CD reviews: Porcupine Tree – Lightbulb Sun – Review

There are music fans, and then there are genetic mutations who consider Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon the only really good album ever made. While I don’t share that point of view, I can see where this musical totalitarianism springs from: DSOTM is an almost perfect album, as it literally takes you on a journey that combines memorable choruses with anti-society sentiment, nasty guitar solos, brilliant recording, and trippy sound effects. And like so few albums, it actually takes the listener through various moods and climaxes along the way to its final nihilistic dissolution.

The fact that it’s emotionally one-dimensional and thematically simplistic is rather beside the point. It’s surprising, therefore, that so few groups have trod in Pink Floyd’s footsteps, but maybe it’s because they simply became too big to meddle [ha-ha] with.

Well, Steven Wilson’s Porcupine Tree has been slowly building a head of steam since the early ’90s, and his group has finally broken through to a larger, American-based audience these past two years. While their latest albums have razor-sharp riffing that echoes both Metallica and King Crimson to add to the moody spacialism, Lightbulb Sun (from 2000) is the great followup to Dark Side Of The Moon that never was. Why are we reviewing an eight year old album? Porcupine Tree’s catalogue is all being reissued with sparkling new remasters, and an extra disc containing 5.1 mixes of the same album, along with a few extra tracks. Wilson really treats his fans well: not only is the CD a genuine remaster with a bit of a remix on the side, but the DVD-A disc includes both surround sound mixes together with the original 24-bit album mix, just for those who don’t like post-operative meddling.

It’s a brilliant album, peaking in the 13-minute ‘Russia On Ice’ and with loads of dynamic peaks and troughs, and plenty of creamy vocal harmonising to contrast against the brutal riffs that occasionally punctuate the moodiness.

Just one of many Porcupine Tree albums that Dark Side Of The Moon obsessives should check out.

Porcupine Tree
Lightbulb Sun
FROM: Snapper/Southbound/UK
GENRE: Pink Floydish
MUSIC: 4
SOUND: 4

GARY STEEL