Gear upgrade report card

Since I've been filling up this blog with album reviews recently, I decided to change gears and talk about guitar stuff today. Over the past few years I've completely revamped my entire lineup of equipment - I have nothing that I had two years ago. Over this time I've bought and sold a host of gear for one reason or another. Now that the revamp is complete, I'm going to go through the list of things I've bought and sold and grade them, and at the end I'll tally them up and see if it was all worth it.

Things I've sold

Gear: Charvel Model 2
Reason sold: It sat in my closet for a long time collecting dust and deteriorating.
Proceeds used for: I traded it at Guitar Center for my Stratocaster.
Regret selling it: Yes. I had neglected it but I would have been better off taking it to a luthier and saying "fix it." The good thing is that I got my Strat for it, but I probably could have just bought the Strat outright because they didn't really give me that much on the trade anyway.
Grade: D. Not a failure because of the Strat but pretty close.

Retro Review: Marillion - Misplaced Childhood

When I first discovered modern progressive rock, the first band I found was Spock's Beard. This led me to Transatlantic, then to all the members' bands, starting with The Flower Kings, then Dream Theater, and then finally Marillion. Although maybe not quite as progressive as the other bands (you'll find much fewer odd time signatures and fiddly self-indulgent instrumental solos), Marillion still have many elements of prog, including poetic lyrics, strong musicianship and songwriting, and concept albums like Misplaced Childhood.

Not only is Misplaced Childhood the best of Marillion's concept albums, but it is, to me, the template from which all concept albums should be based. Many concept albums are buried under their own weight. They're just too long, too grand in scope. Many of the early ones span multiple LPs, and newer ones span multiple CDs, each one packed to their hour-and-twenty-minute max. It's just too much for one sitting, and the concept sometimes gets lost among the sheer magnitude of music. Not Misplaced Childhood. It was written as a concept album in two acts, each act fitting on one side of a traditional LP. The whole album clocks in at under 42 minutes, which can easily be digested in one sitting.

Coming soon: Retro Reviews

I'm sure many people are like me in that they discovered Progressive Rock fairly late in the game. Many of the great prog albums were made 20, 30, even 40 years ago. Sure, you can Google the album and maybe get a review from when it first came out (providing it's new enough), but you won't get a sense of what it's like to discover them now, long after their release date.

That's why I'm starting a new series called Retro Reviews. In this series, I will review some of the great prog albums that you may have missed along the way. I'm going to avoid some of the obvious ones - everyone knows albums like Yes' "Close to the Edge" or Genesis' "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" - and focus on ones that are perhaps a little more obscure but still worthwhile. And I'll do it from the perspective of someone discovering it today and seeing if it stood up to the ravages of time.

I'm also going to branch out in both my Retro Reviews and my standard reviews beyond my progressive rock comfort zone. Although it's my favorite genre, progressive rock isn't the only one I like. I'll branch out into rock, metal, blues, and even review some albums that may surprise you.

I have two Retro Reviews coming up - one of an album that I consider a template from which all concept albums should be based, and one surprising album suggested by my wife - and a regular review of a greatest hits album from a popular YouTube personality. Stay tuned!

Review: Dream Theater - A Dramatic Turn of Events

Perhaps one of the most anticipated new releases of the year, Dream Theater's A Dramatic Turn of Events marks their first effort without the services of drummer and co-founder Mike Portnoy, whose much publicized exit drew strong reactions from both sides - fans of Portnoy who resent the rest of the band for turning their backs on him, and fans of Dream Theater who resent Portnoy for turning their backs on them.

I won't breach that subject in this review. Instead, I'll focus on post-Portnoy Dream Theater and how this album stacks up against the rest of the band's catalog.

I have to admit I'm a big fan of Mike Portnoy. Not only is he a legendary drummer but he's also a genuinely nice guy, at least that's the vibe I got from him when I met him earlier this year after the Neal Morse show in Denver. It's a bit strange to hear a Dream Theater album without him in it. It's almost like being friends with your best friend's ex - you still like the person but you can't help but feel like you're betraying your friend.

Review: Neal Morse - Lifeline

After being relatively impressed with Neal Morse's latest effort, Testimony 2, I decided to go backwards and check out his earlier work. This sent me back to his previous release, Lifeline, which was released in 2008.

I've been a big fan of Neal since his Spock's Beard days. For those of you who don't know, Neal founded Spock's Beard after failing to make it as a pop songwriter in Los Angeles, and after six albums together (and two more with his side project Transatlantic), he became a born-again Christian and embarked on a solo career where he could more freely express his religious views.

I'm also a big fan of what I call classic Progressive Rock, something I've also heard called "retrogressive" as it has its influences in the past and doesn't necessarily progress forward. Neal is arguably the modern master of classic Prog, and losing him to Christian music was a blow to secular fans like myself. Fortunately for us, Neal never abandoned his Prog roots and essentially followed dual career paths - one as a Christian artist making typical praise albums, and one as a Prog artist writing Christian-themed music. As long as the secular fan could get past the godly lyrics, they could still enjoy listening to one of the most talented people in the world do what he does best - Yes/Genesis inspired Prog with a hint of the Beatles.