SWIM was on vacation with friends and loudly announced, in attempt to be less rude than not announcing the point, that he would be taking multiple tabs of LSD-25 on the slow day off. His friends were unruffled, rather, they asked if swim had ever heard Porcupine Tree's Voyage 34. What the hell is a porcupine tree, SWIM thought, as he responded "No, is it good?" "Yes, sort of, there's interesting stuff going on, but maybe it's not something you want to listen to right now." SWIM immediately went to listen to Voyage 34. He'd hope to not be like the protagonist, Brian, and also noted the prog rock and experimental sounds really worked, in a bizarre way, across this 30-minute-long "song."
I've found listening to To the Bone this week to be an interesting experience. It sounds, definitely, to be modern pop music in its production, but simultaneously almost every track harkens back to a recognizable sound from British rock out of the last ~30 years. The album simultaneously feels heavily influenced, a love letter to giants of the past, while still being set apart enough to be original on some vector. Scattered among dense, six-to-nine-minute-long tracks are textured, energetic bridges that feel unique to the product and kept me coming back to the album over the week. I'd find myself caught on a newly found hook the third time through a familiar song. The prog rock and experimental sounds really work, sometimes in a bizarre way, across this 60-minute-long album.
What I didn't have the time get into, which I get the sense Wilson likes, is some of this cerebral philosophical stuff peppered throughout. Seems intriguing, but that would need another week with the album. Truth is an individual calculation; blogging is an individual calculation.
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