Member:
Under A Glass Moon
(Profile)
(All Album Reviews by Under A Glass Moon)
Date:
12/2/2002
Format:
CD (Album)
What do you get when you take the demanding workaholic drummer from Dream Theater, the quiet, unassuming and underrated bassist from Marillion, the controlling, workaholic multi-instrumentalist front man and singer from Spock’s Beard, and the guitarist from the Flower Kings who writes more songs in a year than McCartney and Lennon did their whole careers, stick them in a studio and ask them to record songs together? Well, this is a very open-ended question isn't it? A lot of progressive music fans would say you would get nothing but crap! But for those of us who like our prog like it used to be, for those of us who don't shy from the Neo/Symphonic/Derivative prog label, you get perhaps the greatest super group in the last 30 years. Remember I said perhaps. What you also get is over 70 minutes of some of the greatest music made in the last few years and you call it Transatlantic.
The second, and now last with the “retirement” of Neal Morse, offering from what is arguably prog’s greatest super group, Bridge Across Forever takes the listener on a wonderful journey of catchy melodies, hard edged riffs, beautiful ballads and simply wonderful musicianship. While only consisting of four songs, Bridge does not short change the listener. Three out of the four tunes are at least over 13:00 minutes with two of them being in the “epic” time frame at over 25:00. A lot of the complaints with the first release, SMPTe, were that the songs came with too much of a Spock’s influence. This in not as evident on Bridge at least to me anyway. It is hard not to have a Spock’s Beard sound when Neal does most of the singing, but he does step aside from the mic more on this release and lets Roine, Pete and Mike take on a little more of the vocal duties.
The first track and one of the long “epics” is "Duel With The Devil". A grandiose offering that sometimes borders on the bombastic but never stays there too long, coming back down to earth just before you're about to hit the skip button. While not my favorite track on the album "Duel" definitely has its moments of brilliance as well as having one of the catchiest choruses in recent memory, with the whole "Motherless Children" theme. This theme is repeated on the next track as well but not nearly as successfully in my view. My biggest complaint about the first track is that it drags on way too long. They could have cut it off at about 22 minutes but they insisted on dragging it out to over 26 with a bunch of inane filler.
"Suite Charlotte Pike" is the second track and my least favorite on the album. It starts out very promising with the band in sort of a funky jamming groove, highlighted by Roine’s guitar playing. From there however it starts to breakdown into a jumbled Beatles sounding, for lack of a better word, thing. This song reeks of Neal and his Beatle influences but it does have it good moments, though they may be few and far between.
The third song is absolutely beautiful and is perhaps the best lyrics that Neal Morse has ever written. He is often criticized for his lyrics about nothing and the six grade vocabulary that is usually part of them but in "Bridge Across Forever" Neal has penned a gem. This is probably the best piano ballad I have ever heard and Neal’s voice has never sounded better. And while the content may be religious in nature (see the Transatlantic Theology thread) it is not a bad thing or a distracter in my opinion. In fact the content is what makes the song so gorgeous and emotional. We all think about life after death and Neal addresses that subject in a beautiful and poignant way. Listen to it a few times and it should bring a tear to your eye.
The last song is by far the album’s strongest. "Stranger In Your Soul" runs the gamut of classic progressive rock sounds. The band seems to pay homage to all of their heroes of progs past and does it very well. This is by far my favorite track on the record. It has everything from Roine jamming on rare metal riff to a spacey middle section that is a bit reminiscent of Floyd. The whole band really gives their best performances on this song and there is much more of every members “home” band sound on this track. Neal’s voice doesn't seem quite as overpowering and it is nice to hear Pete sing at the forefront for a few verses. Something he should really do a lot more of.
Bridge Across Forever isn't yet a classic, obviously it's a bit too new for that, but I think one day it will be. Whenever you get four musicians together with the kind of talent that these gentlemen possess it is usually hit or miss. Well, they mostly hit on this effort. I guess I could never understand the knock on Neal Morse’s voice, maybe it is just too popish for some prog fans but it seems to work here so don't let that be a reason not to check this album out. All of these guys seem to work well together and it is a bit unfortunate that this will end up being the last studio offering from them. If you like any of the bands that these four hail from you are sure to like Bridge Across Forever, if not file it under “beer coaster”.
Member:
kid_runningfox
(Profile)
(All Album Reviews by kid_runningfox)
Date:
7/8/2003
Format:
CD (Album)
Great stuff, but nothing that quite touches the exalted heights of SMPTe. This is still fantastic album, though. I defy anybody to listen to the last part of "Duel With the Devil" and not feel a chill travel up and down their spine....
Having said that, I'm not convinced the world needed "Suite Charlotte Pike". Too much of Roine Stolt's Sergeant Pepper, or Abbey Road fixation for my taste. I like both Beatles albums btw, but to these ears at least this doesn't quite make it. Never mind, the best is yet to come, hence: Neil Morse's title track: truly beautiful- brings a tear to my eye every time. Imus be getting old and sentimental (ahhh...).
"Stranger in Your Soul", however, really does the business- and interestingly features a rare moment of Pete Trewavas lead vocals. Whether it's worth the wait is purely a matter of taste- YOU decide...
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