THE INCIDENT

I have been listening to prog for 32 years now. I regard Porcupine Tree as one of the finest exponents of the genre that have emerged in recent years. I love their music. In addition, in those 32 years, as can be seen from my reviews on the site, I have albums ranging from great favourites to ones I feel are poor.

However, in all the years I have been listening to prog, there is one word I have never used to describe an album. That word is BORING, and, yes, this does deserve that title in capital letters. I have tried, tried very hard. From the moment I downloaded the album, I have given this album some 20-odd listens, but the first impression still remains.

In fact, so dull do I find it that I can only really pick out one track that really captures my attention, and that, of course, is Time Flies, and that is for all the wrong reasons.

Being a great neo prog fan, I can put up with nods and tributes to great bands, and can appreciate the influences that the classic bands had. However, Time Flies is such a basic rip off of the Floyd's classic Animals that it is, to me, a wonder that Waters & Gilmour haven't reached for the telephone, and called Messrs Sue Grabbit & Runne for such a flagrant breach of copyright law.

The rest really does melt into a repetitive mixture of post modern progressive music. The band are really capable of so much more, Wilson especially, who is far too mature and capable a songwriter and lyricist to come up with such a concoction of teen angst as this.

The biggest disappointment of the decade, and an album, I feel, will go far down the PA ratings once the initial excitement of the first reviews settles down into realism.