Spock's Beard
The Light

The first Spock's album dates back to 1995, and I imagine more than a few at that time, upon hearing this feast of symphonic prog, shouted - like Mary Magdalene coming back from the tomb - about the grand revival of old-school progressive rock. Indeed, the ghosts of the greats from the seventies, Genesis above all, hover decisively, yet there's a personal style here.

Neal Morse and his bandmates didn't invent anything new, to be clear, but they managed to cook up a tasty casserole of “symphonicity” by mixing it with the sounds of the '90s.

“The Light”, the first of the four compositions that make up this album, begins with a piano intro where Morse's voice intones with a pathos that remains constant throughout the central theme of the lyrics. In “The Light” the lyrics seem to suggest an existential/transcendental turn evident to our dear Neal (as future events will affirm). In the midst of it, micro-allegorical stories are narrated. For example, parts V and VI (“The Man in the Mountain”, a piano piece as beautiful as it is poignant, and the ironic Spanish-flavored “Señor Valasco's Mystic Voodoo Love Dance”) and even part VII (“The Return of the Horrible Catfish Man”) in which good old Neal proves to be an excellent singer-actor. It would be interesting to stage a theatrical production of “The Light”, so thin is the line at times with the “musical” tones.

The other mega-suite of the album (23 minutes), “The Water”, is an ideal continuation of the first (in case the more than fifteen minutes it lasts weren't enough for you), and it's quite changing: background choirs give a soul-gospel base to the song from which Morse and his colleagues launch themselves into country, funky (part VI, “Running the Race”), and, at minute 18, even a homage to Pink Floyd (part VII, “Reach for The Sky”).

Closing the album is what is the mother of classic Spock's Beard songs: “On The Edge”: great technique and melodies exalted by lively keyboards (here in the pre-Ryu Okumoto phase). What adds power to everything, however - and which makes listening to SB always a pleasure for me despite the frequent verbosity of these great musicians - is Dave Meros' pulsing and muscular bass, a real added value in this otherwise classical prog.

A must-have if you like progressive rock "de 'na vòrta” revisited in a faithful manner and enhanced by today's mastering.

Rating: 3.5/5