Somewhere Else vs. Fear of a Blank Planet

I haven’t posted reviews yet of Marillion’s Somewhere Else and Porcupine Tree’s Fear of a Blank Planet, perhaps because there’s not much I can add to what others have already said. Electric Nose clearly loves both albums. NRT, of The Ministry of Information loves FoaBP, but is decidedly lukewarm on SWE.

For me, the Porcupine Tree’s opus clicked almost immediately, although hearing the whole album live certainly didn’t hurt. “Somewhere Else”, on the other hand, still isn’t working for me. A couple of songs, most notably ‘The Wound‘ are starting to stand out, but too much of the album still reminds me of Radiation and Marillion.com, two of my least favourite albums in Marillion’s back catalogue.

Perhaps it will all start making sense in June, when I get to see them live.