BRIEF NOCTURNES AND DREAMLESS SLEEP

Once again I listen to another Spock's Beard album and cannot get over the incredible number of musical and lyrical cliches present in their music--in every song, in every sound choice, every solo choice, every bass line, every rhythmic pulse, every dynamic shift, every chord progression, every vocal styling, every production/engineering choice. They are masters of everything borrowed, nothing original. Whenever I hear their music all I can feel is disbelief and gnawing anxiousness. "Is this a joke?" I ask myself (over and over). "Are they prog rock's SPINAL TAP?" Talented musicians all, but their melodrama is so embarrassingly close to classic rock as to cry out "parody!" As hopeful as I am whenever I see high ratings for one of their albums, I have yet to be impressed with anything from their norm--which is . . . rubber stamp, over-the-top classic rock by numbers, prog by association and wishful thinking, repetitive to excess. I feel bad writing these words for I have no doubts that the boys from SB are well-intentioned and probably quite sincere in their efforts. I can only express my utter frustration with my listening to pretty much all of their output--not the least of which has been this most recent release. Nothing new. "Second tier" prog. No more than a modern day LOVERBOY (though with better staying power).