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

You think I deserve this
You said I was stupid
All my thoughts are like coal
But Russia on ice is burning a hole

Can't stop myself drinking
Can't stop being me
If I call will you come and will you save me ?

I see the whole thing come down
I blow it to the ground
Well what the hell did you say ?
You said you hate me this way
It's just a matter of time

A drop in the ocean
A significant motion
Nothing melts in this cold
But Russia on ice is burning a hole

So see how long I can last
You can pretend that I don't exist for you
And I can laugh about it now
But I hated every minute
I was waiting for your email
And each day that you forgot to call
Just made me feel so low
So low

Christmas 1998
I tried to call
I just couldn't wait
And your message was out of date
So I left my voice on your machine
But you did not respond
OK OK OK you've won
You make me feel so low
So low

And something warm and soft just passed through here
It took the precious things that I hold dearer
It rifled through the grey and disappeared
The creeping darkness makes the small hours clearer

Like a cancer scare In the dentist's chair
Sucking in the air
Wire across the stair
Kicking down the door
At your local store
With the world at war
Voices through the floor
Unexpected news
Wearing high heeled shoes
Blowing out the fuse
Paying all your dues
Deadwing lullaby
Like a fracture tied
It's a worthless lie
To the public eye

I don't take waifs and strays back home with me
My bleeding heart does not extend to charity

Yes I'd have to say
I like my privacy
And did you know you're on closed circuit TV?
So smile at me

And a dream you had
Of your mum and dad
On a beach somewhere
And the poison air
With the cancer threat
In a cigarette
Deadwing lullaby
Find a place to hide

And from the yellow windows of the last train
A spectre from the next life breathes his fog on the pane
I look with you into the speeding black rain
Afraid to touch someone, afraid to ask her for her name

And in the morning when I find I have lost you
I throw a window open wide and step through

I don't remember
Did something in my past, create a hole.
Don't use your gender.
To drive a stake right through my soul.

I live to function,
On my own is all I know.
No friends to mention,
No destruction, nowhere to go

Shallow, shallow,
Give it to me, give into me
Scissors cutting out your anger
Shallow, shallow,
No good to me, not if you bleed
Bite your tongue ignore the splinter

This city drains me,
Maybe it's the smell of gasoline.
The millions pain me,
It's easier to talk to my PC.

I live to function,
On my own is all I know.
No friends to mention,
No destruction, nowhere to go

Shallow, shallow,
Give into me, give into me
Seasons caught in a triangle,
Shallow, shallow,
No good to me, not if you bleed,
Bite your tongue end on a splinter

Shallow, shallow,
Give into me, give into me
Seasons caught in a triangle
Shallow, shallow,
No good to me, not if you bleed
Bite your tongue end on a splinter

As the cheerless towns pass my window
I can see a washed out moon through the fog
And then a voice inside my head breaks the analogue
And says

"Follow me down to the valley below
You know
Moonlight is bleeding from out of your soul"

I survived against the will of my twisted folk
But in the deafness of my world the silence broke
And said

"Follow me down to the valley below
You know Moonlight is bleeding from out of your soul"

"My David don't you worry
This cold world is not for you
So rest your head upon me
I have strength to carry you"

(Ghosts of the twenties rising Golden summers just holding you)

"Follow me down to the valley below
You know
Moonlight is bleeding from out of your soul
Come to us Lazarus
It's time for you to go"

God is in my fingers
God is in my head
God is in the trigger
God is in the lead

God is freedom, God is truth
God is power and God is proof
God is fashion, God is fame
God gives meaning, God gives pain

You can be right like me
With God in the hole you're a righteous soul
I got a halo 'round me, I got a halo 'round me

I'm not the same as you
'Cause I've seen the light and I'm gaining in height now
I got a halo 'round me, I got a halo 'round me
I got a halo 'round my head

God is on the cellphone
God is on the net
God is in the warning
God is in the threat

God is freedom, God is truth
For God is power, God is proof
God is fashion, God is fame
God gives meaning, God gives pain

You can be right like me
With God in the hole you're a righteous soul
I got a halo 'round me, I got a halo 'round me

I'm not the same as you
'Cause I've seen the light and I'm gaining in height now
I got a halo 'round me, I got a halo 'round me
('Cause I've got a halo 'round my head)
I got a halo 'round my head

You can be like me
With God in the hole you're a righteous soul
I got a halo 'round me, I got a halo 'round me

I'm not the same as you
'Cause I've seen the light and I'm gaining in height now
I got a halo 'round me, I got a halo 'round me
I got a halo 'round my head

'Cause I've got a halo 'round my head

Never stop the car on a drive in the dark
Never look for the truth in your mother's eyes
Never trust the sound of rain upon a river rushing
Through your ears

Arriving somewhere but not here

Could you imagine the final sound as a gun
Or the smashing windscreen of a car?
Did you ever imagine the last thing you'd hear as you're fading out
Was a song?

Arriving somewhere but not here

[Chorus:]

All my designs, simplified
And all of my plans, compromised
And all of my dreams, sacrificed

Ever had the feeling you've been here before?
Drinking down the poison the way you were taught
Ever thought from here on in your life begins
And all you knew was wrong?

Arriving somewhere but not here

All my designs, simplified
And all of my plans, compromised
And all of my dreams...

Did you see the redness block your part?
Did the scissors cut a way to your heart?
Did you feel the end before the suns of mothers
Tearing you apart?

Arriving somewhere but not here

A tiny flame inside my head
A compromise I never planned
Unravel out the finest trends

And I'm looking at a blank page now
Should have filled it up with words somehow

I whispered something in her ear
I'd bear my soul but she don't hear
The scratching of a mellotron
It always seemed to make her cry
Well maybe she remembers us collecting space up in the sky
The scratching of a mellotron
It always seemed to make her cry
(Nothing rises from ? fingertips, heart it slips)

I lay her gently on my clove
She will leave me, yes I know

And I'm looking at a blank page now
Should have filled it up with words somehow

The scratching of a mellotron
It always seemed to make her cry
Well maybe she remembers us collecting space up in the sky

The scratching of a mellotron
It always seemed to make her cry
(Nothing rises from ? fingertips, heart it slips)
Well maybe she remembers us collecting space up in the sky
(Nothing rises from ? fingertips, heart it slips)

Don't look back into
Don't let the memory or the sound drag you down
Don't look back into
Don't let the memory or the sound drag you down
Don't look back into
Don't let the memory or the sound drag you down
Don't look back into
Don't let the memory or the sound drag you down
Don't look back into
Don't let the memory or the sound drag you down
Don't look back into
Don't let the memory or the sound drag you down
Don't look back into
Don't let the memory or the sound drag you down

Nothing like this
Felt in her kiss
Cannot resist her
Fell for her charm
? her arms
I keep a photograph
Give me a glimpse
Let me come in
Be there inside her
Here it begins
Here is the sin
Something to lie about

You think you're smart
I think you art
We agree on this
It doesn't work
Feeling like dirt
Feeling like you don't care
We get a room
And in her gloom
She lights a cigarette
Clothes on the bed
"Love me," she said
I loose myself to her

I'm getting feelings I'm hiding too well
Bury the heart-shaped shell
Something broke inside my stomach
I let the pieces lie just where they fell
Being with you is hell

Hair blown in an open car
Summer dress slips down her arm
Hair blown in an open car

Okay what's next?
After the sex
What do we do now?
Finding the time
Drawing the line
And never crossing it
Gave her the hours
Gave her the power
Cannont erase her
Gave her the truth
Gave her the proof
I gave her everything

I'm getting feelings I'm hiding too well
Bury the heart-shaped shell
(I had the feelings [inaudible])
Something broke inside my stomach
I let the pieces lie just where they fell
(I left the pieces where they fell)
Being with you is hell

Hair blown in an open car
Summer dress slips down her arm
Hair blown in an open car
On a drive out to the mall
Hair blown in an open car

Hair blown in an open car
Summer dress slips down your arm
Hair blown in an open car

Feeling are you touching?
Feeling are you blind?
Feeling are you touching?
Feeling all your love

Seen it though a windscreen
Seen it through the clouds
Seen it in a pantry
Seen it in your heart

Feeling are you touching?
Feeling all your love

Feeling are you touching?
Feeling all your love

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 ?