Band : Neal Morse
Album title : Lifeline
Record label : Radiant Records – Bill Evans Media
Distributor : SPV - CNR
Release date : 01/10/2008
Release : CD

It’s been since 2005’s ? (question) that I’ve had the luck to review one of Neal Morse’s ProgRock outings, and since then there’s not only been March 2007’s Sola Scriptura studio album, followed by the ? Live double live CD in October, but also the Sola Scriptura & Beyond DVD, released only a couple of months ago (all of which, I think, were reviewed by collegue Guido Claes). On the side, Neal also released the non-ProgRock albums Send The Fire (Worship Sessions Volume 2) (March 2006), Cover To Cover (September 2006), Songs From The Highway (March 2007) and Secret Place (Worship Sessions Volume 3) (2008)…contributed guest appearances on several other artists’ studio albums, and even produced a couple of ‘em! So to say that he is somewhat of a busy bee, is really an understatement.

For this 5th ProgRock studio album, Neal again made use of Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy (like on every other album), and bassist Randy George (already there on 2004’s One), taking care of most keyboards and guitar himself, but leaving room for guest appearances by Paul Bielatowicz (lead guitar on album closer “Fly High” and on the cover of The Bee Gees’ “Lemons Never Forget” you can find on the bonus CD that comes with the special edition of the album), Jonathan Willis (strings on “The Way Home”, “Children Of The Chosen” and “So Many Roads”, the album’s epic 28:43 long piece), Jim Hoke (saxophone on “Leviathan” and the “The Humdrum Life” section of “So Many Roads”) Ivory Leonard and Danielle Spencer (backing vocals to “So Many Roads”), and Carl Groves (backing vocals to “Lifeline”, “the Way Home”, “Children Of The Chosen”, and “So Many Roads”). Talking about the bonus CD, that contains more guest appearances byPaul Gilbert (lead guitar on the album’s special edition bonus CD cover of The Osmonds’ “Crazy Horses”) and Neal’s live drummer Colin Leijenaar (on bonus CD track “Set The Kingdom”).

As you well know, Neal left Spock’s Beard and Transatlantic back in the days because this didn’t cope too well with his growing belief in the Christian faith, and if there’s one thing you can say about Lifeline, it’s that it is right-on propaganda for The Faith…to the point of boring me at certain moments! I mean, I don’t mind people telling us about their religious beliefs (after all, this is a free world, isn’t it), but to occasionally bug people with repetitive lyrics at the cost of good musical taste, that’s too muchy of a “good” thing to me! Weirdly enough, while some people will be enchanted at the fact that 5 out of the 7 songs on this album have length ranging between “only” 4:20 and 6:30, and while musically Neal moves in varied waters, it’s exactly thóse songs which have the most repetitive lyrics (ballad “God’s Love” and the ensuing semi-acoustic “Children Of The Chose” topping it all with the most boring and therefore uninspiring lyrics – and I’m sure that couldn’t have been Neal’s intention)! Nah, then I prefer by far the longer “Lifeline” (13:28) and the aforementioned 6-part “So Many Roads”!

What bugs me even more, is that the band’s local distributor seems to feel that sending out cd-R copies of the album (which can only be played on the computer or your lo-fi, portable cd-R/ mp3 player) with only what’s printed on the CD itself as info is sufficient promo for his product (I suppose he, or she…I wouldn’t want to be called a discriminant…has faith that (s)he did enough as is, and that the album would promote itself…or something like that?). If you’re already familiar with Neal Morse’s ProgRock music, you know what to expect already (I just hope you won’t suffer from the same negative details I’ve mentioned above). If the man’s material is new to you, check out what’s available on MySpace or his own website (sorry, I couldn’t be bothered to give you the web addresses this time around)! Normally, this kind of music would almost automatically get into my year-lists…and musically, it would, but just because of the boredom factor (a personal thing perhaps, but then that’s how I feel) the rating shoots down a complete notch!

Oh darned…the special edition with its bonus CD. Let not me be the one to forget to inform you in more details what that comprises, because unlike sóme corporate record distributors, I feel people need to be informed about the extras they can get for their extra bucks. So, the bonus CD starts off with four covers: “Crazy Horses” (original by The Osmonds), “Lemons Never Forget” (The Bee Gees), “The Letter” (Joe Cocker), and “What’s So Funny” (originally by someoe else, but here in the version as known by Elvis Costello)…followed by the two new originals “Sometimes” and “Set the Kingdom”…augmented by the hidden track “I’m A Heavy Metal Long-Haired Blue Bearded Tattooed Jew”.

90/100

Tony.