THE LIGHT

Spock's Beard turned a lot of heads upon the release of their debut, The Light. Featuring a blend of classic prog-rock favorites including Genesis, Kansas and Gentle Giant, the band activated nostalgia in many and also became one of the leaders in the modern progressive movement.

Spock's Beard has a great melodic strength to coincide with their skillful instrumentation - and this album boasts a bunch of moments that will have you smiling with sheer delight - but on this debuting outing, be it the band's immaturity at the time or their low budget, the group have not yet clicked. Do not be misled by my using the term immature; these guys are clearly fine musicians, and they work well together. It is apparent, though, that they still have more potential to activate. Daring as the pieces may be, they fail to captivate from start to finish and seem to have some unpolished ideas. As the years pass, we will see this potential gradually be actualized up until the departure of frontman Neal Morse, whose vocals on this record are really rough. I don't think Neal is too proud of this record anymore - he has done much better since then, though this was a solid starting point - especially considering the precocious lyrics. The lyrics here aren't awful, but they can be at times quite silly. You can decide whether you laugh at them because they are hilariously bad or just plain funny. Then, of course, you have the unprecedented barrage of foul words he spews on the FU segment of The Water. Frankly, that is a bit much. Dr. Dre doesn't even drop that many F-bombs in that span of time.

What we have here is merely a foundation. Good as it may be, the polished Spock's Beard will outdo this record. Don't feel like listening to this is a waste of time though, there is bound to be something you will get out of it.