Neal Morse is an insanely prolific song-writer, with a vast array of albums that he has been involved with over the last 30 years. Beginning with 6 studio albums with Spock’s Beard, 5 with Transatlantic, 3 with Flying Colours, 3 with Morse, Portnoy & George, 2 with D’Virgillio, Morse & Jennings, 1 with The Resonance, 1 with Cosmic Cathedral, and an incredible 27 solo albums, all within this same time period. Then add to that 45 live albums (seriously) across his various projects, and you start to realise that perhaps this guy is a workaholic. In amongst all of that, he has also worked with a self-titled band project called Neal Morse Band (least imaginative name, ha-ha), and they have just issued their 5th studio album, L.I.F.T.
As with quite a few of his projects, once again he has the amazing talents of Mike Portnoy from Dream Theater on drums, who is now back in the drum seat with his legendary band, and yet had managed to find a month in his busy schedule to commit to working on this album. Along with him are Randy George on bass, Eric Gillette on guitar, Bill Hubauer on keyboards, with all of them providing backing vocals, and with Hubauer & Gillette often contributing lead vocals too. Yet the primary lead vocalist tends to be the main man himself, Neal Morse, as well as him playing a lot of keyboards & guitar wherever necessary. Collectively they make a highly impressive team, with all of them being exceptional musicians in their own right. Yet the real magic of this band is the chemistry that they have, both musically and vocally, which for me personally, I feel sets them apart from Morse’s other projects.
This particular band go back to 2014 when they first formed, and the following year they produced a marvellous debut album called The Grand Experiment (2015). Yet it was their 2nd album, The Similitude of a Dream (2016), which really got them a lot of attention, with it being a grandiose double CD concept piece, based on The Pilgrim’s Progress storyline. Surprisingly the follow-up was a direct sequel concept album titled The Great Adventure (2019), and yet again another double CD release, with the entire saga across both albums having a running time of around 3 and a half hours … phew! The band’s last album, Innocence & Danger (2021) went back to the format of their debut, with many individual songs. Although in saying that, one piece was almost 20 minutes long, and another running over 31 minutes in length. I think it’s fair to say that this band think in ‘epic’ ways when it comes to their music.
Finally we arrive in February 2026, exactly 11 years since they released their debut, and to a lot of people’s surprise, this team of musicians secretly got back together for a month last April, and put together a brand new album of music. With Portnoy being back in the fold with Dream Theater, he’s had a fairly busy schedule with recording, promoting & touring his comeback release, Parasomnia. As such nobody was truly expecting much further output from his various previous band projects, yet somehow this was created during a gap in his schedule, much to the delight of fans of NMB. Even more unexpectedly, the band have gone down the route of yet another concept album, which in light of their mammoth Pilgrim’s Progress saga, you’d have thought that they were pretty much burnt out in that department. This one might not be quite as epic as its predecessors, but with a running time of over 70 minutes, it’s still quite a lengthy listen.
Once again, it’s a concept that revolves around faith & spirituality. If you know much about Neal Morse, then you’ll know that he is a born-again Christian, with many of his lyrics inspired by his faith, and 9 of his solo album releases are full-on religious ‘worship’ recordings. He tends to dial it back a bit for the material he creates with NMB, yet the lyrics will often have some kind of spiritual theme to them, which is something that is just inherent to Neal Morse, and it kind of comes with the territory. This time he has gone for a storyline of a broken home, disillusionment, losing direction, self-loathing, and then finally finding redemption & salvation.
I’d love to know what the acronym L.I.F.T. stands for, as it would add more to the understanding of the entire album. Perhaps it’s a secret that we’re supposed to figure out for ourselves. As with Morse’s previous concept albums (both solo, and with other band projects), a lot of the music segue-ways into each other, creating a flowing musical story that is done intentionally to take the listener on a journey. And of course the lyrical content of the songs also tell the story in greater detail. So now after all the that background information, here’s a review of L.I.F.T. from Neal Morse Band, track by track so that you get a feel for the storyline too.
The Beginning is clearly the start of our main character’s story. It starts with a gentle piano introduction and accompanying vocal for a very brief time, then a slow building orchestral dissonance increasing in volume like the closing section of the Beatles A Day In A Life, to then launch into a majestic fanfare-like main melody. For the rest of this track it is an instrumental composition, which is essentially an opening overture for the full album. It incorporates melodic themes that will feature throughout the proceedings, as well as allowing the band to go through a few different musical moods.
The first full song, Fully Alive Part 1, has a slower paced strut with a really catchy chorus hook. This is our character proclaiming his youthful joy, perhaps also noticing that not everything around him is perfect, yet being of such a young age for them to not really care that much. It’s a good uplifting song, and later on will be reprised with a part 2 as well.
I Still Belong starts off with acoustic guitar and lead vocal. This is more of a ballad style vibe & pace. Plaintive verses & choruses, big powering mid-section. This sees our character becoming aware of his fracturing family, him becoming more disillusioned with his life, and slowly starting his decent into withdrawal. Following is Gravity’s Grip, a brief instrumental around 2 minutes long. It’s a fabulous melody, with some marvellous solo synth playing, and ending off with some thunderous double-kick drumming. I’m not too sure where this plays out in the story’s arc, but I’m guessing by the title that our character is feeling trapped.
Hurt People is the first big rocker on the album, with an edgy angry feel to it. I love the distortion filters they have on the lead vocals, as well as the tasty lead guitar solos. This is a longer than average song compared to the other tunes, with the back half of this track taking a very different direction and becoming an instrumental workout. The latter section is one of my favourite moments on the album. Our character is losing his stability, in a state of conflict, and perhaps also referring to his own relationship breakdowns, and the cumulative hurt that he has experienced.
The Great Withdrawal is another one of the major pieces on the album, that has it’s melodies echoing on other tracks too. Yet again, it’s a darker song, this time with a mid-paced tempo, and once more another opportunity for a great guitar solo too. As the title indicates, this is our character becoming depressed, and eventually retreating into isolation. This is him putting in his final brick into ‘The Wall’ (pun intended). Another brief instrumental, Contemplation, follows and like the other one, only a little over 2 minutes long. It’s purely piano for the first half, with the rest of the band coming in for the second section and sounding like something straight from a classic 70’s Kansas album (trust me, that is a huge compliment). As the title suggests, this is a moment of self-reflection for our character.
Shame About My Shame is a slow soulful number, with a mournful bluesy guitar solo, and female backing vocals performed in a gospel style. As the title suggests, this is the character now in the full depths of his depression & despair, and riddled with self-loathing. This is him hitting absolute rock bottom.
Reaching opens up with a collective harmony vocal, in a Beach Boys style. It then picks up pace to be quite an up-tempo number, with chugging guitars and fab sounding synth lines. This is one of my favourite songs on the album, as it’s absolutely perfect NMB in all their glory. Our character is now realising that he has hit an all-time low and is reaching out for help from higher forces.
With acoustic guitar and lead vocal, Carry You Again starts in a slow paced manner. Again the tempo picks up to become quite a joyous uplifting number. I like the lead guitar melody-line with delay settings, to give it that U2 Where The Streets Have No Name feel. A fine song that ends off with some soloing piano that wouldn’t sound out of place coming from Bruce Hornsby. This sees our character getting his spiritual answer, telling him that the force he was crying out to has always been there for him and will be there for him now in his moment of need. Shattered Barricade is a very short song, picking up on a previous melody, which acts as the prelude to the next track. The title suggests that the self-erected barriers that our character had placed around himself, have now been broken and he is at last free again. A bit like Pink tearing down his wall on another well-known concept album.
As thye title suggests Fully Alive Part 2 is a reprise from a song much earlier on, using the same lyrical hook line from the chorus, but giving it a different interpretation. This time our character is feeling reborn, and his realisation that his life now has a new positive beginning. The final 90 seconds or so of this reprises a dramatic instrumental section, similar to the opening overture at the beginning of this concept piece.
Love All Along is the big climax to the album, and the longest track too with a running time of over 11 minutes long. This starts off very gently with a slow strumming strongly-reverberated electric guitar, and soft vocals in a very reflective mood. This builds and builds with layers of instruments & vocals, to evolve into this huge majestic number. It becomes very epic & dramatic, with the female gospel vocals coming in during the mid section, as the song moves through some familiar musical themes used earlier. This is pure Neal Morse at his best. As you’ll have guessed, this is our character making peace with himself, rejoicing in his salvation, and finding love & acceptance with his faith.
As a story, it’s not a complicated one. It has quite a generic story arc about a person losing themselves, but then coming through it all and finding themselves again by discovering their faith. As somebody without a single religious bone in my body, the lyrical side of it all doesn’t really do that much for me. That is in no way me mocking religion in any form. If people find happiness through their chosen faith, then more power to them. Yet the message in this tale isn’t exactly subtle, it’s right on the nose, and very obvious. Even to the point where the character sings “only the Father can see your heart”. So you can’t really ever consider that it’s just a generalised spiritual theme about a character that finally found their inner-self worth, as it’s pretty obviously a Christian redemption story-line.
Musically this is another brilliant album. The musicianship is top-notch, the vocals suit the tunes so well and are and really on point. And because of that, the combination of all the instruments and vocals merge together seamlessly. All of the players are at the top of their game, none of them gratuitously over-play, and everyone serves the songs perfectly. You get musical flairs when necessary, and completely disciplined performances when it’s not. I wouldn’t expect anything else from this amazing assembled team.
My only possible criticisms are that overall it does feel very familiar, especially on first listening. Neal Morse has his musical fingerprints all over this, with his recognisable chord progressions and his own unique compositional style. You get that with all creative artistes. But it’s more so the tropes and musical themed beats that come across as being very familiar. The opening overture, the song of joyous innocence, the song of introspection, the song of despair, the big climatic slow number, and so forth. These are themes implemented on songs that we’ve seen being used before, especially on the 2 Pilgrim’s Progress concept albums. For any listeners that know those previous albums very well, then L.I.F.T. will feel like more of the same. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, because anyone who loves those albums will equally love this one too.
However, on a positive note, because it is more concise with its running time, being around 35 minutes shorter than both The Similitude of a Dream and The Great Adventure, then this makes the new album far easier to digest. Also the storyline is less complicated, and again simpler to get into. At around 70 minutes long, I actually think that this is a far better concept piece overall. It feels way less bloated, less filler included, and get’s it point across far better without labouring on it too much. I know that among progressive music circles, people adore long concept pieces, and lengthy musical explorations. But in some cases the old adage of ‘less is more’ can work out better, and with this particular album I think the amount of music featured on L.I.F.T. is pretty much perfect.
The advance release version I was sent was in MP3 format (spits in disgust, laughingly), so it didn’t have the true audio fidelity that I know that final proper version will feature. Yet I can say that the mix is marvellous, beautifully balanced, and in line with the high quality of all their previous releases. I look forward to hearing the official released version so I can experience this music with the splendid air & detail that I know it will have in abundance. This is a very fine album. As I have mentioned earlier, it may not offer much in the way of new ideas or a vastly different direction for the band, yet it fits firmly in their catalogue as an album of equal quality to everything they have issued previously. For fans of any of their former releases, they are going to love this just as much. And for someone that has perhaps never explored any of their music yet, then because this one isn’t so lengthy, it is a ideal choice to have a delve into the fabulous world of the Neal Morse Band.
TRACK LISTING
01. The Beginning (6:48)
02. Fully Alive Part 1 (5:02)
03. I Still Belong (3:32)
04. Gravity’s Grip (2:03)
05. Hurt People (8:05)
06. The Great Withdrawal (5:08)
07. Contemplation (2:20)
08. Shame About My Shame (5:50)
09. Reaching (7:32)
10. Carry You Again (5:02)
11. Shattered Barricade (1:35)
12. Fully Alive Part 2 (6:18)
13. Love All Along (11:18)
Total Time – 70:23
[The 2CD version contains instrumental versions of the album]
MUSICIANS
Neal Morse – Keyboards, Guitar, Lead & Backing Vocals
Mike Portnoy – Drums, Percussion, Backing Vocals
Randy George – Bass, Bass Pedals, Backing Vocals
Eric Gillette – Guitars, Lead & Backing Vocals
Bill Hubuaer – Piano, Organ, Synthesisers, Lead & Backing Vocals
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: InsideOut Music
Country of Origin: US
Date of Release: 27th February 2026
LINKS
Neal Morse Band – Website | Facebook | Bandcamp (InsideOut Music) | YouTube | X | Instagram
