Porcupine Tree

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

I remember piano lessons
The hours in freezing rooms
Cruel ears and tiny hands
Destroying timeless tunes

She said there's too much out there
Too much already said
You'd better give up hoping
You're better off in bed

You don't need much to speak of
No class, no wit, no soul
Forget you own agenda
Get ready to be sold

I feel now like Christine Keeler
Sleepwaking in the rain
I didn't mean to lose direction
I didn't want that kind of fame

(Take your hands off my land)

Credit me with some intelligence
(if not just credit me)
I come in value packs of ten
(in five varieties)

And even though I got it all now
My only stupid dream
I see you and me together
And how it should have been

I remember piano lessons
Now everything seems clear
You waiting under streetlights
For dreams to disappear

You keep me waiting
You keep me alone in a room full of friends
You keep me hating
You keep me listening to the Bends

No amount of pointless days
Can make this go away

You have me on my knees
You have me listless and deranged
You have me in your pocket
You have me distant and estranged

No narcotics in my brain
Can make this go away

I'm sorry that, I'm sorry that I'm not like you
I worry that I don't act the way you'd like me to

You find me wanting
You find me bloodless but inspired
You find me out
You find me hallucinating fire

No narcotics in my brain
Can make this go away

Have we ever been here before?
Running headlong at the floor
Leave me dreaming on a railway track
Wrap me up and send me back

I need you more than you can know
And if I hurt myself it's just for show
I found a better way to curb the pain
You put a trigger here inside my brain

Mother I need her
I'm falling apart
Mother I need her
And it's only the start

I may be nothing now but I will rise
I'll have more followers than jesus christ

Through all the smashing and crashing cars
I love the ground you walk with all my heart

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

How many children did I bring into this world?
How many did I lose in the shopping arcade?

This is no rehearsal - play it back
and throw things at the screen
This is no rehearsal - somebody
interpret this for me

And still I remember how I dressed him this morning
And then he was gone - stolen, my only one

I am - in my pram
Look you - I'm so new I am - sleeping there
Underneath the stairs

If you - wanted to
You'd find - inside my mind
Things so surreal
My lips are sealed

In the rain in cellphane
Pale dogs and demigods
They won't bring me down
The clocks go round, they never stop

I've been - in limousines
I've nseen - inside your dreams
It's raining there
Try not to stare

Ghosts in the park
Appear just after dark
Killers, children ...
But no-one has a harp
They look like tourists
It makes me want to laugh

Under floorboards
It's hard to fly a kite
Underwater
My cigarette won't light
Standing in the shade
I'm getting frostbite

Strange as I seem
I'm getting stranger by the minute
Look in my dreams
They're getting stranger by the minute

When I'm drowning
You drag me up to you
Rings in the water
My only residue
But you're just fiction
And I'm a twisted boy

Stranded here on planet earth
It's not much but it could be worse
Everything's free here, there's no crowds

Winter lasted five long years
No sun will come again I fear
Chemical harvest was sown

And I will wait for you
Until the sky is blue
And I will wait for you
What else can I do?

A spaceship from another star
They ask me where all the people are
What can I tell them?

I tell them I'm the only one
There was a war but I must have won
Please take me with you.

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".

Richard Barbieri

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

La la la la la la, la la la la la la...

How is your life today?
How is your life today?

Six of one a half a dozen
Black guitars and plastic blues
Hide behind a wall of nothing
Nothing said and nothing new

4 Chords that made a million

You belong there on the cover
You are the emperor in new clothes
A man who thinks he owns the future
Will sell your vacuum with his prose

4 Chords that made a million

And then a moron with a cheque book
Will take you out to lunch who knows ?
He will tell you you're a saviour
And then he'll drop you like a stone

4 Chords that made a million

And I have tried and I have died
Trying to get through
But in the end I can't defend you.

4 Chords that made a million

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 ?

If you fall asleep with me
You can dream and drowse
The miuntes turn to hours

We could climb a tree or two
And watch the sun go down
Upon our sleepy town

After all the time I spent with you
Summer went away
And we just weren't the same

It's just you and me alone
Not grown ups but not kids
You kissed me on the lips

[instrumental]

I was pretending to be floating strong
But I was sinking
In to still water

Eyes closed
All of the rest will flow

Then out of darkness I found I could still feel
Something good
Out of the woods

Eyes closed
All of the rest will flow

One simple thing that I never could see
But now I know
All of the rest will flow

Stay with me my angel I found you
Now I don't feel low
All of the rest will flow

Eyes closed
All of the rest will flow

This is a hate song just meant for you
I thought that I'd write it down while I still could
I hope when you hear this you'll want to sue

Oh it's a lonely life in my empty bed
And it's a quiet life that leaks from my head
These are the last rites
The line is dead

Yes, I'm hearing voices too
And I'm more cut up than you

Tied - tied to a time
When we knew that the sun would shine
And you were all smiles
And we could just talk for a while...

Of where we would be when the future comes
And how you would paint while I wrote my songs

If I could find you
And tell you about my life
Or maybe just write
And remind you of when we would dream...

Of where we would be when the future comes
And how you would paint while I wrote my songs

Strange how you never become
The person you see when you're young