The Incident

Porcupine Tree | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 15, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 2009
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Roadrunner Records
• ASIN: B002GZQY6Q
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (146 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,692 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #55 in Music > Miscellaneous > Experimental Music

Editorial Reviews

2009 two CD release from the Grammy-nominated modern Progressive Rock band. Porcupine Tree is fronted by Steven Wilson, who also is well-known for his work producing other artists, from Swedish Progressive Metal group Opeth, to Norwegian chanteuse Anja Garbarek. One of the only constants in Porcupine Tree's music is how it continues to evolve and confront the expectations of the band's fans from album to album. The Incident is their 10th studio album and takes the listener on a thrilling audio journey. In turns haunting, desolate, hypnotic and euphoric, its centre-piece is the title track: a stunning 55-minute musical statement that breaks down into 14 separate and often diverse (though interlinked) vignettes.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

134 of 142 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A lot to like, maybe not as much to love, September 20, 2009

By 

txkimmers (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Incident (MP3 Download)

Another huge PT fan here, I have been counting the days until this album arrived on my doorstep and I like it. I like it a lot. It's everything a fan would ask for, like a kitchen sink chock full of PT. But I can't say that this album grabs me and shakes me and won't let me go like their other albums. I am listening to it nonstop, and some songs are very good--right now I truly love "I Drive the Hearse", "Black Dahlia" and "The Incident".

I don't know if that is because this is not a great PT album, or just that I have become too familiar with their sound. Maybe I need more time with it, not less--but I have the feeling that more time will just uncover more familiarity and that is possibly what is keeping me from raving about it.

ETA: After listening to this album for the past several weeks, I think I understand what the problem is for me. From the first track all the way until "Time Flies", I love this album as much as anything else I have heard by PT. But from "Time Flies" (which I just don't like, I have tried to no avail) up until the start of "I Drive the Hearse", which is the last track on Disc 1, I am gone mentally and emotionally, and nothing can keep me there. Then once "I Drive the Hearse " starts up, I love this album again all the way through the end of Disc 2. That's just me, though--other reviewers here love the songs during the stretch that loses me.

ETA: I need to stop editing this review, but I have to add one more thing, about PT in general. I am over forty, about to be forty five, in fact. I live in a suburb, I have two kids, a husband, a mortgage, a cat and a Subaru. In short, I am as far away from young and cool as you can get--I am not even old and cool yet. And that is fine, but one thing I used to mourn was the fact that I probably would never love a band the way I did the Beatles as a kid, or the Clash in high school, or Nirvana--you know, that electrified connective sense of discovery that you get. At some point for a lot of people, you realize you have crossed over and suddenly there is "the kid's music" and "your music", and while you might truly enjoy "the kid's" music, nothing seems to sound as brain-grabbingly amazing as the music from your youth. Well, I discovered PT about two years ago, and they brought back that kind of rush about music that I missed. They really are that good, deep, and enthralling to listen to.

84 of 93 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magnum Opus, September 15, 2009

By 

philippe deroin (Gaithersburg, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Incident (Audio CD)

For a band that never settles into an easy formula, Porcupine Tree still manages to impress with The Incident, an all-encompassing musical adventure and concept album.

It surfaced early on that the follow-up to PT's very successful previous album, Fear of a Blank Planet would be another concept album and pretty much one long piece of music clocking in at 55 minutes. Steven Wilson, who has a writer's itch for long form, was rightfully satisfied with the quality of Anesthesize, the brilliant highlight of Blank Planet. In progressive rock, the form is not new, dating back at least to the grand daddy of them all, Genesis' Supper's Ready from 1972 and IQ,the Flower Kings or Transatlantic have certainly explored it thoroughly. But Porcupine Tree now gives it its own treatment, with spectacular results.

Before going further into The Incident, the "song", it should be noted that The Incident is actually two CDs, the main one and a second one made from four side tracks. It is an interesting choice: Fear of a Blank Planet had itself generated a companion album, Nil Recurring, an EP belonging to the same creative cycle and bringing several variations and echos of the main project's themes. And so it is with The Incident's second CD, although we don't have to wait a year or so for its release. The material is clearly less impressive than the main cycle but is pretty good nonetheless.

As for The Incident, it is primarily a high concept collection of songs exploring our reactions to tragedies and hardships, particularly in the context of modern media overload. This is why it is called the "incident", an all-purpose euphemism that is likely to cover unspeakable sorrow for the real actors but allows us, the public, to retain a certain distance, to avoid being reeled into the suffering and drowning in empathetic reaction. Wilson calls this the "Princess Diana effect", the fact that a tragedy affecting a person that cannot possibly have any interaction with most of us is able to trigger an overwhelming emotional response through the prism of media coverage. Meanwhile, Wilson has argued in interviews, we protect ourselves from having to react over and over to tragedies that affect us more directly. Thus The Incident, an exploration of human nature based on "incidents" from Wilson's own experience, probably making it Porcupine Tree's most autobiographical work to date... Light stuff.

It should be said that The Incident is not really one piece of music. It is made of 14 parts, most of which able to stand alone on their own. Furthermore, the transitions between the songs are sometimes almost seamless but not always so. Musically, PT is all over the map, which should not be a problem for afficionados used to Wilson's musical explorations. Historically, PT has often shown a great reverence for Pink Floyd's influence but has also dabbled in the musical territories of Dream Theater, Brian Eno, Robert Fripp or Nine Inch Nails among others. Most influences can be found here, including four instrumental sections. A few songs take some getting used to (still working on "Drawing The Line " for example...) but there is no filler and the whole cycle is fascinating.

The inescapable centerpiece of The Incident, a masterpiece in its own right and enough of a reason to buy the whole album, is the almost 12 mn long "Time Flies". Lyrically, it is the most autobiographical of all the songs in a pretty personal set:

"I was born in '67
The year of "Sgt. Pepper"
And "Are You Experienced"
Into a suburb or heaven
Yet it shoulda been forever
It all seemed to make so much sense
But after a while you realize time flies..."

Musically, the song is a glorious pastiche of Pink Floyd circa Animals, a fusion of Dogs and Sheep from this album with perhaps a touch of "Stars Die" from Porcupine Tree's own 1995's Sky Moves Sideways sessions. The homage is not purely musical. The lyrics themselves channel Roger Waters' irony and gloom, even though Wilson's voice does not quite have the same bite, and allude directly to other Floyd songs as in:

You see there's something wrong here
I'm sorry if I'm not clear
Can you stop smoking your cigar?

The Incident is not for everyone. It takes work to absorb, its subject matter is clearly not "fun" and the treatment more experimental than on FOBP. But PT's fans will be awed and and any listener eager for intelligent, grown-up pop both musically and lyrically, will find little fault with it.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best concept album since "Dark Side of the Moon" !, September 16, 2009

By 

Ticos (Grapevine, Texas, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Incident (Audio CD)

12/4/2009 Update:
The December 2009 issue of Sound & Vision magazine has an extensive coverage of Steve Wilson's work with Porcupine Tree on the Incident album, and also his work on the 5.1 mixes of three of King Crimson's albums recently released. This articule confirms many of the great reviews that Steve's work is getting everywhere, and more specifically how he has become the "king of surround". A must read!

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There... I said it!

Porcupine Tree is in a class all by itself in the music industry. And their formula is: PT = MUSICAL GENIUS + TALENT + QUALITY + MUSICAL TECHNOLOGY LEADERSHIP

1. Musical Genius: Steve Wilson as the front man of the band just has unbound ideas that he translates into themes that are beautifully delivered in PT's music. This concept album just puts together the ideas in a much more fluid way than previous albums. The concept is developed with great beauty, grace and flow, and the multitude of musical styles have enough "space" to develop. The first time I listened to "The Incident", it reminded me very much of the first time I listened to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon many years ago, it is an album that grows on you every time you listen to it. The individual songs might not be the best that PT has created, but the sum of the parts is definitely greater and better than anything else they have done to date. I do like some individual songs from Deadwing, Fear of a Blank Planet and In Absentia better than most of the individual tracks in The Incident, but the overall listening experience of The Incident is what will make this album a classic for many years to come.

2. Talent: The talent of the band is obvious, all instruments are masterfully played with such precision. The guitar playing is exceptional, and the drumming impeccable (Gavin Harrison might be the best drummer alive).

3. Quality: Everything PT does exhudes quality, from the production to the instruments, to the recording, the album artwork, lyrics, sound quality and of course the unmatched 5.1 surround mixes. Nobody in the world comes even close to Steve Wilson's skills in the 5.1 surround arena. He might have learned a trick or two from the master Elliot Scheiner, but now Steve has developed an edge over him, in part because Steve creates and plays the music as well, he's not just a sound engineer!

4. Musical Technology Leadership: As mentioned above, Steve Wilson and PT have developed the best sounding records over the last few years. The 5.1 mixes are just amazing! I got the limited edition version of The Incident, that contains a DVD Video with a DTS 5.1 mix. I have fully enjoyed listening to it over the last few days, and I can't wait until PT (hopefully) releases the Advanced Resolution DVD-A later on. I own both the DVD-V DTS and the DVD-A versions of Deadwing, and it is very clear that DVD-A is superior in sound quality. However, I could not wait this time around for the DVD-A to be available, so I invested in the limited edition package, which in itself has been a superb investment (the books that come in the limited edition are amazing!) When "Dark Side of the Moon" was created, Alan Parsons (sound engineer) and Pink Floyd did not have access to what today's technology has to offer, but Parsons did an amazing job, well ahead of its years in recording that album. Steve Wilson and PT do take advantage of the technological advances in recording and surround technology, even though most artists today don't care or invest the time to make their work available in high quality, surround releases.

In summary, this album should go down in history as one of the best ever. However, we live in much different times than when "Dark Side of the Moon" was released. The music industry has changed a lot, people don't really "listen" to music anymore and the pseudo-music that sells millions of copies is usually assembled and produced in a couple of weeks and marketed to the lowest common denominator. We are just lucky that there are true artists like Steve Wilson and PT that have preserved the ability to create music that is intelligent, well crafted, and fully enjoyable, while exploring topics in human nature in the lyrics in songs in a way that nobody else can do it!