For being someone who likes progressive rock, I don’t always
\nlike progressive rock.<\/p>\n
All right, now, put away the funny jacket whose sleeves tie in
\nthe back and let me explain that one. I like progressive rock’s
\ncomplexity, its willingness to take risks and try new things, and
\nthe use of classical instruments and motifs with rock tempos. What
\nI don’t like is the overblown pretentiousness of 24-minute long
\nsongs with nine parts (usually subdivided with
\ni.<\/b> those annoying little outline things that
\nii.<\/b> no one outside of an English term paper has
\niii.<\/b> ever used unless they were
\niv.<\/b> just neurotic). Fact is, prog rock rides a thin line
\nbetween self-indulgence and obfuscation, and most bands don’t do it
\nwell. (For example, don’t get me started on Yes. We could be here
\nall night.)<\/p>\n
Spock’s Beard, on the other hand, has gotten it right for a good
\ndeal of their recording career. In fact, in my opinion,
\nThe Kindness Of Strangers<\/i>, their third CD, was the first
\ntime they did get it exactly right. While it still has some
\nprogressive rock cliches (long songs with subtitles, enthusiastic
\nuse of the Hammond organ, and quirky lyrics), it’s also a tight,
\nwell-performed, and intelligent piece of music.<\/p>\n
As always, the musical performances are without peer. The lineup
\nof Neal Morse, Alan Morse, Dave Meros, Ryo Okumoto, and Nick
\nD’Virgilio are just plain great. The production is tight, the mix
\nis perfect\u2026so it all really comes down to the songs, doesn’t
\nit? On
\nThe Kindness Of Strangers<\/i>, the songs are pretty damn fine.
\n“The Good Don’t Last” is a nice intro with a couple of funny lines,
\nbut the real kick in the pants to get the album moving is the
\nintense groove of “In The Mouth Of Madness,” with its blistering
\nkeyboard solos, jangly guitar, and intense distorted vocals
\n(somewhat reminiscent of ELP). From there, “Cakewalk On Easy
\nStreet,””June” and “Strange World” continue the brilliance. The CD
\nwraps up with “Harm’s Way” — kind of the weak sister on this CD,
\nthough still pretty tasty — and the brilliant, brilliant “Flow,”
\nwhere Spock’s Beard proves that yes, they can do a long multi-part
\nsong and not fall off the tightrope.<\/p>\n
This is also, interestingly enough, a pretty hard-rocking CD —
\na tendency the Beard continued on further releases “Day From Night”
\nand “Snow”. On songs like “Cakewalk” and “Mouth”, Alan Morse really
\nkicks out the jams, straying very close to the progressive metal
\nterritory of bands like Dream Theater and King’s X.<\/p>\n
Out of six studio CDs (I haven’t heard the new Neal Morse-less
\nFeel Euphoria<\/i> yet, but to all reports the Beard is a very
\ndifferent band now), Spock’s Beard hit the progressive rock nail on
\nthe head at least three times — with
\nDay From Night<\/i>,
\nSnow<\/i>, and
\nThe Kindness Of Strangers<\/i>.
\nKindness<\/i> is definitely worth checking out as one of the
\nBeard’s best.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":26429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6237],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-37662","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-spocks-beard","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37662"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37662"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}