The video was just released for the single from the new album. I like it. Upbeat. Very Styx-ish to my ears.
Was filmed at Morsefest and looks great.
I think it will be a good break in between the album's bookends of epics.
The video was just released for the single from the new album. I like it. Upbeat. Very Styx-ish to my ears.
Was filmed at Morsefest and looks great.
I think it will be a good break in between the album's bookends of epics.
The beginning sounds like the Foo Fighters' "Times Like These."
"Arf." -- Frank Zappa, "Beauty Knows No Pain" (live version)
I noticed a funny comment on Youtube video:
That made me actually compare several Transatlantic albums and how loud they were mastered. I'll give you some visuals:Neal, please stop the Loudness War on your records!
1.jpg
You can notice Roine did have a valid reason to make an alternative version of SMPTe.
2.jpg
Wall of sound. Loundness war at its worst.
3.jpg
Both The Whirlwind and Kaleidoscope actually sound pretty decent. Ray of hope?
"The world will soon be right again,
Innocence and undying love will reign." - Transatlantic
sounds very good to my ears,really looking forward to this release, a total autobuy for me
That's interesting Azol - thanks. Are the Flower Kings albums all pretty much the same as the Stolt mix of smpt:e ? Wish he could do a mix of Bridge - love it but do feel the ear fatigue.Originally Posted by Azol
Well, it's hard not to derail the thread completely - maybe it will be better to move it to the separate OT thread - but I just checked the Garden of Dreams suite and yes, I remembered correctly. If you noticed, the thing gets progressively louder as suite progresses - and not because it was played that way. I had hardest time with The Final Deal track - and it has that "wall of sound" here and there (not for the full duration though). You can actually hear sound distortion when that happens. Compare it to one of the "musically" loudest parts - Don't Let the d'Evil In - it was mastered at overall lower volume hence no distortions no matter how you crank it up. I have no idea why they did the suite this way, but the last track sounds downright awful. Can't remember anything of the sort on other TFK albums - in fact, they are carefully mixed and mastered similarly to Roine's take at the first TA album.
5.jpg
You mentioned ear fatigue - yes, this is one of the results of "loud" mastering.
P.S. I believe not everyone is familiar with the topic "loudness wars". You can Google it, but as a simple example: digital media encodes audio as series of samples depicting the waveform of the music signal. It offers 0-100 (for example) to store the signal amplitude. In "normal" recording you have the loudest part as 95, 98, 97, 98, 96 etc. In "loud" recording you would add some constant to each sample resulting in louder signal, but you can't go over 100, hence you will get 98, 100, 100, 100, 99 etc resulting in waveform degradation. You can see it as a "wall of sound" on the screenshots.
The reason? Loud record would sound great in the noisy car or in cheap earbuds while walking the street etc. On the hi-fi system? Probably not, thank you very much.
Example: waveform "hits the ceiling" on the Stranger In Your Soul (with the timing markers for this track). The actual musical signal is lost, it's not on the CD anymore.
6.jpg
Last edited by Azol; 01-07-2015 at 05:24 PM.
"The world will soon be right again,
Innocence and undying love will reign." - Transatlantic
hmmm... unsure what the whole thing will sound like, but this is getting mainstream now. same thing over and over again. Light was quite refreshing... 20 years later, i'd like to hear fresh ideas from progmaster. So, I'll have some reservations on this.
You people do realize this is the "single" right? Who has the money to make a promotional video over a 15+ piece of prog epic. Much the same way Momentum was done as well.
... that is why I didn't like Momentum...
is this a sample of what the Grand Experiment is about, not really interested. Nothing new here.
So you judged it all by one 6 minute song? Whatever, it is your choice.
Thanks for posting that Azol - I have also noticed the distortion at moments during The Final Deal. Have to think Roine didn't mean to do that but it's such a great part of the Suite anyway it still sounds incredible to my ears. At least it has more variation than that Stranger in Your Soul graph - that one is scary looking!
Back on track... the new Morse song gave me sort of the same reaction when they released the Momentum song as a teaser. Pretty good not great. I held off buying Momentum but eventually got it and really loved the epic "World Without End" but not many of the shorter pieces. But considering that one song is over 30 minutes long, it really is the bulk of the album so I was very glad I got it and will certainly get this new one.
Morse has a lot of different outlets for his music. If people want to hear a different Neal Morse they can try his acoustic albums, his worship session albums, Flying Colors, Yellow Matter Custard, Transatlantic. Plenty of different sounds among those.
I'll judge the album when it is released but I think this extract is not a good sign for those (like me) who hoped that entering the studio with nothing written could possibly help Morse explore new avenues.
Not just a Genesis fanboy.
"Momentum" and "Shine" were the weakest tracks on their respective albums IMO, and they were the advance 'singles' released. This track didn't exactly "wow" me either, but it's a fraction of the album. I look forward to it still!
Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.
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Disagree on Shine - it's a great "breather" track even though the video was kind of weak and didn't do justice to the song itself. Stronger musically than, say, Bridge Across Forever."Momentum" and "Shine" were the weakest tracks on their respective albums IMO, and they were the advance 'singles' released. This track didn't exactly "wow" me either, but it's a fraction of the album. I look forward to it still!
"The world will soon be right again,
Innocence and undying love will reign." - Transatlantic
Agreed on Shine. It was a great single. Short, catchy, but still contained enough variety within it to be interesting. The sections featuring different vocalists, the two well done solos from Roine. The end section referring back to Into the Blue. Nice.
Well, to tell the truth, Morse, Stolt, Wilson and Portnoy etc, have all run their course with me. They made some great and epic music but now, I just feel the need to move on. There are other great bands and artists to explore, other ideas. I bid adieu to these giants.
The older I get, the better I was.
I like it - sounds a bit like Kings X, which is a good thing
I'm sure this album will be a prog masterpiece...two long epics are on it, and I've heard a bit of the short, harmony-laden Waterfall which sounds gorgeous. I'm glad this song is such a rocker, and am pretty sure it will be unique in the whole album's output. It should be a diverse, Grand release!
Yeah, I thought "Black as the Sky" would've been a much wiser lead 'single' than "Shine", but I understand there were logistical reasons they had to do Shine at the time of the video filming. But all account, The Grand Experiment is the most straight-forward track on this new album, which probably is why it was chosen as a video single, though that may not always be the smartest choice when promoting to a mainly prog audience. But so far the feedback seems pretty strong for this song, and even here on PE it hasn't been flamed to death, which I expected from this crowd.
And this song certainly won't spark the endless "too preachy" debates!
Well, I'll have to listen to this later, but I wasn't crazy about Momentum or Kaleidescope. I thought Shine was the worst song I've ever heard from any of those musicians (which is really saying something, even though I'm a big fan of most of their other projects and loved TA before that album). Sappy, sickly sweet, derivative, and a feeling that they were just going through the motions (no emotional impact at all, unlike the title track from Bridge, which even though I don't much care for the song, you can hear Neal putting his heart and soul into it). Even Roine's guitar solo lacked fire, though it's the least "bad" part of the song for me.
All that said, I'm willing to give this one a chance (the whole album, not just this single). The guy has created a lot of my favorite music since the turn of the millennium (and a few years before that, as well), so I'm still willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. However, his "formula" IS starting to get old for me (and seems to have infected TA on the last album as well, IMO).
If it's only just starting to get old for you, you seem to have held out much longer than many!
Not just a Genesis fanboy.
The Grand Experi ... errr Illusion
If some say that this music and how it's done is not interesting anymore (I partially agree) then it would be interesting to read what are those bands or musicians that are more interesting and that offer some new perspective and ideas. And I would be really interested in it.
Also - when people say that they don't like this, do they mean Morse, Stolt and all their related bands/projects or this prog direction in general?
For me it would be more interesting if there was less of that 70's dominance in their music and instead they would try some different directions. Otherwise - what's progressive in their music?
To some extent, I understand the criticisms of Neal's sameness from album to album, but on the other hand, he has a sound that in many ways, is his own. Not every artist can say that, but on the other hand, many of the greats can. Plus, I do think it is a little unfair to just present the idea that everything he does is painted from the same brush. The guy has covered a lot of ground musically over the years and part of the problem might just be that he has been so prolific. Compared to the classic Prog artists and even to many of his peers, Neal's output over the last 20 years has been almost unbelievable. Had he released even half of what he has, I believe criticisms around his sound would be minimal. Plus, he does release material that is quite different, such as the recent 'Songs from November' album. That said, his Prog albums definitely have a sound and style that is his. I am a big fan though because at the root of the sound is his songwriting which has always been the main draw for me. Even this new song has a hook and a chorus that instantly stuck with me. As much as he is a Prog artist,Neal has a pop sensibility for writing a good catchy song within the framework of Prog and I love it. In my opinion, that is the reason Neal is such a well known name in the Prog spectrum. There are many people that can play, but Neal's song writing ability combined with his playing skills is what sets him apart from many. In my opinion, he is one of the greats of the Prog genre and personally, I am OK with the "Neal" sound. In many cases with Neal's work, with the "sound" comes a "song" that I find more interesting than a lot of the other stuff being released nowadays by other artists.
Last edited by Patelena396; 01-10-2015 at 12:22 PM.
I think it all comes down to whether one likes his sound or not. If one likes it, then she/he doesn't care what Morse makes or if he is repetitive. The fact that he makes new music is enough for them. At least that's my take on it.
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