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An empty train station, the whistle of the train, a departure, memories of her that already seem distant, a landscape that transforms from metallic outskirts to silent countryside.
It's yet another physical-mental journey, one of the many we all have to make sooner or later, where melancholy reigns and where, despite everything, we enjoy letting ourselves go.
Steven Wilson is now a guarantee when it comes to melancholy made into music and words, and he proves it even in this mid-career work, where each track turns out to be a small journey inside one's brain synapses, without seeking answers to one's doubts, discomforts, or excitements, managing to make even the lucky listener undergo the same inner journey, like a modern-day Virgil with his Dante of the moment..
In "In Absentia," it almost no longer makes sense to talk about prog or metal or psychedelia or electronics, as there are now so many sonic layers that make up each track that Wilson masters at his pleasure, creating a kind of anticipation around the corners of every single song.
A perfect example is "Trains," a piece of infinite beauty and a masterpiece not just of an album but of an entire career, and the perfect response against all potential detractors of Porcupine Tree, often previously accused of being epigones of Pink Floyd and owing much, if not everything, to Gilmour's band. Here (as in other gems like "Heartattack In A Lay By" or "Prodigal"), it is clear that the psychedelic component has now been assimilated, turned inside out, and spit out in a completely personal form, making the group capable, after the debut albums, of being both profound and catchy, almost "pop" at certain moments.
A pleasure, therefore, for the mind, but also for the technique and the melody: the achievement of such a complexity of intents for a band now free to fly...
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 Blackest Eyes (04:23)
A mother sings a lullaby to a child
Sometime in the future the boy goes wild
And all his nerves are feeling some kind of energy
A walk in the woods and I will try
Something under the trees that made you cry
It's so erotic when your make up runs
I got wiring loose inside my head
I got books that I never ever read
I got secrets in my garden shed
I got a scar where all my urges bled
I got people underneath my bed
I got a place where all my dreams are dead
Swim with me into your blackest eyes
A few minutes with me inside my van
Should be so beautiful if we can
I'm feeling something taking over me
I got wiring loose inside my head
I got books that I never ever read
I got secrets in my garden shed
I got a scar where all my urges bled
I got people underneath my bed
I got a place where all my dreams are dead
Swim with me into your blackest eyes
I got wiring loose inside my head
I got books that I never ever read
I got secrets in my garden shed
I got a scar where all my urges bled
I got people underneath my bed
I got a place where all my dreams are dead
Swim with me into your blackest eyes
02 Heartattack In A Layby (04:15)
I pull off the road
East of Baldock and Ashford
Feeling for my cell
In the light from the dashboard
Hissing from the road
The smell of rain in the air con
Maybe check the news
Or just put a tape on
Lighting up a smoke
I've got this feeling inside me
Don't feel too good
If I close my eyes
And fell asleep in this layby
Would it all subside
The fever pushing the day by
Motor window wind
I could do with some fresh air
Can't breathe too well
(She waits for me. Home waits for me.)
I guess I should go now
She's waiting to make up
To tell me she's sorry
And how much she missed me
I guess I'm just burnt out
I really should slow down
I'm perfectly fine but
I just need to lie down
We'll grow old together
We'll grow old together
We'll grow old together....
05 Trains (05:56)
Train set and match spied under the blind,
Shiny and contoured the railway winds,
And I've heard the sound from my cousin's bed,
The hiss of the train at the railway head,
Always the summers are slipping away,
A 60 ton angel falls to the earth,
A pile of old metal, a radiant blur,
Scars in the country, the summer and her,
Always the summers are slipping away,
Find me a way for making it stay,
When I hear the engine pass
I'm kissing you wide,
The hissing subsides
I'm in luck,
When the evening reaches here
You're tying me up,
I'm dying of love
It's OK,
When I hear the engine pass
I'm kissing you wide,
The hissing subsides
I'm in luck,
When the evening reaches here
You're tying me up,
I'm dying of love
It's OK,
Always the summers are slipping away,
Find me a way for making it stay,
Always the summers are slipping away,
Always the summers are slipping away...
07 The Sound Of Muzak (04:59)
Hear the sound of music
Drifting in the aisles
Elevator prozac
Stretching on for miles
The music of the future
Will not entertain
It's only meant to repress
And neutralise your brain
Soul gets squeezed out
Edges get blunt
Demographic
Gives what you want
One of the wonders of the world
Is going down
It's going down I know
It's one of the blunders of the world
That no-one cares
No-one cares enough
Now the sound of music
Comes in silver pills
Engineered to suit you
Building cheaper thrills
The music of rebellion
Makes you wanna rage
But it's made by millionaires
Who are nearly twice your age
Soul gets squeezed out
Edges get blunt
Demographic
Gives what you want
One of the wonders of the world
Is going down
It's going down I know
It's one of the blunders of the world
That no-one cares
No-one cares enough
08 Gravity Eyelids (07:56)
Open your eyes now
Hear me out before I lose my mind
I've been waiting for hours
Let the salt flow, feel my coil unwind
Give me a smile please
Count the calm and watch my breathing slow
Winding me up tease
Get inside my head and make it show
Gravity eyelids come down
Touching your oil skin
Slipping hands down past your waist to find
I've been waiting for hours
Let the salt flow, feel my coil unwind
Go to the edge swim
Brown the eyes that sleep has rendered blind
1. Gravity eyelids come down
2. Come love so young with your gold arms so I wake her
3. Here's a will that will glow in the dark
10 Prodigal (05:32)
I don't know whose side I'm on
I don't think that I belong round here
If I left the stage would that be wrong ?
I tried to find myself a better way
I got religion but I went astray
They took my money and I lost my faith
Rain keeps crawling down the glass
The good times never seem to last
Close your eyes and let the thought pass
I tried the capsule and I tried the smoke
I tried to aid escape like normal folk
But I never seemed to get the joke
Rain keeps crawling down the glass
The good times never seem to last
Close your eyes and let the thought pass
These are my old clothes
This is a new low
This is my blood flow
This is my headstone
I spend my days with all my friends
They're the ones on who my life depends
I'm gonna miss them when the series ends
Rain keeps crawling down the glass
(Pull yourself together)
The good times never seem to last
(You know it's not so bad)
Close your eyes and let the thought pass
(Close your eyes and let it pass)
12 The Creator Has A Mastertape (05:21)
He captured and collected things
And he put them in a shed
He raised a proper family
So he could tie them to a bed
The creator had a mastertape
But he left it in a cab
I stared into the void tonight
The best dream I ever had
He worked himself into the ground
And drove a spike into his head
A voice said "Are you happy now ?
Your sordid home is running red?"
The creator had a mastertape
But he left it in a cab
I stared into the void tonight
The best dream I ever had
Pills and chloroform
All the pages torn
Pills and chloroform
All the pages torn
Pills and chloroform
All the pages torn
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