FEAR OF A BLANK PLANET

Porcupine Tree

Heavy Prog

4.29 | 2872 ratings

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This album is the testimony of a generation. A generation dominated and imprisoned by technology that turns their eyes to the screen electronics and becomes oblivious to the world around.

It is also the Porcupine Tree album I've heard in full. And though not my favorite band (a title that now belongs to the wonderful In Absentia) is certainly a masterpiece of the decade. It was not easy to get to this classification, however. If there was an album where I was constantly changing the classification between 4 and 5 star, this one. But I guess now I'll give you a definitive vision (hopefully).

Fear of a Blank Planet does not show a change in the band's sound, or the addition of new sounds. It is "more of the same", but is done so unique that it is competent and one of the best albums of the band. Fortunately, it's a step ahead of the disappointing Deadwing (I did not entndo what people talk so much about this album) and features what is perhaps the best song the band ever.

And this song is Anesthetize. Oh God, this epic is incredible. It is divided into three sections, each corresponding to a song. The first is calm, with the typical not-so-melancholy vocals by Wilson riff that explodes into a killer and still has a master's Alex Lifeson solo. The second part is the best after a few vocal music enters a chilling instrumental section! The third part is the calmest of the three, with vocal settings and reflective passages.

The rest of the album is not for less. I mean, except for the title track and Sleep Together (which does not really appeal to me) the other three songs are espetcaulares! My Ashes is perhaps the most beautiful ballad that Wilson has written, Sentimental is another lovely song with some guitar riffs that remind me of Trains and Way Out of Here is one of the best songs ever PT threatening environment with passages interspersed with very heavy sections but who is guilty of wasting the talents of Robert Fripp (another teacher) to create effects expendable and barely be heard.

Indeed Fear of a Blank Planet is a masterpiece, and it is still early to tell if it's their second best album (I'm listening to and analyzing the band's albums from 1991-2000), but I know he does not surpass In Absentia . However, it is a fantastic masterpiece, so I give 5 stars just once.

voliveira | 5/5 | 2011-1-11

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