DEADWING

"Deadwing" is quite an inconsistent album, there are good and bad songs throughout the whole album. I suppose "Bad" isn't exactly a fair term but never the less there are some very average songs. Being my first Porcupine Tree album I was very disappointed with it at first and listened to it fewer than three times before forgetting about it. Then, on a whim I bought "The Sky Moves Sideways" which I was attracted to due to the cover picture and song lengths. I was quite happy with "The Sky Moves Sideways" and I soon ventured another listen to "Deadwing.v Since then I have began to appreciate parts of it more. I still don't think the opener "Deadwing" is a very good song, neither is "Open Car." But I have grown to love "Lazarus" and "Halo", while I now enjoy "Arriving somewhere but not Here", "Mellotron Scratc"h and "The Start of Something Beautiful" to a certain extent.

Unlike "The Sky Moves Sideways" I can here a distinct pop sound to some of the songs on "Deadwing" which is very repelling. The CD booklet and cover pictures are very typical of mainstream (or alternative) albums in they way they are set out, with the weird writing and crossing out of certain words and so on. This is another repelling thing about "Deadwing" and the band in general. There are obvious Pink Floyd influences in Deadwing which are most evident in Halo, which is a very Floyd-like song. The overall psychedelic sound of the album is uplifting. The heaviness in some parts supports my argument that prog is turning into metal, something which I dislike too much of.

1.Deadwing (2/5) 2.Shallow (3/5) 3.Lazarus 4/5) 4.Halo (4/5) 5.Arriving Somewhere but not Here (3/5) 6.Mellotron Scratch (3/5) 7.Open Car (2/5) 8.Start of Something Beautiful (3/5) 9.Glass Arm Shattering (3/5) Total = 27 divided by 9 (number of songs) = 3 = 3 stars Good, but non-essential

I think three stars is a fair rating for "Deadwing", it isn't bad and it isn't all that good either. For the price I got it for I reckon it was a good buy. I would recommend "Deadwing" to all you people who lean towards newer prog or prog metal. For me "Deadwing" isn't all that great, but that's just me, the guy who likes classic prog more than anything else. Mike from Opeth makes an appearance on "Deadwing", he sings harmony vocals on a few songs.