A body is washed up on a Norfolk beach He was a friend that I could not reach He thought I was cold but I understand But for the grace of god goes another man
And I may just waste away from doing nothing But I'm a martyr to even less
A choirboy is buried on the moors Where we used to go dreaming when we were bored So some kids are best left to fend for themselves And others were born to stack shelves
And I may just waste away from doing nothing But I'm a martyr to even less
A light snow is falling on London All sign of the living has gone The train pulls into the stations And no-one gets off and no-one gets on
Don't hate me I'm not special like you I'm tired and I'm so alone Don't fight me I know you'll never care Can I call you on the telephone, now and then?
One light burns in a window It guides all the shadows below Inside the ghost of a parting And no-one is left, just the cigarette smoke
This song leaks out onto the pavement It could be a joke, it could be a statement The more that I fake it and pretend I don't care The more you can read in to what isn't there
Maybe it's time to stop swimming Maybe it's time to find out where I'm at What I should do and where I should be But no-one will give me a map
I'll leave now this can't continue But I forget which door I came through And I know what the lift can be painfully slow So I'm happy to leave by the window
The quickest album we ever made (in 3 months flat and within only a few months of the release of the previous one) and we all feel our best work to date. Although superficially it seems to be a continuation of "Stupid Dream" it is a much more intense work - possibly less immediate, but ultimately more rewarding. Lyrically I arrived at a point where I was no longer interested in writing about abstract concepts like war, religion, space...etc... These are very personal and emotionally raw songs. It took me a long time to have the confidence and experience to be able to write them and some of them are dripping with negative emotions (Hatesong and Feel So Low particularly). Feel So Low pleased me a lot as I resisted the temptation to refine the original stream of consciousness words and left the nerve ends dangling.
Musically we wanted to bring back some of the experimental aspects that had been to some degree lost on "Stupid Dream". Richard and I worked on creating some unique keyboard sounds for the album - e.g. the "fairground" on "How is Your Life Today ?" and the "insects" at the end of "Russia On Ice". There was also an influence from industrial and metal music coming through (we'd all been listening to Nine Inch Nails "The Fragile") - for example part of the beauty of the guitar solo on Where We Would Be (my favourite solo of mine to date) comes from the fact that it was played relatively straight but then fed through so many distortion and lo-fi processes that it began to fizz and disintegrate. The riffing guitars on Russia On Ice are pure metal and one of the solos of Hatesong I call my "Korn solo" on account of the fact that the bottom strings on the guitar are tuned down so low that the notes can be bent several tones.
On the other hand there is a whole set of songs where the pastoral sound of long-gone English summers exerts it's influence on me (not for the first time). In a song like "Winding Shot" there are shades of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and Nick Drake, although the end result is hopefully pure Porcupine Tree. This effect is accentuated by the fact that many of the instruments and vocals on the album are much more up front and given less of a sheen than on "Stupid Dream" (where the "stadium" production is I think the weakest aspect). Organic is the word I like to use.
As we had on "Stupid Dream" we expanded our musical colours to include things like banjo, hammered dulcimer, the string arrangements of Dave Gregory and several African and Morrocan instruments that Colin brought back from his travels.
To date it's the only album we've made that I still rated highly by the time we'd finished it - even the B-sides and leftovers seemed too good not to be on an album, but we were determined to keep the album below the one hour mark. The only point of contention was the inclusion of the song "The Rest Will Flow". Some of the band didn't really want it on the record, but it sounded so much like possible single that it seemed perverse not to include it.
Favourite tracks - "How is Your Life Today ?", "Last Chance to Evacuate Planet Earth..." and "Feel So Low" (plus most of the others to be honest).
Steven Wilson
Although it appears to be a continuation of sorts from "Stupid Dream" there are quite obvious differences as well. Certainly on the production side there is a more intense and upfront sound apparent. Also parts of the arrangements are stripped down to the bare essentials. Steven's lyrics became more personal and less ambiguous and so the arrangements by definition became more stripped down and more direct. Much of my keyboard experimenting took place on tracks like "Russia On Ice", "Last Chance to Evacuate Planet Earth...", "Feel so Low" and "4 Chords That Made a Million"", while other tracks didn't seem to need a great deal of keyboards. I'm not one for playing all over a track if I can't see a genuine need for it.
For me this album has an honesty and emotion that places it above all the other Porcupine Tree albums, although I would also say that not every track is as strong as some individual tracks on past albums. My favourites are "Russia On Ice" and "Feel So Low".
The letters pile up in the hallway Junk mail and bills from the catalogues And the neighbours have guessed 'Cos I've cancelled the milk And they don't hear your voice Through the walls anymore
How is your life today? How is your life today?
I was kissed on the cheek by a cold mouth While the taxi was waiting like a getaway car Each second seems like a lifetime And the cat it's been staring at me all this time
You move in waves You never retrace Your newest craze Straight out of the Face by the bed unread
I'm left behind Like all the others Some fall for you It doesn't make much difference if they do
She changes every time you look By summer it was all gone - now she's moved on She called you every other day So savour it it's all gone - now she's moved on
So for a while Everything seemed new Did we connect ? Or was it all just biding time for you ?
