THE LIGHT

Not my favorite album by the Beards. Reasons being: Neal's voice, (way too nasaly and flat), and Alan's guitar, (pitched too high and whiny with way too many spots where he distorts the guitar). The other gripe I have with this disc is the length of the songs. There're drawn out, (especially 'The Water', with that notorious "F**K" section..) and wordy. Neal could have used an editor and put his point across without going on and on. Lastly, I tend to zone out on the music. There's no life, or snap to the songs, (other than the Genesis inspired 'On The Edge' which is the best in the bunch). It could have boiled down to first album jitters or production, but for most of the album its pretty lame and boring. There are spots, tho, that I enjoy; the senoir valasco section of 'The Light' and all of 'On The Edge', those have spark. The rest....ugh! I won't say that this is an overall terrible album, its just not great. I would start with Neal's last album with the band and work backwards. A decent album, but definately not as good as their later ones. 2.5 stars for me.