Spock's Beard: Day For a Night //opinions please

[3-LockBox]

Just got <i>Beware Of Darkness</i> in last week (along with King Crimson's <i>Starless And Bible Black</i>), both used from Amazon.

What a great album. The first two songs on this CD suck though. 'Beware Of Darkness' starts off great (all track 1 songs from SB have great intros), but what a contrived piece o' crap it turns out to be, and I like the Harrison version. 'Thoughts' is the second track and I've heard the pt2 on <i>V</i>, which I don't like either. But 'The Doorway' ranks up there with 'Flow', 'Harm's Way', or 'End Of The Day'. Man o man, does Morse write great epics or what? 'Walking On The Wind' is also good, as is the short instrumental, 'Chatauqua'. 'Waste Away' is a good retro rocker, very reminisent of Jethro Tull, but the lyrics are a little silly, 'Time Has Come' is over-wrought in places, ala <i>The Light</i>, but has its moments.

Does anyone out there have the fourth album, <i>A Day For A Night</i>? I've read that its more of a pop rock turn than any of the other albums. Any opinions?

[Troy]

"Day for Night's" pretty good. Like you say, track 1 from these guys is usually pretty striking. "Crack the Big Sky" and "Gypsy" are solid and the long track at the end has it's moments but feels like it has too much filler at the front and back. A couple of seriously awful ballads on here too. Ok disc, not as good as the first 3 tho.

"Beware of Darkness" is almost all excellent IMO. "Time has Come" is a killer- "I'm a junkyard nowwwww, this is my traaaaash!" with the barking dogs. Terriffic. "Thoughts" acapella syncopation doesn't work, but it's a valiant try. "Waste Away" is one of the best Jethro Tull knock offs I've ever heard.

[BarryL]

Does anyone out there have the fourth album, <i>A Day For A Night</i>? I've read that its more of a pop rock turn than any of the other albums. Any opinions?

Day for Night is more commercial and lyrical IMO than their other albums. I really enjoy this album. I think it's definately worth buying. There are very few progmeisters out there with the total package talent that Neal Morse has, whether you like him or not. You just have to watch that Making of V video to see the total picture. Now, he is an extremely quirky personality, and moving towards being mentally deranged as he pursues his Jesus-complex. But all of that came after Day For Night.

Go for it. Well worthwhile.