By Jim Rowland
For prog supergroup Transatlantic’s fifth album, the band have come up with something quite unique, unprecedented, and suitably grandiose – two different versions of the album: the expanded ‘The Absolute Universe: Forevermore’ (90 minutes) and the abridged ‘The Absolute Universe: The Breath Of Life’ (60 minutes). But that only scratches the surface of the full story, and it appears this novel approach was developed to solve a bit of a band disagreement…
As the writing for the album developed, it became clear the album was heading into full blown 90-minute double album territory, not unfamiliar territory for Transatlantic it has to be said. However, as it was developing and recording started, half the band, namely Pete Trewavas and Neal Morse, felt the result was going to be overlong and test the patience of listeners, arguing for a shorter version of the album – which Morse duly went away and came up with. The result, and the unprecedented twist, is that that the band then settled on recording the abridged version and the expanded version as two separate pieces, so the abridged version is not simply an edited version of the expanded version, but a whole new recording in itself. What’s more, the abridged single CD of ‘The Breath Of Life’ utilises different approaches, alternative lyrics, some different titles, some entirely different music, and even different instruments used across the two albums.
For such a huge, ambitious and bold approach to the project, it’s only fitting then that the album is a good old progressive rock concept album too, with this one essentially one giant composition, split into chapters with the storyline about the struggles facing everyone in society today, politically, socially and pandemic-wise too. Whilst a giant new leap for the band, they have suggested that if it were to be compared to any of the previous Transatlantic albums, perhaps ‘The Whirlpool’ is closest.
As you would expect, the album sweeps through many different moods and flavours from the lighter feel of tracks like ‘Heart Like A Whirlwind’, ‘Higher Than The Morning’ and ‘The Darkness In The Light’ to full-on prog belters like the opening ‘Overture’ and the outstanding epic ‘The World We Used To Know’. ‘The Sun Comes Up’ has a Yes meets Steve Hackett old school vibe to it, ‘Solitude’ is a lush ballad, and ‘Owl Howl’ is a real highlight for me, perhaps the album’s darkest moment, evoking the spirit of classic King Crimson. A sprawling prog concept album wouldn’t be complete without a huge crescendo, and the triple salvo of ‘Looking For The Light (Reprise)’, ‘The Greatest Story Never Ends’ and ‘Love Made A Way’ does just that to perfection.
‘The Absolute Universe: The Breath Of Life (Abridged Version)’ is available as a Special Edition CD Digipak, Gatefold 2LP+CD and Digital Album, ‘The Absolute Universe: Forevermore (Extended Version)’ is Special Edition 2CD Digipak, 3LP+2CD Boxset and digital album. On top of that, if you really want to take the plunge and sample the whole experience, there’s also ‘The Absolute Universe: The Ultimate Edition’ – a Limited Deluxe Clear 5LP+3CD+Blu-Ray boxset contained within a foil-finished lift-off box with extended 16-page LP booklet and a 60x60cm poster. If your budget can stretch to that, that’s got to be the one to go for, hasn’t it?
- ‘The Absolute Universe’ is released, in its various forms, on Friday (5 February). You can get your version of choice HERE.
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