SIGNIFY

"Signify" was a transition album and, like I said in other review, that is not always something easy. And if we are talking about Porcupine Tree, it is even more dificult, because this album sets the line between two radically different musical eras, and what it is even more troublesome, both eras seem to interleave and mix in this album, I mean, in most of the ocassions like in the case of Marillion, for example, we have a set of albums of a musical style and then, usually after one of the important members of the band leaves (going along with the example, Fish, in this case), the band starts with a different musical view clearly expressed in the first album of this new era. That doesn't happen here. Like I said, we have a mix of the two eras gathered together here. We have pieces of Wilson's spacy and instrumental work and we also have more rock- oriented and band performed songs that would define Porcupine Tree tendencies from now on. So, I think this is the main reason why this record has so many negative impressions among some people.

But I think that in overall terms, the result is quite good and I would dare to say that excellent in some moments. Probably this record is not as magnificent as it was "The Sky moves Sideways" or doesn't have the energy of records like "In Absentia", but at the very least it has notable pieces of both musical eras. We have good pieces of work from Wilson, like "Pagan", "Idiot Prayer" or "Intermediate Jesus" (the first one remind us clearly of "TSMS") and we have good (although a bit soft) pop-rock songs (although performed in a more concerned (prog?) way) like "Every House is Wired" or specially "Waiting (phase one)", a simply beautiful and delicious ballad, along as one of my favourite songs from the band

So, maybe this is not the best PT effort, probably due to the reasons I mentioned at the beginning of my review, but it is an excellent album and worthy to listen.