FEEL EUPHORIA

Nick D'Virgillio is no Phil Collins.

So the similarities between Genesis and Spock's Beard have been well documented. Both bands were stalwarts of prog for their time and started off with a series of strong albums. Both bands presented their magnum opus with an epic release of a 2 part concept album. Both bands lost their lead singer after the epic release and found a replacement in their drummer, coming out from behind the skins to take over the front man duties.

There is one epic difference between the two though. In Genesis, prior to Peter Gabriel's departure, the band wrote most of the music while Gabriel wrote the majority of the music. In Spock's Beard, Neal Morse was the primary songwriter, almost the only, songwriter for the band until the day that he left. Neal Morse's departure left a huge gaping hole in the songwriting, the band attempted to compensate by committee and by bringing in some friends to help write for them. Unfortunately, 'Feel Euphoria' shows the lack of cohesion painfully.

Nick D'Virgillio's vocals are . . . underwhelming, as much as I'd love to sing praises about his voice, it lacks the power of a proper lead singer. Combine the lack of energy in D'Virgillio's voice and the drop in songwriting, I find myself hard pressed to find a lot of positives about this album. "You Don't Know" is an exception, Alan Morse is at his bluesy best throughout the song with a melodic, soulful solo in the middle of the song.

The, total product however is lacking. It had been a few years since I've listened to this album, my perception going into yesterday's listen was that it was a three star CD, maybe Sid could bring it up to a four. Unfortunately, I had grossly over-estimated the CD. At times the CD was painful to listen to, it took real effort not to skip tracks. I had to force myself to listen to the entire CD. This is not a three star CD. The attempts at an epic on the Sid saga are mostly uninspired, but that along with the somewhat rocking 'Onomatopoeia' save the cd from the dreaded 'one star rating'. Two stars with the happy thought that it does get better.

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