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Porcupine Tree - Waiting  CD (album) cover

WAITING

Porcupine Tree

 

Heavy Prog

3.73 | 60 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

TCat
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin
3 stars This single comes from the album "Signify". The one difference is that on the single, it is divided into 2 separate parts where on the album, it is all one track. Either way, it is the same song, and it is one of the band's best. It is a haunting song with excellent vocals from Steven Wilson. During the verses and chorus, it is rather mellow, but the guitar solos are nice and heavy, the way we like them. The first part ends at 4:24, which seems like a natural point to divide it. The 2nd part lasts for 6;16, and starts off with an atmospheric instrumental section which builds slowly as other instruments are introduced over the percussion. At around 4 minutes, it bursts into a beautiful guitar solo.

On the CD version of the single, the B-side is an 8 minute track called "The Sound of No-one Listening", a very powerful and emotional instrumental. This song would later be made available on the "Stars Die" compilation but in a remixed version. It starts off in a psychedelic vein with processed instruments and sound effects. A sudden percussion and bass line starts pounding away, with a mellow guitar solo and organ joining in later, giving the song a nice jazz influenced sound. Things get heavier suddenly with a swirling synth leading the way. There are definitely echoes of "Lightbulb Sun" here throughout the track. A nice flute riff calms things down, and we lose the foundation of the track when the percussion and bass disappears. At five minutes, a beautiful and atmospheric guitar starts up and this ushers in another heavy section with the returning bass/percussion foundation. The bass falls away eventually and we're left with drums and atmosphere, and soon the drums stop and we are left with ambient psychedelic sounds.

On the vinyl 12" version, instead of "The Sound of No-one Listening", we get two shorter tracks. First is "Colourflow in Mind" which is a spacey and mellow song with vocals that flows beautifully. The verses and choruses are ambient and slow but the melody is dark. A heavy guitar solo starts at 2:45 keeping the dark feel of the track apparent and it closes out the song. The other track is called "Fuse the Sky", which starts with sound effects and processed noises with the sound of waves. At 1:12, what sounds like a processed sax comes in, sounding more like some mellow bagpipes. In this song you hear shades of "The Sky Moved Sideways" as slowly strummed guitar chords and nice synth textures build the song. There are no vocals in this one, neither are there any percussion. Just a nice, peaceful song. Both of these tracks would also be later available on the "Stars Die" compilation.

So, all of these tracks are available elsewhere. However, I find them nice on either one of these single versions, because they tend to get lost on the "Stars Die" compilation as they are surrounded by other tracks that are similar in feel and so their individual power gets lost in the double album compilation. That gives this single more power and the songs more exposure. The tracks are all beautiful, but either version of the single can be pricey and hard to find. Only because of that, I would consider this a non-essential recording, but if you find it for a good price, you should definitely get it.

TCat | 3/5 |

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