LIGHTBULB SUN

Porcupine Tree is not a conventional progressive rock band: it belongs to the new generation of progressive rock that use marginal, melancholic and mellow textures. "Lightbulb sun" consists in a mix of Blackfield, Radiohead and Barclay James Harvest played in an often mellow manner. The music is rather emotional, pretty melancholic and quite depressing; it is not very progressive. I feel a certain unease and sadness while listening to the more mellow parts of the album. It seems the trip involved is for teenagers who have the blues and have contradictory peaceful and rebel feelings that make them bipolar persons. I do not feel comfortable with the marginal style of all the ambience involved. The electric guitar riffs are pretty annoying: I have never been fond of such unrefined and garage sound. There are omnipresent rhythmic acoustic guitar arrangements. The keyboards are rather timid & atmospheric, and forget about elaborated solos. Definitely better than Radiohead, Porcupine Tree have a better sense of melody and catchiness, but they should work harder on the sound of their guitar riffs and on the complexity of the tracks. "She moves down" and "Russia on ice" contains some Barclay James Harvest's similitudes. There are a few very good passages like the second part of "Last chance to evacuate planet Earth before it is recycled".