LAZARUS

Porcupine Tree - Lazarus

For a single this one is perfect. The a-side of this disc is the beautiful ballad Lazarus which is taken from the "Deadwing" album. It's a lovely song with nice pianos.

The b-sides are both non-album tracks (not on the retail version of "Deadwing" that is): So-called Friend is a good -and quite heavy- rock song with nice vocals. Half-Light was first supposed to be the ending of the "Deadwing" album, but didn't make it on the album (replaced by the also amazing Glass Arm Shattering). Although this is a nice mellow (and very atmospheric!) track, this is not as good as the final ending song of "Deadwing". I'm glad they left it to become a b-side, since I think it wouldn't fit as good on the "Deadwing" album as Glass Arm Shattering did.

This is really the "Lazarus" single (radio edit) with two non-album tracks. So we get 15 minutes of PT music.

"Lazarus" is a beautiful song with gorgeous piano melodies. I must admit it's probably my least favourite from "Deadwing" mostly because i'm tired of it. Great ballad anyway. "So Called Friend" is what makes this EP worth getting. It's heavy with some nice crisp drumming from Harrison. A good driving song that would have fit nicely on "Deadwing". Killer track ! "Half-Light" is good but doesn't click with me like the previous song. It opens with water and nature sounds as the organ builds. Lots of atmosphere early. Piano and reserved vocals come in. Light drums before 4 minutes. It continues to build slowly. Cool track.

So not essential by any means but those two non-album tracks make it worthwhile.

"Lazarus" belongs to the most mellowish songs from "Porcupine Tree". It is a catchy song and therefore prolonged its career in a single format out from the average "Deadwing" album. The background piano is rather a good complement to smooth vocals. Some might find that this is too childish a song but no one can argue about the quality of its melody.

"So Called Friend" is fully in line with their latest work. Almost heavy metal but IMHHO, it could have replaced favourably several songs featured on this album. Great atmosphere, nice melody and hard attack. At the end of the day, it is a typical "PT" song.

"Half Light" isn't any worse than several songs from the album. Extremely soft, quiet and ... uniform. To listen during a peaceful winter evening at the side of the fireplace or if you would prefer during a warm summer night during which you would stare at the sky and count the stars.

This EP is of course not essential. Both unrealeased album tracks are interesting enough and deserve an ear. Three stars.

Porcupine Tree - 'Lazarus EP' 3 stars

A great 3 tracks to be put out for a snack.

This is one of Porcupine Tree's finer EP's.featuring the exquisite 'Lazarus' track from the brilliant Deadwing album along with two b-side tracks which are 'So Called Friend' and 'Half-Light'.

'Lazarus' is a radio edit from the original piece featured on the Deadwing album. It is just a shorter version, not missing any key pieces or things that made the track so special. It is much of the same brilliance as the original.

'So Called Friend' is an excellent track that could have contended with any of the hard rock tracks on Deadwing. I get the impression that this single track inspired the band Abigail's Ghost and their entire sound for their debut album 'Selling Insecurities'. I would highly recommend that to PT fans, I found it to be a great album. Anyways, this track is a pretty odd one in PT's collection. It has a consistent metal riff going throughout with some new vocal work in PT's repertoire. The chorus is a great one which really sticks out due to a significant contrast of the verse make up as it is a very saddening one.

'Half-Light' was supposed to be the ending for Deadwing, but was replaced by 'Glass Arm Shattering'. Either one could have suited the ending to the gem of an album. This one is another odd song. All of the instrumentation including voice is light and constrained. It is an extremely slow paced track with some deep emotion in voice and atmosphere.

This EP is a good supplement to the actual album. I just wish there were more b-sides in the Deadwing sessions; everything just clicked for me in this period.

Porcupine Tree - Lazarus review

By progkidjoel

To begin with, I doubt I can contribute much that hasn't already been said about this single. It was the obvious choice of a single for this album - As Steven Wilson said, "Its only once in a while I can write a happy song, and when I do, I usually make it the single". Its obvious that is what he did with Lazarus, but the results are incredibly pleasing, none-the-less. This is a perfect single for DEADWING - a quality (although poppy) song, which gives the listener a small (although poppy) taste of what this great band can do. The other two tracks on this single make it worth a purchase - The first features a great riff and memorable lyrics, where as "Half- Light" is much more relaxed and obvious in comparison to the previous. As this is a single, its in no way essential for a listener - I wouldn't even recommend buying it since DEADWING is readily available now.

1. Lazarus

This is a great pop tune, featuring soft piano and guitar work, accompanying great vocals and lyrics. A smooth build-up gives this song a lot more structure than the average ballad, and gives this an overall comforting feel. You need only to see the mass of video covers on the internet to understand how big this song went - It debatably gave this band their break. (And many of their album sales)

4.5 out of 5.

2.So Called Friend

A very solid song, this track makes this CD worth a purchase for the Porcupine Tree for the completionist. Much heavier than Lazarus, this features some nice guitar work and rhythms. A fair bit darker, this is much more prog than Lazarus, and in my opinion, is much better of for it.

4.75 out of 5.

3. Half-Light

A much softer track, this opens with nature sounds (similar to those of YES' "Close To The Edge") and closes in the same fashion. Nice piano work and soft vocals lead this track, and eventually, even softer percussion. A good track, but nothing special.

3 out of 5.

This is a solid Single/EP, but not worth paying loads for or searching for, unless you are a PT completionist.

Until next time! -Joel

2.5 stars really!

Well, let me start saying that I never liked the song "Lazarus" much, and now with this radio edit all the more experimental parts are gone. I always found it excessively melodic, and a little too poppy. When I saw it was released as a single, I was curious to see if the B sides were any good. "So Called Friend" is a fantastic song, really great, catchy, with a really energetic riff and great, as usual, performances by the musicians. This track in my opinion should have been in Deadwing. "Half Light" however is pretty boring, a ballad that tries to repeat some of their previous psych ballads, like "Stars Die". I personally find it quite irritating at times, and I'm sure I'll forget about it soon.

A mediocre piece of PT music, definitely not one of their best singles/EPs. For fans only.

This features 3 songs from the DEADWING era of Porcupine Tree. Two of them are not found on the album so I was interested to check them out for the first time. "Lazarus"- a beautiful, and haunting song from DEADWING. This is one of the better tunes from that album, although it is more poppy rock than proggy rock. "So Called Friend"- A good hard driving song that would have fit in nicely on DEADWING or even ABSENTIA. I am glad I heard this here for the first time. It should have been included on the album. "Half Light- A mellow song that reminds me of some Pink Floyd . Also left off of the DEADWING CD. I seem to half a large preference for the louder music of Porcupine Tree than the ballads, and this is the case here. Doesn't seem to grab me and never picks up to a level to interest me. 1 Great song + 1 Good song + 1 less good song= 3 stars.

"Lazarus" is probably the best Porcupine Tree single. Though it consists of three not-that-sophisticated songs, it provides us some great experience about what we call "beauty". Yeah, three tracks on this single EP are simply beautiful.

The title track, "Lazarus", is one of the best-known Porcupine Tree songs. Although it's a very unusual thing for Steven Wilson and PT because of it's highly melodic, mellow, ghostly sound. Beautiful piano line cuts this song throughout and creates repetetive, dreamy mood, which maintains dark but luring lyrics about a young woman from twenties who killed her small son and then comitted suicide. Although this song is very far from progressive experimantation and falls into Britpop category, it still is one of the finest things Steven Wilson ever did.

Radio edition of this song here omitts train noises from the end, which makes this mix more self-sufficient.

The second track, "So-Called Friend", is one of my personal favourities from Porcupine Tree. Played live during "Deadwing" live shows, it wasn't released on album itself. It is a heavy rock song in unusual time signature. The riff is somewhat similar to Tool's "Flood", but not the same (there's more differences from Tool than similarities, actually). Nice bass during the verses, catchy melody in choruses (which reminds me of something Indian, ain't it?) and mind-blowing percussion during slow parts (it's better to listen to this song live for those percussion parts). Lyrically it tells us story about a man who killed his ex-girlfriend, who "ripped his life apart". So lyrically it reminds me of "In Absentia" rather than of "Deadwing".

The final track here is "Half Light", a 6 minutes-long dream pop ballad. Another masterpiece here! Slow, dreamy, sad, moving, emotional... simply, excellent! The only thing that can be better than "Half Light" on single is "Half Life" onstage ? live rendition of this song isn't as accurate as this studio one, but guitar parts live are superior. Here, in studio version, in the beginning of therack you can hear someone's whispering "David". David is the name of main character in "Deadwing" script, so it means that this song was written for the album, but it was omitted for some unclear reasons. It's a shame actually, as it's much more effective track than "Halo" or "Open Car".

In general, this single is a masterpiece for me. A true gem with two non-album track which are worthy enough to be on this album. Don't miss it! 10/10.

This could possibly be the greatest single of all time. One where not only is the title track a fantastic song, but the two b-sides are even better. In the context of the Deadwing album for which they were recorded, "Half-Light" and "So Called Friend" are in my top 4 songs from those sessions, falling only behind "Arriving Somewhere But Not Here" and "The Start of Something Beautiful".

So Called Friend is my absolute favourite of the PT heavy tracks, with possibly the most kickass chorus PT have ever come up with, and somehow keeping a strange 7/8 rhythm going throughout the whole track. I think now that PT have a second live guitarist, Steven was willing to improvise with countering rhythms, because there is absolutely no way anyone could ever both sing and play guitar on this at the same time.

Half-Light is one of PT feelier songs. Although the lyrics aren't particularly depressing, the music makes you feel all fuzzy and warm. I remember first obsessing over this song when I saw the Anesthetize DVD, and just repeating it over and over again. I'll admit, the video version is much better, with Steven's glowing guitar, but this studio version is still fantastic.

Overall, this is absolutely amazing. Out of the 15 (I think) songs recorded in the Deadwing sessions, these 3 are in the top 5.

Luckily, the two b-sides regularly make PT's live sets (Steven has a thing for playing rare tracks live), so you don't need to seek out this particular single to hear them.