Fear of a Blank Planet - Dark Publications

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com
On Fear of a Blank Planet veteran progressive-rock act Porcupine Tree takes up the task of exploring the alienating forces of the media and its impact on our youths and ourselves. Fear's titular cut features lyrics rife with allusions to the confusing, isolating effects of TV, the X-Box, drugged out consumer escapades, and the ennui that arrives with prescription and self-prescribed numbness. "My Ashes" advances the themes of isolation, as a young person becomes increasingly estranged from himself; "Anesthetize" aptly captures dull apathy with accuracy and knowing but perhaps delves to deep into the dark depths and instead of alleviating pain and pressure instead deepens it via a track that fails to offer much emotional or mental counterpoint. The tune does feature an exceptionally lyrical guitar solo from Rush's Alex Lifeson and proves that if anyone can write a sprawling, throbbing epic it's most likely Porcupine Tree. Elsewhere, such as on the beautifully crafted "Sentimental" and "Way Out of Here," Wilson and Co. land squarely between the epic grandeur of peak-era Pink Floyd and the psychically distant cool of Radiohead, a feat that doesn't as much demonstrate how well PT echoes those bands as it shows us how expansive the English quartet's music and emotional vocabulary is. For elder listeners Fear probably won't serve as the powerful statement it wants to be--its themes have been explored to more exacting impact before and, musically, it's fairly standard progressive fare--but it is a strong and intelligent album and for a generation that's grown numb from three-minute ditties about life at the end of the country club cul-de-sac that embrace rather than rage against the dying of the light, it may serve as a wake up call and provide hope for a brighter and more color-infused tomorrow. --Jedd Beaudoin

Album Description
This starkly beautiful elegy on the numbness, apathy, and isolation brought about by the constant barrage of television, video games, advertising, prescription drugs, sex, and violence of everyday life is emphasized by the symphonic arrangement of metal guitars, synthesizers, fat basslines, and virtuosic drumming.

Album Details
Japanese 2007 Release by the Veteran Progressive Band.

Customer Reviews: Read 182 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

MON THE TREE April 25, 2007
97 out of 111 found this review helpful

For many, this is one of the big albums to watch in 2007. In certain circles, at any rate, there has been a lot of rather assuming talk, with phrases like potential `album of the year' thrown around. Ancillary to this, some of us were privileged enough to hear the entire thing in rough, prototype form live last year, and the textures and dynamics evident in some of the entrancing music we heard that evening certainly suggested something special waiting in the wings. Finally, a lot has been made of the fact that (supposedly) this album functions as one continuous 50-minute cycle of music, and that the lyrics deal pretty much exclusively with Wilson's fears that the younger generation is risking descent into intellectual torpor owing to their addiction to an oh-so lethal cocktail of prescription drugs, MTV, internet addiction and banal culture of necessary instant gratification.
For me, however, none of the above really has much bearing on the album itself. Sonically, the six pieces here (which are distinct enough not to flow together the way, say Light of Day, Day of Darkness does) present an interesting proposition. Crucially, the narcotic core of their sound has been left largely intact, with outrageously catchy melodies, dense, layered and painstakingly executed production, careful, wandering bass-lines and lush, intricate harmonies all present in abundance. There is a slightly more heavy approach evident, but overall the album is remarkably spacey and dreamy, with a lot of attention given to synth washes, soundscapes and somnambulistic melodies, all rather reminiscent of their The Sky Moves Sideways era. But this is juxtaposed with the tight songwriting and straightforward riffing of later releases. If their are any new elements, and I'm inclined to say there are, they emerge in subtle ways: Wilson's vocals, which have changed little over recent years, seem more brazen and stretched, while some of the melodies seem more intricate, more assured and composed, and take time for the listener to fully appreciate.
The title track turns on a riff that is highly reminiscent of `Deadwing', while the chorus has a kind of gentle brutality that is somewhat jarring. The rhythmic vocals over the verse have an interesting, pseudo-rap like quality. The outro is dreamy and unexpected. `My Ashes' is stunning, with that perfect verse/chorus interplay Wilson excels at, lush orchestration and nebulous, highly evocative lyrics. The wordless vocal which rounds off the song engenders a kind of urbane emotional atmosphere, a beautiful dignity.
And then to `Anesthetize', which stands well out of the crowd simply by virtue of being 17 minutes long! Live, this track was instantly memorable and impressive, and here it does not disappoint. Wilson seems to have shoehorned just about every facet of his remarkable music making skills inside. The four minute introduction is sinister, haunting and deceptively melodic. The four to around 11 minute mark is utterly replete with intricacies, yet never overblown: indeed, it displays an uncanny use of shifting dynamics and sustained tension, of the kind Tool have often used so effectively. A slow build is embellished by an ornate Alex Lifeson solo with a welcome exotic tinge, before the heavy riffing slides into view, along with a great, eerie verse and one of their most breathtaking choruses. Then we are hit with something pretty surprising at 11 minutes - suffice to say the song implodes in spectacular fashion, and the excellent outro is ushered in, all sepia tinged sunsets and darkened skies.
To follow that, the gorgeous `Sentimental' harks back to earlier albums slightly, with an intro reminiscent of `Collapse the Light Into Earth', and a breakdown towards the end which re-introduces the riff from `Trains' in slightly moderated form, a happening I've not entirely figured out. Despite this, the gentle lilt of the chorus is possibly Wilson's most effective evocation of sheer melancholy (no mean feat!). `Way Out of Here' is perhaps the most interesting song, a kind of psychedelic metal experiment, although `Sleep Together' pushes it close, a kind of apocalyptic industrial tinged nightmare, with lyrics seeming to equate suicide with sexual release.
Maybe not as much a massive leap forward then, as a consolidation, and certainly a near flawless, very tightly constructed album with a lot of depth, as the whole picture will take quite a lot of listens to emerge. Including only six songs does ensure welcome brevity and consistency. In many ways, which perhaps I've not entirely made apparent, this is their most complex record; at any rate, it is certainly extremely dense. Whether it is their best record, or album of the year is, however, open to debate. Nevertheless, it comes highly recommended.

5 out of 5 stars

Wow--No Need to Worry. You'll Love it April 26, 2007
42 out of 48 found this review helpful

You know how worried you get that bands' subsequent releases are not going to measure up to the past? No worries here. This disk is simply amazing. Even for the "mellow fans" whose favorite song is Lazarus (from Dead Wing), there is something for you on FOBP. I read a past review that said this was HEAVY, HEAVY, HEAVY ... so I was a concerned it might be too Metal. No need to worry. It's heavy in that it's deep and lush. I love music that makes percussion an integral part of the experience--instead of just keeping time. The percussion in this is great even for PT.

I might be PT's oldest fan. Look for me at the front of the line in Boulder on 15 May. Can't wait.

5 out of 5 stars

Best of 2007: Classic Porcupine Tree May 19, 2007
22 out of 25 found this review helpful

After the less than impressive Somewhere Else by Marillion, 2007 was not looking too promising for prog rock fans. But Porcupine once more saved the day! Their "Fear of a Blank Planet" is a direct reference to the Public Enemy album, Fear of a Black Planet (1990) and it left me gasping for air after the first time I listened to it: so much musical power, so many layers of sound.

It can be hard to imagine that barely six tracks can carry the burden of prog rock on their shoulders, but "Fear of a Blank Planet" does this task almost effortlessly. Steven Wilson repeats the same lineup he's had for the past five years. Besides them, the band is accompanied by King Crimson legend Robert Fripp on soundscapes in "Way Out Of Here", Rush's Alex Lifeson on guitar in "Anesthetize" and John Wesley, who had previously appeared on In Absentia and Deadwing, also doing and producing guitar work.

The end result is an amazing prog rock album that leaves the genre breathing comfortably and one of the best albums of 2007.

5 out of 5 stars

Porcupine Tree get even better! April 5, 2007
15 out of 18 found this review helpful

Porcupine Tree have crafted two incredibly beautiful masterpieces: In Absentia and Deadwing. While those two albums are perfect in their own way, Fear of a Blank Planet blows both of them out of the water.

First of all, this album is HEAVY HEAVY HEAVY. It does have it's lighter songs like "My Ashes" and "Sentimental", but overall, this is definitely Porcupine Tree's heaviest album to date. The title track, "Fear of a Blank Planet" begins with a few light guitar strums, and then Steven Wilson's voice comes in and it booms into a field of crunchy guitars and madness. There is a bit of vocal experimentation in the title track (probably through a vocoder or something similar). "Anesthetize" is the heaviest and longest song on the album, and also the best; and the 20 second boom of chaos of guitars and drums rapidly playing around eleven minutes into the song will be sure to please all metalheads. It might even be Porcupine Tree's best song to date, surpassing "Arriving Somewhere but Not Here" on Deadwing. "Way Out of Here" is about as heavy as "Anesthetize", though less than half as long; it is one of the better tracks on the album. "Sleep Together", the album's final track, ends the album with a subtle amount of heaviness and a ton of psychedelia that will please fans of Porcupine Tree's much older and forgotten material such as Up the Downstair and Signify.

Overall, Fear of a Blank Planet is another masterpiece for Steven Wilson and his amazing crew. It's also one of 2007's finest releases already. If you're a fan of Porcupine Tree, this is an essential buy. If you only like their older material and cannot except the fact that Porcupine Tree have changed (for the better, in my opinion), then avoid this album. If you're a fan of progressive metal or progressive rock, you can't really go wrong. Rating this album anything less than five stars would be slander.

Tracklisting: (My album picks are denoted with an asterisk)

01- Fear of a Blank Planet (7:28) *
02- My Ashes (5:07)
03- Anesthetize (17:42) *
04- Sentimental (5:26)
05- Way Out of Here (7:38) *
06- Sleep Together (7:19)

3 out of 5 stars

So disappointed -- and Fearing a New Album April 24, 2007
14 out of 43 found this review helpful

I am so, so disappointed with this release. I find myself wondering what Wilson et al were doing that led to this-- considering the sheer brilliance of the band evident in every other album. What went wrong?

It's not a particular song that's grating, or the length of "Anesthesize", or any one particular element taken to unbearable extremes. It's simply that the entire album is deeply (and tragically) flawed. I wish I could understand how it came to this. I have always LOVED Porcupine Tree's work, and essentially believed they could do no wrong. Now, with Fear of a Blank Planet, I have to reassess that belief.

I heard Porcupine Tree live a few months ago, and during the concert they demoed a few songs off of this album. They seemed alright--darker and certainly more minor-key than I was used to, with some odd harmonies, but I definitely didn't immediately find them exciting. As it turns out, the album is worse (to me) than I expected.

"Fear of a Blank Planet" opens with a decent, if repetitive, melody-- Wilson's vocals follow the same as the opening guitar, and very few things change over the 8 minutes of the piece. I admit it's relatively catchy, and for that reason I give it a better score than it probably deserves. It has energy, and movement, but somehow is completely passionless. In what seems to be the recurring problem with this album, this song most succinctly demonstrates the weakest link in the band--this is some truly BLAND, emotionless drumming. 3.5 out of 5.

"My Ashes" is a slow, ballad-type piece, akin perhaps to Heart Attack in a Layby or Gravity Eyelids, though it loses the amazing hard-rock edge of the latter or the emotionality of the former. The song just makes me sleepy, and due to its being so incredibly formulaic it seems to go absolutely nowhere. Where is the impact of this piece? You can't do a ballad if it isn't going to carry some kind of charge! I feel like the same lyrics are simply sung over and over again, and they aren't even very good. 3 out of 5.

"Anesthetize" is the song most people are talking about (some even claiming it's PT's best song to date). I honestly can't understand the excitement. The intro is certainly fair, and decently composed, but excessively long (the first exciting drum part, where it gets more distorted and edgy, doesn't come in for 3 minutes). It definitely feels like the song is going somewhere, which is great (a rather nice guitar solo, though placed at a strange time in the overall unfolding of the track, adds a lot). Suddenly, this weird techno beat materializes underneath a God-awful, horrendously repetitive guitar line (three notes over and over for about 2 minutes). When the band feels like it's had enough, they suddenly launch into a different riff--repeated over and over and over and over and over. None of this feels connected or organic in any way; nor is it "progressive rock". It's flat, repetitive, and entirely unneccessary. Wilson's vocals come back in--at the 7:20 mark(!!)-- and do little to redeem the track. "The dust in my soul makes me feel awake in my legs"? "I'm watching TV but I find it hard to stay conscious / I'm totally bored"... you know, there was a time when PT seemed like real social commentary, but every time Wilson sings about the evils of the modern world it loses its potency. The chorus, however, is actually quite good, and recalls such victorious moments as that of "Halo", "Trains" and "The Sound of Muzak". It's too bad that the first time we hear it is at the NINE MINUTE MARK. The guitar work, at this point, picks up a lot and becomes much more like the band we've come to love-- juicy, organic, exciting-- but soon devolves into soulless grinding (and another few repetitions of the chorus for good measure). Chug chug chugga chugga chug... Eventually, and for no readily apparent reason, the song slows way, way down and becomes lethargic and boring, saved only by a nice guitar solo at the very end. One wonders why these weren't two separate pieces, or what they possibly had to do with each other... (3.5 out of 5)

"Sentimental" is probably my favorite of the album. Haunting, beautifully composed, and intensely memorable. Wilson's vocals seem actually heartfelt, and overall the piece is just good songwriting. The chorus is exceptionally atmospheric and moving, recalling the very best of "In Absentia"-- my favorite PT album so far. It also never loses its momentum, moving naturally and seamlessly through an ACTUAL progression ("prog rock", anyone?) Feels like a companion to "Arriving Somewhere But Not Here". There's even a hint of "Trains" played in a minor key... absolutely gorgeous. 4-4.5 out of 5.

"Way Out of Here" is another solid song. I really dislike the techno sound PT is playing with (and this is weird coming from someone who digs electronic music) because it feels too artificial, but the piece is carried forward on its own momentum. I do feel like his using the word "iPod" in the song is just unnatural--not that I have anything against 'em (I had the first, Mac-only model), but it just seems strange to me to use product names in music. The song is very emotional, and recalls a lot of power-metal ballads-- none so much as The Cure, actually. Quite cool. And though the chorus is really nothing special, the guitar work is great. Unfortunately, for no reason (can you sense a pattern here?) it launches back into soulless "chugga chugga chug". I'm all for loud, aggressive sound in rock music, but this is simply uninteresting. Coming from a band as skilled as Porcupine Tree, I'm incredibly disappointed in this lack of creativity. (4 out of 5)

"Sleep Together" is just terrible. Terrible. First off is that awful synth (did someone just load up a generic Reaktor preset?), which apparently is destined to lead the entire first minute of the piece. Throughout the first 1:40, Steve Wilson seems completely bored by his own voice, until finally he launches into what (I guess) is the "epic" part. "Let's sleep together / right now." (moment of silence, please)... Surely we can do better than this? What a bad way to end an album... (2 out of 5).

So, here's my deal. I love everything PT has ever done, because they showcase originality, concept, talent, wordplay, dynamics, and friggin' INCREDIBLE melodies in every album (and they sure have a lot). Here, they seem to have lost most of all those elements-- though hopefully they'll recover. The cover is absolutely beautiful, and probably my favorite (though I like In Absentia); I just wish the music measured up.

I'm sure many people will love this album, but I am so scared that "Deadwing" was the end of the band I fell in love with...

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