THE INCIDENT

I have no idea what "progressive" really means, nor do I care that much. But perhaps one valid definition is music that is created by the musician strictly for the act of creating art, with literally no regard whatsoever for what fans, reviewers, or anyone else wants to hear. Music that is crafted, not designed by committee.

When you make music this way, you will immediately alienate some long time fans that want you to keep regurgitating versions of your previous work, newer casual fans that came by briefly because their tastes matched up with some single song, and the cork-sniffers among us who over-analyze each note, confuse influences with mimicry, and can't differentiate their own personal tastes from objective facts.

But when music (or any kind of art) is created for purely selfish reasons like this, it is really the only time that the magic can happen. And magic did indeed happen here. You can like it and take the journey, or dislike it and be left behind. Clearly the band does not care, nor should they.

First a few objective facts. The first CD is not a 55 minute song. It is a song cycle, which is a collection of bits of music that are related in some way, whether musically, lyrically or thematically. In this case the theme is the concept of Incidents that change peoples lives, although there is also some strong recurring musical themes as well. The production of this album is their best to date, with each instrument having a clear portion of the frequency spectrum, a dynamic mix without the typical "Loudness" squash, and a very well done 5.1 mix. Steven Wilson's singing is definitely at it's best, and his guitar playing even more so. Musically, this album is really the first PT album that takes 15+ years of their various musical influences and incorporates it into their vocabulary, unlike FoaBP for example, which is intentionally a single musical color. Because of this, The Incident is a very hard album to listen to for those that prefer a predictable sound with minimal transitions. This album contains some of the band's heaviest moments, most ambient moments, most melodic moments, catchiest pop moments, and clearest classic rock moments, sometimes all within a single song.

I won't review the songs themselves because that's just some random Internet guy stating a personal opinion, which should mean less than nothing to you. It also somewhat misses the point of this being a single song cycle and not a collection of stand-alone songs. I'll say instead that if you like to be challenged musically, are open minded enough to come to like music outside of your comfort zone, and generally are the kind of person that can understand music that demands your undivided attention for 1+ hours as opposed to a shuffle mix of favorite singles in the background, give this album a try. You may or may not like it, but it's worth the effort.

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