FEAR OF A BLANK PLANET

The Problem this Album might have for me is that it starts with one of the definite Progressive Rock Songs of the 21st Century: Fear of a Blank Planet. A Song that has just about everything. A nasty riff, Great dynamics, that underline the lyrics perfectly, a modern alternative sound and still it manages to go into a dreamy percussive bridge, which has the eariness of the best of the best psychedelic rock out there, and right after that a culminating riff breakdown that might make many metalheads watch in awe.. This is how moving, catchy modern prog should sound like, period.

But how the hell do you wanna follow that beast of a song.

Next up comes a ballad that is hard wrenchingly beautiful and complety hits the mark of all ballads can do, but for me its terribly misplaced. I would´ve wished for more momentum after the spacey fade out of the first track. This track would´ve been the perfect outro maybe.

And then they obviously have to restart the album again: And they try to do this Big Time with Anesthetize an earnest try I have to say, but simply doesn´t work for me. But I have to admit the problem might lie more in the sheer brilliance of the first song. I mean this song has all the ingredients and is great too, but somehow it does lack a really satisfying structure. I find the start enthralling and the middle part is pure catchiness and one of the most important moments (and one of the darkest of Stevens career too) of the album, But I don´t like the dreamy C part at all. It just doesn´t seem to be a relevant conclusion. Maybe I am missing the point. But in the end anesthetize is pleasant, but is also really not essential to my ears.

Way Out of Here is a Pain of Salvation Song. - quite literally using all of the atmospheric trademarks. the warm key background washes, that together with the funky bass create a pseudo metal atmosphere. The versatile cymbal heavy drumming also reminds of pain of salvation (circa "Waking Every God") And of course the riffing and painfully sad childlike melody play into that. This song wouldn´t have been out of place on "Remedy Lane" at all. And I don´t mind that. As it is a great song. And great hommage. But I would have wished for a texturally more diverse song at this phase of the album. As it is quite monolithic but still awkwardly poppy. Using a song like "Nil Recurring" would have been great. And I did my own playlist with the four extra tracks worked into. As I feel they are necessary for the actually "essential" experience.

Sentimental is a beautiful ballad and one of my favourite moments. I felt like pop is where Steven most often succeeded. Not to say he wasn´t capable of prog (see the beginning). I mean some of my favourite Wilson songs are downright pop (Pure Narcotic, Trains, Sound of Muzak, Piano Lessons, Shesmovedon and so forth..) But this song especially for a concept album benefits if "Normal" would have stood somehow side by side with it.

Sleep Together Is in theory a nice concept, but yet again too monothematic for my taste. Although the idea of selfescapism through sex (In this it relates a lot to "Closer" from Nine Inch Nails) is totally correct as a closing idea for this album. The pseudo arabic touch also is a nice solution to an open end situation as it suggests strange new ways

So I like every song on this album. The two exceptional ballads in combination with one of the greatest prog tracks of all time might grand this a close 4 stars, more of a 3,5

But then I listened to the bonus tracks: These only complete Fear of A Blank Planet and constitute it as Essential. Listen to them for urself, theyre all brilliant and bring some much needed textural shifts and prog workouts to the fore, while all the while reprising some of the material and bringing the whole album to a new depth. I created a playlist that for my tastes comes close to what the album shouldve been in my opinion. The only track I find to be discussable of inclusion might be cheating the polygraph. Some of these Bonus tracks are quite crimsoid (especially Cheating and Nil) but they also the diversity of some of Porcupine Trees more psychedelic material (Signify for example).

Here is my own Tracklist ( https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1GetXtCU9zBHswrLejDjC8?si=933cb29b06c8441d )

1. Sentimental 2. Fear of A Blank Planet 3. Way Out of Here 4. Cheating the Polygraph 5. Nil Recurring 6. Sleep Together 7. What Happens Now? 8. Anesthetize 9. My Ashes 10. Normal

Overall Personal Project Rating: 8/10 A Masterpiece of Modern Progressive Rock (11/15)

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