NEAL MORSE & THE RESONANCE

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7.0

• Bands:
  NEAL MORSE
• Duration: 01:07:14
• Available from: 08/11/2024
• Label:

• Inside Out

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Neal Morse is an artist with such a vast production that he has created a personalized streaming service, just for his endless catalogue: practically, a living Netflix.
Beyond the jokes about the multi-instrumentalist's extraordinary prolificacy, this comparison is less far-fetched than one might think. After all, Neal Morse really has some points in common with the American platform: unlike Spotify services, which in fact only operate as distributors, Netflix has built much of its fortune on its original productions and, obviously, not everything it makes it has the same weight. For every TV series that has become a cult, such as “Stranger Things”, “House Of Cards” or “Black Mirror”, there are dozens of smaller productions, which serve to create mass, perhaps intercept a niche of fans and keep attention alive of the public. Well, “No Hill For A Climber” would be one of the latter.
Let's take a small step back: in the last three years alone, Neal Morse has presented us with the double concept album on the life of the patriarch Giuseppe, a new album by the Neal Morse Band, the two albums with Ross Jennings and Nick D'Virgilio… So what to do Now? A new project, of course!
Neal Morse & The Resonance sees the American musician supported by a band of young and talented musicians from the Nashville progressive scene: instrumentalists that Neal has known for some time, having often involved them in local events, but who had never contributed directly to one of his albums.
Neal claims that this injection of new energy inspired him by making “No Hill For A Climb” something different and new, but in reality the album seems to move on the well-known coordinates to which he has accustomed us. The album is composed of two long suites, twenty-one and twenty-nine minutes respectively, which open and close the album, with a central section composed of three other, shorter songs, for a total duration that well exceeds an hour. The two longest compositions, as usual, move in dynamic movements, alternating interlocking scores with more majestic and celestial moments, which go well with the indispensable spiritual/religious themes. Morse's writing remains the central driving force of the work and the musicians, without standing out with who knows what personality, complete everything with enviable technical expertise.
Although the two suites are undoubtedly the moments in which the band explores its potential to the fullest, the three middle pieces are also not to be underestimated. Indeed, one of the three, “Thief”, represents in our opinion the most interesting piece of the album: it is a strange nocturnal blues, whose lyrics seem to be a sort of accusation towards the Devil (the 'thief' of the title ), faced with his misdeeds. Deliberately sinuous and sinister – at least for Neal Morse's usual parameters – he manages to make the most of the arrangement, complete with horns at the end.
“No Hill For A Climber”, in short, does what it has to do without adding or taking anything away from its author's career. The hard core of his listeners will once again find the hand of Neal and the class of a handful of high-level musicians, but it is unlikely that in a few years we will find ourselves citing him among the indispensable passages of his discography.