Your Favorite Album

[40footwolf]

Daaaamn well try this on for size: http://godsshoeshine.blogspot.com/2011/...ctica.html
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I love all music. It makes you feel like living. Silence is death.

-John Cassavettes

[Wombi]

[bcaie16]

[SquishypuffDave]

Okay, so I'm going to attempt to describe Signify, and what it means to me.

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

To give a bit of perspective, Porcupine Tree started off in 1987 as somewhat of a 'joke' band. It was the solo project of Steven Wilson, and the liner notes listed fictional band members such as Sir Tarquin Underspoon, Timothy Tadpole-Jones, Sebastian Tweetle-Blampton III, etc. The music was heavily inspired by such acts as Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream and King Crimson, a highly experimental mix of psychedelia, acid-prog, krautrock and just general madness. But it was better than it had any right to be.

As the project unexpectedly garnered more success and demand for live shows increased, Steven decided to invite keyboard player Richard Barbieri, bassist Colin Edwin and drummer Chris Maitland to become members. Slowly their involvement permeated the sound of Porcupine Tree, and when the (amazing) Stars Die was recorded, featuring all band members playing as one, Steven vowed never to go back to sampled drums and validated their status as a band. It was in 1996 that Porcupine Tree, as a band, released Signify.

Basically what I'm trying to set up with all of this pre-amble is that at the time of this album's release, Porcupine Tree was no longer a joke. Although dripping with irony and laced with black comedy, Signify was a deeply poignant musical statement. It was Steven Wilson putting himself in a place of vulnerability, saying: these are my fears, these are my values, and I want you to take this seriously.

Psychedelia does not accurately describe the album so much as dark, captivating surrealism. The lyrics are gripping and vivid, even at their most esoteric. The more I reflect on the the words, the deeper I am pulled into the chaos. The overall theme, as I understand it, is our overwhelming desire to be noticed, to be deemed significant in some way. It's about those who fail to do so. It's about what people are willing to do in order to achieve fame and recognition. To value recognition more than that which you are recognized for. The closing track encapsulates this perfectly.

Inside the vehicle the cold is extreme
The smoke in my throat kicks me out of my dream
I try to relax but its warmer outside
I fail to connect, it's a tragic divide

This has become a full time career
To die young would take only 21 years
Gun down a school or blow up a car
The media circus will make you a star

Dark matter flowing out on to a tape
Is only as loud as the silence it breaks
Most things decay in a matter of days
The product is sold the memory fades

Crushed like a rose
In the river flow
I am. I know.

Musically, I don't know where to begin. The musicianship displayed here is astonishing, but it goes beyond that - the soundscapes themselves, not just the instruments but the effects, and the sampled spoken word, they add up to the most intense, disorienting and cathartic emotional experience. The times I am aware that I'm hearing a group of people playing instruments are an exception rather than a rule. The music seems to take on a life of its own - surely this is some dark external force that the musicians are merely a conduit for!

Again, I must stress that there is humour to counterpoint the darkness. There are a few old spoken word samples thrown in that are often quite funny and seem to come from cheesy 50's films and televangelists (although I'm not sure about the exact sources). They serve a similar purpose to the monologue in Radiohead's 'Fitter, Happier", in that they represent a failed attempt to fill the existential void possessed by the central figure with detached idealism. In fact, OK Computer is probably the best point of comparison I can think of for the album, not in terms of musical similarity but of thematic similarity. As I've said on my chart - it's a reflection on our primal human nature and its dislocation in this tamed, demystified and industrialized world.

Steven Wilson's vocals are plain and unaffected, and all the better for it - his delivery is absolutely haunting, and perfectly paced. Of course, he can get get dramatic when the song calls for it (see Sever). Colin's basslines are rich and defined, Richard synthesizes all sorts of strange and beautiful strains of keyboard, and Chris cherrypicks from multiple disparate influences in his percussion, from Latin to metal, and it is a testament to his ability that he does so tastefully and seamlessly. For all talk of the band's supposed pretentiousness, I see the exact opposite: submission of their ego in service of the music and in service of the concept.

And that's what I love about Signify - it has such a purity about it, such a thematic cohesion, and yet it remains such an enigma. It gives no answers, it just asks good questions.

[Wombi]

damn, am definitely putting that on priority listen this weekend.

[LuukTheMaster]

I am an 'old music' lover since I was 13 years old. That's four years since now. In the beginning, I loved the 80s. Toto's 'Africa' was my favourite song for a long time. But I wasn't really listening to albums; I was always downloading the 'greatest hits from the 80s', and I loved the 90s too. For example, Duran Duran's 'Ordinary World'. That's still a great song, just as 'Africa'. But then, I explored the Dire Straits. Bloody hell, what was this music good! From that moment on, 'Sultans Of Swing' was my favourite song of all time and 'Sultans' is still going strong on the top spot of my favourite songs-list. When I explored the Dire Straits, it was logical that after a short time Brothers In Arms from 1985 went to the top spot of my list with favourite albums.
The 60s were just an annoying decade to me at that time. And also the early 70s were not so interesting for me. But since two years or so, I love the 70s and also the 60s are a very good decade. I was listening more to bands like The Beatles and Led Zeppelin, and one of the greatest bands between 1965 and 1975 was The Who. I remember the day I cycled to school in the morning with my iPod in my ears and I was listening to Who's Next. Jesus Christ, I'd never heard something like thát! With 'Baba O'Riley' in the beginning and the perfect 'Won't Get Fooled Again' at the end, it's a magic listening experience from the beginning to the end. When I'm 37, in twenty years, I can say that, beside the Dire Straits, Who's Next was the greatest music I heard when I was young.