That familiar Amazon parcel has arrived! What will "Flying colors" sound like...will it be worth it? Many love it, some are sceptical, some slate it. Will there be sufficient guitaring from Steve Morse and will Mike just be a wallflower?
I hurridly rip open the packaging, grap the CD from the digipak, place into the player and sit back. Seventy minutes later my initial surprising journey is over and I am smiling. This is good. Really good. Wonderful vibrant, melodic rock with a progressive twist from my favourite musicians - Mike Portnoy, master drummer, music organiser with his long-time keyboardist buddy, Neal Morse, composer extraordinaire, singer and instrumentalist who are joined by the legendary Steve Morse, guitarist from Deep Purple with his long-time bassist buddy, Dave LaRue. And then top notch vocalist, Casey McPherson with his contemporary nuances and appealing falsetto leads the way on this vocal album.
Flying Colors site
The amazing iGuitar Magazine contains a great Morse video interview.
It's five days later and all I have listened to is "Flying Colors". This album is catchy with very strong melodic hooks on every song. The emphasis is on tight song structure and strong vocals with harmonising in every chorus - but hey I hear you asking what happened to the virtuoso musicians? No worries - they're all playing, contributing and adding their craft with many structured instrumental interludes in which to shine.
What is encouraging is how carefully crafted this album is - this is not some supergroup sitting down and playing a few covers and jamming their way through. Everything from the graphics to the impeccable production by Peter Collins (Rush, Alice Cooper,Bon Jovi) , thoughtful song order and actual compositions show that this is no fly-by-night project. I know from their site that this took an initial 9 days, some work while they went their separate ways and then another 4 days together. Quite amazing that all up in less than a month together as musicians this album was produced.
The sounds and textures are colourful and varied in the genre of slow and medium rock, with two hard rock tracks bordering on metal that allow Mike to double pedal a tornado.The album ends with a mighty 11 minute progressive rock epic, "Infinite Fire". This ending showcases the depth of experience and musicality this group has and includes greater use of Neal's wonderful keyboard organ sounds in unison with some of Steve's most blistering guitar work. The use of odd-time signatures, slower emotional sections building to the strongest vocal chorus on the album finally breaks into the multi-layered vocals of "Seasons and times". This gives me goosebumps each time I listen.
For Steve Morse and Dave LaRue fans take note - there is more Steve soloing on this album than what he played on two Kansas albums or on the last Deep Purple album, 'Rapture of the deep'. Every song has a beautifully crafted Morse solo that to my ears had more variety and thoughtfulness than what I have heard from Steve in decades. I have never heard Morse sound so like Brian May as what he does on "Love is what I'm waiting for". Of course Dave and Steve know each other's playing like musical twins so their harmonic convergence and dissonance and timing is impeccable. Great examples where Dave struts his funky bass is on "Forever in a daze" and the thunderous riff on "All falls down".
"Everything changes" is an excellent example of the group joining and melting styles. The song starts like a track off Steve Morse's "High tension wires", the vocals section are all McPherson's influence and then the bridge where Neal Morse sings is clearly his compositional style and Mike brings some monster drum fills and it ends with more of Steve's influence again. The way I have described this may sound like a patch work which is then a reflection of my ordinary writing skills as this is beautiful track. I write that this is beautiful yet this is one of the lesser tracks on the album. The opening "Blue Ocean" and "Kayla" are standouts plus the aggressive "Shoulda coulda woulda" with its concluding drum fest and "Infinite fire" best encapsulate this group.
I am encouraged to hear that "Flying colors" are touring Europe in September. Could a DVD release be possible that would include more material and a cover or two? The prospect is exciting.
I am confused when I read some Amazon reviews. Perhaps because this is not cutting-edge rock or outright progressive rock, many seem very critical. Did some expect a new Dream Theater or a more contemporay style like Coldplay? I am unsure and when reading their criticism begin to doubt my enthusiasm for this. But then I listen again and get caught up in the melody, drift into another place and that's what music is about.
So lovers of vintage, well crafted melodic rock - including Queen, Beatles and Yes fans, fans of Steve Morse, Mike Portnoy's "Yellow Matter custard" , Transatlantic, Kansas, Styx, Kerry Livgren, Neal Morse's solo work, fans of Casey McPherson, give this a try - you may really be pleasantly surprised!
