Sobota 5 Wrz 2009, 23:02
Having just finished Disc 1, the actual, entire piece that is The Incident I have a couple of observations I would like to make before I process this music any further. My reaction is very strange because I honestly love every other thing I have ever heard by this band (and I have 305 tracks of Porcupine Tree in my library, and know them all) and this seems to fall so far from the watermarks made by every other composition that I want to believe that I got a joke leak, instead of the real thing. Sadly, I know this not to be true. So here we go (btw, I will write this while listen to the songs themselves, so take that into consideration as to why the writing style is so raw):
Occam's Razor is a new style entrance for a Porcupine Tree album… I like the concept, but it seems to set something up for the rest of the album almost as to say "Here it comes!" its dark and creepy… and then:
we get The Blind House, which makes me feel like I'm listening to what Katatonia's new album will probably sound like (I hope not though), right into a pretty boring verse with out distortion and a emo and unexciting vocal line to accompany it. While the drumming makes it a little more interesting, it sounds like ever other beat from Fear of a Blank Planet . And then we get that wretched chorus. SW needs to stop doing that voice crackle on the high notes. Its pisses me off… (AT THIS POINT I WOULD JUST LIKE TO POINT OUT THAT PT IS CURRENTLY MY #3 BAND, AND I REALLY DO LOVE THEIR STUFF… BUUUUUT…..) this is a terrible song. Totally unexciting… at least the ambiance around the 4 minute mark spaces me out to calm down about how disappointing this is so far. AND THEN IT SOUNDS LIKE IM LISTENING TO Morning View ERA INCUBUS!!! WTF!!!
Great Expectations: How perfectly named…. alright, I'll give you that one.
Kneel and Disconnect: "You Make Me Feel So Low... SoOoO low..." I'm liking the harmonies and the piano is nice, but nothing terribly special as far as I'm concerned.
So now I'm Drawing the Line…. alright, great beginning the drumming is like an Anesthetize chill beat, with a cute bit of keyboard and and nice piano touches, with a decent vocal melody, and I love the ghastly vocals in the background…. and then…. TRAINWRECK!!!! What the fuck is that!! OMG…. …i… I'm stunned…. ok, we try to move on from that point, with the same thing as the first verse… and its ok, but we know what lurks just around the corner…. uhh… …..it gets worth with every listen… I don't even know what to say… I can't take the rest of this song after the second chorus simply because it takes of with the same tempo, and so for me, it never got resolved… wow, officially the worst Porcupine Tree song I've ever heard. That was atrocious.
The Incident: What is this? Some kind of Trent Reznor shit?! … come on dammit!!! really?!?! ok… That "Got a feeling and I want you to feel it" line fucking obnoxious. This is awful. im starting to get obscene because of how upset this is making me.
He wants to be loved, just wants to belong (x8)…. k…. I get it… the last two albums have been about how miserable teenagers feel… ok. I don't care. seriously, and I quote: "Music of rebellion makes you wanna rage, but it's made by millionaires who are twice your age"
Your Unpleasant Family: a missed opportunity. Take out that beat and loose the falsetto. It was a nice gesture to bring the sliding guitar back to remind me how awesome Even Less was… I like the hints of the running harmonies that astound me in songs like Drown With Me, Heartattack in a Layby, and Normal.
The Yellow Windows of the Evening Train: My favorite track, without question. Just a nice track to space out to.
and now I get to hear the whole version of Time Flies. i when I first heard the edited version of it, I thought how mediocre it was… I'm quit upset to find that this song is one of the better ones too. After we get past that extended session of acoustic, it sounds like a badly improvised jam session between Liquid Tension Experiment and Earth… yea… isn't weird. That's just what I hear. The transitions are blunt and very stop and go… something I don't want to hear with these sorts of segments… its just poorly composed which is why I am so mind boggled! I know Steven Wilson to be a musical genius. Why am i hearing complete unorchestrated shit? what am I missing.
Degree Zero of Liberty: ok, we start the album over, except with an awesome section in between the heavy parts.
Octane Twisted: So this is nice, we get down to the intimate side of this band. A nice little section where I feel like I'm back in 2001… but for some reason they cannot now resist the temptation to get heavy. I can say that I enjoy the spacey part of the song towards the end. Not bad.
The Seance: This song is chewed pretty badly as far as I'm concerned. The guitar is uninspiring and the vocal line just …. ugh…. is that all you can come up with Steven? The little change up at the end is cool though.
and then right into Circle of Maniacs which sounds like Wedding Nails and Futile having sex…. and then apparently Meshuggah decided to join the party…. ouch.
By the the time we get toI Drive the Hearse I am exhausted by extreme disappointment and boredom. I'm pretty sure i am going to enjoy this track more at a different time, but after that heap of shit I just sifted through, the melodies seem to be equally as unimaginative and the riffs as familiar as everything I've ever heard from every generic "Modern Rock" band on the radio… i dunno. I am particularly pessimistic about this album at this point. I am going to continue onto disc 2 now however.
… .i lie… im to exhausted. Sadly, this cant wait till tomorrow…. how sad.
some notes:
* I understand this to be a concept track of 14 parts, however I don't understand why anyone would use that as an excuse for lack of musicality. I love Voyage 34.
* I had pre-ordered this album a month ago and already put money down for it.
* This evolution (if you will) is not at all surprising. I could see it coming in the more lame moments of Fear of a Blank Planet and Deadwing. This just sounds tired and unimaginative.
* i can't FUCKING believe that I am saying all this about one of my all time favorite bands. I'm soooo disappointed.
*The whole album sounds as produced and compressed as Lazarus.