Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Porcupine Tree
Label: Kscope
Release: 1999
Duration: 59:55
Rating: 4.5/5
Porcupine Tree, led by the musical genius, multi-instrumentalist, producer, visionary and outspoken critic of the music industry Steven Wilson, had already signaled a change of direction on the transitional album »Signify« (1996) as they began to move away from the mostly instrumental, psychedelic-ambient electronica of their early days. With »Stupid Dream« they finally grew into a real band, one that could no longer be written off as ‘just’ Wilson’s solo project, and laid the cornerstone of their ‘second phase.’ It earned them ever greater standing on the progressive rock scene, and at the same time brought in plenty of new fans and listeners from all kinds of genres.
»Stupid Dream«, which you could also call a bridge between two different Porcupine Tree eras, the ‘electronic-psychedelic’ and the ‘prog-metal’ one, contains all the musical influences that had inspired Steven since his early youth, when he first fell in love with music as an art form. So besides progressive rock and psychedelic rock, you can’t miss the increasingly obvious elements of progressive metal, alternative rock and pop rock with roots in the eighties. Like most Porcupine Tree albums since they became a band in the true sense of the word, »Stupid Dream« is steeped in a melancholic, nostalgic atmosphere that, luckily, never drifts too far into depressive territory, even though most of the lyrics on the album are pretty sad and say a lot about Steven’s emotional state at the time.
The all-round gifted music wizard and producer, like plenty of other great minds who were never fully understood, didn’t have anything like a happy, let alone eventful, love life back then. But the barbs in his lyrics aren’t aimed only at the (wrong) decisions in his private life. They also go after modern society, increasingly alienated by the runaway development of digital technology, and after the corrupt music industry. The title and the cover art alone are a satire on the widespread daydream of people who want to become famous, rich musicians, without having any idea what actually awaits them once they become a big name and get caught in the snares of the music industry.
On »Stupid Dream«, Steven, who for the first time truly proved his mastery as a lyricist, worked for the first time in his career with the cult flautist and saxophonist Theo Travis, who later became a regular companion on his solo journey. Travis shines as a guest musician on the tracks »Don’t Hate Me« and »Tinto Brass«. Keyboardist Richard Barbieri, well known to all Japan fans as well, meanwhile started using the Mellotron, without which Porcupine Tree albums from their ‘classic’ period were no longer imaginable.
The songs on »Stupid Dream« were remarkably well balanced and hit just the right spot between experimentation and commercial accessibility. »Even Less«, which ran a full seventeen minutes in its demo version, opens after a short ‘warm-up’ of sounds that seem to have been recorded in the middle of some English park. Then in comes an almost iconoclastic, punchy guitar riff, soon joined by exquisitely refined multi-part harmonies. The balance between guitar and keyboard passages and dynamic rhythmic nuances stays enviably high throughout, thanks to the brilliant production, while Steven’s melancholic, melodic vocals tie it all together into a perfect whole. Of course, there’s no shortage of building improvisation either, including a mellifluous guitar solo. You can’t miss that at this stage of his career Steven was starting to turn into an increasingly better guitarist.
»Piano Lessons«, the first single from the album, which also got a video, is another really interesting piece with energetic guitar passages and a slight commercial charge, while the intelligently crafted vocal harmonies are what impress most in the chorus. It’s one of the few compositions on »Stupid Dream« with a positive note and an uplifting atmosphere, even though the lyrics are another bitter reckoning with the missteps of the modern music industry. The title track is an instrumental barely half a minute long, full of dissonant sounds.
From here on, three songs follow in a row, each touching on Steven’s romantic disappointments with the wrong women in a different way. »Pure Narcotic« is a melancholic ballad that builds an exceptional mood with minimalist acoustic guitar and piano and, above all, Steven’s subtle singing. »Slave Called Shiver« is soaked in an extremely dark mood, which isn’t surprising, since it’s yet another piece about unrequited love. The ambient gradually grows from calm to aggressive, peaking in a fatalistic chorus that mirrors the slow shift from (unrequited) infatuation into rage, obsession and perversion. The ultra-gloomy and at times almost depressing »Don’t Hate Me«, perhaps the best-known piece on »Stupid Dream«, features a superb Travis saxophone solo, which is eventually joined by Wilson’s admirable guitar solo and Barbieri’s clever keyboard improvisation.
»This Is No Rehearsal«, whose lyrics touch on a tragic true event in which a child was abducted and viciously killed on the railway tracks by his own peers (Steven never ran out of heavy subjects), has half-acoustic arrangements, vocoder-processed vocal harmonies and metal passages that keep a dark mood in charge. The psychedelic-leaning »Baby Dream in Cellophane«, where you can clearly feel the Pink Floyd influences between the acoustic passages and vocal harmonies, carries a distinctly rebellious charge in the lyrics, as a child decides while growing up to resist their own predetermined fate.
The brilliant single »Stranger by the Minute«, which has a noticeable pop-rock stamp and with it a more commercial direction, boasts a melodic chorus and perhaps even the most beautiful arrangements on the whole album, peaking in nostalgic vocal harmonies. The post-apocalyptic lament »A Smart Kid«, lyrically surely one of the deepest pieces of Steven’s career, touches on a story similar to the classic »Radioactive Toy«. The only surviving inhabitant of our planet after an apocalyptic war is taken away by a spaceship that happens to find itself above the devastated surface.
The complex instrumental and single »Tinto Brass«, dedicated to the Italian film director of the same name, with its many bravura flute improvisations, complex rhythmic shifts between bassist and drummer Colin Edwin and Chris Maitland, and prog-metal guitar passages, is another one of the album’s peaks. In many ways this piece is one of the cornerstones of Steven’s mature creative period. Plenty of related sonic elements that mark this wonderful instrumental can also be found on his later solo masterpieces. The closing composition, »Stop Swimming«, is another extremely sad ambient piece, but at the same time an exceptionally beautiful and spiritually uplifting one, in which Steven’s genius as a composer, arranger and lyricist shines through once more at full power. At its core, the text is a cynical allegory about Steven’s gang/Porcupine Tree, who never stopped swimming above the surface, never gave in to being swept by the current straight into the claws of the corrupt music industry.
»Stupid Dream« was a landmark album in more ways than one. It kicked off a new era for Porcupine Tree, who, with a refreshed, heavier and more complex sound, songs with real shape and direction, and more melodic arrangements than before, started winning over plenty of new fans. With »Stupid Dream«, which came very close to masterpiece status, began the period in which Porcupine Tree, despite their strong resistance to the music industry, reached a wider, commercial audience and played a key role in making progressive rock no longer always a dirty word among some big-label bosses and music critics marked by a corporate paycheck. Of course, they kept a watchful eye all along that they didn’t ‘stop swimming’ or accidentally ‘give in to the current’ at the music industry’s command.
Lineup
Steven Wilson – vocals, guitar, piano, Hammond organ, bass guitar (8,9), orchestral arrangements, producer
Richard Barbieri – synthesizer, Hammond organ, Mellotron, piano (1), glockenspiel (4)
Colin Edwin – bass guitar, double bass (2,12)
Chris Maitland – drums, percussion, backing vocals (9)
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Terumi – backing vocals (11)
Theo Travis – flute (6,11), tenor saxophone (6)
East of England Orchestra – string arrangements
Nicholas Kok – conductor
Chris Thorpe – orchestral arrangements
Production
Steven Wilson
Tracklist
1. Even Less (7:11)
2. Piano Lessons (4:21)
3. Stupid Dream (0:28)
4. Pure Narcotic (5:02)
5. Slave Called Shiver (4:41)
6. Don’t Hate Me (8:30)
7. This Is No Rehearsal (3:27)
8. Baby Dream in Cellophane (3:15)
9. Stranger By The Minute (4:31)
10. A Smart Kid (5:22)
11. Tinto Brass (6:17)
12. Stop Swimming (6:53)
