Day for Night [Import]

Spock's Beard | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 13, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Inside Out
• ASIN: B0000255X9
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #703,663 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Day for Night

2. Gibberish

3. Skin

4. The Distance to the Sun

5. Crack the Big Sky

6. The Gypsy

7. Can't Get It Wrong

8. The Healing Colors of Sound Pt. 1

9. My Shoes

10. Mommy Comes Back

11. Lay It Down

12. The Healing Sounds of Colors Pt. 2

13. My Shoes (Revisited)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Live this way., August 2, 2003

By 

Reverend_Maynard (Glasgow, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Day for Night (Audio CD)

'Day for Night',like any Spock's Beard album, is literally crammed with moments of sublime invention and beauty. Although this album took longer to grow on me than any of the other Beard albums, there is enough fantastic material on here to instantly merit the highest rating. The bands signature sound is intact, as is the format of the album laid down on previous releases, with an extended track and a mellower ballad both complementing the usual range of melodic, catchy and spectacularly executed pop influenced prog Neal Morse churns out so effectively.
The title track is an instant classic, and is probably among the strongest cuts on offer here. Spectacular vocal harmonies towards the end of this song only hint at what is to be attempted on 'Gibberish', a delicate and in places plain odd song, with the bands vocal talents being showcased in their entirety for what seems like the first time. 'Skin' completes an impressive opening trio, and this song posseses the most single potential, unleashing the kind of infectious and epic chorus only Neal Morse can produce. The albums strongest moment is certainly the obligatory concluding epic, the poweful 'The Healing Colours of Sound'. Although the song is split into seperate tracks on the CD (I agree wholeheartedly with Lord_Chimp's comment on this matter) the suite achieves continuity and a sustained texture very well. Its not the bands best extended track (see 'At The End of the Day' or 'The Light'), but 'The healing Colours' is another compelling addition to a back catalogue that is frightningly unblemished. Other highlights arrive with 'The Gypsy' and 'Cant get it Wrong', the only full band composition here.
A number of reviewers have commented on the lyrics, dismissing them as weak or ridiculous. While I dont think Morse is the best lyricist around today, I fell the lyrics work as an extension of the music, contributing to the overall texture of the song. Also, anyone trying to analyse the lyrics of a song called, um, 'Gibberish' really needs to take a more objective standpoint.
Once again a classic release form Spock's Beard, 'Day For Night' comes highly recommended.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good stuff., April 1, 2003

By 

Brian C. Taylor "smug feldspar magnate" (Tallahassee, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Day for Night (Audio CD)

I must admit: I'm intrigued. This is the first Spock's Beard CD I've heard, and I'm quite taken with it. According to the reviews below, I should find it disappointing, not moving and lacking cohesion. I'm happy to report that none of that is true. There are a couple of songs that strike me as a little too mainstream-poppy (but certainly not boy-bandy!), but overall this a CD that has a real nice feel and flow to it. Some of it, no, most of it really blows me away. Beautiful vocals, splendid somewhat restrained instrumentation, excellent songwriting. And not a spot of filler! Judging from other reviews, this is their least succesful album, so I'm eager to get the rest of their work. One of the most pleasant discoveries of the past couple of years. These guys are too damn good to remain under the radar for too much longer.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a really great (and progressive) album..., March 31, 2001

By 

Eric Barker (Fairbanks, Alaska USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Day for Night (Audio CD)

I'm a huge progrock fan, I love all prog from 70s Yes, Genesis, King Crimson, ELP, to 80s Rush (arguably not prog, but still really tight and musically engaging), to 90s progmetal of Dream Theater, Fates Warning, Pain of Salvation... the list goes on, all great bands. But there's one thing I despise about SOME (not all) prog fans. Even though this is supposed to be the genre of creativity, bounderyless thinking, freedom of music, and experimentation, some get it in their heads that it's not good if it is easy to get into quickly. "Real music must take time and thought to get into", and ok, there's definitely truth in that, SOME of my favorite stuff took a while to get into, some did not. I think in many ways, the best music has a complexity that makes the music listenable forever, but at the same time, has great melodies and hooks that keep you coming back. These two things aren't opposites and aren't mutually exclusive, in fact, in the best works, they even coexist at the same time! This is one of those works. Accused by many prog fans to be more popish, simply because it has GREAT MELODIES!

Come on you guys [...], the progressive spirit isn't lacking in this work, it's stronger than ever. I feel "Kindness of Strangers" really lacked great melodies. Yeah it was progressive and complex, but there was nothing there to make me WANT to unravel the complexity and delve into the work very deeply, I mean, why would I want to unravel a complex work if I can't even "get into it"?

And bottom line, who cares of it's "great prog", it's "great music" that has a very well thought out cohesiveness and variety. I happen to really like "Skin", it's a very well written song with a great chorus, interesting bridge sections, and mood changes. Who cares if it's only 3 and a half minutes long? If a song can say all that it wants to say in 3 minutes, that's fine with me!

"The Healing Colors of Sound" is sort of an epic, yes, that's clear from the reprised songs and tie-ins between tracks, but in actuality, you will notice that they actually don't title it as one work. It is a string of shorter songs, it's not exactly meant to be one song the way "The Great Nothing" or "The Light" are, but it's a great way to make a 22 minute section of music remain very much alive and continuous, while at the same time, maintaining individuality between tracks.

Now, this said, I still don't think this is Spock's Beard's greatest, I think I'll give that honor to their latest, "V", which is a virtually flawless album, and their debut "The Light" for the same reason. There are some tracks on DfN that are not very good, but thankfully, they are some of the shortest tracks on the album. I'm not impressed with Gibberish, which is another Gentle Giant-esque tune with similarities to "Thoughts" off Beware of Darkness, but is much less interesting. "I Can't Get it Wrong" is easily their least interesting ballad (these guys are incredible at writing great ballads that contain no cheese), and although "The Distance to the Sun" has some great moments, they've done better ballads.

The really beautiful ballad gem of this album is "Lay it Down", which is probably their most beautiful ballad to date, excluding "We All Need Some Light" off the Transatlantic debut album (technically not Spock's Beard, but pretty damn close), so I should say it's Neal Morse's second best ballad to date. Day for Night is a great almost mini-epic with an uplifting melody and great keyboard work, "Crack the Big Sky" reminds me of "Go the Way you Go" off "The Light" for it's jazz oriented sections, a funky, and very proggy tune. "The Gypsy" is a quirky, fun tune with hilarious (though odd) lyrics. "Mommy Comes Back" has some of the funniest vocoder work I've ever heard, while the final two tracks serve as a great climax, and dramatic closing of the album. I really like how they took two choruses from two different songs in "The Healing Colors..." and put them together at the end, very creative.

Bottom line, there's nothing to fear about this album, it's not going to turn you into a "Boyz II Men" [fan] or suddenly make you like Brittany Spears, it's just a great progressive album with great melodic structure.

- Eric