The Prog Rock Album Club

Unknown Soldier · 10-25-2012, 04:29 PM

Way to go, put your review up after my 5 minute review job

Anyway superb review.

Big Ears · 10-25-2012, 04:48 PM

Thank you. I could have gone on writing and re-writing, but your review prompted me to just post. It's another one of the problems with my writing, I like to keep perfecting things. I'm glad you liked the album and we seem to have heard the same facets in the music.

Trollheart · 10-25-2012, 06:13 PM

The light --- Spock's Beard (1995)

I've mentioned before that originally I had a love/hate relationship with Spock's Beard, to the extent that I almost considered removing their music from my ipod. But slowly their influence began to grow on me and I started liking more of their songs, till now I can't say completely that I'm a fan, but their music is certainly safe on my player. This album is in fact their debut, and the first full one of theirs I've heard, all the rest being part of playlists. They certainly begin as they mean to go on throughout their career, with three epic tracks, two of which are multi-part compositions, taking up most of the album, and a six-minuter, short by comparison, closing it. Spock's Beard are not, it seems, known for their short, snappy songs, though paradoxically many of the ones that turned me on to them in the end are short, the likes of “June”, “Waste away” and so on.

But this album opens with a big, ambitious fifteen-minute track --- the title, in fact --- though even at that it's not the longest on the album. “The light” is broken into seven separate parts, let's call them movements, only one of which is not entirely written by keyboardist and vocalist, and founder member, Neal Morse, who would leave the band in 2002 to pursue a solo career. On part II, “The dream”, his brother, Alan helps out on the writing. Other than that, this composition, and indeed the whole album, is solely written by Neal Morse.

So, the title track then. Part I, the first movement, if you will, “The dream” is very much a piano piece, almost lounge music, close to something you might expect Barry Manilow or Perry Como to sing, but it quickly changes as we move into the second movement with a big crazy progressive keys and guitar instrumental and a blistering guitar solo as we head into “One man”, with a sort of staccato vocal, slow and measured but punchy, almost like “Waiting for the worms” from “The Wall” for most of its vocal run. Hard to say what it, and indeed the whole song is about, but I'll take a guess at the indomitable, unquenchable spirit of man, like when Morse sings “You can call me Kennedy; you may have killed him but you can't kill me” and “I won't go away at the point of a gun”, he seems to be saying you can kill the man but not the idea of Man. Maybe. I don't know. It goes through a few changes, with some nice Genesisesque keyboard and some more nice piano taking us into the exceptionally short third movement, “Garden people”, then in a similar vein almost to “Willow Farm” from Genesis's “Supper's ready” it hits part four, “Looking straight into the light” with a great solo from Alan Morse and some thundering drums, bouncing along nicely into the fifth movement as it slows down dramatically for “The man in the mountain”, with lovely soft piano and ending with a big heavy booming synth and guitar and then a simple rock rhythm that goes all Yes/ELP/ABWH into the sixth movement, the interestingly-titled and samba-influenced “Senor Valsaco's Mystic Voodoo Love Dance”, with a few touches of Asia's “Arena” there too.

And if you thought that was a weird title, what about the guitar-centric “Return of the Horrible Catfish Man”? Great fretwork from Alan Morse then a big heavy organ sound carries the short lyric, which revisits the melody from the second movement, with the final part, “The dream”, bringing everything full circle with another piano piece, the lyric carrying this time the melody and theme (and title) from the first movement, ending quietly as it began.

And that, essentially, is track one!

The next track, believe it or not, is almost as long, but one continuous piece, not split into sections. “Go the way you go” starts off on a heavy instrumental which then slides into some lovely laidback guitar, picking up then on a bouncy keyboard and heavy guitar which leads into the vocal against an acoustic guitar line. As for the meaning behind the lyric? I'm starting to realise that some of SB's songs are, to me, indecipherable in terms of content. A lot of them seem to concentrate on the human condition and the struggle to find the meaning in life, ironic in a way as that's often what I'm trying to accomplish when studying their lyrics, with about as much success. It's a good song though, and for a twelve-minuter doesn't drag or seem stretched out. Features some stunning interplay between the Morses on guitar and then piano, and NO, it's NOT the same as Dream Theater guys: this instrumental section adds to and enriches the song, whereas I always find DT just showing off.

The final long track, “The water”, is broken up into seven parts, and runs for a total of just over twenty-three minutes. It opens on “Introduction/The water”, a guitar and piano opening with some classical leanings, certainly in the piano, then goes all jazzy on the keys with a group vocal and we head into part II, “When it all goes to Hell”, with a funky bassline and wah-wah guitar. I think this is meant to be the story of water and how it's used, abused, reused and exploited, though of course I may be well off, and water could be a metaphor for something else. Like I say, hard to know with the ones who are not clean-shaven but very logical. Bit of Floyd style choral vocals then some effects pedals on the geetar and part III begins. It's titled “A thief in the night” and introduces a fluty, pastoral sound on the keys then some nice strings as it all slows down, underpinned by nice solid piano. Nice female backing vocals in the style of Clare Torry on “The Great Gig in the Sky”, courtesy of Molly Pasutti and Wanda Houston.

Part IV is the hilariously titled “FU/I'm sorry”, where Morse (Neal, that is) gives his anger full rein against a heavy almost marching keyboard beat. I bet the audiences love shouting out the chorus on this one! “**** you!”

The other Morse is in his element twiddling away on the frets but then brings it all back down to earth for what I guess would be the second part of the fourth movement, the “I'm sorry” bit, sort of country, with a certain flavour of the Eagles mixed with Roger Waters against a nice little acoustic guitar that then plugs in and those great female backing vocals come back.

Woah! I thought for a moment I was hearing “In the cage” there, with the funky walking bassline, but it's part V, the short “The water (revisited)”, then part VI is “Runnin' the race”, honky-tonk piano and Steely Dan style guitar, everything finally slowing down on tinkly piano for the final part, “Reach for the sky”, as, it seems, the planet begins to come apart and the water evaporates back up into the atmosphere? Hey, your guess is as good as mine! Nice guitar though, a nice laidback ending with some strong piano and the drumming of Nick D'Virgilo, another sad loss to the band in later years, punctuating the sense of drama and finality as the story comes to an end. A last hurrah for the girls on backing vocals, and a nice instrumental finish.

Which takes us to the closer, seriously short by comparison, a mere six minutes. “On the edge” opens just like “The carpet crawlers” then Alan Morse's big guitar punches in, but just for a moment his brother's vocal evokes, yeah, “The lamb”, before the song finds its own identity in Dave Meros's funky bass pattern, and actually becomes both one of the rockiest tracks on the album and the wordiest, in terms of lyrical content as a percentage of running time. I would have preferred to be honest for the album to have ended on “The water”: I just think the impact would have been better.

I have to hand it to Spock's Beard though: for a debut album this was amazingly adventurous and courageous, releasing a record with only four actual tracks, three of which were over twelve minutes long, one almost twice that, and yet it obviously worked, because they're currently at work on their eleventh, and have now been active, and popular, for over fifteen years. They're a major part of the progressive rock scene, and with an album like this to launch them, it's really not hard to see why.

Rating: 8/10 (would have been 9 if it had closed on “The water”)

TRACKLISTING:
1. The Light (i) The dream (ii) One man (iii) Garden people (iv) Look straight into the light (v) The man in the mountain (vi) Senor Valascso's Mystic Voodoo Love Dance (vii) The return of the Horrible Catfish Man (viii) The dream
2. Go the way you go
3. The water (i) Introduction/The water (ii) When it all goes to Hell (iii) A thief in the night (iv) FU/I'm sorry (v) The water (revisited) (vi) Runnin' the race (vii) Reach for the sky
4. On the edge

Trollheart · 10-25-2012, 06:25 PM

Great reviews, guys! However Big Ears I must take issue with your contention that the "eighties were a time of paucity and frustration in prog rock". Have you forgotten Marillion? Pallas? IQ? There were some excellent prog bands coming through at the start of the 80s, in fact these bands more or less drove the neo-prog movement!

As for the "FU" bit in "The water": well I don't know how you interpreted the lyric, but I see it as the water (natural resources) having been used by Man for his own purposes and being polluted, diverted, let dry up etc, giving vent to its anger and telling mankind what it thinks about us.

I could be wrong though...

Unknown Soldier · 10-26-2012, 12:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart

Great reviews, guys! However Big Ears I must take issue with your contention that the "eighties were a time of paucity and frustration in prog rock". Have you forgotten Marillion? Pallas? IQ? There were some excellent prog bands coming through at the start of the 80s, in fact these bands more or less drove the neo-prog movement!

I think he means from the commercial aspect, it almost disappeared as a commercial force after the onslaught of punk, new-wave and AOR. The point I'm making, is that today it's very easy to track down all types of music from any time period regardless of how popular it was, back then it was a lot harder and bands and movements in the commercial spotlight were usually the only way that you could find out about new bands. Apart from Marillion who were big, it took me years to discover the other bands and that was thanks to the internet.

Big Ears · 10-26-2012, 01:49 PM

US is right.

I saw Marillion in the very early eighties when Mickey Pointer was the member of another band further down the bill, Electric Gypsy. He may have played drums for both bands, I am not sure. I think Solstice were the immediate support, but I cannot remember much about them. At the time, Marillion seemed to rely on copying instrumental passages from Genesis and were regarded as derivative. When they made a few albums, they didn't seem so bad. The early Arena were pretty good too.

I never saw IQ, but the early version of the band (the Tim Esau era) was very good. I remember hearing a great single in the mid to late eighties, but I cannot recall the name. Pallas, I thought, improved greatly with the additon of Allan Reed in the late nineties. Some other bands stood out, including It Bites! and Jadis (what a great name). Overall, the neo-progressive bands didn't get much coverage and, even in the early nineties, they struggled. I have to say, it is only with broadband that I stumbled across overseas neo bands, like Cast.

I am not anti-neo, rather I am anti-eighties. In some ways, I prefer the neo bands to the new progressive groups, who often appear to have a very sterile production and weak vocals. Exceptions are Spock's Beard, Transatlantic and Dream Theater, who seem to fall, successfully, between the two genres. I'll hastily add 'imho', before the DT/Portnoy haters chime in.

I had to laugh at the reference to Barry Manilow and Perry Como. I hadn't thought of Spock's beard as easy listening! Although Neal Morse uses a lot of Christian symbolism (light, water, steeple, etc) in his lyrics, I would not pretend to understand them. Compared with the average progressive rock lyric writer, Pete Sinfield apart, William Shakespeare is easy to comprehend (and I'm not joking).

US, it must be your turn to choose the next album!

Trollheart · 10-26-2012, 02:15 PM

No, I get what you're saying, but don't forget Marillion only missed out on hitting number one with "Kayleigh" because of the charity record at the top at the time, and "Lavender" did well also, not to mention "Assassing", so for a prog band --- and a pretty new one at the time --- I think they flew the flag really well for the genre, or at least the neo-genre.

As for Spock's Beard, I just said, as I'm sure you saw, that the opening of (I think it was) "The water" on piano was very much what you might hear either of the two crooners sing. It was just that part, no offence to SB, but that was definitely what it put me in mind of. Pretty damn fine album.

And yes, it's the unknown one's choice this time round...

Incidentally, did you know Jadis have a new album out? Seriously! I just downloaded it yesterday: I thought they had broken up... nice surprise!

Big Ears · 10-26-2012, 02:36 PM

I didn't take offence, you just have a funny turn of phrase. Anyway, as an ELP/ Love Beach/ Topographic Oceans/ Dream Theater fan, I have a skin like a rhinoceros.

Yes, I've got the new Jadis album, but I haven't listened to it properly yet. What I have heard sounds good so far. Who could have predicted that neo would evolve and compete with the modern bands? Not me!

Unknown Soldier · 10-26-2012, 03:10 PM

Ok I'll put the album up on Monday, as it will give anybody that hasn't listened to The Light (if they plan on doing so a couple of extra days) to listen to it.

Unknown Soldier · 10-29-2012, 04:14 PM

Ok I'm selecting this the Captain Beyond debut, which its mix of prog rock, hard rock, jazz influences and space rock tendencies:

Captain Beyond Captain Beyond 1972

10-25-2012, 06:13 PM	#143 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,992	The light --- Spock's Beard (1995) I've mentioned before that originally I had a love/hate relationship with Spock's Beard, to the extent that I almost considered removing their music from my ipod. But slowly their influence began to grow on me and I started liking more of their songs, till now I can't say completely that I'm a fan, but their music is certainly safe on my player. This album is in fact their debut, and the first full one of theirs I've heard, all the rest being part of playlists. They certainly begin as they mean to go on throughout their career, with three epic tracks, two of which are multi-part compositions, taking up most of the album, and a six-minuter, short by comparison, closing it. Spock's Beard are not, it seems, known for their short, snappy songs, though paradoxically many of the ones that turned me on to them in the end are short, the likes of “June”, “Waste away” and so on. But this album opens with a big, ambitious fifteen-minute track --- the title, in fact --- though even at that it's not the longest on the album. “The light” is broken into seven separate parts, let's call them movements, only one of which is not entirely written by keyboardist and vocalist, and founder member, Neal Morse, who would leave the band in 2002 to pursue a solo career. On part II, “The dream”, his brother, Alan helps out on the writing. Other than that, this composition, and indeed the whole album, is solely written by Neal Morse. So, the title track then. Part I, the first movement, if you will, “The dream” is very much a piano piece, almost lounge music, close to something you might expect Barry Manilow or Perry Como to sing, but it quickly changes as we move into the second movement with a big crazy progressive keys and guitar instrumental and a blistering guitar solo as we head into “One man”, with a sort of staccato vocal, slow and measured but punchy, almost like “Waiting for the worms” from “The Wall” for most of its vocal run. Hard to say what it, and indeed the whole song is about, but I'll take a guess at the indomitable, unquenchable spirit of man, like when Morse sings “You can call me Kennedy; you may have killed him but you can't kill me” and “I won't go away at the point of a gun”, he seems to be saying you can kill the man but not the idea of Man. Maybe. I don't know. It goes through a few changes, with some nice Genesisesque keyboard and some more nice piano taking us into the exceptionally short third movement, “Garden people”, then in a similar vein almost to “Willow Farm” from Genesis's “Supper's ready” it hits part four, “Looking straight into the light” with a great solo from Alan Morse and some thundering drums, bouncing along nicely into the fifth movement as it slows down dramatically for “The man in the mountain”, with lovely soft piano and ending with a big heavy booming synth and guitar and then a simple rock rhythm that goes all Yes/ELP/ABWH into the sixth movement, the interestingly-titled and samba-influenced “Senor Valsaco's Mystic Voodoo Love Dance”, with a few touches of Asia's “Arena” there too. And if you thought that was a weird title, what about the guitar-centric “Return of the Horrible Catfish Man”? Great fretwork from Alan Morse then a big heavy organ sound carries the short lyric, which revisits the melody from the second movement, with the final part, “The dream”, bringing everything full circle with another piano piece, the lyric carrying this time the melody and theme (and title) from the first movement, ending quietly as it began. And that, essentially, is track one! The next track, believe it or not, is almost as long, but one continuous piece, not split into sections. “Go the way you go” starts off on a heavy instrumental which then slides into some lovely laidback guitar, picking up then on a bouncy keyboard and heavy guitar which leads into the vocal against an acoustic guitar line. As for the meaning behind the lyric? I'm starting to realise that some of SB's songs are, to me, indecipherable in terms of content. A lot of them seem to concentrate on the human condition and the struggle to find the meaning in life, ironic in a way as that's often what I'm trying to accomplish when studying their lyrics, with about as much success. It's a good song though, and for a twelve-minuter doesn't drag or seem stretched out. Features some stunning interplay between the Morses on guitar and then piano, and NO, it's NOT the same as Dream Theater guys: this instrumental section adds to and enriches the song, whereas I always find DT just showing off. The final long track, “The water”, is broken up into seven parts, and runs for a total of just over twenty-three minutes. It opens on “Introduction/The water”, a guitar and piano opening with some classical leanings, certainly in the piano, then goes all jazzy on the keys with a group vocal and we head into part II, “When it all goes to Hell”, with a funky bassline and wah-wah guitar. I think this is meant to be the story of water and how it's used, abused, reused and exploited, though of course I may be well off, and water could be a metaphor for something else. Like I say, hard to know with the ones who are not clean-shaven but very logical. Bit of Floyd style choral vocals then some effects pedals on the geetar and part III begins. It's titled “A thief in the night” and introduces a fluty, pastoral sound on the keys then some nice strings as it all slows down, underpinned by nice solid piano. Nice female backing vocals in the style of Clare Torry on “The Great Gig in the Sky”, courtesy of Molly Pasutti and Wanda Houston. Part IV is the hilariously titled “FU/I'm sorry”, where Morse (Neal, that is) gives his anger full rein against a heavy almost marching keyboard beat. I bet the audiences love shouting out the chorus on this one! “** you!” The other Morse is in his element twiddling away on the frets but then brings it all back down to earth for what I guess would be the second part of the fourth movement, the “I'm sorry” bit, sort of country, with a certain flavour of the Eagles mixed with Roger Waters against a nice little acoustic guitar that then plugs in and those great female backing vocals come back. Woah! I thought for a moment I was hearing “In the cage” there, with the funky walking bassline, but it's part V, the short “The water (revisited)”, then part VI is “Runnin' the race”, honky-tonk piano and Steely Dan style guitar, everything finally slowing down on tinkly piano for the final part, “Reach for the sky”, as, it seems, the planet begins to come apart and the water evaporates back up into the atmosphere? Hey, your guess is as good as mine! Nice guitar though, a nice laidback ending with some strong piano and the drumming of Nick D'Virgilo, another sad loss to the band in later years, punctuating the sense of drama and finality as the story comes to an end. A last hurrah for the girls on backing vocals, and a nice instrumental finish. Which takes us to the closer, seriously short by comparison, a mere six minutes. “On the edge” opens just like “The carpet crawlers” then Alan Morse's big guitar punches in, but just for a moment his brother's vocal evokes, yeah, “The lamb”, before the song finds its own identity in Dave Meros's funky bass pattern, and actually becomes both one of the rockiest tracks on the album and the wordiest, in terms of lyrical content as a percentage of running time. I would have preferred to be honest for the album to have ended on “The water”: I just think the impact would have been better. I have to hand it to Spock's Beard though: for a debut album this was amazingly adventurous and courageous, releasing a record with only four actual tracks, three of which were over twelve minutes long, one almost twice that, and yet it obviously worked, because they're currently at work on their eleventh, and have now been active, and popular, for over fifteen years. They're a major part of the progressive rock scene, and with an album like this to launch them, it's really not hard to see why. Rating: 8/10 (would have been 9 if it had closed on “The water”) TRACKLISTING:** 1. The Light (i) The dream (ii) One man (iii) Garden people (iv) Look straight into the light (v) The man in the mountain (vi) Senor Valascso's Mystic Voodoo Love Dance (vii) The return of the Horrible Catfish Man (viii) The dream 2. Go the way you go 3. The water (i) Introduction/The water (ii) When it all goes to Hell (iii) A thief in the night (iv) FU/I'm sorry (v) The water (revisited) (vi) Runnin' the race (vii) Reach for the sky 4. On the edge __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

10-25-2012, 06:25 PM	#144 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,992	Great reviews, guys! However Big Ears I must take issue with your contention that the "eighties were a time of paucity and frustration in prog rock". Have you forgotten Marillion? Pallas? IQ? There were some excellent prog bands coming through at the start of the 80s, in fact these bands more or less drove the neo-prog movement! As for the "FU" bit in "The water": well I don't know how you interpreted the lyric, but I see it as the water (natural resources) having been used by Man for his own purposes and being polluted, diverted, let dry up etc, giving vent to its anger and telling mankind what it thinks about us. I could be wrong though... __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

10-26-2012, 02:15 PM	#147 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,992	No, I get what you're saying, but don't forget Marillion only missed out on hitting number one with "Kayleigh" because of the charity record at the top at the time, and "Lavender" did well also, not to mention "Assassing", so for a prog band --- and a pretty new one at the time --- I think they flew the flag really well for the genre, or at least the neo-genre. As for Spock's Beard, I just said, as I'm sure you saw, that the opening of (I think it was) "The water" on piano was very much what you might hear either of the two crooners sing. It was just that part, no offence to SB, but that was definitely what it put me in mind of. Pretty damn fine album. And yes, it's the unknown one's choice this time round... Incidentally, did you know Jadis have a new album out? Seriously! I just downloaded it yesterday: I thought they had broken up... nice surprise! __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

10-25-2012, 04:48 PM	#142 (permalink)
Big Ears Music Addict Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Hampshire, England Posts: 434	Thank you. I could have gone on writing and re-writing, but your review prompted me to just post. It's another one of the problems with my writing, I like to keep perfecting things. I'm glad you liked the album and we seem to have heard the same facets in the music.

10-26-2012, 01:49 PM	#146 (permalink)
Big Ears Music Addict Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Hampshire, England Posts: 434	US is right. I saw Marillion in the very early eighties when Mickey Pointer was the member of another band further down the bill, Electric Gypsy. He may have played drums for both bands, I am not sure. I think Solstice were the immediate support, but I cannot remember much about them. At the time, Marillion seemed to rely on copying instrumental passages from Genesis and were regarded as derivative. When they made a few albums, they didn't seem so bad. The early Arena were pretty good too. I never saw IQ, but the early version of the band (the Tim Esau era) was very good. I remember hearing a great single in the mid to late eighties, but I cannot recall the name. Pallas, I thought, improved greatly with the additon of Allan Reed in the late nineties. Some other bands stood out, including It Bites! and Jadis (what a great name). Overall, the neo-progressive bands didn't get much coverage and, even in the early nineties, they struggled. I have to say, it is only with broadband that I stumbled across overseas neo bands, like Cast. I am not anti-neo, rather I am anti-eighties. In some ways, I prefer the neo bands to the new progressive groups, who often appear to have a very sterile production and weak vocals. Exceptions are Spock's Beard, Transatlantic and Dream Theater, who seem to fall, successfully, between the two genres. I'll hastily add 'imho', before the DT/Portnoy haters chime in. I had to laugh at the reference to Barry Manilow and Perry Como. I hadn't thought of Spock's beard as easy listening! Although Neal Morse uses a lot of Christian symbolism (light, water, steeple, etc) in his lyrics, I would not pretend to understand them. Compared with the average progressive rock lyric writer, Pete Sinfield apart, William Shakespeare is easy to comprehend (and I'm not joking). US, it must be your turn to choose the next album!

10-26-2012, 02:36 PM	#148 (permalink)
Big Ears Music Addict Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Hampshire, England Posts: 434	I didn't take offence, you just have a funny turn of phrase. Anyway, as an ELP/ Love Beach/ Topographic Oceans/ Dream Theater fan, I have a skin like a rhinoceros. Yes, I've got the new Jadis album, but I haven't listened to it properly yet. What I have heard sounds good so far. Who could have predicted that neo would evolve and compete with the modern bands? Not me!