Summer dress slips down her arm

Porcupine Tree- Deadwing (2005)

Once more a release of the 21st century that truly roxxorz some boxxorz and it's another British band. Here we have a simply sublime and superb album full of brilliantly progressive rock, verging on the lighter scale of metal at times.
I read a lot about this band and, rather foolishly, was constantly put off by the name. For some reason it just didn't appeal to me in the slightest and I was reluctant to even try them out, despite the glowing reviews I'd heard. What a foolish mistake for this album (along with 'Fear Of A Blank Planet') are beautifully crafted, mature pieces of prog rock without the pomposity and bullshit that goes along with the genre. Sure, at times the lyrics are a little inane (the rhyming nonsense of opener Deadwing for example) but they then soar to the sublime in such tracks as Arriving Somewhere. The album lives up to to the 'prog' stereotype even further by being a concept album, apparently based upon a screenplay by the vocalist and guitarist, Steven Wilson. It's a ghost story, by all accounts.
So, a prog rock concept album about a ghost story by a group from Hertfordshire....I know I may not really be selling this to anyone in the least, but it's up there with my favourite albums ever. Musically it's just sublime, the guitar work ranges from lilting and haunting to straight up hard rocking riffage. The vocal melodies accompany they music perfectly and, as previously noted, some of the lyrics are almost tear enucingly brilliant. The whole of 'Arriving Somewhere' and 'Open Car' are songs that mske the hairs stand up on the back of your neck and arms; the kind of track you usually find one of on every 20th album you might listen to and here we are with 2 on the same album.
Really, to try to single out one or two tracks (as I appreciate I already have...) isn't fair to this album as it needs to be taken in as a whole, ideally listened to, and I mean really listened to, in one sitting. So, get it, listen to it, love it and pass on to all your friends, family and passing acquaintances who have even the vaguest of interests in music as a whole as it truly deserves more attention that it will ever receive.

WORSHIP