THE BEARDED'S PROJECT: HOPE | OMID

"The Bearded" is a the official German fan community for fans of US progressive rock band "Spock's Beard". Some time ago members of the fan club started discussing making a CD, and decided that it should be a benefit album; where all the income would go to charity. They located a good cause they all agreed on - German Aid for Afghan Children - and started working on their project. In the early summer of 2007 they issued their CD, which had grown to be a double CD with one song jointly made and recorded by musicians in the community, a number of songs contributed by members and artists associated with the community, and one previously unreleased track by "Spock's Beard" as well as former "Spock's Beard" member "Neal Morse". In addition, late entries for the project as well as entries that for one reason or another wasn't included in the official release was put together on a bonus CD available to members of "The Bearded" community only.

Musically this release is all over the place. The members of "The Bearded" include artists making quite different types of music. Most of the songs are progressive rock in style, but jazz, indie rock and more straight forward AOR is found on this release as well. As these artists mostly are unsigned, with few of them having music as a way of living - at least to my knowledge - some weaknesses can be expected on such a release of course. Personally I didn't come across too many weaknesses though; apart from one aspect of most songs here: The vocals. There are few examples of good vocal performances here. Many of the vocalists sing in a way that I really found troublesome; a few to the point that it totally ruined songs for me. On the other hand, when it comes to playing instruments and writing songs there is an abundance of talent here, enough to make this release be a very enjoyable experience for most people that buy this release.

The bonus CD available for members of "The Bearded" community isn't as good as the main album here, but does contain a few very good tunes.

All in all I'd recommend most people into progressive rock to buy this release. As long as you're not totally dependant on brilliant vocal performances you'll find lots of goodies on this release if you are a fan of progressive rock in general. That the album is nicely priced, both CDs filled to the brim with music and that the income here goes directly to a very good cause are all good reasons to buy the CD of course. And as the music here is very well made; you'll get good music as well as a good conscience purchasing this one.