Off: PORCUPINE TREE Live

Keith Henderson henderson.120 at OSU.EDU
Mon May 10 12:57:51 EDT 1999


Andreas said...

>If the gig in Utrecht would have been good I´d have liked to see them again the
>next day in Den Bosch, but sadly it wasn´t... after their stupid album Stupid
>Dream I expected worse though.

I dunno, I'm having a hard time trying to determine my own response to this
album.  I've only had it a short time (four listens so far) and am wondering
how I'm going to review it for the next issue of AI.  Everyone here (on
boc-l) seems to hate it, and everyone on PT-Trans seems to love it (or keep
quiet). :)  I have a mixed response.

I don't believe that it is necessarily 'pop' or 'commercial' or a 'sell-out'
whatever. Only Piano Lessons seems like a 'radio' song to me, because it's
so empty and thoughtless.  :)  (And I guess it *has* been played on the
radio over here.  Bad news I say.  Why would any band want to be 'known' for
their worst song?)  But I agree that some of the very worst PT music is on
this album.  Crap tunes like 'A Smart Kid' 'Pure Narcotic,' and "Stranger by
the Minute."  Steve Wilson used to write 'thinly-composed' songs that were
epic and poignant (Radioactive Toy and V34 come to mind)...but some of
*these* thinly-composed songs just sound ordinary and lifeless, it's true.
And the orchestrations are cheesy, and the angelic all-Steve Wilson choir is
awful!  But I don't see why it's called 'pop'.  I just think it's less
'rock' so what else to call it?  I guess 'shoegazer-dream rock' a la
Spiritualized, Slowdive and/or the first Verve album. And so what, those
bands may sell more albums than PT, but I've never heard any of them on the
radio (Spiritualized was used in a TV ad though).  Well, I don't listen to
the radio I admit.  :)

But, that said, I still think there are some real highlights on the album as
well, and as such I will still recommend it.  (It only fails if you hold
them to a higher standard than everyone else.)  Don't Hate Me is fabulous,
and the Gong-like jam is irresistable.  Even Less is also exciting, as is
Tinto Brass in a herky-jerky krautrocky way.  This is No Rehearsal is pretty
cool also.  But 4 out of 11 or 12 isn't a very good hit/miss ratio
certainly.  But I wouldn't count them out entirely....I think SW has got a
lot of good music left in him.  All you have to do is compare Fish's very
strong 'Sunsets on Empire' (with SW producing, writing, and playing guitar)
with the new crappy 'Raingods with Zippos' (with SW only playing guitar) to
know what he can create.

So, yes, I think it was a bad move in a way, but only because it got away
from PT's strength - ie., crunchy riffs a la 'Signify' and energetic
drumming from Chris Maitland (who is woefully underused on SD).  But this
album *might* have worked
alright for a different band.

>I guess this was my last Porcupine Tree gig. Let
>them follow the footsteps of Marillion/Fish etc., but without me!

SD is far better than either Radiation (ugh!) or RwZ (ugh! again).

>I´m hoping that they are getting real big so that I can make a fortune out
of >selling my PT collection...

I don't see it happening really.  It's not *that* bad.  :)

Keith H. (FAA)



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