I had the Blu-Ray on pre-order for the longest time, but cancelled it last week. Like you, the clips didn’t sell it for me. I like Flying Colors, but unless they turn into a massive jam band, I realized I’m happy with the studio albums and can live without the live stuff. There’s too much other stuff coming out before the year closes and I realized I need to be more choosy, too.
I haven’t actually gotten to sit and watch a live video in full in ages, but I enjoy live stuff on Apple Music and such. Sometimes hearing songs in a different context outside their album running order makes them click for me. I was meh on the first two FC albums but I thought the latest one was easily their best, so this will be in my listening queue during work next week.
I understand that touring is necessary to boost the album sales, and that is the reason for this delay of TA5. Anyway, among all those NM/MP bands, Transatlantic is the one I'm always waiting for. (See my avatar!) From business point of view, it would be interesting to see the profitability of different phases of the album cycle: studio album, touring (tickets + merch), live album. Naturally, this varies between bands and albums.
I really wish Flying Colors would become more of a priority for everyone, but given their small fanbase, I am not counting on it. Regarding touring, my guess is they don't want to release the Transatlantic album and then not be able to tour on it right away, and it's not like TA tours are long anyway, so they are taking their time finishing it up so they can get some idea of when they could possibly tour on it next year (even that is even a possibility).
I think Transatlantic is the best project Neal and Mike share, I'm always very happy to listen to anything they put out. I have no problem with waiting however long it takes for the new album, some predictions could be interesting to read as we patiently wait for some sort of announcement. I for one hope it sort of breaks the norm of two very long epics, a mini epic and one or two ballads. The Whirlwind is still an album that impresses me and it's the one where they went outside the comfort zone and created something different in twelve sections, brilliant and exhilarating in my opinion. A proper double album would be very interesting of around 50 or 60 minutes per disc doesn't sound too out there. In my ideal incarnation of the band, Daniel Gildenlow would be an official member, his an amazing multi-instrumentalist and his vocals are too much, especially his backing vocals are that of an angel! (listen to the final ten minutes of the live version of Stardust We Are by Flower Kings from the Meet the Flower Kings live album). All their live albums are outstanding as well, especially London 2010, probably Neal and Mike's most epic show of their careers.
Yeah, I totally agree about the format. I really hope it is not the usual, but of course even it is, you know it will still be good. Gildenlow seems to do best (IMO) when his contributions are sparse, like when he was with the Flower Kings or with Transatlantic. I wouldn't mind him contributing, but I wouldn't want him to be a regular member where he is on equal footing with the others.
I love his music in Pain of Salvation and it's really quite different from anything Neal or Roine does, besides he just might be an even bigger control freak than Roine, Mike and Neal! And we're talking about guys that are the brains and decision makers behind their respective bands, which is why I love Transatlantic so much, it's kind of like a tug of war of ideas behind three prog mammoths and the finished product is always quite a joy to appreciate. You end up with a true collage of these guys' signature sounds and ideas and once in a while there is true synergy and a completely new sound happens to appear (some examples for me are the Walk Away section from Duel With The Devil, Out Of The Night, A Man Can Feel, On The Prowl and Pieces Of Heaven from The Whirlwind Sleeping Wide Away section from Stranger In Your Soul, Camouflaged In Blue from All Of The Above, Mr. Wonderful from Suite Charlotte Pike to name a few!)
I view the band as having two prog mammoths (Roine and Neal), in the sense of being prolific writers (the other two are not), but that's neither here nor there. I have never been much of a Pain of Salvation fan outside of a few songs.
Got to say I've only seen a couple of secondhand albums by Transatlantic. I'm guessing that they are relatively unknown here in Australia. Looked interesting. I've only seen them playing with Thijs van Leer of Focus, on youtube. Respectful performance of Hocus Pocus
I think Kaleidoscope being so underwhelming is why I don't feel the need for the new album right away. I'd rather they take their time and make it as good as possible.
I imagine it's done. Any additional work done on it because of COVID is probably just tinkering with overdubs or mixing, not more substantial writing. One thing I do like about the TA albums is while they always have to be recorded too quickly, they're always done together as a band. There's a lot of bands that I think could make the same albums they make normally without ever needing to be in the same studio together at the same time, but TA isn't one of them. They really capture the old school vibe really well.
As many times as I have spun Kaleidoscope, I still find it a comfortable listen. There are some very high points, but then I loose it all on the others. As far as the new TA album I'm not holding my breath, these albums being made in Covid times are yea underwhelming, everything being recorded in pcs then patched together on pro tools.....Yuck!! I mean Roine and Pete are across the pond, no in studio cohesion. I'm also hoping the mix and mastering for vinyl is better than Kaleidoscope, missing dynamics for sure, not a big fan of Rich Mouser's mixing........
Agreed. The fact that Neal is a huge fan of 70's prog and Roine was a small part of 70's prog (Kaipa) helps a lot in that regard. Hmmm, I am big fan of Mouser's mixing (since 2000). Granted, it is more American, meaning it sounds more like Neal's usual stuff than Roine's, but it almost always sounds so darn good, to me anyway.
Yeah. I think there's just something to the way they record, having to do it quickly. Unfortunately on the 3rd and 4th albums I felt like it also meant the compositions weren't as refined, but I have high hopes for this one. Whereas I think a modern Marillion album or even a Neal Morse solo album could be recorded one person at a time (they probably are, in the end) and it wouldn't make a noticeable difference.
According to Mike's tweets, it was recorded in Sweden last September / October. Then he was heading to Nashville to record his drum parts in October. After that it's overdubs and mixing, which can be done separately anywhere, as they usually do. So it appears, that COVID has not affected the creative processes of TA5, just the release schedule.
I guess for me he is spotty.....some of the Spock's vinyl I have is rather good, but the ones done by say Kevin Gilbert are much better especially The Light.....Rich did V for vinyl and it is really good, so spotty for me.
I can't agree about the 3rd album. Except for the overture and the last song both being overcooked, I feel that The Whirlwind has some of the best writing by both Neal and Roine to date. But that's me.
Me too, Whirlwind is amazing considering it was purposefully stretched out to be almost 80 minutes long to fit the disc. The Overture is my personal favorite overture from the Neal catalog and the same goes for the Whirlwind reprise at the end of the album. Dancing With Eternal Glory is damn near perfect, do you find it a bit overcooked because both the Overture and last song are two-parts in one single track? (Overture/Whirlwind and Dancing/Whirlwind reprise) The only part of the album I can say is somewhat near repetitive is Is It Really Happening which I think is about two minutes too long, but I never could tune out the album or skip a track. Kaleidoscope on the other hand could have used with a bit more structure, especially the titled track. It's definitely the album I listened to the least, but I did give it a fair amount of plays and opportunities. It's really good, but doesn't cut it like the first three albums. Thankfully this has been released in glorious surround sound which made me appreciate it much more.
I think both the Whirlwind overture and Dancing with the Eternal Glory are too long. With the overture, it's like they went out of their way to feature every melody on the album in it, instead of keeping it at a more manageable length and saving some of those melodies for later (for hearing them for the first time). Dancing seems to climax about 2/3 of the way through and then it was like, hey, let's reprise this part, and oh this part too, and before you know it, the song had mushroomed too much and it felt overcooked. I still like both songs, but both feel overcooked big time. The rest of the album is perfect, and I'll take the stretch of The Wind That Blew Them All Away through Rose Covered Glasses up against any other 30-minute stretch TA has done except maybe All of the Above. The Kaleidoscope epics are good, but sound way too inferior to most of the other epics Neal has been a part of.
Wow you're right that's a 30-minute stretch, it surely doesn't feel like it and I agree it's an amazing stretch of songs. Technically, after Overture comes the three-minute Whirlwind before being brilliantly contrasted by the more somber The Wind Blew Them All Away, so at 33 minutes that's the length of many old rock albums from the 60s! The second half kicks off with Evermore and from there on the album takes another direction which I think is key to remaining entertaining for the next 45 minutes. You're right about the overture, it does include practically every melody that will be featured in the album, I guess that's what I really admired about it without realizing it, which is funny because that's what I felt about the overture from The Great Adventure which I'm not a big fan of. The way you feel about the Dancing climax is exactly how I feel about the Duel With The Devil climax from Bridge Across Forever, I think it would've made a killer 20 minute track.
