FEAR OF A BLANK PLANET

While I give my rating as perfect five stars, I'm aware of the general criticism and understand most of it. Though I can't say much about the lyrics because, apparently, it's based on a book...? Well, I didn't read it, so I don't know what to criticize in this context. The lyrics infamously give the impression that Steven Wilson is an old man that can't understand the mind of the youth (well, maybe he is), so there's parts like "Xbox is a god to me" which feels really weird. In fact, when I showed the first song to somebody, he was really turned off by the lyrics. Anyway, I don't care, and I guess no one really does, considering how popular it is with the young people themselves.

Just like in Deadwing, I have the habit of skipping the first songs to hear the epic beforehand (in that case, Arriving Somewhere But Not Here). While I really like Fear of a Blank Planet and My Ashes, Anesthetize has to be my favorite song of all time. Sometimes I felt as if the first and final parts dragged for too long (the middle part is the main attraction, after all), but I just had to give the time to learn how enjoyable they are: the drumming at the start, the keyboards, the usual ambience that Porcupine Tree is so good at, etc. Maybe the middle part is so heavy and fun that I just couldn't notice that much caring that the band had for this track. In the end, the whole song became a complete masterpiece. At least for me.

After that, we have Sentimental with its nice chorus and the moody Way Out Of Here (which I almost wrote as "Wish You Were Here"). I believe some people say that Sleep Together is the weakest. It's certainly a little different from the rest, but I think this song is really cool. Very dark and industrial, mainly in the ending when you hear the fading vocals "sleep forever!". When I watch the live version, I love how it sounds with Wilson's natural voice during the verses, showing how the vocal effects are just artistic choices and not a matter of hiding imperfections.

The best thing about this album is how it works well in conjunction: since it's just 50 minutes long, with only six tracks, the listener feels confortable enough to hear it in its entirety. You have some rocking moments, beautiful melodies, psychedelia (gotta love the wheel of pills on the background video of Anesthetize, by the way); even if the songs all give the same aura of negativity, the variety in styles is still there. Like I said in the beggining, of course there's some small problems, but I don't think they're relevant. Even after so much time, I still love this work.

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