METANOIA

Metanoia is an album by Porcupine Tree, existing of several studio jams. The compositions are all instrumental, except for radio noises and recordings of the band talking. This album really isn't meant for everybody, as some songs are lengthy psychedelic soundscapes, which people might find a bit too much or even boring.

The songs on this album are no stand-alone songs, the first three tracks for example are Mesmer I, II, and III. Most tracks also segue into another track. The songs are made up of spacey effects, psychedelic guitar playing and very typical basslines. The basslines are, though all powerful and good, one of the weak things of this album, they are incredibly repetative. Nearly every song has a bassline that sounds like the bassline of a different song. For this reason, the album doesn't stay interesting for more than lets say 20 minutes for me. Now, not every song is uninteresting. The most interesting songs on the album are Insignificance and Metanoia I and II. Mesmer I also is pretty good but the remaining tracks don't really do it for me. The final track, Milan, is a recording of the band being in a restaurant in the italian city Milan. The track is basically a pretty silly conversation, but a nice extra on the album.

So, this review is a pretty short one... The reason for that is that I can't say really much about this album, it's just so repetative. This doesn't mean the album is bad, it is actually very nice for background music when you're doing something else and it has some good moments. I think the album does deserve two stars, as it's not bad but more of a thing for fans of the band's spacey era than a casual Porcupine Tree album.