SNOW

(February 2019: some of my early reviews are terribly poor and over-critical. It would be too worksome to re-write the whole review as my opinion of this album is quite different today. I'll just edit the most embarrassing parts.)

I had read some very promising things about SB - comparisons to Gentle Giant etc - before I found "V" from my library some years ago. I was deeply disappointed and didn't even care to have a good second listen as the voice and the hard rocking style was far from how I prefer my prog. If there's complexity, that helps nothing if the overall feeling is not 'right' for you. It was the end of the 90's, or the beginning of this millennium, the period in my music listening history when contemporary progressive rock least appealed to me. Three years later I borrowed "Snow". Maybe the concept form and longevity would give me more, I thought. Well, yes and no. Many tracks, especially the angriest ones, were immediately No Thanks. And the concept didn't really impress me. Comparing it to the LAMB is quite overblown, as the story of an albino man called Snow seems to be quite realistic in comparison to Gabe's surrealistic visions.

However, I found several tracks pretty good. Softer pieces like 'Love Beyond Words' -- it makes me think of 'Gemini' by Alan Parsons Project -- and 'Solitary Soul' even touched me emotionally. Several of the energetic songs such as 'Open Wide the Flood Gates' and 'Wind at My Back' also were from the better part of Snow, though I found some of them slightly too extended with their repeated choruses.

This is my initial reception of Snow: rejected as a whole, slightly enjoyed of its most accessible, soft-poppish parts. Mr Morse's voice is no longer an issue for me, and in time Spock's Beard may become one of the essential contemporary prog bands for me too. (Afterwords: yes, I've grown to appreciate SB much more over the years, and Snow is a pretty good if also rather uneven double album. My favouriute songs such as 'Solitary Soul' sound today better than ever.)