{"id":41149,"date":"2008-10-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/blackfield-ii\/"},"modified":"2008-10-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-10-08T00:00:00","slug":"blackfield-ii","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/blackfield-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Blackfield II"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blackfield\u2019s debut record had an element of excitement attached to it in the form of curiosity as to how Porcupine Tree (PT) frontman Steven Wilson would fit in a pop-rock mold writing much simpler songs and melodies. The album was a refreshing change from PT\u2019s complexity, and Wilson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> seemed quite comfortable with his fellow band-mate Aviv Geffen in crafting really simple hook-based numbers. And even the music was so good that the basic flaws of the record — like the overly-juvenile \u201chigh school\u201d lyrics — could be ignored for the better part of the record.<\/p>\n

But with the follow-up Blackfield II<\/i>, not only has the charm of this exciting new side-project from Wilson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> worn off due to the similar musical direction that the band has taken, but also the lyrics have gotten worse. Lines like \u201cNo one cares about this fucking pretty face of yours\u201d on \u201cSomeday,\u201d a track about boyhood alienation, coupled with melodramatic string-driven music, makes it too exaggerated. The same happens with the album closer \u201cEnd Of The World,\u201d which gets a tad too dramatic when the meat of the track, the beautiful piano-hook, is squashed by an overblown, prophetic chorus. Then there is \u201cMy Gift Of Silence,\u201d which has an amazing structure where the intro lays the rhythm for the fantastic drumming that follows it — but the whole beauty is undermined by a self-indulgent, theatrical chorus.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, another ephebic cut \u201cWhere Is My Love\u201d (which was featured as an extra track on the debut as a slightly different version) with words that go \u201cEndless fields of emptiness in my tired and wounded heart, where is my love?\u201d is oddly charming with its upbeatness and lack of self-pity, something that wrecks the mood of some of the other tracks. Songs like the opener \u201cOnce\u201d and \u201c1,000 People\u201d do not have the makings of classy songs but still turn out as decent rock melodies.<\/p>\n

The real deal with the record is the psychedelic \u201cChristenings\u201d (which is almost a Porcupine Tree song, because besides having been written exclusively by Wilson, it also features Richard Barbieri and Gavin Harrison), the hauntingly lush \u201cThis Killer,\u201d and the dazzling rocker \u201cEpidemic\u201d — if only the album had more\u2026<\/p>\n

Blackfield II<\/i> is a stew of hits-and-misses, but fares more towards the \u201chit\u201d end of the spectrum. Although not as good as the debut, it is still a good follow-up that could have been much more solid if only Wilson and Geffen could have taken it easy on their boyhood angst instead of giving it undue importance and making the record unnecessarily emotional, thus compromising the band\u2019s edge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":29556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7128],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-41149","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-blackfield","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41149"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}