INSURGENTES

I really would like to give this one star, but judging by the glowing reviews I see all over the place (and from friends whose opinions on music I greatly value), I must be missing something. I hear simple musical progressions, repeated over and over again, one per track for the entire album, and they hear some kind of brilliant condensation of everything Wilson has done before. I hear unpleasant, grating white noise, they hear atmospheric sounds that push the tracks into new fantastic realms.

I have been a fan of Porcupine Tree for many years. I haven't heard any of the side projects, but I've heard a few No Man tracks and a few Blackfield tracks and found them enjoyable, if not enough to make me actually go out and buy some albums. But then I listen to this solo album and I just can't hear the brilliance that I hear on those other projects. Well, with the exception of the production, which is stellar as usual for a Wilson recording. The music, however, just seems incredibly simplistic, without subtlety, and lacking in the usual dynamic range of what I've heard from him. Oh sure, it gets louder and quieter, but never in any way that builds or releases tension or that creates subtle or intense atmosphere. Well, perhaps intense at times, but in a bad way.

Anyway, I obviously can't give one star because there can be no doubt from the reaction this generally has gotten that it is most certainly for fans and collectors of his work. However, I simply can't go beyond that. The repetitive nature of every song, broken only by shrieking noise and some of the most horrendous lead guitar "playing" I've ever heard on a recording........and no, I wouldn't call it innovative or even "experimental", as it sounds closest to the things I would do with my cheap electric and cheaper amp turned up to full volume before I had learned to play guitar in my youth........all of it just leaves me quite cold, in musical and emotional terms. I suppose the singing isn't bad, and some of the musical progressions (like on No Twilight) are cool the first ten or fifteen times they are repeated, and of course the production is first rate. Beyond that, I'm afraid I just can't in good conscience give this thing more than 2 stars. And I've tried to like it, believe me I've tried. So my apologies Steven, you usually always impress me, at the very least. But not this time, not by a long shot.