FOUR O'CLOCK AND HYSTERIA

Four O'Clock and Hysteria is Spock's Beard guitarist Alan Morse's debut solo album. It consists of 12 instrumental tracks consisting of just over an hour of music. Alan channels his inner-Joe Satriani on this album with a number of guitar riffs that would fit in nicely while surfing with aliens or travelling in a time machine. His brother Neal assists on keyboards, and he is accompanied by Gary Lunn on bass and Scott Williamson on drums, but this album is mostly about Alan and his guitars. Since I am not a guitarist, or for that matter, a musician, I can't go into any details about his style of guitar playing, but he does seem to have a fairly eclectic group of tracks with a bluesy sound on R Bluz, a funky sound on First Funk, an Yngwie Malmsteen classical guitar sound on The Rite of Left, and as previously mentioned I hear plenty of Joe Satriani-esque sounds throughout the album. If you are a fan of the Joe Satriani style guitar-led instrumental album then this is definitely an album for you to check out. Spock's Beard fans should definitely take the time to hear their guitar hero strut his stuff outside of the confines of the symphonic sound of Spock's Beard. Overall, I rate this album with 3 stars, as it is a good album, but it isn't essential.

Also, just to mention this though, I really like the album cover, where it is entirely in black and white, except for him and his guitar, which are in color. It has a nice effect.

There's no question that all the members of Spock's Beard have displayed mastery of their respective instruments over the years, so it shouldn't be any surprise that guitarist Alan Morse might attempt a solo album, right? But what IS a big surprise (for those of us who know him only from his playing with the Beard) is the kind of music he's chosen to play here. First of all, it's all instrumental - pretty radical when you think of some of the complex vocal tunes (e.g. "Thoughts" and "Gibberish") that SB is known for. And secondly, it's a guitar fusion album - nothing like the symphonic prog-pop of SB1 or the prog-metal of SB2. This is a very enjoyable album with 63 minutes of creative melodies and energy, a little funk thrown in on some tunes, and even some Spanish guitar stylings. Morse wrote all of the compositions, with assistance from his brother Neal in places. (I think I know that guy from somewhere too!) Reminiscent at various times of the rock fusion of guitar virtuosos Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Jeff Beck, this album is a real pleasant surprise for me, and a great showcase for the talents of one Alan Morse. Well done!