2009 Album Review #2: Steven Wilson - Insurgentes

Steven Wilson (frontman of Porcupine Tree) created a solo album every bit as beautiful, haunting, and rockin' as a Porcupine Tree album. It is in that where the only flaw of this album lies; it sounds like a Porcupine Tree album (which is to be expected, as PT started out as just Wilson seeing what he could come up with way back in the late 80's /Early 90's). It's very rewarding to see Tony Levin (of King Crimson fame) in the credits. Some highlights are the extremely spacey "Veneno Para las Hadas", which sounds like a more spaced-out version of PT's The Sky Moves Sideways. Also very interesting are the seemingly Adrian Belew/King Crimson inspired "No Twilight Within the Courts of the Sun", which has an extremely progressive flavor; the addictive "Only Child", and the menacing sound of "Salvaging". It feels as if this is the material that Wilson may have wrote intending it for the band (PT), but ended up using it as his own because it didn't fit in with any of the "concepts" that the band's recent albums have had. A definite win for Steven Wilson; shame that most likely the only ones that know about this album are the Porcupine Tree fans.