I agree with the general consensus that part of this is due to SW trying to make up for the losses he incurred from the canceled tour he had lined up for his last solo album, and that this is probably going to be PT's last album/tour. But honestly, *why* does it have to be that way? Why can't he treat it the same way he does the other projects/bands he's involved in? Or maybe even do something similar to what MP does with the bands he's in with NM, where they rotate from NMB to FC to TA and back again? Given how prolific he is as a songwriter, as he writes songs, he can recognize where they're best suited: PT, Blackfield, No-Man or solo, and file them away until the appropriate time.
I think it's a combination of a couple of factors:
1. I think it's safe to say that Porcupine Tree has been SW's most successful band/project out of the half-dozen or so he's been a part of. Blackfield reached a certain level of pop-song realm but never really took off, and I think Steven's diminishing contributions over time kind of feel like he didn't have a lot of faith in Blackfield breaking out the way he thought it might have. There are some songs from his latter solo albums that I feel could have been earmarked for Blackfield albums but he kept them for himself rather than workshopping them with Aviv. His other projects like No-Man, Bass Communion, and IEM are all a bit too niche to gain any mainstream recognition. Porcupine Tree was where Steven made a name for himself and so it makes sense to go back to it after luke-warm reception to his last solo album. I don't think Mike Portnoy goes from one project to the next with the mindset of "My last album didn't do too well, so my next project should be with a super popular group so I can regain _______ (popularity? ego? money?)." Same with Neal Morse, or Roine Stolt, or Arjen Lucassen - all of these super-prolific guys with multiple projects don't really seem to push themselves to be seen in the limelight. I think they all know how niche prog is in general and aren't keen to promote themselves as the next big thing in pop-rock the way I feel like Steven has tried to do since HCE.
2. Porcupine Tree has been on hiatus for over a decade. If he had kept producing PT albums, I wouldn't bat an eye on him coming back to PT after TFB's failure-to-launch. Like the above artists I mentioned with their multiple projects, for the most part, they're all active and have been for most of the past decade. On the other hand, Porcupine Tree hasn't been an active unit since the fall of 2010, with their last live show being October 14th of that year. It's been 11.5 years and all that SW has done with the band name has been re-issues, remasters and remixes, and other super-deluxe cash-grabs (looking at you,
In Absentia).
3. As for writing songs he feels are best suited for PT, I think I read that some of the songs on the new album go all the way back to
The Incident as song ideas for PT's next album, meaning he's had them for a LONG time. Has it been said that he's written NEW material for the band, or has it been rehashed/updated old material from before the hiatus? If it's all old material that was written back then, I think he's probably done making NEW music for Porcupine Tree, which kind of fuels the fire of "He's only doing this to recoup his losses" because it wouldn't feel like he's putting in present-effort like the way he's done with TTB or TFB, and is just digging through old harddrives to scrounge up bits and pieces of old PT ideas to make a new PT album. But maybe that's just me being cynical?
Either way, I think the whole situation is a bit odd, especially given how Colin hasn't been mentioned by any of the band members anywhere, and Colin himself (as far as I know) hasn't said anything regarding his absence in the band, or whether or not he wanted to rejoin/was asked to rejoin. It's about as odd as Tomas Bodin not coming back to The Flower Kings. Maybe Colin Edwin, Tomas Bodin, and Mike Portnoy should start a band of ex-bandmates?
-Marc.
Topic: Porcupine Tree v. Glarung is a Lightbulb (Read 226755 times)
