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Reviews:
More Like a Squall...
I love the first two Transatlantic albums, but I waited eight years for THIS?! Third-rate riffs and melodies (one of the main themes is a ripoff of "Court of the Crimson King"), and why not - Neal has produced FIVE "EP" (Evangelical Prog) solo albums in the interim, chock full of riffs and melodies that would have been great in Transatlantic, so its no wonder he's run out of good material.
Roine, Pete and Mike were able to leave behind the sounds of their full-time bands in order to step into a Transatlantic "head space", but Neal used this album as a vehicle for more evangelizing. If I wanted another Neal Morse EP album in my collection (I have the first three and they're good), I would have purchased "Sola Scriptura" instead!
Of course, the performance is impeccable and Pete's growly bass tone is magnificent. If you liked the Beatle-esque parts of past Transatlantic, you'll have to get the bonus disc version, which has more interesting and adventurous tunes (with the exception of Neal's praise and worship song) and some cover tunes. The "Making Of..." DVD is always fun to watch.
I was hoping for an another extraordinary album, but "Whirlwind" is just ordinary, and burdened by Neal's "agenda"...
Very disappointing
I preordered and waited with great hope for this CD. The Whirlwind is: formulaic, repetitive, plodding, in-your-face aggressively preachy, completely uninspired, even annoying and un-listenable at times (no, actually, often). Wow, how incredibly disappointing. Did I mention that it is plodding, repetitive and uninspired?
Want to find some new prog rock in an excellent debut album, for comparative purposes? Search for "Paul Cusick" on the Googles (don't know if I can post a direct link). It is so good, I listened (the whole album can be reviewed for free), then paid for the download, and even supported this start-up artist with some extra money.
Whirlwind is now retired after 3 listenings. Cusick's "Focal Point" will be around for the long haul. It's everything Whirlwind was not.
Took a few listens, but.......
Upon first spin I wasn't in awe of Transatlantic's third studio album but as is the case with some of the best prog albums out there, a few more listens were required to really digest what I heard. First off, the negative. The second disc pretty much stunk where the original material was concerned. I loved their take on "Return of the Giant Hogweed" and the other covers were pretty nice as well. Only Lenny Johnson had some redeeming values to it. The other stuff was either pointless ("Lending a hand") or basically CCM (Contemporary Christian/Crappy music) which is almost always sub-par musically. (By the way, I'm a christian who owns a fair amount of wonderful Christian music and don't mind the religious elements in music)
Back to the positives. My first spin had me really enjoying the first three parts of the epic, but then it seemed to taper off into filler-land until the last 2 tracks with the last track seeming like it was "dancing" close again the CCM. However, after allowing the music to soak in over several more listens, I really warmed to almost the entire album and now consider it to be on par with their first album and almost on par with Bridge across Forever.
And who knows, it may surpass BAF at some point for me, but for now, I'd say this is another 5 star effort from the group that definitely goes a different direction than their previous two albums while still containing some of Roine and Neal's signature sounds.
Hard to top the first two, but still...
Compositionally, I didn't find "The Whirlwind" as compelling as the first two releases, but the sound and performance is still unmistakably Transatlantic, and look at what I am comparing this to. This is five star material when compared to any other prog today. It is hard to describe how well the genius of these prog-masters comes through to the listener.
The 'bonus' disc tracks are all great. The covers are stunningly great, especially 'Hogweed' and 'Salty Dog'; the original material is far better than the expected 'B-side' quality you might expect from a bonus disc.
Overall, I just cannot give this any less than 5 stars. Transatlantic, please don't make everyone wait so long for the next one, ok?
GREAT music, but Neal's message is stale
In my opinion, this is the finest of the three Transatlantic albums. The music is diverse and I believe has the most modern edge of their discography. I fell in love with the album upon my first listen, which is rare for me. It usually takes several listens with any album I buy before the music really sinks in. I can't give high enough marks for the compositions and the musicianship as well as the vocals. Why not 5 stars? The lyrics.
Neal's lyrics on this album have been done, redone, redone again, redone again again....you get the point. Neal's overly Christian message of journeying from darkness to light, death to life, lost to found, ungodly to Christianity - which he started with Snow when he was in Spock's Beard and has pretty much done with each of his solo albums - once again dominate on this album. Neal, WE GET IT!!!!! Stop being so one dimensional. Use the creativity that God gave ya to come up with a different story line. The last song on the album is so over the top Christian, and is lyrically like so many of his other songs, that I couldn't even keep listening to it. This is the one song that is musically boring, and has the same exact grand finale come-to-Jesus big sound feel that is on ALL of his other albums: the one total disappointment. Neal needs to let someone else write lyrics next go around, if there is a next time.
Now, even with the negative remarks I gave, I say that The Whirlwind is definitely worth adding to your library. 11 of the 12 songs are wonderful even if the lyrical content is stale. Yes, there is a dichotomy at play with this album - great music, bad lyrics and one dull song - but I say that the great music trumps the bad lyrics and the one boring song. In the end, however, all of this is simply my opinion. I say you should buy the album and judge it for yourself.
