Transatlantic's Journey Crashes & Burns

Transatlantic is my favorite prog band, and has produced by favorite prog album, but I am not one of those people who considers artists who make good music to be above criticism. Making an album I love is not going to win me over on a personal level, nor is it going to insulate someone from being called out when that is necessary. I make it a point to tell the truth on these pages, whether it is good or bad, because integrity is about the only thing we actually have that's worth a damn.

I say that to preface the news of the day. Transatlantic has announced their new album, "The Absolute Universe", will be released on February 5th 2021.

The announcement also said the following things about the record:

-There will be two versions; one sixty minutes long, and one ninety minutes long.
-They will not be the 'real' album and an abridged version
-Each version will include different takes, instrumentation, vocalists, and even some lyrics
-You will either have to buy both versions, or the more expensive set containing both

My initial reaction to all of this was anger, which then mellowed into a simmering disgust. Let me explain why.

Given the nature of the music business in this current climate, I understand that steps need to be taken to generate sales and revenue. But there is a difference between making money and gouging the audience. I thought it was ridiculous when Serious Black put out two versions of "Mirrorworld", and claimed that only the expanded edition was the 'real' album. It smacked to me of gouging the audience to ask them to pay more for the full version of the album, when the argument that they wanted to put out a lower priced version was laughable. CDs can be priced at whatever point you want.

This move by Transatlantic has echoes of that, but it goes further. There is the disappointment of the band telling us we are going to have to spend more, or buy two copies, to get the full picture of what they recorded. That is insulting to the audience, which along with lying are the two cardinal sins for artists.

Beyond that, the band is telling us there is no singular version of the album. "The Absolute Universe" is two completely different recordings, and thusly when we talk of the album, it is a nebulous entity that doesn't actually exist. Like Schroedinger's cat, it both exists and doesn't exist, depending on your philosophical bent. To me, this decision feels like the band did not know what they wanted to do with their own music, and rather than make the hard decisions that you're supposed to, they punted, threw their hands in the air, and told us to figure it out for them. It's not a good look.

There is also another apsect to this. With different versions of the songs available to us, what do you think are the odds that one version of the album, as the band is presenting them, will contain our favorite versions of each song? I place them at nearly zero, which means the band is going to ask us to buy two different versions of the album, when neither will be the collection of songs we actually want to listen to most. Many of us will assemble our own compilation of preferred takes, which renders the entire idea of buying these albums on CDs or vinyl completely idiotic. Why should we buy physical copies we will rarely listen to, because they don't give us what we want?

And then there is also the hubris involved in all of this. Between the two versions, we will have to listen to the same songs multiple times, and at two-and-a-half hours to hear everything, just to begin making the decision of what we do and don't like about it. To absorb both versions of the record, to pick and choose which takes are best, will take an enormous amount of time and effort that I feel is asking far too much of us. It's the band's responsibility to make these decisions, not the audience. Transatlantic likes to work without a producer, and this is the anger in letting artists run free. They do stupid things that sabotage themselves.

I can say this already, before the first single is even released. As much as I love Transatlantic, I will never buy a physical copy of this album. I may only be one sale among a growing audience, but I refuse to spend my money buying an album whose physical product will not be what I want to listen to. There is no reason for me to spend more than usual to get less than expected. I feel insulted, I feel gouged, and Transatlantic has lost a lot of the good will they have built up over the years.

Even if "The Absolute Universe" is a masterpiece, I don't know how to judge it. They have set up a scenario where criticism and second-guessing are inevitable.

What a damn shame.