FEAR OF A BLANK PLANET

There's not much to add to the discussion about this album and every thing I say will have been said over and over again but I just have to review this album. I can find almost nothing wrong with it for the entire 50+ minutes. Every song is constructed carefully and each part has its own place in the album. The lyrics have sometimes been dismissed as too angst driven but one has to remember that this is following from a book that the album's concept is derived from, so this argument is, in my opinion, useless. Even if the story was purely from Steven Wilson's head the lyrics are very well written and do not detract, but add to the overall experience. Musically this contains Porcupine Tree's loudest and quietest work to date (both their loudest and quietest moments are contained in the last two movements of Anesthetize respectively). Making an album with such stark contrasts in sound throughout is very hard to do without screwing up at least one of the transitions, but Porcupine Tree do it seamlessly, and repeatedly here. On the last four Porcupine Tree releases all the members have been playing with immense skill and to great avail, on Fear of a Blank Planet, however, every member does their best work to date. Wilson's vocals are haunting and beautiful, and his guitar work is magnificent. Gavin Harrison's drumming is very dynamic and he keeps doing things with his drum kit that just draw attention to places on wouldn't normally be focused on. Colin is as good as he's ever been filling out the sound nicely. The biggest step up in contribution has to be Richard Barberi's synthesizer work. The moments of tranquility it provides on songs like Fear of a Blank Planet and especially Sleep Together just push this album into a new realm of feelings. One more thing of not is the production and attention to detail in the production that this album exhibits. There are things going on that I didn't hear the first five, ten, and twenty times I played the album. This is one album that should definitely be listened to on the best pair of headphones you can get a hold of. Again, there was probably nothing new said here but all the same this is an album everyone should listen to at least once in their life.