Band:	Neal Morse
Album:	The Grand Experiment
Style:	Progressive metal, Progressive rock
Release date:	February 16, 2015
A review by:	Ivor

Disc I
01. The Call
02. The Grand Experiment
03. Waterfall
04. Agenda
05. Alive Again

Disc II [Bonus CD]
01. New Jerusalem (Freedom Is Coming)
02. Doomsday Destiny
03. MacArthur Park [Richard Harris cover]
04. The Creation [Live At MorseFest]
05. Reunion [Live At MorseFest]

Disc III [Bonus DVD]
+ The Making Of The Grand Experiment

It's a well-balanced meal. These are not my words. They are Mike Portnoy's. Now, bare with me as I try to explain what's not entirely right with this statement and probably contradict myself along the way.

First things first, however. After a mellow - and frankly totally uninteresting - singer-songwriterish Songs From November, a preview glimpse of The Grand Experiment promised a return to some biting action. Neal's stuff can swing either way but there's no denying that he can create some very interesting music as a matter of fact. To me, testimony to that (see what I did there?) is Sola Scriptura. It's some stellar prog despite his disposition towards religious topics.

As per preview, this album does indeed contain action aplenty. Here's the thing, though. Contrary to what Mike says, it's far from being balanced and suffers from a flaw quite a number of Dream Theater albums used to bear, with or without him. There's a huge anchor piece at the tail end, a Counterweight Continent if you will (rest in peace, Terry Pratchett), an epic "Alive Again" that pulls the weight of the album with the rest being neither here nor there while also everywhere. (All right, this Discworld analogy is flawed in that the song also takes up about half of the album's allotted time, but I said I'm going to contradict myself, so let me be.)

So, there's an epic at the tail end, and a good one at that, I might add. The first two songs of the quintet, "The Call" and "The Grand Experiment," quite live up to this epic to balance it. The next two are total misfits, though. "Waterfall" is something to which you go out to take a break when there's a need, or even if there isn't a one. "Agenda," while in and of itself a curious tune, following the "sleeper" and preceding the epic, raises a question befitting the moment - is there really an agenda to this album or not?

Mike's idea of balance is having variety, and is something I'll gladly sign to. The previous album didn't have enough of it to be interesting. However, Mike's idea of variety also means a bit of everything. Sometimes it works and sometimes, like this particular time, it doesn't. This album would look a lot more coherent if two misfits were swapped with "Doomsday Destiny" and Jimmy Webb's "MacArthur Park" on the bonus disc. As a minor afterthought, I'd also swap some excess vocal harmonies for, I don't know, more cowbell, for example. Other than that, and excepting the fade out ending of the epic (I mean, really?), some of the stuff on the album is really exciting. It just appears to be in a shuffle mode or something.