When in the vinyl age a double album was conceived and released we were talking of around a maximum of two times 40 minutes being around 80 minutes of brandnew material. In the digital age however an album clocks in at around 60 to 70 minutes which means a double CD offers no less than 120 to 140 minutes of brandnew material and that my friends can be a triffle much at times. In the case of the latest Spock’s Beard offering we are looking at 114’43” of new material (add to that 51’46” of extra music on the bonusdisc for the limited edition) and in a way one knows that there will be strong but also weaker moments. The digital age plus the fact that a lot of people now own their own studio where they can either record or at least pre-produce their music enables any artist to deliver material without any boundaries whatsoever sometimes resulting in outrageous releases (take the 50 CD Klaus Schulze box as one example !). On top of that lengthy ‘journey’, “Snow” also comes as a concept album. Concept albums are as effective to the prog musician like a red towel to a bull. Having been around for a mere seven years it looks like Spock’s Beard has this time around created an album which forms the balance between the longer Spock’s tracks and the more direct, shorter songs from the Neal Morse solo camp. Add to this a much more rock oriented approach and a second lead vocal courtesy of Nick d’Virgilio and you get a slightly different Spock’s than the one which has climbed the prog ladder so far. Creating a double album also enables you to do things you’d normally never approach on a single album so to enhance the lyrical content of course the music varies quite often. Yet ‘the Beard’ has kind of created a sound of it’s own over the years, whether it’s the distinctive voice of Neal or the powerful tron from Ryo so although the band delivers a ‘different’ album, it’s still very much Spock’s most of you out there love and cherish ! If it would be a reggae album they’d call him Yellowman but as this is a concept album in the domain of prog and beyond, our main character, the slight albino born John Sikeston, will be called SNOW ! There’s no point in explaining the plot behind this concept album as Neal Morse has done this multiple times in several interviews whilst it is also not my intention to describe every track of this package (36 songs !) but I will try to give a general idea of what to expect. The opening track already fuses two different parts together being an acoustic section and a powerful, bombastic part with heavy keys, guitars and a wild Nick d’Virgilio. Over the years we have learned to fully appreciate the unique timbre of Neal’s voice it’s slight harshness adding something extra to the skilled compositions. Take ‘Stranger in a strange land’ where his voice is backed by distant strings, acoustic guitars and soft percussion almost sounding like a different band. Recorded at the Lawnmower and Garden Supply studio in Pasadena, California, the soul of the late Kevin Gilbert still filters through as Kevin was also a BIG prog fan and follower yet he would approach the genre from a different angle fusing the vintage parts with a more contemporary approach in order to deliver music of today rather than a re-print of some seventies highlights. No doubt Gilbert would be very proud of what Spock’s delivers here coz’ there is pure rock’n roll to be found as well. Just listen to ‘Long time suffering’ which is authentic rock’n roll yet daring to incorporate some vocal harmonies. Give the song ‘Welcome to NYC’ to Marilyn Manson and they’d certainly turn it into an even weirder piece of music ! Compared
to a lot of the contemporary prog bands Spock’s Beard has this unique gift
of composing superb melodies. Take ‘Open wide the flood gates’ which
sticks to your mind from the moment you hear it for the very first time !
Towards the end it’s like your listening to an unreleased part from
“Dark side of the moon” courtesy of some great backing vocals ! I also
want to show my respect for the wonderful jazzy guitarsolo from Alan Morse
here which sounds as if George Benson has been visiting the studio ! My
absolute favourite on the first disc certainly has to be the incredible
‘Solitary soul’ not in the least because of the out-of-this-world
mellotron section from Ryo and the CSNY harmonies. This song really moves me
to tears as it is so touching especially towards the end when real strings
set in. This should be a number one the world over and don’t say it’s
way too long to be played on daytime radio because if they could do it for
Queen’s ‘Bohemian rhapsody’ they can do it for this song !
This is a song they can play at my funeral, but hey please wait a
couple of years as I’m not ready yet ! Disc two opens rather furious with a powerful section which could easily be by Liquid Tension Experiment. Spock’s continues by putting two strong songs back to back one sung by Neal and the other by Nick which is another advantage the band has when compared to other groups. ‘Reflection’ sees it’s melody once again enhanced by means of some lush arrangements by Ryo Okumoto (check out his superb solo album “Coming through”). Yet by all means the strongest ‘pop’ song on this album has to be ‘Carie’ which is like a Christopher Cross hit and looking at the 3’05” format this is ideal to be issued as a single. There’s no serious radio station which should be without this song as this is of the same calibre as Marillion’s ‘Kayleigh’ in other words a true ‘classic’ ! Then again ‘Looking for answers’ leans towards Kansas minus the violin and with a touch of Echolyn added for good measure. In ‘All is vanity’ Ryo offers us a great synthsolo which in a way holds a medieval feel and can be compared to the work of Nathan Mahl. But then the Beard loses it all during a freaky almost heavy metal version of ‘Devil’s got my throat revisited’ which will certainly be an ideal track to be performed live, preferably as the final encore so everyone is left speechless ! And you’ll be even more amazed once you hear the horns turn ‘Snow’s night out’ into a funky tune making sure our Snow has seen all the colors Motown can offer. Although every single Spock’s Beard member shines in his own right, it’s our keyboardplayer who gets a special solo spot during ‘Ladies and gentlemen, mister Ryo Okumoto on the keyboards’ almost smashing his keyboards to pieces as the song comes to an end. The strong melody we found in ‘Solitary soul’ is slightly repeated during ‘I will go’ steering the song towards kind of a conclusion. The conclusion of both the story and the music itself can be found in the final song which is made up of ‘Made alive again’ and ‘Wind at my back’ starting in acoustic fashion with Neal, guitar and piano and evolving in an ‘all systems go’ outro putting a full stop behind an impressive concept album. Then the music comes back as if the band finds it difficult to accept it’s all over. But hey, it’s not over for us as we have the limited edition to review which means we put disc three in our player and press the play button for the third time. And for this disc I will review everything in detail as few reviewers have taken this 3CD set as their main ‘ingredient’. The disc opens with a cover of Yes’s ‘Southside of the sky’ from their “Fragile” album. Heavy bass all the way as well as an omni-present Ryo and percussive highlights from Nick. A large part of the song is presented in vocal harmonies before the band attacks the Yes arrangement in a very aggressive way. The combination of ‘The good don’t last’ from their “The kindness of strangers” album together with ‘Open wide the flood gates’ sounds like a warm up during the recording session. During ‘The good don’t last’ they introduce the main theme from Mannix on acoustic guitar whilst Nick backs it all up on percussion. The interesting thing is that the lyrics for ‘Open wide the flood gates’ are different to the ones we can now find on “Snow” so you’re listening to a ‘draft’ version of the song. In fact a lot of the bonustracks on this 3rd disc are recordings of ‘work in progress’ on the “Snow” album so if you record every single note during the recording process you can one day or another offer more material to your fans than they can find on the legitimate release ! There’s a funny disco segment in their rehearsal for ‘Devil’s got my throat’. During the acoustic version of ‘Looking for answers’ Nick d’Virgilio proves what a great singer he is delivering a very mature and powerful unplugged version of this wonderful song. Yet at the same time this song also proves why a lot of people have it difficult calling Spock’s Beard a progressive rock band because this song is a pure popsong and doesn’t hold any of the prog trademarks at all. The demo for ‘Looking for answers’ had Neal still looking for the right lyrics as a lot of the singing is filled with ‘la la la’s’ and ‘doo doo doo’s’ yet it gives a clear indication as to which direction Morse wants to take. The advantage for the rest of the band is that Neal’s demo’s pretty much include all the ingredients he wants to hear in the final recording. What is described here as ‘4 o’clock’ is just a couple of seconds of Neal talking whilst mentioning it is indeed 4 o’clock (yet we don’t know whether it’s afternoon or night). Then whilst Ryo’s solo spot on the finished album only lasts for a mere 2’40” the rehearsal included here takes us as far as 7’42” including more than one take incorporating the change-over to ‘I will go’. From an audio point of view this is not so interesting yet I can imagine it might be fun to experience this on DVD. The ‘Lost bass solo demo’ offers a really powerful section which, although rather short, illustrates the power of Dave Meros. What follows is a rather funny acoustic version of ‘The light’ with Neal rather talking than singing whilst Nick is playing the bongos. The bonusdisc closes with a working section of ‘I will go’ with Neal giving some directions as to what the endresult should sound like. Apart from ‘Southside of the sky’ this bonusdisc looks like it could be the first in a series of 150 different ones as by including snippets of rehearsals a band can release unlimited albums. However looking at the retail price of this package, if you’re into buying this album then go for the 3CD box even when the only time you’ll get the bonusdisc out of it’s box will be to listen to ‘Southside of the sky’ and then return it into it’s cardboard sleeve. Some
people have compared “Snow” with “The lamb lies down on Broadway”,
others with The Who’s “Tommy” whilst some people go as far as “SF
sorrow” by The Pretty Things. Whatever way you look at it “Snow” is
being compared with some of the most important releases in the history of
rock’n roll ! Yet Spock’s Beard have come to a point in their career
where they have to chose which direction to take next. Just like the
character on the sleeve of “Snow” who scratches his bold head when he
stands in front of two entrances it’s like Neal Morse has to decide to
either fully concentrate on the band or his solo career or if he has to
chose between the ongoing Spock’s Beard atmosphere or his current found
love for christianity. Whatever direction he choses I’m sure there will be
an enthousiastic crowd waiting for him at the end of the tunnel ! Yet in the
meantime we are all left with one major question : will Spock’s Beard
attempt to perform all of “Snow” live in it’s entirety or will this be
too ambitious to undertake ? Reviewed by: John 'Bobo' Bollenberg |
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