Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Occam's Razor
2. Blind House
3. Great Expectations
4. Kneel and Disconnect
5. Drawing the Line
6. Incident
7. Your Unpleasant Family
8. Yellow Windows of the Evening Train
9. Time Flies
10. Degree Zero of Liberty
11. Octane Twisted
12. Séance
13. Circle of Manias
14. I Drive the Hearse

Disc 2:

1. Flicker
2. Bonnie the Cat
3. Black Dahlia
4. Remember Me Lover

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #813 in Music
• Released on: 2009-09-15
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .25 pounds

Album Description
2009 two CD release from the Grammy-nominated modern Progressive Rock band. Porcupine Tree is fronted by Steven Wilson, who also is well-known for his work producing other artists, from Swedish Progressive Metal group Opeth, to Norwegian chanteuse Anja Garbarek. One of the only constants in Porcupine Tree's music is how it continues to evolve and confront the expectations of the band's fans from album to album. The Incident is their 10th studio album and takes the listener on a thrilling audio journey. In turns haunting, desolate, hypnotic and euphoric, its centre-piece is the title track: a stunning 55-minute musical statement that breaks down into 14 separate and often diverse (though interlinked) vignettes.

Customer Reviews

A lot to like, maybe not as much to love
Another huge PT fan here, I have been counting the days until this album arrived on my doorstep and I like it. I like it a lot. It's everything a fan would ask for, like a kitchen sink chock full of PT. But I can't say that this album grabs me and shakes me and won't let me go like their other albums. I am listening to it nonstop, and some songs are very good--right now I truly love "I Drive the Hearse", "Black Dahlia" and "The Incident".

I don't know if that is because this is not a great PT album, or just that I have become too familiar with their sound. Maybe I need more time with it, not less--but I have the feeling that more time will just uncover more familiarity and that is possibly what is keeping me from raving about it.

ETA: After listening to this album for the past several weeks, I think I understand what the problem is for me. From the first track all the way until "Time Flies", I love this album as much as anything else I have heard by PT. But from "Time Flies" (which I just don't like, not even the radio edit) up until the start of "I Drive the Hearse", which is the last track on Disc 1, I pretty much take a powder mentally. Then once "I Drive the Hearse " starts up, I love this album again all the way through the end of Disc 2. That's just me, though--other reviewers here love the songs during the stretch that loses me.

ETA: I need to stop editing this review, but I have to add one more thing, about PT in general. I am over forty, about to be forty five, in fact. I live in a suburb, I have two kids, a husband, a mortgage, a cat and a Subaru. In short, I am as far away from young and cool as you can get--I am not even old and cool yet. And that is fine, but one thing I used to mourn was the fact that I probably would never love a band the way I did the Beatles as a kid, or the Clash in high school, or Nirvana--you know, that electrified connective sense of discovery that you get. At some point for a lot of people, you realize you have crossed over and suddenly there is "the kid's music" and "your music", and while you might enjoy "the kid's" music, nothing seems to sound as brain-grabbingly amazing as the music from your youth. Well, I discovered PT about two years ago, and they brought back that kind of rush about music that I missed. They really are that good, deep, and enthralling to listen to.

Magnum Opus
For a band that never settles into an easy formula, Porcupine Tree still manages to impress with The Incident, an all-encompassing musical adventure and concept album.

It surfaced early on that the follow-up to PT's very successful previous album, Fear of a Blank Planet would be another concept album and pretty much one long piece of music clocking in at 55 minutes. Steven Wilson, who has a writer's itch for long form, was rightfully satisfied with the quality of Anesthesize, the brilliant highlight of Blank Planet. In progressive rock, the form is not new, dating back at least to the grand daddy of them all, Genesis' Supper's Ready from 1972 and IQ,the Flower Kings or Transatlantic have certainly explored it thoroughly. But Porcupine Tree now gives it its own treatment, with spectacular results.

Before going further into The Incident, the "song", it should be noted that The Incident is actually two CDs, the main one and a second one made from four side tracks. It is an interesting choice: Fear of a Blank Planet had itself generated a companion album, Nil Recurring, an EP belonging to the same creative cycle and bringing several variations and echos of the main project's themes. And so it is with The Incident's second CD, although we don't have to wait a year or so for its release. The material is clearly less impressive than the main cycle but is pretty good nonetheless.

As for The Incident, it is primarily a high concept collection of songs exploring our reactions to tragedies and hardships, particularly in the context of modern media overload. This is why it is called the "incident", an all-purpose euphemism that is likely to cover unspeakable sorrow for the real actors but allows us, the public, to retain a certain distance, to avoid being reeled into the suffering and drowning in empathetic reaction. Wilson calls this the "Princess Diana effect", the fact that a tragedy affecting a person that cannot possibly have any interaction with most of us is able to trigger an overwhelming emotional response through the prism of media coverage. Meanwhile, Wilson has argued in interviews, we protect ourselves from having to react over and over to tragedies that affect us more directly. Thus The Incident, an exploration of human nature based on "incidents" from Wilson's own experience, probably making it Porcupine Tree's most autobiographical work to date... Light stuff.

It should be said that The Incident is not really one piece of music. It is made of 14 parts, most of which able to stand alone on their own. Furthermore, the transitions between the songs are sometimes almost seamless but not always so. Musically, PT is all over the map, which should not be a problem for afficionados used to Wilson's musical explorations. Historically, PT has often shown a great reverence for Pink Floyd's influence but has also dabbled in the musical territories of Dream Theater, Brian Eno, Robert Fripp or Nine Inch Nails among others. Most influences can be found here, including four instrumental sections. A few songs take some getting used to (still working on "Drawing The Line " for example...) but there is no filler and the whole cycle is fascinating.

The inescapable centerpiece of The Incident, a masterpiece in its own right and enough of a reason to buy the whole album, is the almost 12 mn long "Time Flies". Lyrically, it is the most autobiographical of all the songs in a pretty personal set:

"I was born in '67
The year of "Sgt. Pepper"
And "Are You Experienced"
Into a suburb or heaven
Yet it shoulda been forever
It all seemed to make so much sense
But after a while you realize time flies..."

Musically, the song is a glorious pastiche of Pink Floyd circa Animals, a fusion of Dogs and Sheep from this album with perhaps a touch of "Stars Die" from Porcupine Tree's own 1995's Sky Moves Sideways sessions. The homage is not purely musical. The lyrics themselves channel Roger Waters' irony and gloom, even though Wilson's voice does not quite have the same bite, and allude directly to other Floyd songs as in:

You see there's something wrong here
I'm sorry if I'm not clear
Can you stop smoking your cigar?

The Incident is not for everyone. It takes work to absorb, its subject matter is clearly not "fun" and the treatment more experimental than on FOBP. But PT's fans will be awed and and any listener eager for intelligent, grown-up pop both musically and lyrically, will find little fault with it.

Prog Rock Album Of The Year
yes - its THAT good. imagine all the great moments from every PT album since 'signify', mix it in a blender..and then take it to yet another level. 'the Incident' might not only be album of the year, it very well could be PTs best album ever. (and that is saying alot). it isnt as metal as 'fear of a blank planet' (that album was slightly disappointing to me). instead they mix crunching guitars, acoustic bits (yes - the acoustic guitars are back!), some of strongest keyboard atmospheres of the underrated Richard Barbieri, and add the best vocals steven wilson has sung. no guest artists this time either. just the band. the lyrics are a little cryptic, but in no way detracts from the experience. the tracks on the bonus e.p. are excellent also, but it is the main cd that blows me away. i have had this on my stereo (on repeat) for the last 8 hours - and i'm still saying WOW. this is the PT album i've been waiting for. the one i knew they were capable of making. the only drawback to this album is i dont know if they will be able to top it. i also agree with the other reviewer who said this needs to be listened to from start to finish, in order to fully appreciate it. ok - back to listening. ;o)