Porcupine Tree: In Absentia (released 24 September 2002)

01 Blackest Eyes (4:23)
02 Trains (5:56)
03 Lips of Ashes (4:39)
04 The Sound of Muzak (4:59)
05 Gravity Eyelids (7:56)
06 Wedding Nails (Instrumental) 6:33
07 Prodigal (5:32)
08 .3 (5:325)
09 The Creator Has a Mastertape (5:21)
10 Heart Attack in a Layby (4:15)
11 Strip the Soul (7:21)
12 Collapse the Light Into Earth (5:54)
13 Drown With Me (5:21)

In Absentia is the seventh studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, first released on 24 September 2002. The album marked several changes for the band, with it being the first with new drummer Gavin Harrison and the first to move into a more progressive metal direction, contrary to past albums' psychedelic and alternative rock sounds. It was very well received critically and commercially, with it often being considered the band's crowning achievement, and selling three times as many copies as any of the band's earlier albums.

While not a formal concept album per se, all of the songs still have common themes related to serial killers, youthful innocence gone wrong, death, murder, and criticisms of the modern world. Brainchild of Porcupine Tree Steven Wilson (who wrote every song) said of the title:

"It comes from... It's related to some of the lyrics. It's about people on the fringes, on the edges of humanity and society. I have an interest in serial killers, child molesters, and wife beaters... Not in what they did, but in the psychology of why. What caused them to become unhinged and twisted? Why are they unable to empathise? It's [In Absentia] sort of a metaphor - there's something missing, a black hole, a cancer in their soul. It's an absence in the soul."

The album's title evokes the same theme, with the phrase being Latin for "in absence" or "in one's absence", a term often used in relation to criminal proceedings that occur despite the absence of the defendant.

• BLACKEST EYES is about a boy who grows up to become a serial killer, using his van to ensnare victims.
• Although TRAINS is ostensibly about a boy waxing nostalgic about his love of trains, the lyrics suggest more of a train fetish, potentially using a train to either suicide or murder someone "when the evening reaches here you're tying me up, I'm dying of love..."
• Continuing to follow the theme of the album, LIPS OF ASHES is about a man in love with a woman (or vise versa) and the woman does not feel the same way about him. This drives the man insane and he murders the woman he loves in brutal fashion and now can spend the rest of his life with her lifeless body. Pretty dark.
• THE SOUND OF MUZAK is Porcupine Tree’s personal attack on the record industry (the "death" of musical creativity). Lashing out against soulless “ear candy,” the song paints an image of a very depressing future in which music continues to be watered down and created merely to make money, losing artistic integrity and originality.
• The tile of GRAVITY EYELIDS is apt, describing a narrator who is giving his victim(s) sedatives, with the intent of raping/murdering them as they lose consciousness.
• PRODIGAL details the final account of a victim of suicide.
• The song .3 seems to clearly be about nuclear Armageddon. Although no explanation for the title is given, it has been suggested the title is about WW3; others have more cleverly speculated it is a biblical reference to Armageddon: .3 = 3/10, 3/10 = 3:10 as in 2 Peter 3:10 ("But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up").
• THE CREATOR HAS A MASTERTAPE is particularly dark, discussing a man who tortured and raped his own kids while recording it for his future enjoyment. It also suggests the indifference of God "The Creator had a mastertape, but he left it in a cab".
• HEART ATTACK IN A LAYBY details the last account of a man who pulls over into a layby (English for a pull-out or resting area on a main road) to rest because he isn't feeling well, without realizing he is actually dying from a heart attack.
• Another cheerful tune about a parent abusing and murdering their family, STRIP THE SOUL continues the disturbing theme of the album.
• COLLAPSE THE LIGHT INTO EARTH is a beautiful piano ballad with lyrics that are simultaneously loose enough to keep the relationship between the speaker and the subject up for interpretation, and obvious enough to tell us that it is about trying to stay strong in the face of an inevitable personal loss (perhaps the end of the world?). Wilson has indicated the events of 9/11 in the United States partially inspired the song, although it is not about this tragedy per se.
• The final track DROWN WITH ME closes with a murderer's account of drowning someone intentionally. The lyrics suggest the murderer may have already drowned the victim's other family members as well: "You're drowning in family there, when will you come up for air? Don't feel you let them down, 'cause they have already drowned".

The Sound of Muzak

 

Porcupine Tree: The Sound of Muzak

Lyrics

Mono: Formica Blues (released 10 February 1998)

01 Life in Mono (3:34)
02 Silicone (4:14)
03 Slimcea Girl (3:50)
04 The Outsider (5:08)
05 Disney Town (4:09)
06 The Blind Man (5:22)
07 High Life (4:10)
08 Playboys (6:40)
09 Penguin Freud (6:18)
10 Hello Cleveland (6:33)

Formica Blues is the only album by English trip hop duo Mono, which consisted of duo Martin Virgo (who wrote all the songs) and singer Siobhan de Mare. Melody Maker summarizes the "basic formula" of the album as to wallow in the sound of television and film theme tunes of the Sixties and Seventies, but both to embellish and underpin it with jazzy breakbeats and Massive Attack synthy atmospheres. The intent was also to unearth the dark, female-oppressive atmosphere of the times and the television portrayal of happy housewives kept in their place by society (see Disney Town for a clear example of this theme). The use of harpsichord melody mirrors John Barry's film scores of the 1960s by design (and by sampling), though it has also been compared to themes for 1970s action adventure television shows such as The Protectors and The Zoo Gang.

"Slimcea Girl" took its title from Slimcea, a low-calorie bread sold in the UK during the 1960s and 70s; the "girl" was one featured in the Slimcea TV ads, which featured a jingle inviting the viewer to be a "Slimcea girl". Another inspiration was Julie Christie's character in the film version of Billy Liar, whom Virgo described as a "liberated 'it' girl", saying found it a powerful image". The song has been called "a cynical stare at the dreams and fantasies of those people who live behind the blinds of Suburbia; musically, it has been described as reminiscent of Burt Bacharach, gospel music (in its use of backing vocals arranged like a choir, and a "Tamla torch song".

"The Outsider" is noted for a hammered dulcimer part, which Virgo had written on a synthesizer, imagined with a dulcimer sound; he subsequently called a dulcimer player (Geoff Smith) to play the part.

"High Life" has been compared to the music of 1960s girl groups like The Ronettes, whose production by Phil Spector is cited by Virgo as a style he wanted to incorporate and update.

"Hello Cleveland!", a complex instrumental, was titled after a line from This is Spinal Tap. Virgo used the title ironically; taken from a stereotypical rock and roll context, it was then placed on a song that "wasn't very rock and roll". It is also the most musically esoteric song on the album.

Billy Joel: The Stranger (released 29 September 1977)

01 Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)
02 The Stranger
03 Just the Way You Are
04 Scenes From an Italian Restaurant
05 Vienna
06 Only the Good Die Young
07 She's Always a Woman
08 Get it Right the First Time
09 Everybody Has a Dream
10 The Stranger (Reprise)

Before The Stranger, Billy Joel was on the verge of being dropped by his record label Columbia Records. After the unexpected success of Joel's second album, Piano Man, his subsequent albums were commercially disappointing. Turnstiles, Joel's 1976 release, had peaked at only number 122 on the Billboard 200 chart.

By 1976, Joel had formed a reliable touring band, consisting of Doug Stegmeyer on bass, Liberty DeVitto on drums and Richie Cannata on saxophone, flute, clarinet and organ. Joel grew to appreciate this group of musicians, finding that they had a high-energy, rough-around-the-edges feel that he hoped to capture in his studio recordings. Joel had mostly worked with session players for his first three studio albums, which contained only scattered contributions from his own backup musicians, and strongly disliked the polished sound of these albums. Joel sought a producer who could cultivate his desired style; a longtime fan of the Beatles, initially looked to famed Beatles producer George Martin. But after meeting with Joel, Martin expressed interest in producing the album, but did not want to use Joel's band, wishing instead to bring in session players. Joel, however, was adamant in his desire to record with his own band and declined Martin's offer. Ultimately, Joel turned to Phil Ramone, a veteran New York City sound engineer and record producer who had recently worked with Paul Simon, another singer-songwriter, on Simon's album Still Crazy After All These Years. According to Joel, he and Ramone met with each other at Fontana di Trevi, an Italian restaurant near Carnegie Hall, where Joel had been playing at the time. The restaurant would go on to inspire the setting of "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant", a song on The Stranger. According to Joel, Ramone expressed an appreciation for Joel's band and their energy, and understood the reasoning behind Joel's attitude towards recording, which ultimately led Joel to choose Ramone as the producer for his next album.The Stranger was well-received by critics, particularly in retrospect, with many considering it to display some of Joel's best-written material. 

In a contemporary review of the album, Ira Mayer of Rolling Stone deemed it an improvement over Joel's previous studio efforts, praising its musical variety and Ramone's production.

Babble: Ether (released 27 February 1996)

01 The Circle (5:41)
02 Just Like You (5:41)
03 Sun (6:47)
04 Love Has No Name (5:35)
05 Dark (0:53)
06 Tower (6:18)
07 Come Down (5:32)
08 Hold the Sky (4:57)
09 Into Ether (6:45)
10 Dreamfield (2:02)

Babble was a British-New Zealand electronic dance music group active in the 1990s. It was formed by Tom Bailey and Alannah Curie, formerly of the Thompson Twins. Babble was established in 1992 when Tom Bailey and Alannah Currie decided to drop the Thompson Twins name and begin recording new music under the name Babble. The decision to adopt a new name stemmed from the duo's aspirations of exploring different musical ideas and recording more experimental music. During the spring of 1992, the duo approached their long-time engineer Keith Fernley and he joined Babble as a full time member. The trio then spent five weeks in India to collect sound and sample recordings for future recording use. Babble's debut album The Stone was released in March of 1994. Bailey and Currie began working on the new material themselves before Fernley arrived in New Zealand in early 1995. Ether was released on 27 February 1996. The album's only single, "Love Has No Name", which features vocals by New Zealand singer Teremoana Rapley, reached number 10 on the US Billboard Hot Dance Music Club Play chart. New Zealand singer Taisha Kuhtze provided vocals on "Sun" and "Tower".

Babble began recording demos for a third album, but Warner Brothers decided to drop the band from their roster and Babble then ceased further activities.

Just Like You

 

Babble: Just Like You