''V'' is the fifth studio album of

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

band

Spock's Beard Spock's Beard is an American progressive rock band from Los Angeles, formed in 1992 by brothers Neal (lead vocals, keyboards, guitar) and Alan Morse (guitars), John Ballard (bass), and Nick D'Virgilio (drums). Ballard was replaced by Dave M ...

released on August 22, 2000. The release of ''V'' also produced a CD single, this time promoting the track "All on a Sunday". The track itself was re-recorded in 2001 and is slightly different from the album track. Also on the single is an unreleased song called "The Truth", and the music video for "All on a Sunday". This album is available as a limited edition as well, which contains a 32-page booklet that includes an interview with the band and a personal fact-sheet on all the band members, as well as a multimedia track showing the band in the studio.

Background and writing

"Thoughts" is the second part of a cross-album suite, with other parts being featured on the Spock's Beard albums '' Beware of Darkness'' and ''

Brief Nocturnes and Dreamless Sleep ''Brief Nocturnes and Dreamless Sleep'' is the eleventh studio album by American progressive rock band Spock's Beard released on April 2, 2013. It is their first album with new singer Ted Leonard and drummer Jimmy Keegan in place of Nick D'Vir ...

'', and on the Neal Morse album ''

Momentum In Newtonian mechanics, momentum (: momenta or momentums; more specifically linear momentum or translational momentum) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. It is a vector quantity, possessing a magnitude and a direction. ...

''. ''The Great Nothing'' is the longest song written to date for the band and is autobiographical for Morse who wrote the song from the perspective of being a struggling musician, which is what led him to starting Spock's Beard in the first place. Morse said, “‘The Great Nothing’ I think I actually wrote in ‘97 and we didn’t record it until ’99, and V didn’t come out until maybe 2000. I wrote from the perspective of a depressed musician being revived by music again.”

Critical reception

In 2017, Prog Sphere named ''V'' as the best Spock's Beard album in the discography. In 2018, Classic Rock History named ''At the End of the Day'' and ''The Great Nothing'' in the top 10 essential Spock's Beard songs at #5 and #2.

Track listing

All songs written by

Neal Morse Neal Morse (born August 2, 1960) is an American singer, musician and composer based in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1992, he formed the progressive rock band Spock's Beard with his brother Alan and released an album which was moderately successful ...

except where noted.

Personnel

- lead vocals, piano, all synths, acoustic guitar *

Alan Morse Alan Morse (born August 22, 1958) is an American guitarist for the progressive rock band Spock's Beard, of which he is the only constant member. He is the brother of co-founder Neal Morse, who left the band in 2002. Morse is married to Kathryn ...

- electric guitar, vocals, cello, sampler *

Dave Meros Dave Meros (born 8 February 1956), is an American bass guitar player, best known as the bass player for progressive rock band Spock's Beard. Meros has also played or recorded with such artists as Gary Myrick, Bobby Kimball of Toto, Simon Phill ...

- bass,

stand-up bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most o ...

, vocals *

Nick D'Virgilio Nicholas D'Virgilio (born November 12, 1968), often abbreviated and referred to as NDV, is an American musician, singer, best known as a member of the progressive rock band Spock's Beard. He was also one of two drummers chosen to replace Phil C ...

- drums, percussion, vocals *

Ryo Okumoto Ryo Okumoto (奥本亮; born May 24, 1959) is a Japanese rock keyboardist, best known for his work with American progressive rock band Spock's Beard. He joined the band in 1996 and has been a member ever since. When singer and keyboardist Neal ...

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which causes a length of magnetic tape to contact a Capstan (tape recorder), capstan, which pulls i ...

Additional personnel *Katie Hagen - French horn * Chris Carmichael - violin, viola, cello *Kathy Ann Lord - English horn *Joey Pippin - trumpet Technical personnel * Rich Mouser - mixing

References

{{Authority control Spock's Beard albums 2000 albums Inside Out Music albums