![]() ![]() Bring on that coat of many flying colors. Here God is singing to Joseph, feeling a little too close to the approach on the “One” album, until Steve Morse lets loose with a characteristically soaring solo. Starting off in surprisingly mellow form, it builds into a classic Morse anthem, supported by a lovely string quartet and backing vocal trio. Okay, with that out of the way, what’s next but…a “Prelude”. Gillette hits the drums hard and fast on this one, making you think for a moment that Mike Portnoy is part of the band, too. And it’s kinda cool how the sound of a buzzing fly transforms into the string section at the opening before kicking into a nasty attack that reminds of “ Sola Scriptura”. We even get a little harmonica on this one courtesy of Paul Farmer. As far as the composition goes, no matter how many times I’m tempted to think, “Neal, just give the Overture a break for once”, they still rock. What would a Morse concept album be without an opening “Overture”? Fear not, they decided to make Alexa’s/Siri’s task a little easier this time by naming this one “The Dreamer Overture”. If you’ve enjoyed the previous albums already mentioned, you’re bound to be happy with this one too, so dream on, dreamer. Happily, the musical guests that Morse does invite along serve the project well. ![]() ![]() Aside from Eric Gillette lending his talents on drums and guitar on a few tracks, the Neal Morse Band is not part of this album either, so we can draw a clear distinction between Morse’s various projects. However, Morse himself takes on the main character of Joseph and so this plays out a lot more like “Sola Gratia” did with Morse singing the bulk of the material. It’s not quite to the level of theatrical production that JCTE held but certainly points in that direction, featuring many of the same guests vocalists on several songs. Stylistically, “The Dreamer” sits right in between Morse’s last two “solo” prog albums: “Sola Gratia” and “Jesus Christ The Exorcist”. Let’s take in his latest technicolor overture. True, some have wearied of the Morse “formula” or the specific subject matter but for the faithful, Morse continues to create new melodic delights and top-tier prog. That most of these are somewhat Biblical in nature comes as no surprise but – miracle of miracles – many non-Christians seem to enjoy the music enough that they keep coming back for more, too. Although he was reportedly initially hesitant to dive into the world of concept albums, once Morse took the plunge with “Snow” over two decades ago, he has cranked out progressive rock thematic stories at an alarming pace. Having released Neal Morse’s rock opera “Jesus Christ The Exorcist” a few years ago, Frontiers Music came knocking again for a new concept album. ![]()
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