Snow (Spec) [Extra tracks, Special Edition]

Spock's Beard | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 30, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 2007
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Extra tracks, Special Edition
• Label: Metal Blade
• ASIN: B000VAK270
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (154 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #103,595 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Made Alive/Overture

2. Stranger in a Strange Land

3. Long Time Suffering

4. Welcome to NYC

5. Love Beyond Words

6. The 39th Street Blues (I'm Sick)

7. Devil's Got My Throat

8. Open Wide the Flood Gates

9. Open the Gates, Pt. 2

10. Solitary Soul

See all 11 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Second Overture

2. 4th of July

3. I'm the Guy

4. Reflection

5. Carie

6. Looking for Answers

7. Freak Boy

8. All Is Vanity

9. I'm Dying

10. Freak Boy, Pt. 2

See all 17 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Spectacularly executed and ambitious, this double-CD marks a logical plateau for Spock's Beard: the full-blown concept album. While there's no denying the band's central irony--they make what is essentially '70s retro-prog--it's executed by founder and vocalist Neal Morse and company (brother Alan on guitars, bassist Dave Meros, Ryo Okumoto on keyboards, drummer Nick D'Virgilio) with compelling zeal and wide-eyed wonder. There's ever-so-brief nods to thrash metal and industrial abrasiveness, but the touchstones remain the glorious vocal harmonies of Yes and Kansas, the moody pomp of early Genesis, and the machine-gun arpeggios and jagged time-shifts of King Crimson. The band has the good sense to mock the genre's inherent excesses (and itself) on "Ladies and Gentleman, Mister Roy Okumoto on the Keyboards," even as Okumoto resurrects Keith Emerson's late-'60s torture-the-Hammond routine. If the story (albino misfit Snow finds corruption in the big city, eventually becomes the Messiah, ultimately prefers personal redemption) cribs motifs off everything from Tommy to The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, its message of renewed hope and innocence reclaimed can seem mighty appealing, especially after decades of punk cynicism and postmodern navel gazing. Hold those lighters high! --Jerry McCulley

Product Description

Limited edition contains the 2 CD digibook version of Snow with a 28 page four color booklet. It comes in a deluxe box plus an extra bonus disc with 10 tracks 'Southside of the Sky', 'Good Don't Last/Open Wide the Gates' (live acoustic), 'Working on devil --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Addition to Proggressive Rock Concept Albums, January 25, 2003

By 

Lonnie E. Holder "The Review's the Thing" (Columbus, Indiana, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Snow (Audio CD)

I love a controversial album. Any time the comments for an album are strongly polarized you realize there must be something about the album. I had to listen to this CD for weeks to grasp the music, and listen to and read the lyrics many times. Because it took so long for me to grasp the concept of the lyrics and the art of the music, I consider this CD accessible only to those willing to invest time into it. This music is definitely progressive, even though that hallmark of progressive music, the very long track, is not in evidence. No one will confuse this music with pop or top 40 radio.

The concept of "Snow" may have some similarities to "Tommy" and "Powder", but whatever those similarities may be, there are also many differences too. Tommy was a victim of circumstances and his parents. He did not select his path, nor could he be aware of what was happening, giving that he was "...deaf, blind and dumb." Powder had the potential to be Snow, but the story there was more about prejudice and understanding (or the lack thereof), than Snow's story.

Snow exits the world at an early age (mentally), refusing to deal with the torment to which he is subjected. Eventually he wakes up and leaves home, going to New York City. There he witnesses the downside of life, the homeless, prostitutes, and drug addicts. Snow senses these people need something or someone to help them, and believes he can help them. Apparently Snow is able to provide people help, and though perhaps not quite messianic, he does get a big head. However, a girl pops his balloon and he realizes that it was his vanity that has made him believe he was any different than that boy he once was being tormented by other children. The only difference now is that people were impressed by what he could do for them, and not by whom he really was. Snow then begins "dying", though that death is the death of ego and not a physical death. Though others have said that Snow then seeks redemption, in truth he does not. Snow merely comes to realize that the answers he sought were not in the artificial reality he had created. He realized he had to go back home and face himself and find the truths within.

While the construction of the album is such that it is not at first accessible, from a different angle Snow's story is the story of us all. We each want to believe that we can change the world. We each want to be admired by others. We each want that special girl (or guy) to fall for us. If our dreams are realistic, if we have chosen a path that mirrors the essential us, then we have chosen well and we will be comfortable with ourselves throughout our lives. However, many others will continually seek and never find, never realizing that the answer was always within. This is the story of "Snow".

The concept is so complex and yet simple, and yet I believe this is the first time anyone has tried to cover this concept musically. It has been done many times in books. Many movies have been made about the journey of a specific individual, but Snow's journey is really the journey of us all, exaggerated so that each of us might more readily grasp the journey's essence. Listen to this album and listen to the story of your life.

A word about the music: Clearly modern, flavored by Spock's Beard's retro-70s styling, and yet, less reliant on 70s styling. At various points you can find short musical themes that will remind you of Jethro Tull, King Crimson, Yes, perhaps Genesis and The Moody Blues. However, while I thought "V" was more strongly influenced by progressive groups of the late 60s and 70s, I believe this album shows a further maturing of Spock's Beard's sound. While much of the music is still melodic in the vein of "V", just as much if not more owes influences to newer metal and alternative, and the melodic portions are often rudely and appropriately interrupted by nearly an-harmonic crashes of discordant guitars and drums, awaking you from the lull of the melodic music.

While much of the music deserves comment, track 13 on disk two is a pleasant interruption in the heavy story. "Ladies and Gentlemen, Mister Ryo Okumoto on the Keyboards" does give you a pause to not take this music, as serious as it is, too seriously. In a way, perhaps it also exaggerates the excesses of progressive rock, and tells the listener that the artists realize this typical criticism of progressive rock, and rather than avoid it, revels in it.

There is so much breadth to this music that to fully dissect it and explain it takes much more space than is available here. Perhaps there is an occasional weakness in the music or the lyrics. Perhaps not. It is easy to be critical while you do not have the ability to create a concept such as "Snow". I am not familiar with the "The Lamb" quoted so many times in other reviews. I am very familiar with The Who's "Tommy". The concepts are different. The execution is extremely different. Both works have their strengths and weaknesses. I am glad there are now two (or three if you count "The Lamb"). I do not think "Tommy" was surpassed, but perhaps equaled in a way. I hope that one day another adventurous artist will feel compelled to assail a concept album about the human condition. If that work is anywhere close to "Tommy" or "Snow", it will be a great addition to the genre, and will be something to applaud, as is "Snow". Five stars for attempting an incredible concept and mostly succeeding.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of those... albums for life, December 5, 2004

By 

Karol Trojanowski (Poland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Snow (Audio CD)

Now, when have been listening to it for a year, I can finally give my full review.

This album doesn't just stay there in your CD player - I couldn't listen to it for more than an hour through a few days. I didn't actually like any single song in whole, they seemed too 'christian' or even 'Kelly family' (to say the worst) to me. I'd been listening to much heavier hard-rock and metal before I got this, so I was a bit disappointed with the album, and all people on the web kept on singing heavenly anthems for it. I just didn't get it. But, I paused listening to it for a few days, and melodies started to come back to my head. I couldn't stop singing Long Time Suffering. And that was it. I suddenly started to like it, song by song.

At first it sounds like some average rock playing, with some gospel or christian influences, and some prog-likeness as well. Not very attractive at all. Don't throw it away! Leave it in your CD player for a few days more.

This album has a texture that shows after a month of listening to, or so. Its simplicity is mischieving, there is a whole lot of enregetic, fun and spontanous rock playing there, as well as sheer musicianship. It's incredibly deep, coherent and thought-over. Spock's Beard, and especially Neal Morse are very intelligent people and excellent musicians. All the melodies are introduced almost unnoticed, to come back later and give you that nostalgy chill over your body. All the songs are excellent, either by themselves or as a part of the whole. The arrangements are genial. This is musicianship that is only achieved by true geniuses, and I have heard only a few of them. Neal Morse one of them. Too bad he left the band and gave up rock.

Why do I call it an "album for life"? It saved me, I can say something like that. I've had some hard time during the last year, just plain growing up, but you all know how it goes... breaking up with my girlfriend, studying hard, with no time, nor friends at hand. This album gives me so much energy and joy. I can just feel how these guys love to play. Every single listening is a life-giving experience. Try it. Try it hard :) It will work, I promise.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fond Farewell, December 11, 2002

By 

The Wickerman (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Snow (Audio CD)

There seems to be a lot of mixed feeling about this album, and it's easy to see why. This is very diferent from the usual Spock's Beard fare. Gone are the sprawling 20-minute epics, giving way to shorter tracks that all flow into each other, ala Pink Floyd's "The Wall", and just the general feel of the album is different. It's darker, less playful, and the lyrics aren't as abstract and off the wall. But do any of these things mean this album isn't great? Well, perhaps to some, but I don't think so.

While I am disappointed to see that no song on here tops 10 minutes (IMO, no one can write a long song like Neal), there is certainly no less music here. At nearly two hours in length, we have here a full-fledged double concept album reminiscent of the glory days of "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" and the aforementioned "Wall". And, although my opinion is not shared by everyone, I personally think it is every bit as good as those albums, in fact, I think it's even better. Despite the many criticisms, I think this is a stellar album. There's plenty of diversity, the musicianship is tight, and the melodies are just beautiful. Neal really does have an incredible ear for melody.

The album starts out soft and peaceful with "Made Alive", and launches into an awesome uptempo overture. The story is of an albino man (nicknamed Snow) who moves to New York, and struggles with life, love, and his newly discovered healing powers. It sounds a bit like a ripoff of the movie "Powder", but the story is completely different, and I think, just as good. There are fun, rocking parts ("Freak Boy", "Welcome to NYC", "Devil's Got My Throat"), and softer, more emotional parts ("Love Beyond Words", "Wind At My Back"), and everything fits together perfectly.

The guitar and keyboard melodies that weave about the songs are just beautiful, and expertly done. Neal is a master of acoustic guitar, and Alan's emotional solos really add something special to the songs. But, if there's one person that truly stands out here, it's Nick. As usual, he cranks out a firy performance on the kit, playing fast and complex beats, while always managing to keep it remarkably tasteful, but he surprised us all when he stepped up for lead vocals on two tracks. The first of them, "Carie", is an incredible ballad, which more than shows off his stunning vocal prowess (great acoustic solo from Neal as well). The second track, "Looking for Answers", is more upbeat, and also excellent. I heard they released it as a single, but I haven't been fortunate enough to hear it get any airplay.

A few other noteworthy tracks include "I'm Dying" (great hard rock song with an emotional chorus), the soft but cathcy "Open Wide the Flood Gates", and Ryo Okumoto's uplifting solo spot. But, for the almost overwhelming abundance of music here, there is nary a dull moment to be found. This was surely uncharted territory for Neal, but I'd say he has accomplished this feat. I'm really not sure yet if it's their best album (although it may very well be), but it's definitely a solid album, as to be expected from the Beard, and undoubtedly one of the best of the year (tied with Dream Theater's "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence"). If you're a SB fan, you owe it to yourself to check this out.

Sadly, it appears that this is the last album we will ever get that was graced by Neal's godlike touch. He was truly a brilliant artist, and his departure from the music business is a sad thing to see. One of the last lines he ever spoke in his music career was "My soul has been kissed just because you exist". This line can indeed be applied to his incredible contributions to the prog scene, and music in general. Neal, we're really sorry to see you go, but we will be forever grateful for the incredible music you have given us. Good luck, in whatever you do.