On Lightbulb Sun

Music review time! This time I tackle my favorite album by one of my favorite progressive artists: Porcupine Tree, with their 6th album Lightbulb Sun. Porcupine Tree's career is roughly divided into three phases: their early psychedelic/spacey/ambient phase, their acoustic/pop-tinged middle period, and their prog metal-influenced present. Of these, Lightbulb Sun falls squarely into the middle phase. Let's go!

Lightbulb Sun is a melancholy progressive masterpiece, more influenced in its sound by mainstream pop and rock than Porcupine Tree's other albums, but unmistakably brilliant. Each song is a musical journey that gives you a different reason to love it; no two sound the same, and consequently the album is an exciting listening experience that I enjoy more every time I go through it.

Lightbulb Sun: The title track is a poetic tale of being stuck in bed due to illness. The simplistic lyrics start the album off on the lighter side, but this is far from a boring song. It starts off with quiet acoustic guitars but is interspersed with electric ones, particularly in the rocking chorus. Meanwhile, band leader Steven Wilson's beautiful, mellow vocals tie it all together and add to the mood established by the guitar at the moment.

How Is Your Life Today: This is one of the more unusual songs on the album, containing only a minimum of guitar or drums and supported mainly by a simple piano melody, interspersed by Wilson's spacey singing of loneliness. It's an interesting contrast with the higher-energy songs on either side of it.

4 Chords That Made a Million: This song seems to break with the theme set by much of the rest of the album; as far as I can tell it's a jab at the lack of creativity of the popular music industry (compared to Porcupine Tree, at least). Wilson is excellent as usual, and the drums and cleverly distorted guitar give the song a hard-rocking tone. There are occasional hints of a sitar or similarly foreign instrument to accentuate shifts in the song.

Shesmovedon: Another quieter, more laid-back song; the biggest thing in Shesmovedon is Wilson's singing, particularly the harmonies in the chorus. There is also an excellent, distortion-heavy guitar solo occupying the last two or so minutes of the song. Warning: very catchy.

Last Chance to Evacuate Planet Earth Before it Is Recycled: This song is divided into two parts. The first is a soft, acoustic piece that starts off, amazingly enough, with a banjo. Rather head-scratchingly, the second part contains samples from a video made by the leader of the Heaven's Gate cult shortly before their mass suicide. How this fits with the simplistic reminiscing of the first half, I'm not sure. I like music that makes me think.

The Rest Will Flow: This song takes the laid-back melodies and harmonies of Shesmovedon and combines them with strings to beautiful effect. Highly recommended.

Hatesong: The 8-minute Hatesong starts with a distinctive bass riff that continues for the next several minutes of the song. After the lyrical section ends, we embark into an extended instrumental jam built largely around a guitar riff, with other melodies and rhythms forming and dissolving around it.

Where We Would Be: Another more mainstream-sounding, laid-back acoustic song. It seamlessly incorporates a more melodic, less distorted guitar solo.

Russia on Ice: At 13 minutes, this song is long even for Porcupine Tree. It starts from virtually nothing and unfolds into ambient rock reminiscent of PT's early days before fading to allow room for Wilson's quiet vocals. The first part is fairly ambient, featuring the strings from The Rest Will Flow; after several verses, an instrumental sections restarts with only a bass riff, but grows into the most intense part of the album. Definitely one of the strongest tracks.

Feel So Low: Probably my favorite Porcupine Tree song of all time, the album closer is a beautifully quiet, string-and-acoustic-driven lament mourning a dead friendship or relationship. The rest of the album is relatively cerebral, which makes Wilson's more direct singing and the emotional nature of this song hit all the harder. I cannot imagine a more perfect way to conclude this album and establish Lightbulb Sun as one of the best listening experiences I've ever had.

Overall, much of Lightbulb Sun seems to revolve around a theme of separation, and reaction to that separation. Separation from the world in the title track, from an old friend in Last Chance to Evacuate Planet Earth and Where We Would Be, or from a lover in How Is Your Life Today?, Shesmovedon, and Hatesong. reactions range from passive indifference (Lightbulb Sun) to reaching out to bridge the gap (Where We Would Be) to moving on to look for happiness elsewhere (The Rest Will Flow) to anger (Hatesong, Russia on Ice) to despair (Feel So Low). I'd recommend Lightbulb Sun to everyone, particularly as an introduction to Porcupine Tree or modern progressive rock.