ON THE SUNDAY OF LIFE...

"On The Sunday Of Life..." is the official debut full-length studio album by UK progressive rock act Porcupine Tree. The album was released through Delerium Records in May 1992. It was preceded by the two demo cassette tape albums "Tarquin's Seaweed Farm (1989)" and "The Nostalgia Factory (1991)" and the demo EP "The Love, Death & Mussolini (1990)". The material on "On The Sunday Of Life..." are culled either directly from those three releases, or are re-arranged, re-recorded, or otherwise edited (and even re-titled) versions of tracks from the three demo releases.

So if you´re familiar with the preceding demo releases, it won´t come as a surprise that "On The Sunday Of Life..." isn´t the most stylistically coherent release as Steven Wilson experimented greatly with both musical elements and production techniques in those years, and therefore you´ll be exposed to anything from droning ambient soundscapes, to driving psychadelic rock tracks and long jams, to spoken word sections, to samples, to comedy rock tracks featuring pitched helium mouse vocals, and all sorts of other musical elements. I guess it all falls under the psychadelic rock umbrella, but "On The Sunday Of Life..." is an album that´ll challenge most listeners not accustomed to very eclectic album releases or those preferring a body of recorded work in a coherrent style.

Wilson has tweaked the original recordings, made overdubs and remixes, and it´s audible that the sound quality is of a slightly higher quality on the album than the case were on the three demo recordings where the tracks are pulled from. The quality of the material is a bit up and down, but some of the highlights are "Jupiter Island", "The Nostalgia Factory", "Footprints", and "Radioactive Toy". Upon conclusion "On The Sunday Of Life..." isn´t the strongest nor the most promising debut album by Porcupine Tree, and it´s hard to know what to expect from the band on their next release (if we didn´t have the advantage of hindsight). In that respect it´s probably an album which left contemporary listeners a little confused. To me it has been a grower. I started out not appreciating the album much, but repeated spins have revealed at least a handful of good quality tracks and at least as many decent quality ones, and I´d say a 3 star (60%) rating isn´t all wrong.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)