L.I.F.T. marks a powerful return for The Neal Morse Band (now often stylized as NMB). Coming five years after Innocence & Danger, this album captures the quintet—Neal Morse, Mike Portnoy, Eric Gillette, Bill Hubauer, and Randy George—in a moment of raw, revitalized synergy.
Prog Archives: ” I’ve had time to listen to this album several times through. I’ll go ahead and say that I’m a NMB homer so take everything that I say with that in mind. I read a comment that this album sounds like the other NMB albums. My first thought was “what were you expecting from a NMB album? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically…?” Yeah, this is a marvelous addition to the NMB catalog. I wasn’t sure we would ever see another album from these guys with Portnoy’s rejoining Dream Theater and Gillette involved with Temic, so this album is a house money bonus.
This album begins, oddly enough, with “Beginning”, which is different than “Overture” in name only. It’s a foreshadowing of musical ideas you’ll hear later in the album strung together as only Neal Morse can. As with all Morse albums, this outing runs that gamut of soulful ballads (Shame About My Shame) to driving bangers like “Hurt People”. These are all strung together as a continuous performance with extended passages that range from melodically beautiful to jaw dropping intricate. “Carry You Again” has some gorgeous piano work riding on top of the Gillette, Portnoy, George continuum. This is probably my favorite song on the record.
The vocals, especially the harmonies (see “Reaching”), are as good on this album as any of their others. Is their best album? I want to say “no” because I’ve venerated “Similtude” but this single disc album has so many wonderful moments, it’s hard to make a case against it. The last couple of minutes of “Fully Alive Part 2” are insane, along with the back half of “Hurt People”. I can’t recommend this album enough.”
