THE INCIDENT

I don't know how many more reviews you want to read about this album. So, in order to keep you awake, we'll try a slightly different approach. To keep things interesting I will not give you my own rating of this album but that of my wife :-)

Of course, she would never resort to geeky things such as writing reviews for this site but nevertheless there are reasons aplenty to give her a forum here:

First of all, I really miss the feminine point of view on this entire site. It's all too much about the form of things and less so about the feel. Secondly, my wife has excellent taste in music. Her favourite artists would enlist Depeche Mode, Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, Porcupine Tree, Underworld, Madonna and Opeth of course: there's no living with me if you don't like them. Third reason, who am I to argue with her? And most important of all, our meanings about this album don't differ all that much anyway!

For starters, we both single out the same highpoints and weaknesses. So our standout tracks are: The Blind House, The Incident (great industrial feel on this one), Time Flies, Octane Twisted and Bonnie the Cat. Weaknesses: the whiney chorus of Drawing The Line and the bland and predictable I drive the Hearse. Secondly, we both perceive this album as an interesting mix of In Absentia (general sound and prominent role of acoustic guitar again) and Wilson's superb solo album from last year (lots of dark wave and electronic influences).

What we don't share is our general feeling about this album. I'm slightly disappointed: the uneven quality, none of the tracks weighing up against PT's classics and feeling a bit cheated on the whole "it's one 55 minute song"-deal. My wife doesn't. Contrary to me, she doesn't approach this concept in a technical way as I do, she isn't looking for an intricate composition with recurring themes and motives like Jethro Tull's TAaB, but instead recognizes the lyrical cohesion and flow of this album.

So that's what I meant with adding the feminine angel here. Music isn't mathematics. They may help, but in the end, a simple bit of algebra can be as beautiful as the most intricate formula. Now, counting down two more days till our concert in Brussels 14/10/2009. Let's see if the guys can change my mind by pulling it off live.