Artist: Spock’s Beard
Title: Brief Nocturnes and Dreamless Sleep
Genre: Progressive
Release Date: 22nd March 2013
Label: InsideOut Music
Album Review
The last decade has unquestionably seen a resurgence in the popularity of progressive rock. This is, I’d suspect, largely attributable to the likes of ANATHEMA, OCEANSIZE, AMPLIFIER and PORCUPINE TREE, and similarly, genre-expanding acts like ISIS, COHEED AND CAMBRIA and OPETH: in pushing forward Progressive Metal, Prog Rock was able to move beyond its uncool image synonymous with 60s and 70s drug-addled self-indulgence. Dressing a sunflower’s iffy, even if you’re Peter Gabriel.
Spawned in 1992, SPOCK’S BEARD had no interest in reinventing Prog and making it cool again. Keeping with the Genesis theme, they’ve had a succession of singing drummers, with Jimmy Keegan being the latest. This is his first studio album, and 21 years and 11 albums from their inception, they’re still sticking to the poppier, twiddlier, old-school version of progressive rock that made acts like YES immensely popular and loathed in equal measure. Lest we forget, punk emerged as the antithesis of Prog. Listening to this album, you’d think punk had never happened.
The album has eight racks, and not one of them is under five minutes on length mostly they sit around the seven-minute mark, with the sprawling closer, ‘Wait For Me’ spreading past 12 and a half. Wait for me to end, more like! Straight away they’re twirling off into a kaleidoscopic organ-swirling psychedelic space, but it’s countered by some surprisingly chunky power chords. During the course of the first track alone, there are elements of psychedelia, jazz, soft rock, post-metal. But as the album progresses, I can’t help but think of acts like CHICAGO and MR MISTER, but equally, the likes of MARILLION and ‘Six’ era MANSUN are called to mind.
While on the one hand the manifold twists and turns and stylistic changes make for an album that’s widely varied and conveys a keen sense of movement, there remains a niggling sense of ‘Brief Nocturnes’ being somehow safe and comfortable, as though the twists in themselves are part of a formulaic approach to being “progressive”. The accessibility of the songs isn’t problematic in itself: pop is not a dirty word. But in the context of ‘Brief Nocturnes’, it simply serves to diminish the potential power of the songs. The result feels rather tame, and not just a little confused.
Tracklist
01. Hiding Out
02. I Know Your Secret
03. A Treasure Abandoned
04. Submerged
05. Afterthoughts
06. Something Very Strange
07. Waiting For Me
Line-up
Alan Morse - guitar, vocals
Dave Meros - bass guitar, vocals, keyboards
Ryo Okumoto - keyboards, vocals
Jimmy Keegan - drums, vocals
Ted Leonard - vocals, guitar
Website
http://www.spocksbeard.com/
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 5
Sound: 6
Total: 5.5 / 10
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