“Stand up, stand up”

I was really into synth prog at the start of my musical journey of enlightenment.

Grand-sounding, complex stuff, too—Genesis, Dream Theater, anything Neal Morse. It’s all I listened to, the more epic the scale the better. It was a time when size more than mattered, when concepts were king. I could do 25-minute songs all day; my only criteria: they had to be grounded in something emotional.

Transatlantic was a poster child for those expectations.

Noodling for noodling’s sake is for the birds, just as much now as it was then. I was in it for the climax, the slow burn. I wanted to forget I was already 15, 20 minutes deep into a track until I stumbled across and was leveled by its payoff.

That’s how you knew you’d found something awesome.

Transatlantic is a “supergroup,” a band comprised of stars from other bands: Dream Theater’s drummer, Spock’s Beard’s keyboardist/frontman, Marillion’s bassist and The Flower Kings’ co-lead. And in that way, you could say that for me Transatlantic’s bridge was not only one across the forever of its title, but also across a pretty huge sect of the modern world of prog. After falling in love with Bridge, it’s only natural to follow around the musicians who made it, from their main bands to their many side-projects.

Look at the tracklist and right away you know you’re dealing with a doozie. There are only four tracks on the record, two over 25 minutes, one 15-minutes+, and one 5-minuter. And then it starts, with deep and elegant string work leading to a piano melody (“Duel with the Devil”) that I think I’ll forever associate with all music stamped with the “prog” label. The vocals don’t even kick in for close to 5 minutes. By then you’re ready.

“Remember life is hanging in the balance”

I couldn’t make a Most Important Albums list without including Transatlantic. These guys get right the “prog epic” formula here, mixing a retro sensibility with more modern beauty/experimentation ideals. And there’s a lot of faith in this record. Like all of Neal Morse’s writing, this is an album about believing. But it’s done tastefully, in echoes rather than the hollow thumping of religious rhetoric. It’s genuine because, as a collective piece of music, it really isn’t about religion—as in, “God’s great, here’s why.” Instead, it’s about making something beautiful, and fun, and ambitious with people you love. It’s about that creative charge, which shines through most in the traded off vocal bridges and harmonies. There’s a togetherness there (not all of these guys have the best singing voices, yet they sing) that says so much more about what this band and record is about than any passage of regurgitated gospel ever could.

It feels at times like a crazy jam session where everything just magically falls into place, is choreographed somehow, through nothing but the feel inside the studio, the guiding hum of the amplifiers.

In a lot of ways, Bridge Across Forever set a standard for me of what “progressive” music could and sometimes should be. It shouldn’t be all keyboards and half-hour-long songs—don’t get me wrong. But it should be serious (AKA: the fewer allusions to dragons, etc. the better). It should borrow from the past but look to the future.

It should be surprising.

In the canon of most memorable/influential records I own, Bridge Across Forever was like the straw that finally broke radio’s back, or, my relationship with radio’s back. Or something. It was powerful. And still, and into the future, this is a band that I’ll keep eyes on, whose new releases I’ll anticipate—especially since they don’t come around that often.

When asked after Bridge was released in 2001 when we could expect their 3rd outing (what came to be the fantastic The Whirlwind in ’09—MY REVIEW), drummer Mike Portnoy dodged the question. He didn’t want their albums to be on a schedule, he said, to be expected.

There’s a flow to this collaboration, he told a reporter. And the band wants to keep that special.
 
 
Listen:

Honorable Mention: Neal Morse – ? (“Neal Overflow”)

SPOILER: Later in the countdown, I’ll be posting on a Morse-era Spock’s Beard album. So with that review to come, and Transatlantic here, I feel like I’ve adequately covered all the Neal Morse ground I probably should for a Top 50. Still, Morse’s solo work shouldn’t be overlooked, either—especially his ? album, which proves once and for all that “Christian” rock is just a mindset, not a genre.

More recently, Morse’s God-centered writing has gotten pretty old (see: 2008’s insanely boring and unimaginative Lifeline). But there was a time, a long, dense time, when he mostly kept away from Jesus Ballads, using spirituality more as a theme, not a direct line into his church’s version of Scripture. There are still the obligatory hat tips to the ole J-man, sure (? is about the search for God, after all). But it’s also an incredible piece of music, an honest, life-affirming concept album of the deepest and most personal form. And plus, I’ve never put too much stock into lyrics. To me, if they’re lame but the music’s good, OK; but if they’re good, they only make the music better. If you’re someone who’s turned off by hearing a vocalist even utter the words “God” or “Jesus” directly (and I’ve met my fair share), maybe you won’t warm up to this album like I did. But you ask me, that kind of thinking is just as silly as the “C-rockers” who strum their acoustics and sing about bible study.

Check out “The Temple of the Living God” and “In the Fire.”

TRANSATLANTIC
The Whirlwind
Metal Blade
October 27, 2009
**** 4/5

How fitting that TRANSANTIC’s first album in almost 10 years wouldn’t just coincide with PORCUPINE TREE’s latest, but that they’d both be made of album-length song cycles – AKA: be 1 song. Each so different from one another, one grounded and the other grandiose, you couldn’t have asked for a better Venn diagram here, two opposite takes on the same idea, two testaments to two very different eras of prog-rock, of sensibility, and proof that this town of Prog is, in fact, big enough for the both of them.

Where each album differs so greatly is their language. While The Whirlwind goes traditional, keeping close to the belief that “progressive” means huge–big sound, big transitions, big conclusion–The Incident reverses it, so mild-mannered, often dancing close to the simplicity of pop. PORCUPINE TREE in effect turn the “progressive epic” idea on its head, never playing loud or fast for your attention, even ending their 55min run on a conscious anti-climax, not some grand reconstruction of familiar riffs.

And the crazy thing? Each method works, beautifully and in its own way.

Where The Incident seems defiant, The Whirlwind plays like a modern take on retro stylings. It’s got this great feel-good, head bobbing, sing-along quality about it, a funkiness through its driving bass and a more prominent, CHICAGO-esque vocal split between Stolte and Morse. But then it’ll go dark and haunting, a TRANSATLANTIC oddity, in something like “A Man Can Feel.” From there, transitioning straight into an “Out of the Night,” a song with a brightness of spirit only matched by an episode of The Cosby Show.

Like most any “Prog Epic,” The Whirlwind has the signature recurring melody thing going on, but it doesn’t rely on it for coherence–each song is at the same time wholly separate but not disconnected or feeling patched together. The album’s got a great fluidity to it, for 11 of its 12 movements, anyway. Then the last song happens.

“Dancing with Eternal Glory” is contrived and unnecessary, a prime example of the self-indulgency many complain about in prog. Which is really a shame since the track before it, “Is It Really Happenning?”, is so amazing, playing like a kind of ending before the ending. And it makes you wonder if this is where The Whirlwind maybe should have taken a page from PT’s book, ditched Step 12 in their “Making a Prog Epic” formula, the “conclusion” with its riff reprises and thematic wrap-up (just in case you haven’t gotten it yet), and just ended there, made a 65min piece instead of a 77min one. There’s no shame in that. Even for TRANSATLANTIC.

Then disc 2 is patchy and in places plain bad. It’s split between 4 original tracks–2 of which are Stolte’s and a lot of fun, one’s Neal’s and God awful (pun SO intended), and the last a boring Trewavas track–and 4 covers. And maybe it’s the closet pop-lover in me, but I kind of love the addition of America’s “I Need You” here. To me it’s the only truly worthwhile cover out of the bunch.

But disc 2 is just a bonus, a little extra to remind you just how much Roine Stolte has to offer, to prove once and for all in “Salty Dog” that Mike Portnoy actually does have some fairly decent pipes–but should probably stick to harmonies–and finally how incredibly, obscenely, enough-is-enoughly Neal’s Jesus ballads have gotten old. I love so much of Morse’s work; I’ve defended his religious (read: sometimes preachy) lyrics a hundred times. But seriously. “For Such a Time” is terrible, the same as Sola’s “Heaven in My Heart” is terrible or Lifeline’s “God’s Love.” We get it: life could mean so much more, there’s hope, okay. Now how about a metaphor?

But enough negative. Bonuses are allowed to be patchy. And besides it and the final 11 minutes of disc 1, I really love this album. I awaited it and wasn’t just not let down but physically excited after my second listen, the way the band was able to surprise me while still managing to be exactly what I imagine when I think of them.

On ProgArchives they say that giving an album 5 stars means that it’s “essential.” So no, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that about The Whirlwind. But all the guys are at the top of their game here; Stolte’s guitar work is humbling (see his solo in “The Wind Blew Them All Away”), Neal’s vocals are some of the best of his career (see “Lay Down Your Life”), Portnoy’s intense as ever and Trewavas drives the piece through his bass grooves. It definitely has its soft spots, but as a love letter to throwback prog and a testament to the power of evolution, The Whirlwind is near perfect.

THE WHIRLWIND will be available in two formats:
A Regular Edition Single CD of the entire 77 minute Epic as well as a 2-CD Special Edition containing a Bonus Disc with 8 newly recorded Studio Tracks.
(4 new Transatlantic compositions and 4 Cover Songs)

The Track Listing for the Special Edition is:

Disc One:
THE WHIRLWIND

Disc Two:

1. SPINNING
2. LENNY JOHNSON
3. FOR SUCH A TIME
4. LENDING A HAND
5. THE RETURN OF THE GIANT HOGWEED (Genesis)
6. A SALTY DOG (Procol Harum)
7. I NEED YOU (America / The Beatles)
8. SOUL SACRIFICE (Santana)

TRANSATLANTIC‘S THE WHIRLWIND is currently scheduled for the following release dates:

October 23rd 2009: Germany, Austria, Switzerland
October 26th 2009: Europe
October 27th 2009: North America”

I wrote in full about the upcoming album in April – “TRANSATLANTIC FLIES AGAIN!!!”