Porcupine Tree Lists-thread - Currently rocking you: mikemangioy

[mikemangioy]

Let’s wrap this up.

THE INCIDENT

So, The Incident. The final album as of now by Porcupine Tree. And I love it, even though it’s a bit underwhelming, especially after such awesome and perfect records as In Absentia, Deadwing and Fear Of A Blank Planet. But still, The Incident doesn’t deserve, in my opinion of course, all the hate it gets. It’s still a pretty great record.

So, as we all know this album is basically divided in two parts which are indipendent from one another: the first part contains the giant 52-minutes song cycle, it’s like an album on its own. And the second part features four more songs, it’s like a bonus EP. As far as the mood goes in this record, it may be the darkest record PT ever did with the exception of In Absentia. Yeah, even FOABP is lighter than this, and that’s saying a lot.

The song cycle is inspired by a thought that Steven had while he was driving: he came across an accident on the street, and he saw the sign “Incident: please slow down” and he thought that it was a rather cold word for something so dramatic. And that’s how the song cycle concept was born.

The cycle is basically formed by four types of compositions:
-Main song
-Standalone transition song
-Intro/outro song
-Suite

This is how the cycle is divided:

PART 1
Occam’s Razor (Intro song to the cycle)
The Blind House (Main song)
Great Expectations (Standalone transition song)
Kneel And Disconnect (intro song)->Drawing the line (MS)
The Incident (MS)
Your Unpleasant Family (STS)
The Yellow Windows Of The Evening Train (IS) -> Time Flies (MS)
PART 2
Degree Zero Of Liberty (Intro to the second part)
Octane Twisted/The Séance (Suite) -> Circle Of Manias (OS)
I Drive The Hearse (MS)

I made this scheme to help me with the rankings, as I don’t consider the cycle to be one single song, it’s more of an album in the album (like Six Degrees).

Enough with the talking, let’s dive in The Incident *dundunDUUUUUN*


The album opens up with Occam’s Razor which is basically an intro to the whole thing, I won’t rank this because of that. And also because it’s just a bunch of D chords and some creepy noises, which set the tone in a great way.

After some dramatic silence the album itself finally begi-

DUUUNDUUNDUUUUU nanananananananananananana DUUNDUUNDUUU

THE BLIND HOUSE
Music and lyrics by Steven Wilson, 5.47

No matter what, you’ll get startled by the intro of this song. Wait, what intro? It just begins with an absolutely fucking evil riff right in the face. It’s one of the heaviest riffs by PT, and you get that as soon as the song starts. Sadly though, the rest of it is pretty meh. The vocal lines and the lyrics are dull and the chorus has to be my least favorite.  I mean, Steven sounds like he’s not even trying:

FREEEEE THEEEEEEEEEM

Although the little arpeggio at the end of the chorus is a nice touch. Another great moment is after the electronic interlude when the song explodes again with the riff. Sigh, if only the rest of the song was that awesome..

VOTE: 7 +

GREAT EXPECTATIONS
Music and lyrics by S.Wilson, 1.26

The first transition song is actually pretty happy sounding, even though it’s about losing contact with a close friend. It starts with Steven on acoustic guitar until happiness explodes in 5/8 7/8
The vocal lines are great, and the song puts me in a good mood, but I would never listen to it as a standalone track.
VOTE: 8 +

KNEEL AND DISCONNECT+DRAWING THE LINE
Music and lyrics by S.Wilson, 2.03+4.43

These two songs are meant to be together as their the counter part to one another, both musically and lyrically speaking. Think about it:

Kneel And Disconnect is this sad song about losing your job and having to start over and over again, Drawing The Line is also pretty sad but the choruses are not. The chorus of DTL is like a revenge with your life, like saying “You know what? Fuck this, I’m drawing the line. I’m going to be a musician”.

As I’ve said, the choruses in DTL are pretty happy, too happy and cheesy for a PT song, but they work very well IMO. It’s also another one of dem karaoke moments.
VOTE: 8.5

THE INCIDENT
Music and lyrics by S.Wilson, 5.20

The title track of the album is next. This song is very reminiscent of Sleep Together because of its industrial atmosphere and dirty synths work.
There’s also a loop of someone humming something, but nobody seems to know what it is exactly (I hear “Get upon the shelf”).

Lyrically it’s about the episode that inspired the song cycle, but with a creepy turn: Steven looks at the accident on the road and feels that the ghost of the people involved were with him, in his car, screaming that they “want to be loved”.
These are some of the best vocals here, very laid back and concise.
The music instead, stays the same for a while until an evil sounding riff played with a baritone guitar appears. You think that shit will go down soon, but it doesn’t, the riff just stays there. Until the song completely changes mood into happy

IIII want to be looooved
Want to be loooooved



Best song this far, really atmospheric.
VOTE: 9-

YOUR UNPLEASANT FAMILY
Music and lyrics by S.Wilson, 1.49

The second transition song is once again kinda happy and it follows the same structure of Great Expectations: acoustic intro, happy instrumental section.

The chord progression does this unexpected thing when Steven goes in falsetto, I can’t seem to explain it

So yeah, nice, but I would never listen to it as a song.
VOTE: 7/8

Following there’s the intro to Time Flies, The Yellow Windows Of The Evening Train (Deadwing, anyone?). It’s just some strange ethereal keyboard sounds, so no ranking for that, but instead

TIME FLIES
Music and lyrics by S.Wilson, 11.41

Easily the best song on the record (strange thing because it was the first single also), Time Flies is this happy song about how…. Uhm, time flies. Yeah, about how you don’t realize how fast time actually is and you do things you shouldn’t do for your age, about memories and about regret, too. All under this 6/8 semi-ballad type song. The rhythm flow is great, the vocal lines are awesome, but what makes this song even more awesome is the instrumental interlude.

It’s basically an arpeggio with some dramatic guitar notes, but it evolves and it forms this strange atmosphere, reminds me of Pink Floyd (yeah yeah Dogs, whatever). There’s also a solo in there but it’s not a solo, it stays in the middle of this atmospheric thing, it doesn’t stand out. It’s very hard to explain this section, so go listen to it and you’ll see what I mean.

One of the other greatest moments is the outro, who doesn’t swing to this outro? It’s so powerful and groovy. Perfect ending, guys, perfect ending.

VOTE: 9.5

After something so big as Time Flies, Steven decides to start from the top: Degree Zero Of Liberty is basically identical to Occam’s Razor, apart from a few guitar changes. This is basically the beginning of act two.

OCTANE TWISTED/THE SÉANCE + CIRCLE OF MANIAS
Music by Porcupine Tree (OT, COM) and by S.Wilson (TS), lyrics by S.Wilson, 5.03/2.39+2.19

After the evil intro the song actually starts quiet, with an acoustic guitar, playing the chord progression from the verses of Blind House. And God, now it sounds great.

Octane Twisted and The Séance are basically one song. They can’t be apart. It’s like if OT was the instrumental intro of TS or something.

The structure of Octane Twisted is great: as  I’ve already said it starts with an acoustic guitar, following what would later be the chorus of TS, and suddently BOOM! METAL!

The riff is great, really distorted and powerful, especially the 1010100777666999 part. After that, there’s a jam in 5/8, followed by the heavy riff once again. The structure goes on, until everything gets quiet with a creepy melody that leads straight into The Séance, which starts exactly like Octane Twisted.
The Séance talks about a uhm… eh… a séance. Which is basically calling back the dead from the grave, communicating with it. And I think that it’s  connected to the guy who died in the river in Octane Twisted, which is actually the chorus to this song, and it sounds like HE is the ghost now.

After the chorus there’s a both electric and acoustic riff that suddently stops and then 

The heaviest part of the song cycle begins. Circle Of Manias is not part of the concept of Octane Twisted and The Séance, but once again, I can’t listen to it without listening to the two tracks before. It just belongs here. It’s very unexpected and it’s pretty pounding 9/8 goodness actually.

It’s also pretty dynamic as the riff starts palm muted, and it explodes later, to go back palm muted again. The riff gets absolutely evil after a little Barbieri-ish interlude. It just sounds really evil and balls to the wall. And it stops soon after. And you’re there like 
So, these three songs tied together are another great moment in the cycle.
VOTE: 9 +

I DRIVE THE HEARSE
Music and lyrics by S.Wilson, 6.44

 This is where the credits roll, it’s a calm song, a song about writing songs.

The guitar work is very pretty and the vocal lines are great especially the choruses, and overall the song does a pretty good job as a closer for this whole cycle idea.
I don’t know what else to say, it’s just a pretty song D:

VOTE: 8/9
---------------------
So, the song cycle. The first few songs are Ok, but from The Incident onward, good God it’s great. I won’t rank it because I don’t feel it’s ONE giant song. But, anyways moving on to the bonus EP thing.
----------------------
FLICKER
Music by PT, lyrics by S.Wilson, 3.42

The second CD starts with a cool chill song. Flicker is, as stated by Steven in an interview, about nothing. The lyrics just came out the way they are. It’s a pretty cool listen and an interasting song overall.
VOTE: 7/8

BONNIE THE CAT
Music by PT, lyrics by S.Wilson, 5.45

This is one of the first songs I ever listened to by PT. It’s known for its drumming: Gavin does this rhythm and he changes accent and It actually sounds like a strange time signature but it’s not. It’s all in 4/4. Steven sounds halfway evil and desperate:

I know. What. Will be.

Gosh, that moment is great. This song is very dark, and it stays quiet but evil through most of it, but you know it’s gonna explode eventually. And it does, after the second chorus. It’s not their most powerfull riff though, but it’s followed by a pounding breakdown, which is amazing.

So, this song is great to play and it’s fun in general. It may be the Dark Eternal Night of PT’s career.
VOTE: 8.5

BLACK DALHIA
Music by Richard Barbieri, S.Wilson, 3.40

This one was written mostly by Richard  and you can tell that just by the keyboards and the way they sound. Steven here sounds sad (of course he does), but I really like the vocal line of this song and the lyrics too.

VOTE: 8 –


REMEMBER ME LOVER
Music and lyrics by S.Wilson, 7.34

The last song on PT’s discography is a kind of bipolar song: Remember Me Lover alternates cheesy ballad moments to pounding metal riffs. The vocal lines are great (I feel that this album has some of the best vocal lines in the band’s repertoire) , the  lyrics are a bit cheesy, but I don’t mind them. I love the sudden transition from pop to heavy and that finale is great. Definetly the best song in the second disc.
VOTE: 8/9


So, yep. This is it. It’s done, the last album. It’s been quite a journey and I enjoyed writing each and everyone of these write-ups and it’s been fun.

The Incident might be a little less good than its predecessors but it’s a great record and I really like its atmosphere and the concept behind it. Great job, Porcupine Tree. Great job.

OVERALL VOTE: 8.5

[425]

I've really grown to like The Incident as of late. The song cycle is really good, with I Drive the Hearse being one of the best Porcupine Tree songs. Disc two is also actually quite fantastic; I like all four songs and its 20-or-so-minute runtime actually makes a kind of awesome standalone listen as well as a solid second part of the full Incident album, depending on how you choose to listen to it.

What I really love about this album is that it's actually a rather calm album compared to its predecessors. It's like Steven reached a point with Porcupine Tree where he decided to make an album—an album incorporating metal influences, no less—without feeling the need to make it "rock" at any point. So what we got is an album of what turns out to be some really cool, laid-back, atmospheric music with some great melodies, too. And, of course, it has the beautifully sad tone that we've come to expect of PT.

I actually really love the "song cycle and disc of unrelated stuff" format, because a) both parts are awesome and b) it gives us two amazing closers. I Drive the Hearse is the better of the two, of course, with those sad lyrics and melodies, but Remember Me Lover is a fantastic song in its own right. And I kind of love the fact that, if PT never make another album, the last song in their discography is called "Remember Me Lover."

Edit: I forgot to say that I have quite enjoyed your writeups and I like how you went through the whole discography album by album.

[Tom Bombadil]

The Incident has definitely grown on me recently, although I still don't think it's as good as the previous 5 albums. It's got some really good stuff on it.

Thanks for taking the time to do this mikemangioy. It was very enjoyable.

[Zantera]

The Incident is great, even though it only works as a full album for me. I would compare it to an album like The Wall, every song plays a part and the album as a whole is greater than the individual parts. The main difference is the concept which I eat up 100% with The Wall, and with The Incident its just kinda "eh".

I will say that I find Occam's Razor/Degree Zero of Liberty to be one of the most boring/uninspired intermission kind of tracks by the band though. Most of the album is really great for me, my main problem is the lack of standouts. I Drive the Hearse and Time Flies are both pretty darn great, but I would have loved a few more standout songs. Most of them fall under the "great but not exceptional" part. It's a shame, because the album flows really well.

[?]

The title-track, The Blind House (love playing this on guitar!), Octane Twisted and IDTH are great, but unfortunately the rest of the album is pretty meh.

It's been nice to follow this... thing!

[KevShmev]

Given the nature of the lyrics, I still think it's more than obvious that the vocal loop in the title track is, "You get-ta more disheveled."

Anyway, yep, great album, even if it's not one of their best.  It definitely has some of their best songs ever: I Drive the Hearse, The Incident, Bonnie the Cat, Time Flies, etc.

[BRGM]

Great album! The album that introduced me to Porcupine Tree. These write-ups have been great and it's been really fun following this, made me get more into their early stuff and some B-sides.

[mikemangioy]

Well, thanks to you guys for sticking by and an especially special thanks to Zantera who allowed me to do these writeups thingies.

[LieLowTheWantedMan]

Given the nature of the lyrics, I still think it's more than obvious that the vocal loop in the title track is, "You get-ta more disheveled."

I've come to a point where I can't hear anything other than "You get demolished".

This album is weird for me. I always like it a lot when I'm listening to it, but never get the urge to listen to it like ever.

[RoeDent]

I love The Incident. I first discovered PT literally days before it was released, and it became my first purchase of their music.

I still think of the 55-minute suite as a single piece of music, although it's clearly more of a cycle of movements (as opposed to one single song) than 6DOIT and The Whirlwind, with less recurring musical themes.

The title movement (VI) is my favourite part of the suite, especially the "I want to be loved" section at the end. Always gives me goosebumps.

I must admit though that I have trouble connecting I Drive the Hearse with the previous thirteen movements, especially as Circle of Manias ends with a clear gap of silence (even the CD timer goes into "negative time" for a second or two).

[?]

Maybe it's because my summer job includes mowing the lawn, but I keep hearing the whisper in the title-track as "(you) get to mow this shit"

[LieLowTheWantedMan]

Maybe it's because my summer job includes mowing the lawn, but I keep hearing the whisper in the title-track as "(you) get to mow this shit"

I heard it like that for a while too.

[pfillion]

New interview with Colin Edwin : https://www.innerviews.org/inner/edwin2.html

[Zantera]

The obligatory "what's the status of PT" questions doesn't really give us anything more that we didn't already know sadly. It does feel like a control issue, and while a new PT might not be impossible, I wonder if SW would really want to do it. He would have to give up a lot of artistic control, and I'm not sure if he would want that at the moment. Considering all of his projects where he worked with other musicians as equals (PT, Blackfield, No-Man) have been swept to the wayside, and the fact that with his solo project, he will always have 100% control, something he won't in PT.

[ReaperKK]

Cool interview, I hope one day PT comes back. Nothing has clicked with from SW as much as PT.

[Zantera]

Overall I miss the special connection that PT had. That special feeling that came from the 4 guys making music. Just from a quality perspective, I would probably take the 3 SW solo albums over the last 3 PT albums. FOABP remains a favorite, but Deadwing isn't as good as Insurgentes, and despite not being a big fan of Raven, it was better than The Incident. And yeah Grace was also one of his best, and better than all '00 PT albums apart from FOABP.

[XB0BX]

The Raven > Sky Moves Sideways > Grace > Insurgentes > All other PT albums

Generally the solo stuff blows PT out of the water. However, very few things can top an album with Sky Moves Sideways, Moon Touches Your Shoulder and Stars Die (it counts), which are probably 3 (or 4) of my top 10 Steven Wilson songs, plus Dislocated Day, possibly a top 20 song.

[Sacul]

In Absentia>>>everything else.

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

FOABP is still my favorite.

Also, I swear we have a regular PT thread around here somewhere.

[Zantera]

FOABP, Stupid Dream and Signify are the only 3 PT albums I would consider "flawless". But the band's discography is still pretty solid overall. I find myself liking albums like IA, Deadwing and Lightbulb Sun less with each listen, but all of them have great songs that remain as good now as they were the first time.

[Buddyhunter1]

FOABP
In Absentia
Deadwing
Lightbulb Sun
Signify
Stupid Dream
The Incident
The Sky Moves Sideways
Up The Downstair

Haven't heard OTSOL but judging from popular opinion I'm not missing out on much.

[Zantera]

OTSOL is pretty interesting. It's weird, but it's also very charming. It has three legitimately great songs IMO, with Nostalgia Factory, Radioactive Toy and Nine Cats. Apart from those, there's also some other pretty cool tracks, and some just outright bizarre ones. A lot of Steven Wilson on helium, and it has that very psychedelic 60's sound to it at times.

I view it almost more as a rite of passage. Kinda like passing that final threshold of being a huge fan of a band. I'm not saying you can't be a big fan of them without having heard it, but just out of curiosity alone you should give it a spin or so. In terms of a listening experience, I would say I have more fun with OtSOL than I have listening to IA or Deadwing. Even if the latter two are technically better from a quality perspective, OtSOL is just very fun and quite random. Not as "calculated" as the latter releases. There's a certain impulsiveness to the songs that makes them refreshing. These days SW is quite the control freak and his over produced music is often very calculated and planned down to the detail. Every second is planned to be the way it is. But with OtSOL it was like SW just said "screw it, I'm gonna throw everything but the kitchen sink".

So yeah, probably their worst album from a quality perspective, but a really fun listen. I don't want to call the album bad (because I don't think it is), but I think it's comparable to how a bad movie can be more fun and entertaining than a decent/good movie.

[TioJorge]

And The Swallows Dance Above The Sun rapes all of your buttholes with a twisted smile. And you'll like it.

I WANT YOU TO PUT FELIX'S PENIS ON ME.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

New interview with Colin Edwin : https://www.innerviews.org/inner/edwin2.html

Nice interview.

I hope we won’t leave it too long, because we really have put a lot of work into building up the band.

Kind of sad to hear it like that.  Someday, someday Colin...

[XB0BX]

Shameless and unnecessary post:

Top 26 PT songs:

26. Lazarus
25. Small Fish
24. Sever
23. Dark Matter
22. Trains
21. The Blind House
20. Even Less
19. Lightbulb Sun
18. Prodigal
17. Pure Narcotic
16. Open Car
15. Sentimental
14. Fadeaway
13. Arriving Somewhere
12. Lips of Ashes
11. Start of Something Beautiful
10. Stop Swimming
9. Gravity Eyelids
8. Collapse the Light Into Earth
7. My Ashes
6. Radioactive Toy
5. Heart Attach in a Lay By
4. A Smart Kid
3. Sky Moves Sideways Phase 1
2. Moon Touches Your Shoulder
1. Stars Die

Albums:

1. Sky Moves Sideways
2. In Absentia
3. Fear of a Blank Planet
4. Deadwing

-Gap-

5. Stupid Dream
6. The Incident

-Gap-

7. Lightbulb Sun
8. Signify
9. Up the Downstair

-Gap-
10. On the Sunday of Life

[?]

I think there was some discussion on Gavin's Cheating the Polygraph release, but I can't find any of it here...

Has anyone else listened to that record? The arrangements are awesome and even a non-jazz listener like me can enjoy them. I wrote a review: https://echotester.blogspot.com/2015/06/gavin-harrison-cheating-polygraph-2015.html

[Zantera]

Yeah it's a really good album, I liked it way more than HCE.

[dparrott]

Can someone please post a full list of PT instrumentals?  I see lists online but they are incomplete (ex. no Neural Rust)

[seasonsinthesky]

Can someone please post a full list of PT instrumentals?  I see lists online but they are incomplete (ex. no Neural Rust)

Music for the Head
Third Eye Surfer
OTSOL
Hymn
Queen Quotes Crowley (assuming sample doesn't count)
No Luck With Rabbits
Begonia Seduction Scene

Landscare (sample)
Prayer
Daughters in Excess
Delightful Suicide
Split Image
No Reason to Live, No Reason to Die
Wastecoat
Towel
Execution of the Will of the Marquis de Sade (sample)
An Empty Box (sample)
Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape (sample)
Music for the Head (II)

Voyage 34, all phases (samples though)

Monuments Burn Into Moments
Up the Downstairs (samples)
Not Beautiful Anymore (samples)
Siren
Burning Sky
Cloud Zero
Navigator
Rainy Taxi
Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape re-recording

All parts of TSMS except "I Find That I'm Not There" although Suzanne Barbieri does wordless vox in phase 2 as well
Prepare Yourself
Moonloop, all versions
Fuse the Sky

Bornlivedie (samples)
Signify
Pagan
Waiting phase two
Idiot Prayer (samples)
Intermediate Jesus (samples)
'Light Mass Prayers'
Hallogallo
Neural Rust
Dark Origins
The Sound of No One Listening
Signify II
All of Metanoia except Milan

Stupid Dream
Tinto Brass (samples)
Ambulance Chasing

Novak
The Rest Will Flow strings version
Buying New Soul (Backing Track)
Untitled
Orchidia 2000 version
Oceans Have No Memory

Wedding Nails
Orchidia

Concert intro 2003 (samples i guess)

Revenant
Mother & Child Divided (samples)
Gallery ambient piece

Nil Recurring
FOABP instrumentals

Occam's Razor
The Yellow Windows of the Evening Train
Degree Zero of Liberty
Circle of Manias
Black Dahlia instrumental
Flicker instrumental

[Big Hath]

you should have left off Neural Rust to see what dparrott would say

[dparrott]

Haha wow, thanks, there's more on that list than I have seen on other pages!

[pfillion]

New Porcupine Tree album soon?

https://twitter.com/PorcupineTree/status/1453708372595912710?s=20 

[Buddyhunter1]

 

[DTA]

Let’s hope it’s not some vinyl rerelease bullshit

[goo-goo]

Let’s hope it’s not be some vinyl rerelease bullshit

I don't think so. Kscope has being doing vinyl and cd releases through PT's Transmission label. I know the Deadwing Deluxe edition was around the pipeline so there's that....However, the newsletter sign in page has a Music For Nations text somewhere so it's definitely a new label handling this release.