Or now...
VThis was the first Spock's Beard album to come out after I became a fan in 2000, and this pretty much was an instant winner in my book. It had that same sound of the first Transatlantic album, and the songwriting was terrific. Looking back, the sound was a major upgrade over the first four studio albums. Everything just sounded better, except for maybe Alan Morse's tone when playing chords. That has often been a source of annoyance for me, and there are times on this album where his guitar tone makes me want to punch a wall. Still, not even that can prevent this from being a terrific album, easily one of the band's best.
"At the End of the Day" is 16 minutes and 28 seconds of prog rock bliss. The melodies are soaring, the playing is terrific, pretty much every vocal section is catchy as hell, and it has that "epic without being overdone" feel about it. This is a top 5 SB song in my book, and if someone wanted to call it their best song, I would not put up an argument.
"Revelation" is one of those songs I've gone up and down about over the years, largely because I have sometimes found the chorus a little bland, but at this point in time, I am a big fan. The chorus sounds very evil, quite a contrast dynamically to the verses. "She's my partner in my crime against the clock," followed by those single keyboard notes, which always gives me the image of a grandfather clock ticking in my head, remains one of my favorite moments on this entire album.
"Thoughts (Part II)" was an immediate favorite of mine, although the shine of it wore off me a tad over time; I still like it a lot, regardless. I am not always a fan of the Gentle Giant-esque multi-layered harmonies (they can sound too corny at times), but I think the ones in this song are very well done. The instrumentation is phenomenal as well.
There isn't anything special or crazy about "All on a Sunday," other than it being just a fun song that is great to crank up and rock out to.
Spock's has a lot of mellow acoustic songs, and "Goodbye to Yesterday" is one of the best ones, IMO. A very impassioned vocal performance by Neal makes this song even better than it would be in the hands of just about any other vocalist. Neal isn't a technically gifted singer by any means, but he has one of the most pleasant and engaging singing voices I have ever heard, and this song is a fine example of it.
And then we get to the BIG epic, "The Great Nothing," written about Kevin Gilbert. On just about every level, this song is nothing short of phenomenal, and I like it a ton, but it does seem to lack that little extra
something that would have actually made it phenomenal. If you ask me what that something is, I cannot tell you; I just know it is out there, or shall I say,
not out there.
Regardless, this is still a very well written tune, with some bone-chilling melodies. 2000 was kind of when Neal came up with a specific formula he would use quite often for long epics, first on Transatlantic's "All of the Above" and then here on "The Great Nothing," and there is no denying what a great formula it is.
Overall, I love this record, but for some reason, it isn't one I listen to as much I should considering how highly I think of it. I probably wouldn't call it my favorite of theirs at this point in time, but it was still a tremendous achievement in the world of progressive rock, and solidified their position as one of the best modern prog rock bands.