Spock's Beard
The Kindness Of Strangers

Let's sit on this chair and patiently write this review of a great Spock's Beard album, which in my opinion is one of the best of their career for structures, melodies, etc...

It is perhaps with this album that Spock's Beard find their most suitable formula! After the debut with "The Light" and the excellent "Beware Of Darkness", Neal Morse's guys delight us with another true gem of progressive rock!

7 direct, effective, complex, dreamy, and melancholic songs, adjectives that apply to both the four shorter tracks and the three longer and more elaborate ones. Already the intro of "The Good Don't Last" is enough to introduce us listeners into a delicate and dreamy atmosphere that will accompany us throughout the album... it feels like entering a new interesting journey hearing the sound of that Hammond mingled with the cello... and with an excellent introductory part where Ryo Okumoto really shines with synth and Hammond and with delicate acoustic parts; the finale of the song, with that delightful solo, guides us very far along the trail of thought. Who knows how far. An immediate but extremely technical "In The Mouth Of Madness" follows where complex guitar and keyboard riffs show that the most complex pieces are not always the long ones. "Cakewalk On Easy Street" is based instead on a guitar less busy showing off and on almost jazzy piano touches. Then "June" speaks for itself: a great acoustic ballad as only they can do, certainly one of the best of their career along with "Wind At My Back", "Open Wide The Flood Gates", "Can't Get It Wrong", "All That's Left" and others. To close the cycle of short songs, we find an engaging "Strange World", which with a lively rhythm and a rather dark melody reveals itself to be a song certainly immediate but equally interesting. And now the two concluding suites! The first, "Harm's Way" starts really strong, with really fine Hammond touches, then slows down in rhythm leading to a more deliberately subdued part with melancholic jazz touches that rise to culminate in the most lively part of the track and perhaps of the entire album, where Ryo Okumoto's keyboards prove to be absolutely impeccable. The second, "Flow", alternates fine Hammond parts, blues-style guitars, and delicate melodies synthesizing a bit of everything we have heard in this album.

Truly a great album, worthy of the best Spock's Beard. It's a pity that it is almost never mentioned among the masterpieces, but I must say it deserves it beyond what is said about it.