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With the exodus of frontman Neal Morse, some fans of Spock’s Beard have lamented that the band could never live up to its past greatness.  On more than one occasion, I have even heard fans express anger with Morse for following what he thought God wanted him to do.  Go figure!  Couple that with the fact (or my opinion to be more accurate) that last year’s Snow was the Beard’s best effort to date (not to mention one of my top ten albums of all-time) and you can see why the release of Feel Euphoria was met with much skepticism.

It suffices to say that Feel Euphoria exceeds all expectations.  It’s not quite to the level of Snow.  Few albums are.  But drummer Nick D’Virgilio does a more than adequate job of filling in at lead vocals and the album is still easily identifiable as a Spock’s Beard opus.  Most surprisingly successful, in the wake of the concept-album Snow, is their incorporation of a mini-concept, “A Guy Named Sid,” into the second half of Feel Euphoria.  This six-song collection tells us the story of a kid with a troubled childhood who gained a lot of power, lost it, then wondered why nobody cared.

As usual, song styles vary tremendously across the album from the progressive metal of “Same Old Story” to the Queenesque acapella soundings of “Sid’s Boys Choir.”  What I have described as a “Yes meets White Heart” sound is still there, but there are also noticeable U2 and Beatles influences on this album.

It is hard to pick highlights from Feel Euphoria because of its tremendous variety and tight flow.  The opening track (you’ll definitely hear U2 here), “Onomatopoeia,” is a head-bobbin’ hardcore groover featuring the Beard’s classic build-down and build-up stylings and makes for an excellent introduction to the album.  “The Bottom Line” opens up like “Far, Far Away” by King’s X until Ryo Okumoto’s keyboard solo kicks in and the song settles into a relaxing and intelligent display of musicianship.  The title-track “Feel Euphoria” is appropriately psychadelic with an electronica emphasis, while “East of Eden, West of Memphis” is a solid heavy pop track with impressive utilization of background vocals.

Listeners should be aware there are two different versions of Feel Euphoria.  The basic version features 13 tracks and comes in a standard-size case.  For a few extra pence, you can get a box version, which won’t fit in your CD rack and contains two additional songs, neither of which match up to anything else on the album.  But you also get a 11-song sampler disc of other quality Inside Out artists such as O.S.I. and Flower Kings.  It’s probably worth it except for the shape of the little box, which is even too wide to fit in the double-CD slot on my CD rack.  But that’s a small price to play for a disc that is in the running for my album of the year.

Dan Singleton 8/31/2003