NEAL MORSE

Jesus Christ The Exorcist FrontiErs/raDiant

Ten years in the making, prog psalms with one heck of a narrative.

It’s fair to say that ‘religion and rock’n’roll’ doesn’t trip off the tongue like, ‘strawberries and cream’ or ‘prog and paradiddles’. While prog has its fair share of religious people – BJH’s John Lees is a Christian, Richard and Danny Thompson are both Muslims – their faith is rarely foregrounded. Not so Neal Morse. His conversion to evangelical Christianity in 2002 led to his departure from Spock’s Beard and Translatlantic. While he rejoined the latter, Morse remains unafraid of placing his faith left, right and centre in the 5.1 mix of his music. His new project, a kind of Jesus Christ Superstar for a new century, takes that commitment to a new and fascinating level.

JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR FOR A NEW CENTURY.

Rice and Lloyd Webber’s venerable rock opera looms large in Morse’s take on the ‘greatest story ever told’. He acknowledges it as inspiration for a project that’s been 10 years in the making. However, Morse’s ‘Progressive Rock Opera’ has several advantages over the theatre piece. Unlike Lloyd Webber, Morse is a proper prog musician. This means his musical decisions are wilder, bolder and more technically satisfying. The Overture is heavy and sophisticated, benefitting from Paul Bielatowicz’s virtuoso licks and Morse’s keyboard brilliance. Where a straight theatre composer would hold back, Morse’s prog sensibility just keeps going. The segue into the epic Getaway is both cool and satisfying.

Jesus Christ The Exorcist has a distinguished cast, too. Spock’s Beard’s Ted Leonard plays Jesus, Talon David is the Magdalene and Morse himself plays Pilate. Big Big Train’s Nick D’Virgillio plays Judas Iscariot. Tonally, the opera is lush with major-key epic bombast. Tunes such as the excellent Gather The People and Jerusalem work as big choral pieces with shiny refrains, while there is more than a smattering of gritty blues rock. Jesus’s Temptation sprays bluesy riffage in every direction, while The Woman Of Seven Devils is a fierce rock-out.

Some sceptical prog fans will ask whether there’s enough for them in this overtly religious piece. Some may hope that the famous put-down of Spinal Tap’s religious output – ‘a pretentious ponderous collection of religious rock psalms’ – might apply to Exorcist. It doesn’t. Whatever else it is, Jesus’ story provides one heck of a narrative. Songs like Heart Full Of Holes and The Last Supper provide touching accounts of human weakness and betrayal.

Still some listeners will find this all too much. But prog and rock opera is surely meant to be ‘too much’. Morse’s efforts – despite detractors who’d love to dismiss Jesus Christ… as pompous schlock – are a striking contribution to his oeuvre.