Many of Porcupine Tree’s recent albums have centered around a theme or mood, but it’s been quite awhile since Steven Wilson and crew have delivered a full-on concept album. Here, it’s not just a narrative concept album, but a structural one as well, as The Incident is less a collection of songs than a loosely flowing 14-track experience, which Wilson calls a “song cycle.” For Porcupine Tree and prog rock fans, this sounds like both a natural progression and a gift – perhaps the band’s answer to a classic like Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Unfortunately, I think The Incident falls far from reaching that status, although the comparison (and even moreso, to The Final Cut), is an apt one.

The Incident in question was inspired by a fatal car crash that Wilson passed on the road. Here in the States, it’s called an accident; in the UK, it’s an incident. Either way, it’s a convenient term that, for all but those who are directly affected, usually means a chance to rubberneck or briefly commiserate, but then we’re quickly back to our own lives, with the whole business left in the rearview mirror. The album is a commentary on how (oftentimes sensational) media reportage takes significant tragedies that dramatically affects peoples’ lives and renders them reducible, digestible and easily discarded. In other words, The Incident is not a happy experience, but then again, most Porcupine Tree albums have been rather inward and gloomy as well.

After a brief thunderstorm of an intro, “Blind House” crashes in with huge, murky guitars, still reminiscent of Wilson’s time spent with Opeth. Then Wilson’s soothing, melancholy vocal drifts in above spare instrumentation, before brightening into a more hopeful chorus. Classic Porcupine Tree. What’s not so classic is the stark, echoey soundscape at the song’s bridge, which sounds like Wilson’s been inspired by Nine Inch Nails’ Year Zero. NIN is one of my favorite bands, and I think Reznor is a progressive rock genius in his own right, but hearing something so stark and mechanical butted up against Porcupine Tree’s usually lush, organic sound is slightly jarring. (This is further echoed on the grinding, sludgy title track, which only blooms to life in its final two minutes.) Still, “Blind House” is one of the best tracks on the album, and one that you’ll likely jump to right away.

Those moments are few and far in between, though. That’s not a commentary on the quality of the album, but more the fragmented nature of the composition as a whole, as there are only a few standalone songs. “Drawing the Line” starts as a dreamy, medicated lament, then comes to life with a surprisingly peppy chorus – a struggling cry to snap out of its stupor. It’s surprisingly energetic for Wilson, like something off of Green Day’s American Idiot (or worse, a Meat Loaf song). I’m not sure I like the shift, though. Album centerpiece “Time Flies” will likely be more frequently visited, as it’s the longest, and perhaps the most complete song on the entire album. It also sports a big, brassy guitar riff that instantly recalls the triumphant ending of “Sheep,” off of Animals (I know, enough with the Floyd references, but you’ll have to bear with me).

The rest of The Incident’s tracks are more like thoughts or shifting moods, some of them more fleshed out than others. Some, like the sunny/shady dynamics of “Great Expectations” and “Kneel and Disconnect” could very well have been stitched together, and “The Séance” is pretty much a reprise of the pretty, plaintive “Octane Twisted.” Still others, like the oddly angelic “Yellow Windows of the Evening Train,” or the redundant “Degree Zero of Liberty” are nothing more than forgettable interstitials. I understand their place in the whole, I just wish they were more appealing on their own.

And this is where The Incident really recalled The Final Cut for me, because for great tracks on that album like “The Gunner’s Dream,” or the mournful title track, you have to drift past odd snippets and snatches like “One of the Few” or “Southhampton Dock.” Taken as a whole, The Final Cut is still, for me, a transportive listening experience, but I don’t think I can ultimately say the same thing about The Incident. Its moods, although shifting, are not varied enough, and virtually none of the songs ripen into the kind of magnificent, captivating psychedelia that marks Porcupine Tree’s best moments. I’m not even sure I got Wilson’s thematic commentary or narrative from the songs or their lyrics.

And as far as this being as two-disc set, well, the second disc is essentially like getting a forthcoming EP of B-sides now (and included in the admittedly low price), rather than waiting for a release later on in the year. The songs themselves are fine, pretty much in the same vein as The Incident, with opener “Flicker” being the best of the set. Still, when compared to the rippling prog mutations on the excellent Fear of a Blank Planet companion, Nil Recurring, the second disc fails to really capture the imagination.

As a longtime fan of the band, of course I bought this album on day one without hearing a thing, and I will continue to listen to it throughout the year. It’s a good album – it’s just not the immersive, electrifying journey that I hoped we’d get from a Porcupine Tree concept album, and which I know that they can still deliver one day.

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