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Old 12-18-2012, 10:26 AM   #1652 (permalink)
Trollheart
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Spock's Beard? No. Spock's Beard? No. Spock's Beard? NO! Good though? Oh yeah. But not Spock's Beard? NO! Sounds like it.. Yeah...
Momentum --- Neal Morse --- 2012 (InsideOut)


It's a pretty amazing feat, but Neal Morse has had, with the release of "A Proggy Christmas" this year, twenty solo albums in addition to being founder and member of progressive rock stars Spock's Beard. Two of these were released while he was part of the band, but are not really what you'd call progressive rock. Having left the band in 2002, Neal joined Translatlantic but also concentrated on his solo career, and having rediscovered his faith and become a born-again Christian, he wanted to write music that would better reflect his beliefs, which he believed would not fit well into what Spock's Beard were doing. His faith would, it might seem, be justified, as his daughter, who was suffering from a potentially life-threatening condition, was mysteriously cured after he and his church prayed for her. Me, I don't know: could be coincidence, but I would not be so churlish as to say there could be nothing else to it. I am however not here to discuss Morse's faith, nor anyone's, but just thought that little bit of information was important. Whether it was related or not to his rediscovery of his Christianity, it certainly would have reinforced his faith, and in fairness I think most of us would tend to think the same thing in his shoes.

In any case, as I say, this is his nineteenth solo album, with his twentieth also released this year, and as I mentioned in my preview it has but six tracks. Now normally I would be inclined to point out that this is shocking value for money, until you look a little closer and see that one of the tracks --- indeed, the last one --- is over thirty minutes long! More about that later, but we open on the fast, rocky, keyboard-driven title track, with some fine sharp guitar and pounding drums, vocals shared between Neal and Rick Altizer, but it's the former voice of Spock's Beard that I certainly recognise. The song has a lot of Supertramp about it too, and the inevitable SB influence as well as early Genesis. The resemblance to his former band is something I'll come back to over the course of the review, but "Momentum" is a good opener, and to be fair, every track here really has to be good, because if the closer is terrible, or just weak, even thirty-plus minutes of length is not going to make it any better. And if it's bad, then all you have to rely on is the five other tracks, so with only six in total there's no margin for error and no real excuse for weak songs.

Thankfully, all the above is moot as the end track is a stormer, of which again more later. But as I say the album opens really well, and there are some perhaps slightly indulgent moments from Neal on keys and guitar, though Mike Portnoy does a great job on the percussion, almost another Nick D'Virgilio in this case. Great guitar work too from Paul Gilbert, and even Wil Morse (his other brother? Alan, his most famous sibling, stll being part of Spock's Beard) helps out on the vocals, though I certainly hear Neal's as the dominant voice. The track ends on a nice little bass and piano part, then we're into total Spock's Beard territory with jerky guitar, Yes-style multi-tracked vocals as "Thoughts Part 5" begins, and here is where the problem begins for me. Although this is a great album, and I like it a lot, it sails so close to Spock's Beard territory that it almost feels like one of their albums. Peter Gabriel was always identified as the voice of Genesis, yet when he went solo his music sounded very little like that of his parent band, and less as he developed his own style. The same goes for Phil Collins, Jon Anderson and even Freddie Mercury: they all developed their own individual sound that took pains --- whether intentional or not --- to distance itself from the music it had become associated with. No point, after all, in going solo if all you're going to do is transplant the music of your band to your own albums.

Neal has had, as I mentioned, ten years to perfect his own style, and in fairness I've not heard all his material: some is very Christian/worship-oriented, and I'd probably be unlikely to listen to that, or want to, but he has released prog rock albums and if they're all like this then I think I'd rather just buy the latest Spock's Beard. For what it is, "Thoughts Part 5" is a good little song, but it could have been performed by the band, so where is the individuality on this album? Where are the new ideas? Where is the difference between this music and the music of the parent band? That's not to say the guys on this album can't play, because they obviously can, and very well. Neal does a lovely early-Genesis mellotron and Portnoy is excellent as ever, Gilbert's a capable guitarist, though I'm not that familiar with the work of Mr. Big, and Adson Sodre helps out too. But I don't see the spark, the creative individualism I expected to see, or hear, here.

"Smoke and mirrors" is a nice little laidback acoustic ballad, with some fine piano and organ (alright, not acoustic, but it has that air about it) and a lovely little piece of classical guitar. There's a powerful keyboard solo about halfway through, and the lyric hints somewhat obliquely at Morse's faith and beliefs, but that's okay. Another short track then is "Weathering sky", though in contrast this is much bouncier, more uptempo and with those squealy, squeaky guitars and talk boxes so identified with Spock's Beard. The song has a touch of the Beatles about it too, and it's a good one, but again too close to SB for my tastes. I have grown to love Morse's old band, after something of a struggle, but I prefer a solo artist to do his or her own thing, and if you just sound like your band, well, what's the point is what I'm saying. Again.

There's a great sense of pathos and tragedy about "Freak", perhaps a song about the dangers of seeing people in terms of one dimension, but it's very similar to other songs I've heard from "The light" although there's good use of violins and cellos, with pizzicato strings and some interesting bass work. Good lyric too: "I'm not welcome where the work is/ Not in your homes or in your churches". I like the not-so-obvious rhyming scheme in this a lot. Good powerful orchestral passage firms up the melody, and the final warning "Maybe an angel's come between us/ Who knows? I may be Jesus!" is particularly effective. Probably my favourite on the album.

And that takes us to the long-awaited closer. "World without end" runs for a total of thirty-three minutes and forty seconds, and the first six of these are taken up by an instrumental intro, opening with celestial keys and winding up hard guitar, with a melody very reminiscent initially of "The Lamb lies down on Broadway". I guess you have to admire Morse's confidence and courage: putting a track on an album that is longer than some albums are on their own is a bold step, but by god it had better be good, because this makes up seventy percent of the album and like it or not it's on this one track that the album is going to be judged. I do have to report that for such a long track it doesn't lose my attention, much. The powerful instrumental introduction is great and sets the scene well, though it goes on for so long that when I first heard it I worried that the entire half-hour plus could be like this, no vocals at all. I guess that would have been a step too far!

So it's full of the usual you'd expect from Morse/Spock's Beard: twiddly keyboards, trumpeting organs, fanfares and short, stop-start guitar, different parts and themes, and in fact the song is broken into six parts (again, a bad move really as it's so like the construction of his former band's songs it almost feels like he's copying the structure) of which the first is called, not too surprisingly, "Introduction", and though there's no actual way to work out what's what, I assume the instrumental to be the first part. When the vocal comes in it's on to part two, which is titled "Never pass away", a concept and theme that recurs throughout the long work. The melody and indeed the lyric comes back later in slightly different form, but here it's backed by fast piano, guitar and strong keyswork. It's quite rocky and uptempo, compared to the introduction, which is more dramatic and cinematic really. I'm not sure I could ever see him playing this live, but if he decided to take parts from it, this second section would go down really well on its own, I feel.

A warbly keyboard solo with accompanying piano takes us into what I assume to be part three, "Losing your soul", where everything slows down against just piano and percussion, joined by a keyboard run which will eventually become the closing section/theme of the song. Choral voices rise in the background, and really, the song is now eleven minutes old, and for anyone else this would indeed be the end, but not our Neal! There's another two-thirds of "World without end" to go, as we push on with a hard guitar riff and faster, tougher drumming from Mike Portnoy moving into part four, "The mystery", with Morse's voice run through some sort of effects pedal to make it sound distorted and mono, as if talking on the radio. It's a very Zep groove now, with some pretty wild guitar and organ stabs punctuating the fretwork. Hold on, no: this is still "Losing your soul", as it's just been mentioned in the lyric. Well, it's hard to judge where one part ends and the next begins unless you're given timings or it's very obvious, which is isn't.

Well we're now almost halfway through on the back of a fine guitar solo which then changes time signatures in a very tried and trusted progressive rock manner, a thick bass taking the melody as it changes to a sort of reggae/caribbean style, Morse's voice back to normal now as the song trips along on a bouncy, happy line accompanied by flutes and it seems we're now into part four. Things speed up then as we head towards the twentieth minute on mellotron joined by bright keys and guitar, a big instrumental passage that runs for almost two minutes and ends dramatically, almost stopping dead before it picks up again on soft, slow synth and piano, gentle whispering percussion and I guess this is then part five, "Some kind of yesterday", confirmed indeed as Neal sings the lyric. Very Genesisesque keys and the drums get a bit harder and more pronounced now, sprinkles of piano joining the melody, Neal's voice more relaxed and softer.

A return then to the basic theme of "Introduction" on buzzy keys and piano, fanfares breaking out all over the place in triumph as we no doubt move towards the final part, the conclusion, but not before some boogie guitar and organ get in on the act. Nice little bass solo too from Randy George before the keys swamp everything again, though in a good way it has to be said. This is certainly a keyboard-centric track, indeed album, not that surprisingly. We head into the twenty-fifth minute on a rushing, busy keyboard solo before part five, for which the entire track is named, hits, and it's a retracing of the theme from "Never pass away", with soft piano accompanying Neal's voice, also soft for the first minute or two, until sweeping percussion from Portnoy and strong organ intensify both the tune and Morse's vocal. Again very Genesis-like keyboards draw the curtain down, choral vocals and backing vocals joining, and a strident flourish on keys, guitar and drums brings the mammoth composition to a triumphant and very satisfying conclusion.

It's pretty obvious from the title, lyrical content and tone of this song that Neal Morse is talking about God and the Kingdom of Heaven ("that shall never pass away") but it doesn't come across as preachy, rather joyful and hopeful; it really sounds like Neal is saying God will save us all in the end; whether you believe or you don't, there's a place waiting for you at his table. Even for a hardened old cynic like me, I have to admit that's comforting in a way. As for the track itself being the centrepiece of the album, which it undoubtedly is: is it worth it? Does it stand up to close scrutiny and does it make the album purchase worthwhile? Yes, yes it does. It's a great track, and as I said, if you can listen to over half an hour of music in one track and not get bored, the guy has to be doing something right.

TRACKLISTING

1. Momentum
2. Thoughts Part 5
3. Smoke and mirrors
4. Weathering sky
5. Freak
6. World without end
(i) Introduction
(ii) Never pass away
(iii) Losing your soul
(iv) The mystery
(v) Some kind of yesterday
(vi) World without end

My only problem with this album is that it sounds so very much like Spock's Beard, as I have already stated many times over the course of this review, and which you're no doubt sick of hearing me say. But it's true: there's really nothing here I wouldn't expect to hear on one of their albums, and if I heard this on the radio (unlikely) I would probably think it was them. I'm sure Neal Morse has many more strings to his bow, and I would just have preferred if he had tried to be a little different, take a step back from what his fans are used to hearing from the band he left ten years ago now. That said, his gentle and pretty unobtrusive insertion of his Christian message into his music must be applauded: whereas other artistes might try to ram their message down your throat, he just puts it out there; if we want to listen we can, if we don't he's not telling us we're going to burn in Hell. As I say, his message seems to be that there is a place for all in the Kingdom of God.

It's not such a bad message really, when you think about it. I just hope he manages to shake off the cloying effects of Spock's Beard for his next album. Even if he doesn't though, this music is so intrinsically good that there'll always be room for him in my record collection.
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