Oh... also...
... here are some album reviews
Oh dear! Sorry Mr Wilson. After idolising your music for eleven years, buying every one of your records and introducing literally hundreds of people to your music I'm now going to slate your two most recent releases!
Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet
4/10
Because I rarely listen to tracks on their own, I don't really see much point in separate track analysis so I'll just tell you how I've felt after every time I've listened to the album: Expectant. It seems to go nowhere. I find that it's a nu-metal tuned, samey, repetitive and rather dull meander through everything you'd expect them to do after their last couple of albums. You'd be pretty hard pushed to find any album that didn't have high points, but in this record the high points even seem less interesting than every previous PT record. This is no surprise - I've absolutely loved almost 20 records made by this band and have spent nearly a whole day worth of hours seeing them play live. Not everything can be amazing, and with the exception of "Anesthetize" this certainly isn't.
Blackfield - Blackfield II
3/10
The premise of Blackfield initially seemed interesting. Israeli Glam Rock superstar Aviv Geffen forces Steven Wilson to write pop songs. The problem with the first album was that you could tell it was made up of great mid-length songs, but they all prematurely fade out between 3 and 4 minutes. Unless they serve some sort of artistic point, fade-outs are the worst way to end a song, ever. Anyway - this album - less fade-outs (good...), more choruses (hmmm...) and less catchy songs (oh dear...). If "Fear of a Blank Planet" was a bit "dull", Blackfield II is "dull light". Be that as it may, "Christenings" and "End of The World" are wonderful tracks.
Oh dear! Sorry Mr Wilson. After idolising your music for eleven years, buying every one of your records and introducing literally hundreds of people to your music I'm now going to slate your two most recent releases!
Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet
4/10
Because I rarely listen to tracks on their own, I don't really see much point in separate track analysis so I'll just tell you how I've felt after every time I've listened to the album: Expectant. It seems to go nowhere. I find that it's a nu-metal tuned, samey, repetitive and rather dull meander through everything you'd expect them to do after their last couple of albums. You'd be pretty hard pushed to find any album that didn't have high points, but in this record the high points even seem less interesting than every previous PT record. This is no surprise - I've absolutely loved almost 20 records made by this band and have spent nearly a whole day worth of hours seeing them play live. Not everything can be amazing, and with the exception of "Anesthetize" this certainly isn't.
Blackfield - Blackfield II
3/10
The premise of Blackfield initially seemed interesting. Israeli Glam Rock superstar Aviv Geffen forces Steven Wilson to write pop songs. The problem with the first album was that you could tell it was made up of great mid-length songs, but they all prematurely fade out between 3 and 4 minutes. Unless they serve some sort of artistic point, fade-outs are the worst way to end a song, ever. Anyway - this album - less fade-outs (good...), more choruses (hmmm...) and less catchy songs (oh dear...). If "Fear of a Blank Planet" was a bit "dull", Blackfield II is "dull light". Be that as it may, "Christenings" and "End of The World" are wonderful tracks.