BLACKFIELD

As most reviewers here have already mentioned, this is a collaboration from Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree and Aviv Geffen ( a famous musician from Israel). Even though this first album leans more on SW's popularity to help promote the group, this band is more Aviv's baby. Steven's influence will diminish with each of the albums that will follow later. Aviv has said that the songs are meant to be more pop oriented and formatted for radio air play, so the songs are kept quite short in comparison to many other progressive rock groups and he has also said that he only allows SW to keep his solos below 2 minutes. Because of this, in my opinion, some of the songs seem to be cut a little short, but other than that, each and every track is beautiful, melodic, and very Porcupine Tree sounding, at least the mellow side of PT. There is a lot of piano, strings and guitar and the songs are all slow to mid tempo, there is a feeling of sameness to the songs but they are certainly well produced, beautiful and meticulously crafted. The songs are full of feeling and written with heart and soul. As with most SW collaborations and efforts, the mood is also dark. There are two songs that are fronted by Aviv and the rest are fronted be Steven. Aviv's voice is distinctly different from Steven's and you will know when he is singing, but he can definitely hold his own even when is accent is slightly thick. Anyway, this is definitely a quality album, even though it is more pop oriented, the songs are well written, produced and executed. I only wish they were a little longer from time to time, that the riffs and ideas were a little more fleshed out, but don't let that discourage you from checking this out. Fans of Porcupine Tree should enjoy this and anyone else that loves the ingenuity of Prog rock (on the light side) but without a lot of effort needed to enjoy. You will know after the first or second listen whether you love this or not. Album number I in my opinion is definitely worth is and should be considered an excellent addition to any prog rock collection, but not necessarily essential.