PORCUPINE TREE - FEAR OF A BLANK PLANET

PORCUPINE TREE - FEAR OF A BLANK PLANET

Disk 1 . . . . . . .50:48
1) Fear of a Blank Planet . . . 7:28
2) My Ashes . . . . . . . . . . 5:07
3) Anesthetize . . . . . . . 17:42
4) Sentimental . . . . . . . . 5:26
5) Way Out of Here . . . . . . 7:37
6) Sleep Together . . . . . . 7:28

Porcupine Tree's official website at:
http://www.porcupinetree.com/

Line-up
- Steven Wilson - guitars & vocals
- Richard Barbieri - keyboards
- Colin Edwin - bass
- Gavin Harrison - drums & percussion

format: Single CD • Roadrunner Records
release date: April 2006

A review by Dave Ling, of Classic Rock Magazine (UK)
Last September, seven months ahead of release, Porcupine Tree introduced their british concert audiences to the six songs that comprise this, their eight album. And boy did it pay off. After their London Astoria show, Classic Rock Magazine's reviews said the band had "metamorphosed from musicians into stars".

After 20 years of consistent artistic growth, Fear Of A Blank Planet makes the transition complete. A seamless complete piece of music, its 50-odd minutes can nevertheless be broken down into six smaller chunks. The title tack is a mid-paced and hypnotic wall of sound. My Ashes begins slowly and mournful, overlaid with lavish orchestrations. Rush's Alex Lifeson adds a moving guitar motif to the 17-minute Anesthetize, the album's heaviest track.

Continuing the dark mood, Sentimental attempts to fill the shoes of somebody who wishes their life away; numbed by chemicals, apathetic and ambitionless. The theme of alienation continues with Way Out Of Here, punctuated by a swirling, mesmerizing piece of guitar playing from King Crimson's Robert Fripp. Sleep together, beautifully arranged as ever, seems to equate the finality of sexual congress with suicide, its ambiguity utterly beguiling. With the release of Fear Of A Blank Planet, the first mandatory album purchase of 2007 has arrived.

My rating for Fear of A Blank Planet : 9/10(album reviewed by Dave Ling*, March 2007)
*with permission from Dave Ling, ©2007. All Rights Reserved.