here<\/a>.) The remaining members —
\nNick D’Virgilio, Alan Morse, Dave Meros, and Ryo Okumoto — decided
\nto carry on, but there were questions as to what the band would be
\nlike. Heck, I had questions, and I’m a huge fan\u2026so when
\nFeel Euphoria<\/i> came out, the first post-Neal CD, I felt some
\ntrepidation. I finally grabbed it and gave it a listen.<\/p>\nFirst impression: different.<\/p>\n
Second impression: Good, but different.<\/p>\n
Third impression: Good, who cares about different?<\/p>\n
For you hardline Neal Morse fans — get over it, y’all. This
\nisn’t SB as it used to be — there are breaks on “Feel Euphoria”
\nthat sound like King’s X on a Kansas bender — but it’s still tight
\nand tasty. Yes, there are a few miscues. No, this isn’t as good as
\nSnow<\/i> or
\nDay From Night<\/i> — but it’s a damn sight better than, say,
\nV<\/i>.<\/p>\n
What works? Easy. This band sounds more like they’re having fun,
\nlike it’s a team, like a single unit. On songs like “Onomatopoeia”
\nand “The Bottom Line,” they lay down a progressive-meets-hard-rock
\ngroove that you can’t help but like. There’s even a love song
\n(isn’t that illegal on progressive rock CDs?), and it’s one of the
\nbest things on the disc; “Shining Star” is a sudden tone change
\nwith Eaglesesque verses and soaring Eric Woolfson-like harmonies on
\nthe refrain. The haunting piano intro on “Ghosts Of Autumn” leaves
\none chilled at the cool brilliance of the songwriting. And yes,
\nthere is a multi-song progressive rock opus on
\nFeel Euphoria<\/i>, “A Guy Named Sid” — which is much more
\nthought-provoking and complex than the title would bear out and
\nincludes the incredible “You Don’t Know.” And I loved the trumpet
\nfanfares on the closing “Carry On.”<\/p>\n
There are, however, a couple of things that don’t work as well.
\nI don’t much care for “Feel Euphoria,” the title track; for my
\ntastes, it’s too atonal and too much a departure from anything the
\nBeard has ever done. “East Of Eden, West Of Memphis” has its
\nmoments, especially the complex harmonies and plucked-string
\nsynthesizer parts, but the long instrumental break is just a bit
\ntoo typically self-indulgent, almost a progressive rock
\nclich\u00e9.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless,
\nFeel Euphoria<\/i> establishes one thing without a doubt; the
\nBeard can survive losing one of its guiding forces, and still
\nremain one of the best bands out there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":26496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6237],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-37732","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-spocks-beard","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37732","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=37732"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52139,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37732\/revisions\/52139"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37732"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37732"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}