mementomori

You know, I also have a high regard for pop (and in fact I consider Martin Gore of Depeche Mode one of the greatest composers/musicians around), but I don’t see all this difference, in terms of inspiration, between the psychedelic phase and the pop phase of PT. Now, I don’t want to be a revisionist, but PT has always paired masterpiece songs with medium/good pieces: take Signify, if you remove Waiting 1 and 2 and Sleep of No Dreaming, it doesn’t seem to me that the other tracks are all that excellent (the same Signify is a bit of a preview of the PT of today!). Or rather: they are good tracks, but how can they compare to Even Less or Piano Lesson. Nothing more, nothing less. I can understand that the polished production, the limited duration of the pieces, and the catchiness might be upsetting, but the songwriting seems to have remained more or less at the same level. Personally, I don’t see this abyssal difference. If you then pick me 4 Chords, which is the most annoying song ever written by Wilson, I can agree with you (even though the Bowie-esque interlude isn’t too bad). In any case, it seems to me more of an exception than a rule. It’s a matter of taste... As for Tikall77, well, I wouldn’t want to “talk nonsense,” but the only band that today truly does progressive, in a broad sense, seems to me to be Tool. PT remain "copycats" of class made great by Wilson’s immense talent, but stylistically I don’t think they have much to teach or revolutionize. They mix, modernize, know how to play, and do miraculous things in such a casual manner that their music seems less complex than it actually is. Paradoxically, they will become champions and flag bearers precisely for the generations mentioned in the album, the MP3 generations, the bombarded youth, those who download billions of records on the Internet, but who ultimately, because of their open-mindedness, become the ideal fans of this sort of crossover between alternative rock, pop, prog, and metal. Which, if you think about it, no one else does as well...

Okay, I confirm the correction.

Okay, I confirm the correction.

I apologize for interrupting a feud that clearly transcends me... PT pays the price of being outsiders, in the sense of not belonging to a defined and codified music scene (only recently, it seems to me that they are becoming the domain of enlightened metalheads, the so-called neomelodic metalheads): before Absentia (beyond Rome, where a real mass hysteria has been created), PT was talked about through word of mouth, and anyone interested could approach PT, regardless of their background (from prog, to psychedelia, to pop, to metal, to dark, etc.), and each person, depending on their tastes, appreciated Wilson's multifaceted genius differently. There have been three phases: the "psychedelic," the rock-pop, and the metalized one. Personally, I joined the bandwagon during the second phase, and like how, in light of the current compositional decline of the band, I struggle to understand the "newcomers" who hype the latest albums, I expect not to be understood (I, who praise the second phase) by those from the first guard. The early albums are monumental, but in the long run, they pay, in my opinion, the price of being too derivative. Even later, PT won't invent anything, but Wilson as an artist will emerge more clearly. And if in the end someone like me (and many others) who detests melodic pop finds himself appreciating the "pop songs" from Stupid Dream onwards, it means that these songs have something (things that the Coldplay undeniably do not provide: it's not a matter of style or form, but of what emotions the piece evokes, and a piece like Lazarus, as syrupy and catchy as it may be, manages to shake a brutal guy like me who loves Current 93, Merzbow, and Mayhem. There must be something, or is it just self-conviction? It seems strange to me, it would be a mass hallucination of people who listen to a lot of music and have been doing so for years). Meanwhile, the fact that I like The Sky Moves and Signify doesn’t surprise me at all, since I love bands like Pink Floyd and King Crimson: in short, there PT wins, but they win on simpler ground (the screen of psychedelia is often a cloak donned by mediocre artists, through which one can churn out dignified stuff without perhaps knowing how to play or invent anything). Writing pop pieces and conquering a "cultured" audience seems to me to be a much more arduous challenge. It means playing under the light of day, it means having real talent. But in the end, between us, shouldn't we all want to get along?

Voyage 34 was performed live once and it was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard at a concert... then I bought the CD and was disappointed: it felt a bit plastic, and you can tell that Wilson is still artistically immature (clearly struggling to manage all the instruments... the drum machine was terrible!). On the other hand, the last two tracks of pure hallucinogenic ambient are interesting, but perhaps not suited for those who love PT for other reasons. I agree with Lethe: without taking anything away from the masterpieces of the past (still too tied to the exploits of Wilson's masters), the real PT, in my opinion, emerges with Stupid Dream. However, it’s true that the early tracks live had a different feel, a whole different impact, and I regret that they have been practically renounced by Wilson, who systematically refuses to play them again. But back to the last album, I would like to point out that Anasthetize is a bit of a fake suite: there are three pieces with their own autonomy and identity, and I believe they were stitched together later. I’ll go further: if we consider the central part, I’d say that taken alone, it doesn’t stray too far from a much maligned piece like Swallow (which I didn't even mind too much). It seems to me that ultimately what was thrown out the door has been brought back in through the window. One last provocation: isn’t the chorus of Sleep Together almost a plagiarism of Come Together by the Beatles?

oops...russia on ice

Let’s be clear: I’ve only listed the negative aspects, but in the end, I think it's, all in all, a good release. The disappointment is mainly that of the hypercritical fan (just as I was heading out to buy the CD, I was listening to Lightbulb Sun on my walkman, and a track like Russian of Ice feels light-years away...), a fan who can also make do, who can understand the group’s situation (damn, it’s their tenth album and they haven’t messed up yet), who will certainly listen to the album a million times, but at the same time can’t keep silent about points of dissent. The comparison to Fates Warning isn’t meant to be viewed as a wholly negative connotation (I like that album too), but in my opinion, it's negative relative to the music Wilson made before, as the richness of nuances from back then seems compressed into a one-dimensionality that impoverishes it (while Fates are right to be gloomy, since they couldn’t be anything else). As for Opeth, it’s well known that after Blackwater Park (produced by Wilson), a friendship and collaboration developed between the two groups that led the former to become increasingly prog/melodic/introspective, while from In Absentia onwards, Porcupine’s sound has progressively hardened. And in my opinion, an album like Ghost Reveries is immensely superior compared to the last two releases of Porcupine...it’s a matter of taste...anyway, I repeat: good album, but at the same time it sadly suggests to me that the (stellar) inspiration of the past may have perhaps run out forever...let’s wait and see, and in the meantime, let’s listen...

good the sober and objective tone of the review. Elsewhere I've read that it's a masterpiece, but it certainly is not a masterpiece. In fact, in my opinion, it belongs to the worst kind of albums, as it carries the illusion of a grand return and a comeback from the misstep of Deadwing (which, upon release, was hailed, like this one, as yet another masterpiece! bet that in the next album we will talk about redemption from the coldness and sterility of this Fear of?). And while it's true that it's a little better (but not by much... the average level is slightly higher than Deadwing, but there are no beautiful tracks like Arriving somewhere here...), it's also true that something seems to have broken permanently. If once tracks, even if simple and catchy, shimmered with inspiration, class, and compositional grace, it seems to me that today only class remains, and with technique and craft, they are filling the gaps of a compositional weakness. But above all, where the music of Porcupine Tree was magical precisely because it was music of a thousand colors, today Wilson, much darker, seems to settle into a gray-black, stained with ambitious sociological pretensions, and this is fine for Tool, but not for a "biographical" band with high emotional content like Porcupine Tree, good for all occasions, for a sunny day as well as for rain. And then this process of metalization (by the way, I love metal) doesn't drive me crazy: a thousand useless riffs that remind me so much of Petrucci (whom I hate), immediate but sometimes trivial choruses, and overall it almost feels like listening to A Pleasant Shade of Grey by Fates Warning. The only positive thing is that here and there I am reminded of dear Anathema, but in the end, it seems to me that the Opeth have gained more from this process of osmosis. The levels remain high, but there is a bit of disappointment... and that’s not good for Porcupine Tree. A political 4 (as giving less would be unfair), but emotionally it's a 3.

all flour from my sack, Sfascia...rather, I think Mr. Tibet wouldn't approve too much, considering he’s a total nutcase (I've read his latest interviews and keeping up with him is really difficult!) and he has always acted with a certain impulsiveness, without really taking the time to conceptualize his art...it's true that from Imperium onwards, Tibet started to detach himself from the dictates of Thelema and began to pursue a more personal discourse (which will eventually lead him to embrace an indefinite pseudo-Christianity), but my review is and remains, as they say, just the mental masturbation of an attentive listener. As for the Cranioclast, I've never heard of them, but I just saw that they do stuff like Throbbing Gristle and Nurse with Wound, so they should interest me...the problem, I suppose, will be more about figuring out where to track them down...P.S. I apologize and thank all the editors for their patience, having to put up with these essays every time...it must not be a pleasant moment when my reviews arrive...but it’s stronger than me, I get carried away by my ramblings and just can’t help but be lengthy...

I quote cptgaio: the best comment ever appeared on debaser!