DAY FOR NIGHT

After moving (slightly) more toward a radio-friendly format on their previous two albums, SB here shift back toward progressive rock with some longer extended epics and more obtuse arrangements. I find this album both polarized, in that the tracks are either very good or very bad, and polarizing in that it seems there are quite divided opinions not only about the album in general but about the tracks on them. For me, I can't understand why the opening title track, "Day for Night" is loved so much. Of course, it checks all the boxes when it comes to what might be desired in a progressive rock/neo-prog track (difficult virtuoso playing, complex arrangments, etc). But I have listened to this album/song a number of times now (well over 10 for this song, more for the rest of the album), and I find this tune to be simply not musical. Indeed, a lot of the songs on this album are for me not sufficiently musical. "Gibberish" and "Skin" are OK, but I find they get tiring fairly quickly, while the other tune often lauded by fans, "Crack the Sky", is like "Day for Night" just not sufficiently musical. On the other hand, there are two (only) tracks that I still listen too all the time, which I DO find very musical: the song "The Gypsy" which has a lovely groove and very nice melodies, and the extended 22-minute epic "The Healing Colors of Sound". The latter is the shining highlight on this album, in my opinion, and would set the terms for the album that would come next (V). I know there are people out there who take the opposite opinions of these tracks to me (that is, they like "Day for Night" and "Crack the Sky" but not "The Gypsy" or "Healing Colors"). I don't know why, I can't explain it, other than to say I always give albums multiple listens before coming to a conclusion, and what seems great on first listen (because it checks all the right boxes) can get tiring quickly if they are not sufficiently musical. For me, musicality is the key criteria. At any rate, because there are more than the usual number of less-than-musical pieces on this album, I can't rate it any higher than 6.1 out of 10 on my 10-point scale, even though I love the epic and The Gypsy. mid-lower 3 PA stars.

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