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Rating:
First of all, hats off….
Steven Wilson presents us with this album (the second, for the record), a masterful performance, well played and well recorded. Let's proceed in order, the first chapter of the Porcupine was a series of home recordings, then put together on "in the sunday of life". In this work, the future members of Porcupine Tree, namely Barbieri, Edwin, Maitland, also start to make themselves heard.
It begins with a short intro "What you are listening", which explains with a phrase at the end, the journey the listener is about to embark on. "Synesthesia" officially paves the way for the album with a bang. A tight start with a wha wha effect and a Wilson in perfect form. "Monument burns into moments", a 22-second piece of rather filler psychedelia. "Always never" gives you goosebumps, a ballad with whispered voice and sweet echoes, with a melodic and functional chorus…rock explosion and return to sweetness…a must.
"Up the downstair", a small 10-minute suite, throws us into a world of pure psychedelia, very dark, I would say, until a very spatial bass attack, framed by hard rock guitar riffs, with a robotic finale.
"Not beautiful anymore", opens with a very strong rhythm starting with a very powerful bass line to which all the group members gradually add themselves for 3 minutes of powerful "genetically modified" hard rock. "Siren" is another piece of about a minute in which the psychedelic component resurfaces as if it had been buried to ferry us to "Small fish". This piece is of highly delicate nature, in which Wilson once again proves himself as a creator of wonderful and dreamy melodies, like the guitar solo that echoes through unending spaces (it's as if one is truly flying). "Burning Sky" is another mini suite of 11 minutes where inside, Wilson engages with a continuously repeating riff. Rock is present in the right dose, just to let ill-intentioned know, that they can also create stunning Rock music. To finish the album, no better song could have been chosen, "Fadeaway" opens the listener's eyes again with ethereal atmospheres, and a guitar always in the foreground, spatial and infinite.
Try to get a copy, to truly understand what it means to listen to a great band and to give proper honor to a band that, in my opinion, is still too underrated. Thank you!
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
02 Synesthesia (05:16)
[Written by Steven Wilson]
I'm sending you a letter
Because I don't think there's much time
Time to lear the cobwebs
Time to bear the crime
It's only a number
It's only a death
Another soldier died in action
The telegram regrets
I'm lying on a stretcher
They're lyring to my face
There's no-one left to help me
I'm just a waste of space
It's a matter of moments
I'll be dead before you've read
There's blood on the table
And my back is full of lead
04 Always Never (07:00)
[Lyrics - Alan Duffy / Music - Steven Wilson]
I feel no pain
Cos I'm an island
I will remain
In the deafness of your silence
I love you sometimes
Always Never
He said you're here
Here with me now
I feel no gain
When you're around me
I'll try again
In the darkness you astound me
It's growing cold
I'm growing old
Is this the only way to see the fire?
It's raining...
05 Up the Downstair (10:14)
[Written by Steven Wilson]
Sleep
Until the colours dissolve
Leave the dream to rain-soak forever
In blessed moments
Viewed from trains of half-truths
Monuments burn into moments
Up into other worlds
Other ascensions
Without deep sorrow to endure
Black Sunday of sleep
Open for small angel escapes
Moved by buildings to tears
They week in the rain
Am I at home?
Am I in heaven?
Gentle Architecture
08 Small Fish (02:42)
[Lyrics - Alan Duffy / Music - Steven Wilson]
The first thing that I saw as,
the fisherman smiled at me
Were empty people dressed in grey,
floating out to sea
The rain lashed down in darkness
A lizard blinked an eye
And time stopped in the silence
The small fish gave a cry
The next thing that I saw as,
things were fading fast
Were dreams of children's laughter,
smouldering to dust
The rain lashed down in darkness
A lizard blinked an eye
And time stopped in the silence
The small fish gave a cry
The last thing that I saw as, my life passed by
Were fields of empty people, laying down to die
The rain lashed down in darkness
A lizard blinked an eye
And time stopped in the silence
To watch the burning sky.
10 Fadeaway (06:19)
[Lyrics - Alan Duffy / Music - Steven Wilson]
I sat in the room with a view
The girl in the photograph knew
Can't you see?
Why is she laughing at me?
I stumbled through the dark unaware
The face in the hall isn't there
Tomorrow has gone
Where do the voices come from?
Watching the leaves as they blew
Lost in the room with a view
Climb the walls
You did not know me at all
I fell through a hole in the floor
The audience cried out for more
Fadeaway
It's just another day
Hit heaven far too high.
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