LIGHTBULB SUN

To me, this is one of the band's more boring releases. I like 6 of the tracks, but the other 4 aren't that great. Still, it's a decent album, but nowhere near the band's best.

A description of the music: The title track is a poppy acoustic song with an incredibly catchy and happy bassline in contrast to some melancholic lyrics. There is a lot of Radiohead influence it seems. "How Is Your Life Today?" is a nice little piano ballad that's in 3/4 time to give it that waltzy feel. "Four Chords That Made A Million" is a song mocking the bands that only use a few chords to make a full song, and makes a song of that style to further mock them. But since they use that style, it is a very poppy and rather repetitive song. "Shesmovedon" contains a great guitar riff with nice harmonies in the chorus. It also has a long guitar solo that is a goody. "Last Chance To Evacuate Planet Earth Before It Is Recycled" starts out promising but the last few minutes are disappointingly just a voice track over banjo and acoustic guitar. "The Rest Will Flow" is an acoustic rock song with a pretty string section, but is quite boring overall. "Hatesong" contains laughable lyrics, but is incredibly catchy and has an amazing instrumental section. "Where We Would Be" is another acoustic rock track that has a nice chorus, but like a few other tracks, is quite boring. "Russia On Ice" is the gem of the album. It contains an absolutely gorgeous spacey piano intro and some beautiful singing. The instrumental section is also very entertaining. The only downfall to this song is the lyrics. "Feel So Low" is a very melancholic closer to the album. It draws a lot of influence from Radiohead and is an overall beautiful song.

PROS:

Acoustic guitar: The acoustic guitar in this album plays some great and beautiful riffs. I also really like the acoustic solo in the intro to "Last Chance to..." The title track is one of my favourite acoustic tracks of all time.

Instrumental sections: A weakness I've always found with PT was that their instrumental sections never measured up to the lyric sections. In this album, I actually think the instrumental parts outdo the lyrical parts.

CONS:

Not prog: Sorry folks. If you're looking for proggy PT, go check out The Sky Moves Sideways, Fear Of A Blank Planet, or other albums. The only prog tracks here are "Hatesong" and "Russia On Ice."

Filler: "Where We Would Be," "The Rest Will Flow," and "Last Chance To..." just seem like filler tracks to me. Although the latter does begin great, the rest is quite boring.

Lyrics: "Hatesong," "Last Chance To...," "Russia On Ice," "Feel So Low," and "Shesmovedon" all contain below average lyrics.

Song ratings: Lightbulb Sun: 9.5/10 How Is Your Life Today?: 8/10 Four Chords That Made A Million: 6/10 Shesmovedon: 8.5/10 Last Chance To Evacuate Planet Earth Before It Is Recycled: 5.5/10 The Rest Will Flow: 5.5/10 Hatesong: 10/10 Where We Would Be: 5/10 Russia On Ice: 10/10 Feel So Low: 9/10

My rating: 3 stars. If the tracks that I rated under 7 weren't there, it'd be 4 stars.

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