Has it been 10 years, or maybe even more?
I got into Porcupine Tree just as they were metamorphosing into something I wasn't that keen on. But that was okay, I had this huge back catalogue of stuff to keep me going and even if their last couple of albums struggled to produce one decent album's worth of stuff, it was still a huge wrench to discover they were packing it in and L'il Stevie was going off to be a solo star. If nothing else, watching them live always produced at least 50% of old gold and they often played songs you wouldn't expect to hear at a live concert - such as Half Light; an outtake that didn't make the final cut of Deadwing but is probably my favourite song by them, ever.
Over the last ten years, Wilson has been banging around the music biz like a lost volleyball on steroids, producing increasingly left field 'pop' albums, in what is either a two-fingered salute to all his fans or an admission that like all aging prog rockers he has to see if he can do other genres. In fact the last Wilson album feels a little like ELP's Love Beach; which is a strange comparison as I've never heard anything from that infamous album mainly because of it's name and album cover. The half a dozen ELP fans I know all have said it shouldn't exist and that's how I feel about Steve's last solo project...
But, this is the thing. I've loved loads of artists throughout my life and a perfect example would be Kate Bush, currently having a banging renaissance. Everything she did from The Kick Inside to The Sensual World was brilliant, but the Red Shoes wasn't very good at all and actually feels like the least timeless Bush album. While her 21st century efforts are in my possession, I don't listen to them; there's nothing on Aerial that I'd rather listen to than giving Hounds of Love another spin. Porcupine Tree/Steven Wilson are no different and they fall into the same category as Genesis, Yes and even something like Echo and the Bunnymen - there will always be albums I play to death and others that are unlikely to be played ever again.
So imagine my surprise to find Closure/Continuation both accessible and quite enjoyable... Yet this might be because of a strange 'coincidence'... The first PT album I actually got into was Recordings - a 'compilation' album of tracks that never made albums and C/C - if you follow the line of old unused songs revamped for a new market - is like a companion piece to that 'bonus' album.
There's a couple of obligatory lite-metal styled tracks that PT has aligned themselves to over the last 20 years, but in general it's a clever album that really feels like a PT album and if it ends up being their last then it will sit much better with me than [their original final album] The Incident which was a bit shite apart from a couple of tracks. Plus I don't really have a problem with PT's excursions into lite-metal, because sometimes they really do rock, but the band's strength was always in the way the songs were constructed and how Wilson used hooks to drag you in.
The initial standout tracks on the album are Dignity, Walk the Plank (which is a real change of direction for PT) and the stunningly excellent Never Have, all of which would have been at home on previous albums, even if the production might have been different. The album does seem to want to try and feel like the band's album and not just another SW solo backed by his old mates - which I felt the last two studio albums were.
It's still very 2022, but drips nostalgia for a time when PT were the most under rated best rock band in the world. I'm quite pleased that I haven't hated it, but maybe that has something to do with expectations. I came to this album expecting to play it once, make some 'controversial' statements on friends' Facebook pages and carry on with whatever I'd carry on with. Instead I played it a few times, gave it a day or two off and then played it again and liked what I heard - in the main. I now kind of hope this isn't the final Porcupine Tree album and that the band get back together in a decade and produce another solid addition to their oeuvre.
Closure/Continuation is the best thing Porcupine Tree has done since Deadwing. There, I've said it. My disdain for Steven Wilson is in disarray. I am lost...
A rock solid 7½/10
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