Even on their tenth studio album, Porcupine Tree shows no signs of growing stale with age. This is a band who has taken the progressive style to a new level. "The Incident" was an album that took a little while to grow on me. Don't get me wrong, I liked it from the start; but it got so much better upon each listen. When it was announced the album would be one 55-minute song cycle, I didn't know how to feel. I figured it would be too difficult for the casual listener and that they wouldn't gain too many new fans this time around. Once you get a good listen to the album, however, you realize that the case is not that it is one long song; rather 14 songs or "bits and pieces" that are fitted together so they flow together as a complete album. This means it's actually quite easy to pick out your favorite tracks and just go back and listen to those without missing anything, if you're that type of listener. After seeing the band perform the entire first disc (yes, there's a second disc that I haven't mentioned yet) on stage, I realized just how great these songs are as a whole, rather than just in their individual forms. To get the full picture, you really need to go through this album start to finish at least a few times. To give you a little more of the idea, the album's title, "The Incident", comes from the notion of an occurrence in a person's life in which they know nothing will ever be the same again going forward (in the case of this album, a car-wreck seems to be the "incident" of choice). It's a beautiful work full of very talented musicians creating music that has power, drive, and feeling.
When talking about Porcupine Tree, it is difficult not to mention their drummer, Gavin Harrison; who is so good at what he does, I don't know if he ever falls into a pattern. It's as if he makes each phrase unique; and in some of the more interesting time signatures that the band plays in, this is no easy task.
Okay, I will mention the second disc of "The Incident", which seems to be the leftover tracks that didn't quite fit into the grand scheme of things. Two of these tracks are great; "Bonnie the Cat" and "Remember me Lover". The other two are good, but don't really leave a lasting impression. Still, I am a firm believer that if you're even considering throwing in some extra material, there's just no reason not to; and that this second disc was worth the extra effort.
Overall, the album is among the band's best.
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