Featured Album: Porcupine Tree, Coma Divine

Album: Coma Divine
Artist: Porcupine Tree
Year: Recorded live in 1997, Remastered in 2005.
Masterpiece potential

Live albums are risky. They have great potential, but a lot can go wrong. The recording quality may be poor. The audience noise may be too intrusive. The actual performance of any member of the band may be below expectations. The production quality may be low. The guitar part that sounds great on the studio album may now be sloppy and full of squeaks. The singer may go for the high note and totally biff it. There may be 10 minutes of nothing while Axl Rose tries to get the crowd to move back. Live albums are like a box of chocolates - with a high probability of many coconut covered, toothpaste filled landmines to ruin it.

But when I received this 2-disc live album I fully expected it to sound amazing. Why did I have such confidence, you ask? Because this is Porcupine Tree, and Porcupine Tree's creator Steven Wilson is not only a great musician, but he is also a wonderful producer who believes in music as an art form and not just a means to make money and become famous. (Those are byproducts.)

(You know you're a prog geek if you can hear an album by a great band filled with great songs, but you consider the album to be almost unlistenable because of the poor production quality.)

I was not disappointed. I expected it to be good, and instead it was great. The sound quality is pristine. Better than any live album I've ever heard, and in fact better than most studio albums. Audience noise is pretty much limited to the very beginning/ending of the songs.

This was recorded earlier in their career so all of these songs were new to me except for “Waiting”. This era features a different sound for the band. While their current material has more rock and metal influences, this album is more like psychedelic-blues-jam. Very Pink Floydian with a few splashes of Led Zeppelin every now and then. Quite mellow with a very prominent bass groove. And bongos! I love bongos! Well done bongos can add so much atmosphere to a song.

The only downside is that most of the songs share a similar vibe, so while each individual song may move up and down and progress, the album as a whole is somewhat static. This minor nit-picking is the only thing keeping me from immediately granting this album Masterpiece status. Some time is required to be able to judge its lasting power, so its status may be upgraded later.

The Verdict: Superb! Listen to it at work, while you relax, in the car…

I owe a HUGE “Thank You!” to my wonderful friend Seashells for finding this album for me. I could not have found a better album myself for my November purchase. You’re awesome.

Disc 1
1. Bornlivedieintro (Not really a song. Just a short recording of the band backstage as they are about to go on.)
2. Signify (Instrumental)
3. Waiting Phase One
4. Waiting Phase Two (Instrumental)
5. The Sky Moves Sideways
6. Dislocated Day
7. The Sleep of No Dreaming
8. Moonloop (Instrumental)

Disc 2
1. Up the Downstair (Instrumental)
2. The Moon Touches Your Shoulder
3. Always Never (Almost instrumental)
4. IS…NOT (Instrumental)
5. Radioactive Toy
6. Not Beautiful Anymore (Instrumental)