DAY FOR NIGHT

With this 4th release by the band it becomes more and more obvious the band is abandoning their epical style from first three albums more and more. With previous Kindness of Strangers at least there were two 10+ minute tracks to be found but on this successor Day for Night there is only one 10:00 track and two 7+ ones and the rest is shorter stuff so that's a remarkable change to say the least.

Ok, maybe lentgh doesn't say everything but at least it tells you something where for instance the style and composing ways are concerned. As an epic lover I'm not quite cheering with this change in style. And it will be no surprise my love for the band is slowly declining by now. Luckily with the successor of this 4th album (V) the band is drawing itself up one more time and write even their longest and best tracks ever but after that, the compsing ways as on this album will be continued for the rest of their career.

The title track is ok, somewhere around the 3,5* mark but not really much better, the longest Crack the Big Sky is the best with a 3,75 or the likes but the rest is just as average as the shorter tracks on Kindness of Strangers. With Gibberish they try the Gentle Giant vocal style for the second time (on V they repeat this with Thought pt.2 where pt.1 was on Beware of Darkness). Nice song but as a non GG-fan I'm not really waiting for this retrostuff. Skin sounds pretty original with first few tones but turns into a regular track with the rest. The Distance to the Sun is an ok ballad but no more. Third longest The Gypsy starts quiet, gets rougher later on but never truly mesmerizes. The other eight tracks are more or less forgettable in my book and are in fact below par for Spocks Beard standard I feel maybe with exception of My Shoes (revisited) with some superb guitar.

It makes it more and more obvious where the rating for this album is heading and that's towards a downright three stars. Maybe a tiny bit more but that's all. It's the first signs of decline as far as I'm concerned and in the new millenium I slowly drifted away from the band that once got all my repect. Too bad...