Album of the Day

Stupid Dream, by Porcupine Tree (1999): As I continue to digest PT’s newest opus, Fear of a Blank Planet, it’s appropriate to highlight the album that kicked off this phase of the band’s development. Prior to Stupid Dream, PT plumbed the spacey depths in a very Floydian way. The result, to my ears, is largely formless and boring. With Stupid Dream, that desire to stretch out is reigned in and focused through some very catchy pop/rock prisms. Add in some nice acoustic-electric transitions and you have modern PT. Which I like quite a lot.