V

Spock's Beard dude, one of my favorite bands ever. V is their best album, this where it all came together for them. For me, this is their best bcause it's their most epic, and that's what this band is all about. At the End of the Day is one of the most epic songs of all time. This song gets me euphoric like nothing else (except Transatlantic). Revelation, damn this song is good. It starts out with the most relaxing synth and electric piano sounds I've ever heard and then it goes into this amazing dream pop ballad part. But then it just explodes with this epic riffage and the chorus (I swear this band comes up with the catchiest stuff ever). Thoughts Pt. II is super corny but catchy too. All On a Sunday is one of the catchiest most pointless songs ever written and I love it. Goodbye to Yesterday is this really pretty ballad that has some really nice textures to it. The Great Nothing is a great epic, Neal morse just comes up with catchy part after catchy part, I'm telling you, the whole thing is super epic and over the top and the ending of it is amazing with the spacey piano and synth bringing it to a resolution. Anyway it's a great album, one of my favorite albums. But I'd like to address another issue.

Believe it or not, some people actually approach a band named Spock's Beard expecting something serious and intellectual. Those people actually think that a band called Spock's Beard expects people to take it super seriously. Those people are the ones who wrote 1 star reviews on this album. Those people are what we call art rockers, and are very uncool. These are the kind of people who think that Anekdoten is more progressive than The Flower Kings because they throw some post-rocking boringness into their derivative nonsense stew of King Crimson w/ VDGG vocals and extremely cliche lyrcis (the whole falling into darkness kind of crap). Spock's Beard's lyrics btw, are anything but cliche; how many bands have you ever heard with more epic, general (and purposefully corny, you have to realize, that's what they're going for) lyrics... ever? Transatlantic, that's it. So, make your own opinion on the band, but don't base it on how progressive they are, that's not what they're trying to do. Base it on the music, how well done it is, and I think you'll see it's VERY well done.

The fact of the matter is, Spock's Beard are not an art rock band, and their not progressive either. You could call them prog if you want to define their sound, and so might I for expediency's sake (just like I'd call a more minimalist contemporary band indie, because that term has come to define a sound like prog has), but if I was to truly define them I would call them an epic symphonic band. Truly, SB are one of the more creative bands of their time to be quite honest. SB really has carved it's own sound out, just the right mix of jazzy piano parts and epic classical parts to make a great sound that is really more well done than most classic prog.

Anyway, just wanted to state my opinion on how you should approach Spock's Beard; if you come in expecting Red or Selling England By the Pound then, well, you're probably an idiot, but my point is that you won't find what you're looking for, as in an ambitious album with serious music (former) and an intricate concept (latter). You will instead find one of the most euphoric albums ever produced, an album that breaks free from all the poser music with pretensions of being progressive (Mars Volta etc. oh btw, the MV is described as having everything from "screaming metal guitar solos to free jazz horns" (and that's why they're considered progressive) when Neal Morse did that kind of s**t way before those hipsters). Let's face it, there's pretty much nothing new under the sun, so just sit back, relax, and watch from an isolated desert hill under the red night sky as the great nothing spreads itself across the modern world. Even though this world might be heading in that direction with nothing progressive ever happening again, we can still enjoy memorable, expertly crafted music while we're here. We don't always have to move forward, sometimes we can just be carried away and enjoy the moment. Oh, and always remember, at the end of the day, you'll be fine. At the end of the dayeyeahey... it's gonna be alright.

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