Review Summary: The new album of Porcupine Tree doesn't really show the creativity we are used to know from them. Still a great album, but has too much downsides. The best parts are the additions of Robert Fripp and Alex Lifeson, they are a breath of fresh air.
With a tour on the road and a new album released today, Porcupine Tree is making music history. With the everlasting changes from style to style, which only few artists have done, Peter Gabriel and David Bowie may come to mind, we all await the new style Porcupine Tree has taken themselves. But if you wait for that, you shall be disappointed, the new album
Fear Of A Blank Planet is more of what we’ve heard. Sometimes the resemblances are to obvious.
That being said, not everything is the same. You will hear Gavin Harrison really feels more free on this album. That is always a good thing because he’s a very creative drummer, he really uses much more toms and double base. Some songs get a new kind of sound some parts of
Anesthetize and
Way Out Of Here are going to give you a feeling of how they progressed a bit. Those are the only real changes.
The album opens with the title track
Fear Of A Blank Planet, which really reminds me to Deadwing. The nervous intro, the way of singing and the whole sound of the song, doesn’t really sounds like something new. The chorus is more mellow, which still has some Deadwing feeling to it. At around the fourth minute there’s a breakdown followed by a instrumental part that last for about two/three minutes. It’s diverse, but still the same as earlier work. When that ends we get some nice keyboard work which is really nice to hear and a surprise after so much the same. It’s sad, it is a great track, but not something new.
The next song
My Ashes will remind you a bit to a mix of
Where We Would Be and
Feel So Low. Quiet, mellow and peaceful. It’s a nice track to listen to, but I would rather listen to the song on
Lighbulb Sun which are all better. That being said not everything is the same on this song, the violin part is a nice edition and there are more creeping effects in the background. The ending is again really nice to hear and besides all the above mentioned it’s a beautiful track. A nice track, still not the most original one, but it’s better than the title track.
After that we will hear
Anesthetize. This is the first track that bears some originality. The track opens with some great drumming and the rest of the instrument being on the background. Steven Wilson is singing over that mix, and his voice dominates for the first minute. I don’t really like that, but when the guitar comes in it gets better. You will hear the song building up the first minutes and around the third minute it gets a little rougher and more instrument orientated. The solo is great and
Alex Lifeson really brings some fresh air in the album. It’s great that
Porcupine Tree collaborate with multiple artists. This song keeps its diversity in the first six minutes and you will hear so many sounds at the same time. It’s hard to make such things work but
Porcupine Tree does it. But after the sixth minute again it goes downhill. The sound will remind you a bit to Deadwing and the singing too. The chorus is nice, but still more from the same. Around the ninth minute it will go uphill again, with again great instrumental, some nice solo’s and some killer fills. Especially Gavin Harrison goes crazy behind the drums, always nice to hear. The song lasts with great instrumental work with an occasional chorus until the twelfth minute, with(I think you might have guessed it) another breakdown. Again a quiet part that will build up with some of the best parts of the song. The great guitar work, the song changes entirely. This is a much more original sound. The singing is with multiple voices, the tempo is much slower and the guitar work is mellow. The ending is again perfect. A great song, very diverse and great guitar work from Alex Lifeson. It will probably remind you to their earlier work, but their ending is great. That alone makes this song worth listening to.
The next song
Sentimental will remind you to In Absentia. It starts with some piano, which remind you a bit to
Collapse The Light Into Earth. But that isn’t the only song this song remains you to, another song that comes to mind is
Trains, one of their best songs. How could they destroy a riff like that? Who? And why? It’s like the a movie that gets a follow up. The follow ups are always worse. This all being said, skip this song. For the love of Trains.
After that comes
Way Out of Here. The first song that starts original. Its just some sounds with Steven Wilson singing over it. Nothing special really, but when the drums come in this song slowly gets better. The chorus comes in around the 2nd minute and that’s the best chorus I’ve heard on this album. It’s great, the vocals are great. Surprisingly the song remains worth listening to and original. The solo on this song is very inspiring. One of the best solo’s that I’ve heard on a
Porcupine Tree song, it is played by no one other than
Robert Fripp from
King Crimson. But all good things come to an end, there is some bad riffing in the song, which is sad. The only good thing about it, is that Gavin Harrison gets more space for fills. But luckily the chorus is followed after each riffing part. After the riffs the song is getting more mellow and builds up to something. They really don’t arrive to that something, which is a shame. It gets us an open end, which doesn’t fulfil what you wanted to hear. Besides that a great song, original and
Robert Fripp is great.
Now the last song
Sleep Together. It starts out more original than the other songs. But after a minute the
Deadwing sounds come in. I really like the bass in this song. This song really doesn’t do it for me. The build ups are nice, the riffs are better and it has its diversity. When another break down comes in(Yes, there are many of them on this album), you will here some nervous playing that is building up to nothing special. Only guitar and drums come in, it would have been the perfect moment for a great riff on this album, where on other places there were to many. I see this song as a chance to a great song, but really needed more work done on it. The ending part is a bit better and the song slowly fades out.
All in all this album is a great listen, but lacks in diversity. If you don’t have more albums from
Porcupine Tree you won’t mind and might as well love this album. If you listen to much
Porcupine Tree, you won’t fall in love with this album. You might feel this album flawed with the lack of originality and diversity.
If you would like to start to begin listening to
Porcupine Tree don’t start here. Get yourself
In Absentia and
Lightbulb Sun. If you buy this and love
Trains then skip
Sentimental.
Pros of this album
- Diversity
- Great work from Robert Fripp and Alex Lifeson
- Gavin Harrison really shines on this album
The bad things …
- Sentimental
- Lacks originality compared to other Porcupine Tree Albums
- Sentimental
- Some kind of Trains rip-off
- Too much riffs
- And Sentimental
I give this album a
3,5/5
