Porcupine Tree – The Incident

Just a couple of listens so far, but the new album by Porcupine Tree is a wonderful thing to behold (whose line is that?)

It’s a two disc collection – the first disc comprising an extended piece of 55 minutes. In the form of a suite of 14 songs, the music and lyrics are the reflections of Steven Wilson arising from an accident he observed whilst waiting in a traffic jam. The title comes from the road sign “Police – Incident” which he thought was a really cold way to describe what was happening.

This disc does bring us to the realisation that prog rock is well and truly back. The idea in the 70s that punk swept away prog excesses with the return of the 2 minute hit (‘New Rose’ by The Damned had a cover of ‘Help’ by The Beatles that went so fast it was under 2 minutes!) – was never very convincing when you look at the speed with which bands like Public Image were experimenting with form and length.

Porcupine Tree have always pulled themselves in two directions probably led by the fact that Steven Wilson seems to like melody and noise in equal parts. At its most pop, this album is beautiful – at its noisiest it does something wonderful too.

The second disc is a short EP-length work of 4 tracks. The whole thing needn’t have been spread over two discs but I think it works better that way. I’ve listened half a dozen times so far, and am getting hooked into this album…