Album Review: The Incident by Porcupine Tree

A sticker on the front of Porcupine Tree's 10th studio album notes the inclusion of a 55-minute song with the same name as the album, as well as another called Remember Me Lover that appears on the second CD. Two CDs and a 55-minute song? A tad daunting. But the second CD has just four songs, and the Brit prog rockers break the 55-minute epic into 14 "movements" whose beginnings and endings subtly blend into one another very much like a 14-song album.

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Over the years, trying to determine what is true "prog rock" and what is not has become an increasingly tricky proposition. In the early '70s, it was easy -- any band that performed "suites" that extended across entire album sides and dressed in capes and/or cloaks was a dead giveaway. However, when the early '80s rolled around, most former prog rockers trimmed out the fat from their compositions (and exchanged their medieval wear and kimonos for what looked like sports coats).

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At this point, you know what you’re going to get from Porcupine Tree. They’ve been around for over 15 years and have evolved quite a bit over time. But things haven’t changed too much for the band since 2003’s In Absentia, which was the first album to add strong heavy metal influences to their Pink Floyd-meets-Britpop take on progressive rock.

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Over the last twenty years, Porcupine Tree has proven to be quite the unique and eclectic band. They can do anything from catchy pop to prog jams to ominous metal. In a world where artists are either high skilled musicians or simple but great songwriters, Porcupine Tree excel at both, creating some extremely complex music as well as some of the greatest songwriting I’ve ever heard.

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