Pure Narcotic
| Stupid Dream | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Cover art by Robert Harding
|
||||
| Studio album by Porcupine Tree | ||||
| Released | March 1999 | |||
| Recorded | Foel Studio/No Man's Land January–November 1998 |
|||
| Genre | Progressive rock,alternative rock | |||
| Length | 59:55 | |||
| Label |
Kscope/Snapper (UK and US) East Rock/One Music (Korea) |
|||
| Producer | Steven Wilson | |||
| Porcupine Tree chronology | ||||
|
||||
| 2006 Reissue | ||||
Digitally Remastered CD-DVDA
Cover art by Lasse Hoile |
||||
| Singles from Stupid Dream | ||||
|
||||
Stupid Dream is the fifth studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree. It was first released in March 1999, and then re-released on 15 May 2006 due to the band's rising popularity on major record label Lava Records with their releases of In Absentia in 2002 and Deadwing in 2005. The album, along with Lightbulb Sun in 2000, represented a transitional period for the band, moving away from the band's earlier work in instrumental and psychedelic music, but before they took a more metal direction in 2002 onwards. The album takes a commercially accessible pop rock sound while still retaining heavy progressive rock influences.
The album's title is a reference to frontman Steven Wilson's view of the music industry; while many aspire to be a musician for fame and glamorous lifestyle, he feels it's a "stupid dream" because it actually leads to a life of hard work and struggle.
Frontman Steven Wilson explained the transitional period for the band at the time, stating
"...the earlier years were characterized for me by this idea of the extended composition that was largely based on jamming or textures or drones or space rock or whatever you want to call it. I felt I could draw towards learning more about song craft and the construction of songs and actually creating hooks and choruses and using vocals in a more kind of solid way. So...when I came back later on to making the longer form of composition, it wasn’t in the same way that I’d been doing in the early years. They were much more structured and they had that kind of songwriter’s discipline that I guess I explored and learned on the earlier albums like Stupid Dream and Lightbulb Sun. So it was certainly an important step..."
Wilson said that the album marked a transition away from "abstract instrumentality" into more "natural songwriting" also was due to the influence of the music he had been listening to since the release of their last album, Signify in 1996. These artists included Jeff Buckley,Soundgarden,Brian Wilson,Todd Rundgren, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
...
Wikipedia