Release Date: April 24, 2007
Reviewed by Andy Seabright
England’s Porcupine Tree have been running strong under the radar for about 20 years now and they’ve shown no signs of wearing down. With eleven solid albums under their belt including such strong titles as In Absentia and Deadwing, it really makes you wonder what’s next from this impressive quintet.
So now here we are face to face with their latest effort Fear of a Blank Planet. The album is certainly something you can easily get lost in. The melodies on this album glide like they’re floating on a breeze and Porcupine Tree’s vocals flow extremely well with the music. The title track “Fear of a Blank Planet” offers a soft and supernatural, yet energetic bounce along sound as well as a supple, ambient groove. Other tracks on the album such as “My Ashes” demonstrate delicate piano and acoustics while sounding a bit reminiscent of the softer sounds of Led Zeppelin.
Other tunes paint vast audio landscapes such as “Anesthetize” or even “Sentimental”. And overall Porcupine Tree just plain delivers the primary good: Progression. The only minor drawback for me when I listening to this album is a lot of it was felt like it was written to sound pretty simple, something I don’t get drawn to all that often. By and large Fear of a Blank Planet carries you on a musical journey to help relax your mind, but rock out at the same time.
Leave a reply