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Spock's Beard - The Kindness of Strangers CD (album) cover

THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS

Spock's Beard

 

Symphonic Prog

3.75 | 548 ratings

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Sinusoid
Prog Reviewer
3 stars If I look at Spock's Beard as a pop-rock band with major prog influence, then they're actually not too shabby of what they do. From the prog perspective, they sound a little too awkward and light sounding. They can make a decent Kansas inspired pop epic in ''The Good Don't Last''; if it wasn't so long, the track might have been a minor radio hit. ''June'' could have easily been a minor soft rock radio hit had the band pushed harder for it because ''June'' is nothing more than a pleasantly acoustic ballad.

There seems to be an alternative rock kind of sound to this album, especially ''In the Mouth of Madness'' and ''Strange World'', but let's not compare Spock's Beard to say Alice in Chains. ''Cakewalk on Easy Street'' is the best of the shorter tunes Spock's Beard offers here, and their prog kudos is somewhat justified on ''Harm's Way'' albeit a bit too many ''I expected this'' moments. On the downside, ''Flow'' seems to merely repeat the first two epics in an attempt to create a masterwork, yet ends up being corny.

Neal Morse's voice and lyrics are a bit too overdramatic and are grating as time wears on. The epics really don't sound much different from other prog acts, but THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS is a nice novelty album worth a spin every so often.

Sinusoid | 3/5 |

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