SMPT:e by Transatlantic

My mate James is the world's biggest progger. He has so many prog CDs he had to reinforce the floor of his flat. He once had a record player which was so expensive it took a team of four people to come in and install it. Some of these things might be true.

Anyway, James asked me to review a Transatlantic album, so here we are. SMPT:e is the first album by  the prog supergroup which features Neal Morse (once of Spock's Beard), Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater), Pete Trewavas (Marillion) and Roine Stolt (the Flower Kings).

The style is very much classic neo-prog. It's almost a case study in how to make a prog album. Long songs, tick. Odd time signatures, tick. Big sound, tick. And so on. This is very much an album which consolidates the progressive rock sound rather than extends it.

The first track, for example. It's 31 minutes long. It starts with a short atmospheric scene-setter before going into a high-tempo instrumental section and from there into more of a song section. You know, a song, like muggles write and which end up on pop records. Then it goes from one thing to another like a bee seeking honey but with less interesting dancing. Some of it is quite ordinary plonky piano with singing over the top, some of it has solos. I don't know, maybe my prog licence needs to be revoked but I just don't see the point of all the section changes. It's like someone's picking out random cards at the end of each section. "Ooh, now it's a guitar solo! Now it's an extended piano break! Now we do some vocals again!"

There's no doubting the musicianship. Clearly these guys are extraordinarily experienced and accomplished. Superficially, the sound of the album is incredible. But there's nothing that leaps out as different, or interesting, or shall I say progressive. At about the 12 minute mark they go into a guitar section which could have been on a Marillion album in 1985. After that, it goes into a quiet section. After that, there's a short section of a capella mice. OK, that last one's not true but you get the point.

If you're a diehard progger you'll probably like this album. It is exactly what you'd expect. But, for me, that's the problem. It says nothing new, it does nothing different. I find it empty of inspiration and I DON'T LIKE IT so there.

I've done your review, James, I hope you're happy now!!!

Reasons to listen:

  • You're my mate James
  • You like your prog to sound like all the other prog you've ever heard mashed up into a kind of pulpy wet mass
Reasons not to listen:
  • When you listen to an unfamiliar album, you'd like to hear at least one new idea

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