DAY FOR NIGHT

A good bit underrated as far as Spock's Beard albums go, though I would not be surprised if this is due to the giant epic settled in there, The Healing Colors of Sound. This is an improvement on the averageness of The Kindness of Strangers, but the Beard really haven't tried anything terribly new for this one, either. That comes with the next album.

The opener, Day for Night, is fantastic fun. It makes me smile every time on account of its fast pace, flaying drum work, and killer instrumental bits. The band proves here that they're in fine prog rock form, and that they still can write music that's abnormal yet terribly exciting and, God no, almost danceable. In order to make sure that we can't keep tapping our toes so easily, they follow it with the fantastic but INCREDIBLY Gentle Giant inspired Gibberish. But that sort of influence is forgivable, I think, since the song works so well on its own. The next piece, Skin, follows with some weird guitar sounds, but flies by like a regular rock song. Very exciting, though. Definitely a good bit of fun, all three.

Next follows The Distance to the Sun, a pretty but forgettable Neal ballad. It kind of sits by itself on the album, in between two chunks of great music. The acoustic work is nice, though.

The next series of quality tunes begins with Crack the Big Sky. You know that whole dancing thing from the title track? It's back here. Handclaps, a driving rhythm... Some very good proggy insertions and instrumental sections in here, though. Great vocal lines, and a crazy keyboard solo from Ryo towards the end. Oh, and the drums are on fire. Right after this wanders in some more weird, in the form of The Gypsy. After a slow start, this piece really gets moving. Also a whole lot of intensity, so that by the end, you forgot the beginning was kind of boring. Can't Get It Wrong tags along on the adrenaline rush of The Gypsy, but, almost like The Distance to the Sun, kind of sits wedged in between much more memorable tracks.

And then comes the debatable magnum opus of The Healing Colors of Sound. Compared to other massive Spock's Beard epics (such as The Great Nothing, The Water, or Time Has Come), this doesn't really hold very well together. Sure, it's fun, but it meanders a good bit more than I'd like. The weirdness and excitement last throughout the opening instrumental bit, but things wane here and there. A fun listen, but not one I'm terribly tempted to listen to, compared to other long songs by this band.

Not a bad album, overall. In fact, it's mostly quite solid. I can't decide if this album or Snow packs more excitement and straightforward fun into their music, but rest assured that you can really groove to this one. Again, not so much of a symphonic prog release as some others, but it certainly is prog and it certainly has a lot of worth going for it.