Spock's Beard
Noise Floor

Spock’s Beard return with their thirteenth album, an album they call Noise Floor that also comes with an EP with stuff from the cutting room floor. I would claim more evolution than revolution when it comes to the sound and the music, and that it isn’t an unlucky thirteenth album. Drummer Nick returns to the band for this album, not for touring though but the other guys hopes he will be able to record future albums in the studio with them even in the future. They claim to have made a bit more direct songs that gives a more immediate reward for the listener, at least compared with the predecessor The Oblivion Particle. And I am not very impressed by the artwork; it seems a bit of a downward step compared with the albums preceding it. But what about the music then, is it any good?

Some would claim that it is still not very easy to take to and while this album may be a bit more immediate or direct compared with the predecessor we can hardly claim that it is a cavalcade of hit songs. It is progressive rock, a bit complex at times, it may require some listening to in order to reap the rewards, there is much depth and variation and the playing time of almost seventy minutes feels perfectly fine, I think that kind of sums up the first impressions of this album. The vocals are very good, as is the production, I think they have found an excellent sound for this album. It sounds very much like Spock’s Beard, yet as always with a new and fresher sound – quite a step from the predecessor called The Oblivion Particle, though I would not say that it is a positive step, though not really a negative one either.

Spock’s Beard keeps delivering strong progressive rock music, this new album should certainly appeal to their fans and perhaps even gain them new fans. It is an album of good songs throughout and I don’t think there is any particularly disturbing weakness to be found anywhere, everything feels really well put together and you might think that it is a finely crafted album – I know I do. And I think that the songs are of equal quality, they have strength and they work, they are enjoyable to listen to. The album also has enough depth to last for many plays, perhaps even over and over.

So, therefore I think the conclusion has to be that this is a really good album, another great effort by this band that keeps delivering strong stuff. The recommendation is definitely to have a closer look at what this band has to offer. It may not be quite as good as the albums preceding it, especially not as good as Brief Nocturns and Dreamless Sleep – but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t look closer at this album because Spock’s Beard still knows their craft and there are not a whole lot of progressive rock albums that can be described as better than Noise Floor.

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