Spock's Beard:Feel Euphoria // underappreciated

[3-LockBox]

Wow, I knew that the Beard would be put under a microscope after the departure of Neal Morse, but yeesh! This is no where near as bad as I'd heard. No, this ain't your father's Spock's Beard, but its still a reasonable enough facsimile to like it, IMO. Sure, its got a couple of plodders, like Bottom Line and A Guy Named Sid; and the title track just plain old sucks. But the rest is very good (East of Eden,West Of Memphis / Onomatopoeia / Ghosts Of Autumn) to great (Carry On / Shining Star). A Guy Named Sid sure does reveal one the band's weaknesses though; writing the epic. So maybe those days are gone, but these guys shouldn't hang it up just yet.

Its funny to read the liner notes, and see them talking about how collaborative the sessions were or what a 'real team effort' the recording was. I'll bet they're a tad relieved to not have Neal riding herd on them. And I defy anyone to tell me that Bottom Line, East Of Eden or Carry On isn't about Neal's leaving.

I think you guys were way to harsh on this one. Like I said before, there's more here to like than to dislike. I can't wait to get Octane. This copy of FE is the special edition with the two bonus tracks; one's a keeper, one's a sleeper, literally. Moth Of Many Flames is a great tune, just NDV with acoustic acompaniment and shoulda made the final cut. The other is a Ryo penned keyboard solo ala Kitaro, which doesn't fit anywhere on the album, but it is an interesting bit toward the end, albeit a tad long. I also liked the 'comp' that was included of other Inside/Out label mates, like OSI, Steve Hackett, and others. This is a fantastic idea AFAIC. There was some stuff on there I hadn't heard of and will be looking for in the future. Did anyone else get this edition?

Anyway, shame on all you former Beard fans.

[Dusty Chalk]

Where did you hear it was bad? I heard a lot of 'meh', but no-one told me it was truly bad.

I dug it.

[BarryL]

Wow, I knew that the Beard would be put under a microscope after the departure of Neal Morse, but yeesh! This is no where near as bad as I'd heard.



I thought the album was okay. The big let down is the Sid saga which just sucks and is overly pretentious. Embarassingly so, IMO. They should have left this off and released a 50 minute CD.

I also thought that NPV's vocals were relatively wobbley in many places. Maybe it was bandleader jitters.

The whole band puts in a much more solid performance on Octane, which is a much better album than Euphoria, IMO.

Yeah, it doesn't suck, and I probably like more of it than I liked about Snow, but I still think it's not a great outing. But now they're past it, and I look forward to good things in the future from them.

NPV is okay on vocals, but it would be nice to get a better vocalist.

[Troy]

I was definitely in the "meh" catagory.

It was as interesting as a Foreigner album.

[kexodusc]

I was definitely in the "meh" catagory.

It was as interesting as a Foreigner album.

He's a juke box hero, got stars in his eyes
Juke box hero, he’ll come alive tonight


...man, that's a pretty harsh thing to say about a group's first effort after a major player loss..
But it's probably pretty accurate. Octane was much better. I can't help but feel they just made Feel Euphoria for the sake of enduring.

[N. Abstentia]

Feel Euphoria was a nice surprise for me. I didn't even buy it when it came out. But after I bought Octane and it knocked me on my ass and instantly went into my 'top 10 of all time' I had to get FE also. Everything clicked on Octane, but on FE you can see they are still getting used to the fact there is no Neal calling the shots and it was much much better than I thought it would be. FE is not perfect, they were still working on their new lineup..but it all comes together on Octane.

[3-LockBox]

I thought the album was okay. The big let down is the Sid saga which just sucks and is overly pretentious. Embarassingly so, IMO. They should have left this off and released a 50 minute CD.

You're right. I did say that it was a weakness as well. But then again, a lot of other prog acts try to write epics and they fall just as flat (IQ, Flower Kings, Glass Hammer). But pretentious? This is prog we're talking about...

You're also right that they should have deleted Sid; they coulda opted for the two pieces they left off (that show up as bonus tracks on the deluxe edition); in fact, they could have left off the title track as well. In the liner notes, Ryo states that Feel Euphoria was a song he had for years (then called Spacer) that he used for his solo. It had a real 'fusion' feel to it, so they retooled it to 'fit' the rest of the material. Sounds like it woulda been more interesting had they left it alone.

But that's CD for ya. A lot of bands would do better to keep albums shorter and tighter and not feel obligated to fill out a 70 minute-plus CD.

[3-LockBox]

Feel Euphoria was a nice surprise for me. I didn't even buy it when it came out. But after I bought Octane and it knocked me on my ass and instantly went into my 'top 10 of all time' I had to get FE also.

You musta got the delux edition with the bonus tracks and bonus disc (Inside/Out comp)...didn't you?

[N. Abstentia]

Yep, got the big thick deluxe edition that hulks over every other CD on the shelf...except maybe for The Wall :)

[Kansas]

I have all their stuff and only can take them in snippets, not sure why.

I would like to see them live, tho, I bet that would change my thoughts about them...

On occasion I enjoy the Transatlantic dvd too, altho not SB it had Neil in it...

I borrowed a SB dvd and watched it, it was okay, maybe I need to re-borrow the damn thing.

I wonder if/when Porcupine Tree will release a dvd?

Dave_G

[Finch Platte]

WTF, Dave?

Why are you pigeonholing yourself?

fp

[Dusty Chalk]

Oh, great, first it's gerbils, now it's pigeons -- where do these fads come from, Hollywood?

[Kansas]

Pigeonhole?

WTF is that?

At least it's not Rush or Genesis or something stupid like that!

LOL!

Dave

ps - I'm riding an old school Specialized a bud let me borrow, w/ old school xt/xtr components, not bad for a free ride!