OCTANE

Of the two Neal-less Spock's Beard albums, Octane is a much stronger album than Feel Euphoria. I think FE was the band trying to get an idea of what direction they wanted to go in, while Octane has them settling on a direction and running with it.

The editing of the album is notably stronger this time around. Whereas FE had some songs that might have run a little long, Octane tends to arrange all the various pieces of the proverbial puzzle together perfectly. Some tracks that by themselves might have been kind of "eh" were optimized by their placement. (The overly mellow Watching The Tide helps to balance out the overly straightforward As Long As We Ride, for example.)

The strong points of the album are A Flash Before My Eyes (particularly the bookends of this multi-part track) and The Planet's Hum (this one is brilliant progressively, running the full spectrum of emotions).

I think lyrically, Spock's Beard owes a huge debt to John Boegehold. His collaboration with the band (particularly bassist Dave Meros) helped to produce some very impressive lyrics.