KING BLACK ACID 
384954
CD
LOVES A LONG SONG

STYLE/LINK:PORCUPINE TREE

This is one seriously brilliant album with every track a total gem! It is the band’s 4^th album, and it swept to the top slot at CDS towers as soon as it was released! In a lifetime, we are lucky to have a band such as Porcupine Tree – but to get two such bands who probably don’t even know of each others existence, with leaders that probably come from totally different musical backgrounds, co-existing on an amazingly parallel plane, is nothing short of mind-blowing – And this is certainly the case on this fantastic album. ‘Love Is A Long Song’ is a stunning record with 8 excellently produced tracks with well laid out arrangements that all work to absolute perfection. So, put a smile on your face and joy in your heart, by bearing witness to a top class act with an album that oozes quality from every pore. There are moments of pure song-writing genius here - Songs with addictive hook-lines, soft, ethereal, atmospheric ballads with powerful lyrics and beautifully crafted instrumental arrangements. There are fantastic Floyd-styled guitar-led passages full of fuzzed-out, multi-tracked guitar leads with organ/synth chords providing thick melodic backdrops. The dynamic guitar-led arrangement also make you think of Porcupine Tree as the soaring guitars fly up to the heavens and burst into solos of super nova proportions and then develop into monumental instrumental infernos. Yes, it’s sixty-three minutes of seriously brilliant music people!

The opener: ‘Butterfly Bomber’ is a near ten minute track that reveals more of their newly-found song-writing genius allied to guitar-led arrangements that use dynamics very effectively, mixing the central framework of the track with a hook-line that really works. There are some exciting guitar leads and a certain 60’s influence that gives an addictive feel to the solid arrangement and a rhythm section that drives the piece along in style. ‘Kiss The Beast’ starts off with gentle guitar leads and a light sprinkling of bass and drums, then the Porcupine Tree feel begins to emerge, as a gorgeous atmospheric ballad that could be off the ‘Lightbulb Sun’ album suddenly erupts into a classic passage of Floyd-style, multi-tracked, fuzzed-out guitars where the piece just soars off into the skies with a sound that’s just sensational. If by now you thinking that things are shaping up well, then when you get to the re-recorded version of the ‘Into The Sun’ single with its Mellotrons, acoustic, electric guitars, PT oriented vocals and driving rhythm section, you will be bordering on the ecstatic, as the amazingly dynamic, polished arrangement flows on and the piece (plus the whole album) just takes the roof of your head off as it flies into the heavens, shining like a diamond-studded vapour trail! The softly textured acoustic guitars and delicate synth backdrop of ‘School Blood’ now finds the album moving into musical heaven, as a strong song with a great vocal and polished instrumental backdrop flows like velvet under a dreamy layer of choral harmonies. A haunting synth lead introduces the eleven minute ‘I’ve Heard You’re Still Alive’, a track that parallels PT’s ‘Russia On Ice’ in many ways, with its smooth atmospheric intro theme that later intermixes with passages of towering instrumental power, leading on to a long, languid, dynamic finale. A Mellotron string section opens ‘Colorado (wherever it is you are)’, another guitar lead memorable slow song with a captivating vocal, infectious chorus and classy guitar/Mellotron backing. ‘Born To Sleep’ comes in all ethereal, with a kind of sunrise effect from languid guitars and drifting synths, then as the bass and drums arrive we are firmly transported into Floyd territory again with an instrumental led by a laid-back slide guitar sound that just oozes style, with Mellotrons and other keyboards blooming spectacularly and reminding me of a certain sound that Vangelis used in his earlier days with Aphrodite’s Child. The twelve minute closer: ‘Gentle Collapse (Feels Good)’ again opens in a laid-back, dreamy state with sleepy guitars and fluid synths just melting into each other on a Floyd like passage that flows in such a relaxed vibe that you could almost drift of into the land of nod without too much asking. As the track moves on, it instrumentally sounds like a passage from Floyd’s ‘Echoes’ track with its jabbing organ chords and female backing vocals. As the final three minutes counts down a haunting synth melody takes over as the organ and voices fade, and this sound gradually takes the piece, and the album on to its close.

Weight: 150.00 g