62. Porcupine Tree - "Closure/Continuation"

There seems to be a distinct lack of emerging talent as this is yet another entry by yet another veteran act. Porcupine Tree are often described as “the most important band that you have never heard of.” They almost single-handedly kept hold of the flame in those bygone days when prog was a dirty word. They were an underground sensation, producing intelligent and beautifully structured music for a small but dedicated following. In a strange quirk of fate, they decided to call it a day at the start of the last decade, just as prog was beginning to become the mainstream force that it is now. 

What we didn’t realize was that all the way through their seeming period of inactivity, they were actually secretly meeting to piece together what would become their comeback album.  Eleven years in the making “Closure/Continuation”, is a breath-taking piece of modern progressive rock. It is luscious in its instrumentation and ambitious in its scope. Whilst it is not a concept album as we understand it to be it does feel like a continual suite of music, which is, even more, the achievement when you recall that it has been recorded in fits and spurts going all the way back to 2011. Evocative, entrancing and essentially everything you would expect from a Porcupine Tree album.