1. Snow 2. The Light 3. V 4. Beware of Darkness 5. Day for Night 6. The Kindness of Strangers 7. Spock's Beard 8. X 9. Brief Nocturnes 10. The Oblivion Particle 11. Noise Floor 12. Octane 14. Feel Euphoria

13. Feel Euphoria 12. Octane 11. The Light 10. The Oblivion Particle 9. Spock's Beard 8. Day for Night 7. Beware of Darkness 6. Snow 5. Noise Floor 4. The Kindness of Strangers 3. X 2. Brief Nocturnes and Dreamless Sleep 1. V

"Snow" is a life-changer. Perfection from start to finish. Not one wasted note. But fave song will always go to "Waste Away". Saw that done live a couple times and singing the chorus with the band was magical.

@brentrusche2056

4 жыл бұрын

Agreed...'Snow' is epic and deserving of their most dense and realized work to date. If fans rank 'The Lamb...' as the best in Genesis' discography, I think 'Snow' is deserving of the same place.

@Inquisitor6321

4 жыл бұрын

I had the pleasure of seeing Snow performed live at "Morsefest 2016" in Tennessee. Great show! I also has the privilege of hanging out with the band at the hotel they were staying. They were all cool and down to earth - especially Ryo & Ted. Good times - great memories!

@erotomaniac51

3 жыл бұрын

Snow and V are the best!

@jooree7696

3 жыл бұрын

@@erotomaniac51 I can agree

@reducecotwo

2 жыл бұрын

I was hooked after 'Stranger In A Strange Land.

My mate recommended this band after seeing them at the Brudenell social club in Leeds, UK. Really enjoying discovering their work albeit 25 years after they started.

Thank you for this. I just bought my first Spock's Beard album this week. I'm half way through Snow and I'm enjoying it a lot.

Beware of Darkness, what an album! A piece of modern art!

Great fun! My top 5 would also be ones with Neal Morse. 1) Snow ( Wind at my back part 2) 2) V ( At the end of the day) 3) The kindness of Strangers (Flow) 4) Beware of Darkness (The doorway) 5) Day for night ( The healing colours of sound - suite) I absolutely love the title track of their debut, The Light but not quite so much the rest of it. Most underrated album for me is the self titled Spock's Beard..love the epic As far as the mind can see. Really enjoyed that Pete!

Never heard of them. But I checked them out and love it a lot.

Agree with your list, Pete. Thanks for turning me on to them months ago.... I dig them a lot.

Never heard of them Pete. I will give them a try. You are gold as far as you turned me in to HAWKWIND!

I am stuck in the 70s and hadn't heard of them before lockdown. Really liked what I heard. Thank you for this journey of musical discovery.

Waited so long for this Ranking. Great job, Pete.

The epic "The Light" is so so memorable for me! I saw Neal Morse do it in Pittsburgh live with the band...fantastic!

Thanks for posting, Pete!

Wonderful!! Was waiting for this !! Thank you! I just started getting into them, but need to listen to more of their albums. This helps me figure out what to buy next!

Thanks, Pete, for a great introduction to this group. I had heard of them but never listened so while I was waiting for the ads to pass on KZread before your show, I listened to them on another channel - randomly picking Brief Nocturnes and Dreamless Sleep. Liked what I had time to hear so I will be listening to more of that and your top 6 as a starter. This is why your show is so great - new music for me though old music for you and many others on this board. Thanks again!

Thank you for your ranking of Spock's Beard. Just listened to them!! They have a great sound. 🎤🎸🎵🥁

Thanks for introducing me to this band. Love Ted Leonard's voice on the newer albums. Reminds me a little of Steve Walsh. Great music!

Never hear of these guys....until 1995...since then, I am a big fan! Thanks for the ranking Pete!

Love the show I love Spock's and all their contemporaries since the 90s. Great to see people love them. My top 5 1. Beware of darkness 2. V 3. Snow 4. The kindness of strangers 5. Day for night but all are good for me

1 - The Light 2 - Beware Of Darkness 3 - V 4 - The Kindness Of Strangers 5 - Day For Night 6 - Snow

Loved you did this one, My top 2 are V and Snow, thanks for talking Spocks Beard I been with them since the start.

Pete, Thanks for the list. I've always been curious about the albums by Spock's Beard. I only own the V album and Snow. A friends had given me a copy of V years ago and I loved it. I started following Neal's musical projects with Mike Portnoy and enjoyed them all. Then, I started looking into Nick D'Virgilio's past work and saw him do a video for a reunion show he did with SB and they did the Snow album in it's entirety. So, I ordered a copy of that one. Love the channel and your passion for music. Keep it going.

Spock's Beard is my fav "Modern" prog/rock band, lost a little something when Neal left but those later albums are still really good.

I only own V. Blew my mind. Superb talent, excellent craftsmanship & chops. Overt elements of Beatles, Genesis, Gentle Giant etc. Long, expansive epics, heavy rockers, bits of post-psychedelia, but VERY accessible. This is musical music, if that makes any sense. And yes, overabundance of gorgeous hooks and melodies, it's ridiculous. Worth exploring for those who aren't too proud...

I really love your reviews.

Was closing in on 40 when I finally found a Spock's Beard CD at a Best Buy in Little Rock, Arkansas. I had been seeing their name pop up on message boards in mid-nineties, but always struggled with buying stuff I had never heard. Day before a long vacation drive, I found The Kindness of Strangers at my local Best Buy and took a chance and was blown away immediately. Grew up on all the classic Prog bands, but they had mostly disappeared by then and out of nowhere, Spock's Beard/Neal Morse comes along and these past years have so incredibly rich with Prog and all the sub-genres of Prog...revived by mainly the Mighty Beard! Thanks for bringing some additional attention to this amazing band...great ranking as well!

I’ll just rank the Neal Morse era: 6. Day For Night 5. The Light 4. Snow 3. Beware Of Darkness 2. The Kindness Of Strangers 1. V

@georggabriel7852

3 жыл бұрын

Agree:)

Love these guys

Thanks for doing this Pete!! Spock's Beard brings back so many great memories!! Back in '99 I really got really into them for a while (along with discovering iQ, the Flower Kings, and Porcupine Tree)...and up until Neal left, I was becoming one of those fans that the band members started recognizing, lol. I can recall seeing them at least three times (along with seeing Neal fronting Transatlantic in '00). Pretty sure that that was it. But the concerts all occurred within a single year, making my face fresh in their random-access memories. I remember having a lot of great conversations with the guys (including their manager; this guy who went by the name "Christmas"). The bassist (Dave Meros) was usually the most talkative, and would always love to discuss some of the harder-edge rock/metal we were both into, along with talking about his enthusiasm he had working with Eric Burdon (The Animals), whom he was also playing for at the time. One time I even got to put on the hero hat, and save one of Ryo's vintage synth modules, before it slammed onto the concrete from four feet high, after a roadie didn't see the bump while wheeling out the short-platformed dolly Ryo's gear was stacked on!! 😂 I kinda fell out of the loop after Neal left. Not so much because of any loss in interest, but rather because of being at the age when I needed to start focusing more on how I was going to make my own musical endeavors into some sort of "career". As for how I'd rank the six Neal-era albums, I think categorically of them all as being a series of three different pairs (two less-accessible albums, two more-accessible, and finally two conceptual ones). I'd probably pick V over Snow, definitely Day for Night over The Kindness of Strangers, and then *perhaps* The Light over Beware of Darkness? (Tough call on those first two albums, as they're very similar, and were both part of my initial experience of hearing SB.) As for which of the three categories I'm drawn to most, it's definitely not the more-accessible two (even though I'd agree about Day for Night being an exceptionally-balanced prog/pop thing, that just somehow works for the most part). The first two vs. last two just depends on whether or not I'm in the mood for conceptual records. But I think I find myself leaning more towards the less-conceptual as I age.

Thanks for this Pete. I stopped listening at Octane, but you've encouraged me to go and give their more recent stuff a listen.

Great show Pete. Spock's Beard is incredible...My favorite is The Light. Snow is a masterpiece. I owned all Neal's works of SB discography

LOVE this band😃

Thank you Pete Im new to Spock's Beard. The first time I heard the song The Light I was simply amazed, what a monster of a song, it got everything

Hey Pete. I've heard of Spock's Beard but never listened to anything from them until now. After seeing your great album ranking I listened to the Beware of Darkness album on KZread. I liked it a lot! Heard influences from Yes, Jethro Tull, Crack the Sky and Pink Floyd among others! Will listen to more! Thank you so much!

A terrific band which I've had the pleasure seeing live 3 times. Once with Neal, once with Nick and once with Nick and Ted who duetted on "The Doorway". The audience joked with Ted because of his resemblance to Matt LeBlanc and when he was talking to the audience someone yelled "how YOU doin'?" Not only are they great musicians, they're good showmen as well who win the audience over.

Interesting countdown, would love to see your take on The Tangent's catalogue. Pretty familiar for fans of The Flower Kings.

Thanks for doing this....Spock's Beard is one of my all time favorite bands. I think you pretty much nailed the list. I think the only changes I would have would be for X to be a couple of spots higher. The Oblivion Particle to be a little higher and I would jump Day For Night to the top and bump the others down one spot to make room for it. OK I got to go now, I think I am gonna start at the beginning and listen to all of them!!!!

They are freaking awesome!

1) Day for Night 2) The Light 3) Beware of Darkness 4) The Kindness of Strangers 5) V 6) Snow 7) Brief Nocturnes and Dreamless Sleep 8) The Oblivion Particle 9) Noise Floor 10) Spock’s Beard 11) X 12) Octane 13) Feel Euphoria

Saw them waaaay back opening for DT. Fan ever since. Neal Morse is melodic genius.

Only just discovered these talented guys. Magic. Was with you until half way. Top end I'd put 'Kindness, The Light and Snow'. Snow live is excellent.

Thanks for doing The Beard, Peter. My list would be close to yours, though the big difference would be Day For Night, which I've always thought is the weakest of their first 6 or 7 albums. I'd have Snow in my top 3, too.

Great ranking and love your videos. Got into these shortly after dream theatre and porcupine tree who i saw on the scenes tour - all in sheffield. Worked with some older guys and caught local gigs of older uk bands and other prog staples like tull, gong , jan Ackerman (focus), wakeman, carl palmer (elp). I'd throw some newer prog at them (including flower kings so cant wait for that) and they got me into the above plus yes, genesis, marillion (seen them too briliant) and of course the mighty floyd. Snow was my 1st album proper although I'd heard bits and pieces of the older albums (downloaded on Napster in those days). I still go back to that. Enjoyed the 2 post post morse albums way more than you but thats only cos I was into them at that time. Plus the 1st 2 Morse albums before i gave up on him. Keep up the superb content. I love all genres and watch all the ranking series. Would love to see gong, wasp, roger waters, def leppard, springsteen, crimson, megadeth. Uve covered all my other favourites - especially enjoyed queensryche as I'd given up on them years ago so that was useful. Plus Alice cooper as I didnt know which older albums to tackle! Sorry it's long. Its lock down. I'm p****** and I love the content - thanks.

Fantastic band. These are all good and hard to rank, but today I am going with: 13 The Oblivion Particle 12 Feel Euphoria 11 Octane 10 Spock's Beard 9 Day For Night 8 X 7 Brief Nocturnes and Dreamless Sleep 6 Noise Floor 5 Snow 4 The Kindness of Strangers 3 Beware of Darkness 2 The Light 1 V

OK. As a lockdown project I'm gonna broaden my artistic & musical horizons. Iain. Herts. UK

Just discovered this band and found your overview of their work very interesting. Listening to 'Snow'

Gotta check them out. Good video !👍

I wish all of these albums were on Spotify :((

They are one of the few bands that have long songs that keep you interested throughout the whole song

My 1st Spock album I heard was Kindness of Strangers and nothing will be able to ever get that of my Number 1 spot. Even if it was just for nostalgic reasons.I never got over Neill Morse leaving the band. The singer song writer vibe he gave to the band in combination with his rock vocals to me really grounded the band. As the dude would say it, 'it really tied the room together' ; ). It's one of the thing that made it stand out in the prog scene at the time. It isn't just classic prog, it is also takes a lot of cues from other traditional heroes like Crosby Still Nash and Young. Plus... It really has some hard hitting tracks! The distorted base and and hard hitting drums make it sound huge and that is coming from a kid who was only listning to Metal and punk at that time.

Cool Band ! Love it !!!

The Neal Morse era of Spock's Beard is still to this day the band's best music they have ever made with him and he is a very multi talented musician / singer and songwriter, the NDV stuff is okay but a bit normal for me, I have really enjoyed the recent albums with Ted Leonard and he's got an amazing voice, Snow for me is a Spock's Beard prog masterpiece

Thanks, Huge fan Pete 👍🏻 V, snow, kindness to strangers , beware, brief nocturnes, day for night are favs, like them all

I love Spock's Beard. Seen them a few times in the UK, sadly (except the High Voltage festival reunion) not with Neal. 3 great singers with Ted, VDV and Neal singing some amazing songs. Once met Ryo after a show in Manchester (UK) and he's a crazy as he is on stage. Brilliant stuffed a great review but my 1 & 2 are "Snow" at #1 and "V" at 2.

I guess I need to check out Spock's Beard. Thanks Pete!

Been a fan since the 90's a track appeared on a sampler and it was the shining light on it. So bought the album and then another and another and the DVD's . I have seen them many times in every line up, If they come to the U.K I am there. Seen Morse even more often as he has so many outlets . Genius music re awakened my interest in new Prog /

Thanks again Pete for covering yet another one of my favorite bands. Personally for me they have never released a subpar album and ranking them would be impossible. Modern American Prog is in fine hands with this band no matter what the lineup is. Without a doubt one of the best bands you will ever see live as well. The level of musicianship is mind boggling and almost inhuman. A perfect combination of all the styles of Prog that afficianados love with pop sensibility that mainstream should embrace but yet again fail to get. Its their loss.

Just listened to nocturnes and dreamless....first go with the band...its brilliant...thats 2 new bands I have found from your amazing channel...this band and Transatlantic....love them both and collecting the cds frantically...lol....also you have inspired me to buy the whole yes studio albums which I almost have apart from Talk as for some reason that one has mental prices everywhere...but hey....its great getting back into cds again

Great underrated band. Wonderful musicians, even tho i miss Neal Morse songwriting nowadays. Thanks Pete, for pulling these guys up. They deserve it. How about doing the same for Threshold ? Another wonderful band.

Thank you Pete! I've I been a fan of Spocks Beard since I first heard Beware of Darkness. I love all the ones that Neal Morse are on. I have to dig deeper into the other SB releases. I followed Neal after he left and kind of lost track of the later SB releases. I've experienced that when you try to introduce a new band and they totally write it off because they never heard of it. Happened to me with Pain of Salvation. Take care man. I love your videos!

Great ranking Pete although I would have put V at number 3 simply because of The Great Nothing one of the most beautiful epic songs ever recorded. The ending still gives me shivers. As mentioned in a comment below how about an Enchant album ranking? Keep up the excellent work. Love this channel

I loved their version of George Harrison's Beware of Darkness. It's my fav album of theirs too.

"Beware of Darkness" is one of the greatest prog albums all time. The Light is also excellent, utterly unique - there's never been an album like it.

earlier this year I first listened to the album X, the opening song The Edge of the in Between got me hooked immediately!

I first heard them when they opened for Dream Theaters Scenes From a Memory tour in 1999. I was blown away by them. Bought The Kindness of strangers the next day.

To be fair, stepping away from the context of Neal Morse Beard, which was always a combination of brilliant and hit or miss, yet still beloved and imprinted deeply in our brains for all time, the new Ted Leonard stuff is freaking great, and in particular I find Noise Floor to be brilliant, with Breathe Another Day one of the best prog rock songs I have heard in years.

Harm's Way made me get goosebumps

My favourite is Beware of darkness too :-) Love The light too.

One thing I'll say about Octane - I do think it's a pretty good album. It has perhaps one of the strongest openings of any Spock's Beard release. The band is firing on all cylinders on that first track, drawing you into the perspective of whoever is behind the wheel of the car. The rest of the album is consistently at least B-grade material. It's really a testament to SB as a band to say it's one of their 'less good' albums.

Neal Morse is my favorite artist ever.

As you named songs I was like "oh that's my favorite". Next list of songs "oh that's my favorite"

I really only know three of their albums well enough to rate. I like them, just haven't heard a lot. 3) Snow 2) Beware Of Darkness 1) The Light Thanks, Pete! Edit: After watching, I'm going to check out those newer albums with Ted singing, for sure.

I too, am a huge SB fan, and even a bigger Neal Morse fan. Love this run down. I would have the Neal years in the top too. Great stuff. You probably already know, but Neal Morse has continued the "Thoughts" series on his solo stuff.

Hey, Sea of tranquility! Can you please do Neal Morse?? That guy is my favorite! You can't disagree. I really want to see your thoughts (no pun intended) because you're a very good ranker.

Dude, V has one of my favorite opening tracks of ALL TIME! I totally want to do an animation with it one day...if I can get the permission that is. Lol

Hi there 👊 Some news about SB ? The best neoprog Band ever !!!! Greetings from Brazil 🇧🇷

I love this band but haven't enjoyed the Ted Leonard albums. Perhaps because I never cared for Enchant. Some interesting parallels with Genesis: Both bands had their singer leave and the drummer become the new vocalist Both went from a 5-piece to a 4-piece This happened both times after their 6th album This 6th album was a concept album This 6th album was a double album I think V is my favourite.

Beloved band. Beware of Darkness and V my favourites. Basically whatever Neil Morse touches turns into gold.

@seaoftranquilityprog

4 жыл бұрын

Totally agree! Great songwriter, and I'm a big fan of his vocals.

5 is my favorite it's so up beat "YES" like, Beware of Darkness is #2, If "Thoughts" is GG Snow and the light is like Peter Gabriel's Genesis you are right. Great band!

You should rank the Enchant albums.

@Proggydan

4 жыл бұрын

Amen to that. I am currently working on posting my own ranking of them soon

@andya2665

3 жыл бұрын

Awesome band

@omnomchomsky

2 жыл бұрын

Who is Enchant?

@mikereiss4216

Жыл бұрын

@@omnomchomsky Imagine a more boring version of Rush.

Love this band in each of their phases. When Neal left I said they should call it a day; I was wrong. 'Feel Euphoria' is a half a good album as they found their feet post Neal. Aside from that, brilliant.

Haven’t heard many of their albums, but Snow is amazing. Beware of Darkness is also a damn good listen!

"They have 13 albums" I love these guys, but I didn't realize they had that many. Where have I been...

Old stuff the best for me. But there is a hidden gem on their newer albums which is fantastic called Bennet built a time machine.

Hi Pete...will you be reviewing the music of the band Big Big Train? Love your take on LP rankings.

Posting before even watching the video - curious how my list ranks against yours : 13) Feel Euphoria 12) Day For Night 11) Brief Nocturnes & Dreamless Sleep 10) Octane 9) Spock's Beard 8) The Oblivion Particle 7) Noise Floor (with Cutting Room EP included, otherwise it swaps places with Oblivion Particle) 6) The Kindness Of Strangers 5) X 4) Snow 3) The Light 2) V 1) Beware The Darkness

I really like all of their eras. They are all good.

Need to do a ranking of Glass Hammer

Speaking of Ted Leonard, how about an Enchant 'best to worst'? 🤗

@isaacgabrielvalbuena2896

4 жыл бұрын

Never heard them, what are they all about?

@ravensnhokies

4 жыл бұрын

Enchant are put in a blender Rush, Marillion, Saga, and strong dash of Progmetal. Add a little Journey for color, and top with Kansas Steve Walsh like vocals. My favorite band. Please Pete we need a RTA for Enchant!! And by the way they are still around just very inactive. I think they have some material in demos, just gotta find time to complete it.

@isaacgabrielvalbuena2896

4 жыл бұрын

@@ravensnhokiesNow that sounds great! Will check them out for sure! Greetings and take care

@ravensnhokies

4 жыл бұрын

@@isaacgabrielvalbuena2896 Id check out their Live at Last concert for a good respresentation of Enchant. The full DVD is on KZread somewhere.

@jorgealzate7130

4 жыл бұрын

YES, PLEASE!! Enchant is my favorite band of all time.

My fav SB song is Jaws of Heaven. I don't think any of their other songs can quite match the excellence of classic prog music like it does. It's just fantastic all the way through.

I have never ever heard of this band before (unknown in Denmark) - but after listening to some of the songs.....sounds good

Stopped listening to Spock’s Beard with the departure of Neal Morse. Thanks for the info...going to revisit.

Pete: please rank IQ, Marillion and Magellan!

@ModernDayWarrior2112

4 жыл бұрын

Erich Toll I believe he’s done Marillion already.

Met these guys several times at RosFest and Cruise to the Edge. Very friendly and put on a great show. Faves are V, Snow, Beware of Darkness & Day for Night. I agree with the post-Neal stuff not as good. Neal also doubled on keyboard and guitar so there was more than just Alan on guitar (needed).

My Faves are Beware....Kindness...and Day for Night!!! I'm a big fan of Ted Leonard too, so i hope for a Enchant Ranking!!!

Man I wore out the Snow album when it first came out. Still love it the most of their albums, barely beats V and Octane for me.

My Top 3: 1. V 2. The Light 3. Snow

Hawkwind .. one of the first bands I ever saw on Hastings Pier .. Goode Olde England .. 74 or so. Also saw Baker Gurvitz (with Ginger, of course) a coupla times, Gong, Procol Harum, Groundhogs (wonderful stuff.. esp 'Split') .. oh NosTal Gia .. :-)

I enjoyed ever album that Shocks beard have ever released.Honestly think they have never made a bad album 😎