Porcupine Tree: The Incident
 

This is by far their greatest work to date, this includes all of Steve Wilson's side projects like Blackfield and Incredible Expanding Mind****. I've listened to the album start to finish 3 times now and it just keeps getting better. One of the things that I like the most is the song lengths, a good deal of them are only a few minutes of just pure rock, then they blend into a longer song to make it seem like it's all one track. I need to give it a listen with headphones before I make anymore judgements but I'm seriously considering giving this album my "Album of the Year" prize.

I can't wait to see them in a few weeks time. Going to buy the album tomorrow and then post back with a more informed opinion after only having a fairly bad copy of the album thus far.

Yeah I also grabbed the crappy torrent out of desperation, since then I've come across a far better copy but I will still go out and buy it in stores tomorrow because I enjoyed it that much... that is if Best Buy is going to have it in by tomorrow which I highly doubt.

Liking The Incident quite a bit right now, and I think it is one of the best releases of 2009 certainly. However, motW's Part the Second is still #1 for this year so far. :D

I have a question,

I have heard a few Porcupine Tree songs. About half were awesome rock tracks with great guitar work. The other half was more ambient like. So my question is what is most of they music made up of? I haven't quite gotten into ambient just yet.

I have only listened to this album once and not with my full undivided attention but I can say it was pretty brilliant. But I wouldn't say it is their best release to date just yet... maybe I'm just too sentimental but I enjoy their older stuff more. Maybe I need to give it a few more listens...

But that being said, it is excellent.

I started listening to this album and got half way through. I kept thinking of Fear of Blank Planet, and had to put it on it. I liked what I've heard so far, not it's a matter of listening to the the album in its entirety.

Now I have had the chance to listen to it fully I have to say that I'm dissapointed. my first bugbear is the production. One thing about PT over the last 10 years is the brilliant production on the albums. Steven Wilson personally produces the 5.1 soundstages of the most recent albums so I KNOW he has an ear for production but The Incident has a lacklustre sound that's a little muddy in places and doesn't bite you on the ass. There is a 5.1 version out there on a deluxve version that may well enhance the album but as I don't have access to that I can only comment on the standard mix.

The first disc is a 55 minute piece of continous music that is linked lyrically but musically it really is a case of many tracks bolted together with no overall cohesion. Of course there are certain motifs that appear throughout but there is not enough of them and they are not incorporated well enough to give us a genuine 55 minute piece of music. There are standouts of course and some awesome sections of music such as the 11 minute Time Flies and Drawing The Line is instantly likeable but it just has something missing. Maybe I was hoping for more of a stretch musically considering Wilson's obvious musical talent.

On the flipside, the second disc of 4 songs wrote by the whole band and not solely Wilson himself is fantastic and it's such a shame that we only get 20 mins worth of music. There is variation in the tracks and Bonnie The Cat (terrible title aside) is one of the best PT tracks I have heard.

In summary I don't think it's terrible at all and I do like it but it's less than the sum of it's parts and a let down musically regarding their progressive sound.

^ I'm glad that someone else feels it's not their best either. I really like it but like I said I was also a tad disappointed and you still can't go wrong with their earlier stuff. It's funny you mention production, I hadn't really thought about that but now that I do - "being a little muddy in places and doesn't bite you in the ass" is the perfect description really.