum and atmosphere that surrounds Neal Morse, one of the kings of the Progressive Rock genre, as his music is captured tantalisingly live and presented with open and frank clarity in Neal Morse’s Morsefest 2014 Live.

Neal Morse, Morsefest 2014 Live. Album Review. full post

(462 words, 1 image, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Neal Morse, Songs From November. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The latest album from Neal Morse, one of the four maestros behind Progressive Rock’s Transatlantic, is perhaps one of the most personal of his entire career.

Songs From November has all the feel of a man making peace with the world, acknowledging the past and arguably all the faults, the successes and victorious accomplishments that a life can have but which can be viewed from a distance as being less than perfect as the true victory is in the surviving and what you do and how it inspires others. Neal Morse reaches through the songs on the album a type of reflective armistice, a lasting harmony between the thoughts of the past and the hope of the future.

Neal Morse, Songs From November. Album Review. full post

(447 words, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

Transatlantic, Kaleidoscope. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Following on from the acclaimed album The Whirlwind, the four members of Transatlantic, Neal Morse, Mike Portnoy, Roine Stolt and Pete Trewavas, have once again got together to produce something that is so compelling, so like the Progressive Rock of old and yet new, exciting and in the case of two of the longer tracks, daring musical storytelling.

Transatlantic, Kaleidoscope. Album Review. full post

(587 words, estimated 2:21 mins reading time)

Flying Colours, Live In Europe. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

With just one studio album to the super group’s name, to bring out a live C.D. might be considered slightly presumptuous, even possibly improper but then this is Flying Colours and when you have the outrageously good Mike Portnoy and Neal Morse of Transatlantic, Steve Morse, the beautiful resonating voice of Casey McPherson and Dave LaRue giving the audience at the wonderful venue of the 013 in Tilburg, then to be honest all you can do is sit down, and feel envious of those who made the trip to Holland and revel in the music coming through the speakers.

Flying Colours, Live In Europe. Album Review. full post

(395 words, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

Steve Hackett, Genesis Revisited II. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Since Genesis last took to the stage for their 2007 tour, the most productive two members of the stalwarts and guiding lights of Progressive Rock are the two that had left the band in the days before they become the corporate behemoth of the 1980’s and 1990’s.

Peter Gabriel has been busy giving his fans new looks of his back catalogue and inspired readings of other people’s works. Steve Hackett on the other hand has produced more solo work than any other member of one of the U.K.’s favourite Prog acts; he also seems to find time to keep the work of Genesis between 1970 and 1977 very much alive on his keenly anticipated touring schedule.

Steve Hackett, Genesis Revisited II. Album Review. full post

(507 words, 1 image, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

Neal Morse, Momentum. Album Review.

Originally published by L.S. Media. September 13th 2012.

The question that some people who follow these type of things closely will be asking, is Momentumpossibly the best thing that Progressive Rock stalwart Neal Morse has ever given to the world? The follow up will no doubt be “why the long wait?”

The new album is arguably one of the finest albums that Neal has ever had a part in, the best though? Perhaps with the exception of The Whirlwind by Transatlantic and the 2002 album by Spock’s Beard Snow, then undoubtedly it is pretty darn close. It takes time to feel comfortable, to be in a space where you are not just going through the day to day motions or perceived monotony in which to produce an album which stands out, especially in the world of Progressive Rock.

Neal Morse, Momentum. Album Review. full post

(513 words, 1 image, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)