By Carl Zielinski
Gargoyle staff reporter
Posted Sunday, April 29, 2007, The OG, arts

AT A GLANCE
— CD: Porcupine Tree, “Fear of a Blank Planet”
— Release date: April 24, 2007
— Porcupine Tree's Web site
— Porcupine Tree's MySpace page
— Porcupine Tree's Wikipedia entry

DURING THE PAST 16 years, Britain's Porcupine Tree have produced nine immensely high-quality albums. Understandably, their 10th album, “Fear of a Blank Planet,” is no exception.

From the moment that I heard the opening strains of the title track, “Fear of Blank Planet” was assured a place in my CD collection for life.

Featuring appearances from Robert Fripp and Alex Lifeson (from major progressive bands King Crimson and Rush, respectively), “Fear” could almost be thought of as the culmination of progressive rock's 40-year history.

Lengthy, intelligent songs and some wonderful musicianship create immense emotion throughout the album's length, be it sadness, peace, or emptiness. Listening to the long, winding passages through the middle of the album is a soothing, easy experience that is only heightened by repeat listens.

Part of the album's excellence is that every member of the band provides a stellar performance. Every instrument combines to create an ambient collage of sound that never loses focus or inspiration, even when the band plunges into the 17-minute “Anesthetize.”

Lyrically, “Fear” plays on the title's relation to the 1990 Public Enemy album, “Fear of a Black Planet.” However, instead of discussing racial tensions, lead singer/guitarist/songwriter Steven Wilson brings in tension between man and our increasingly numb, cold society.

The title track and accompanying video are particularly disturbing in their suggestions of how drugged and increasingly violent today's youth have become. (The video was recently pulled due to feelings that the video's release at the time of the Virginia Tech shootings was inappropriate.)

However, it isn't individual songs that shine here. Rather, the album as a whole gels perfectly, and each track works as effectively as every other.

While heavy, distorted guitars played a sizable role in 2005's “Deadwing,” they are almost all but annihilated here. Only for a few brief moments during each song does the band sound remotely heavy, and it's for the best. Without loud, overbearing distortion, the band relies instead upon shifting keyboard and clean guitar melodies to craft intricate soundscapes.

In particular, the closer “Sleep Together” features an unsettling keyboard backdrop to Wilson's plaintive vocals and guitar. Combined with Gavin Harrison's drum and Colin Edwin's bass work (as well as an orchestral arrangement by Dave Stewart), the listener is left with an exceedingly dense, brooding ending to a likewise complex record.

While the song lengths might make it seem as if only truly dedicated fans could listen all the way through without stopping (the shortest clocks in at 5:07), the six songs never drag or meander without direction; each second is a keenly focused burst of musicianship. If future bands can equal one half of the greatness of Porcupine Tree, we will have great music for the rest of our lives.

What's more, this may be the first progressive album to live up to the standards set by titles such as Yes's “Fragile,” Emerson, Lake & Palmer's “Pictures at an Exhibition,” or King Crimson's eternal “In the Court of the Crimson King” or “Larks' Tongue in Aspic.”

Despite all that I have said in praise, words cannot truly do this album justice. Listen to it, and you will agree with me: It is a masterpiece.

RELATED

— External link: “Fear of a Blank Planet” minisite

— External link: Porcupine Tree's MySpace page (listen to the album here)

— External link: Porcupine Tree's Web site