OCTANE

On their second album after losing Neal Morse to the void, Spock's Beard has completely lost their way. The superb musicianship of these guys is not enough to make up for bland songwriting and syrupy lyrics.

The album begins promisingly, with a keyboard intro, and the band joining in on a piece that builds into... bland arena rock. It gets worse. I Wouldn't Let Go follows, sounding like a bad country rock ballad, with lyrics so bad that one of the band members must have "Travis" as part of his name.

Surfing Down The Avalanche ticks things up a bit. It's a heavy rock song, not very progressive, but at least well played. But again, the lyrics are laughable. She Is Everything makes me thinl of Kansas' bad years. Climbing Up That Hill. More arena rock. Very forgettable.

Letting Go is a bunch of keyboard washes. Somewhere Eno is snoring. Of The Beauty Of It All starts out like a weak ballad, but at least the second part of the song (It has it's own name!) actually turns into prog for a bit. NWC is the first fully prog song on the album. But it's too little, too late.

In case you were thinking that the album was going to continue in a good vein, There Was A Time comes in to break the spell. This song might appeal to a fan of The Eagles, but otherwise, no.

The Planet's Hum starts out with some Gentle Giant like instrumental interplay. I betcha thought they couldn't do it. It loses something after the vocals start, but it's not terrible.

The rest of the album is terrible.

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