DAY FOR NIGHT

WARNING: Do not let the shorter track times deter you! This is one of the most incredible prog album despite the fact that none of the songs crack the ten minute mark. After the rather serious tone that the Beard took on 'The Kindness of Strangers,' it seems that they were ready to get back to having a little fun. While I will stop short of calling this Spock's Beard's party album, it definitely has a more playful feel to it than anything else the band has released. If you enjoyed the band's demonstratin of exellent vocal harmony on "June," then you are in for a treat on this album. The prog- pop sound that the Beard has always been good at is pushed to the fore throughout the entire record. The title track gets the party started in a great way. The whole band sounds more energized here than on any other Beard song I've heard. This up- beat rocker sets the tone for much of the album. Neal Morse's lyrics are playful and lack the dour seriousness of the previous album. While the magnificent vocal harmony shows up on "Day For Night," it completely takes over on "Gibberish." This is a very complex and almost dizzying song that (once you latch on to one part) is really fun to sing along with. Musically, the song recalls the unusual complexity of "Thoughts" from 'Beware Of Darkness.' "Skin" is a straight-forward rocker with some great wah- wah effects at the beginning. "The Distance To The Sun" and "Can't Get It Right" are two brilliant ballads that do a great job of balancing out the album as a whole. "Crack The Big Sky" is the only real "prog" song on the first half of the album and it harkens back to "Walking On The Wind" in scope. "The Gypsy" is the only song on this album I'm not too fond of. The song comes off sounding a bit sloppy, and it doesn't really fit in with the rest of the songs. For those who are lamenting the lack of a sweeping epic progressive rock song, never fear: the second half of the album is just that. Starting with "The Healing Colors Of Sound," the band blends the last seven tracks into an amazing suite that rivals anything else they had done or would do. This is definitely not a traditional epic in that the separate songs don't necessarily fit together thematically, but each track flows together masterfully. "The Healing Colors Of Sound Part 2" and "My Shoes (Revisited)" tie the entire suite together and the latter features one of Alan Morse's best guitar solos to date. On the whole, this album is a display of the Beard at the top of their game. You get a little bit of everything that makes this band one of the best prog acts of all time! This is my favorite SB album, so I unabashedly rank it first out of the band's eight albums.