I have yet to pick up TGA. I had a reaction to Similitude that is similar to many people here's reaction to TGA. I've been listening to Neal since just before the release of Kindness of Strangers and have loved almost everything. Lifeline, Momentum, Day For Night, and Snow being the albums that do little for me. I guess I have to add Similitude to that list. I listened to it more than a dozen times, yet couldn't recall a single moment after it was over, even after all those listens. To me, that was enough. So I've not jumped on this one (I usually buy his albums right after release). Now that people are saying the didn't like it as much as Similitude, I feel like I may just pass on this one. No, I'll probably still pick it up, but now I'm in no hurry.
It's funny, I thought I was burned out on Neal when Lifeline came out, but then Testimony 2 came out and I was right back on board. I thought the same with Momentum, but then Grand Experiment came out and I was back on board again (that one could well be my favorite album of his, as it has a real Spock's feel to it while not being exactly a carbon copy of his old Spock's stuff). Now I'm thinking I might be burnt out again. Based on past experience, I will get this new one at some point and give it a go. Maybe I'll love Neal's music once again, we'll see.
My favorites are still Kindness of Strangers, V, ?, Sola Scriptura, and Grand Experiment (not necessarily in that order). I do enjoy the TA stuff, though I felt the last TA album sounded like the just phoned it in. I did enjoy some of it though, so it wasn't a total loss for me, and live the epics came across better, I thought. I've never heard any of his singer songwriter stuff (other than what is on the prog solo albums) or his worship stuff. I actually put off buying his solo albums initially because of the Christianity aspect. However, around the time of Sola, I decided to give it a try (couldn't resist and album of only epics, lol) and ended up getting all of them in short order, and have bought them on release ever since then. Even though I'm not a Christian or religious at all, I find I appreciate the uplifting and powerful nature of his music and don't mind the lyrics. I am glad he's become less blatant though, as he was REALLY repeating himself too much lyrically by Lifeline.
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