GRACE FOR DROWNING

I like Porcupine Tree. They make nice music. Wilson is obviously a big part of that. However, they have never once wowed me. Signify, In Absentia, Deadwing and Fear of a Blank Planet have all been enjoyable albums to my ears, but I would not consider any of them masterpieces. Now Wilson has released a couple of solo albums, with Grace For Drowning being the more highly acclaimed of the two. This has me slightly perplexed as I have found nothing to be enthusiastic about with this latest release.

I find Grace For Drowning to be plodding and slightly boring. It reminds me of Deadwing and Signify at times, yet muffled and ambient in the Sky Moves Sideways vein. The cornerstone of the album is the 23-minute epic, "Raider II." While I am a big fan of epics, this one is just too ambient for my taste. I find myself bored and wondering why Wilson felt the need to drag this out such as King Crimson did way back when with "Moonchild." Much of the song (which is basically completely instrumental) is just slowly moving soundscapes that ultimately build in intensity with a climatic percussive crash (almost identical to "Larks' Tongues in Aspic"). The whole thing leaves me thinking "gosh, I would have much preferred to listen to a 23-minute loop of Talking Drum, the noodling of Moonchild and the climax of LTIA." Oh well, we all have our different tastes as a number of people obviously love this epic.

To me, the highlights of the album are "Postcard", "Track One" and "Remainder the Black Dog." These are strong songs with nice melodies and musical arrangements. I find "Postcard" especially beautiful while "Remainder" would have fit nicely on the Signify album. The rest of the album is fairly forgettable, in my opinion and overall leaves me with the same feeling that I get when listening to The Incident. It's okay, but nothing to get excited about.