Point of slow return

Porcupine Tree Closure/continuation

It’s an unusual name, more suited, you might feel, to a 66-1 outsider at the Aintree Grand National than a band. But astute bookies would give short odds on this album going Top Ten before the month is out.

If you haven’t heard of Porcupine Tree, you haven’t been paying attention to progressive rock – the scene that refuses to die, no matter how hard its detractors pray.

To give you an idea of their impact, they headline Wembley Arena in November.

Founder, guitarist and singer-songwriter Steven Wilson has been nominated for six Grammy awards – twice with Porcupine Tree, the band he formed in 1983.

They had their biggest success with 2009’s The Incident, a Top 30 hit here and in the US, but, on the crest of that wave, Wilson pulled the plugs to concentrate on his solo work – his last two albums went Top Five. So fans have waited 13 years for Porcupine Tree’s second coming.

Closure/continuation, the band’s 11th album, exhibits all of their restless vision, packed with eclectic mood and tempo changes, Yes-style harmonies and first-class musicianship.

Rats Return hoodwinks the listener with a hazy, laidback start before the jazzy guitar riff crunches in. Dignity, about homelessness, is closer to a folky keyboard ballad, drifting along dreamily into Wilson’s gently sublime closing guitar solo (of which there are far too few).

The harder-hitting Herd Culling is as heavy as they get. Walk The Plank floats along on Richard Barbieri’s keyboards before morphing into darker and more unsettling areas.

Now a three-piece, completed by drummer Gavin Harrison, Porcupine Tree seem likely to meander through life, delighting and frustrating fans in equal measure.

PS. Their name was a schoolboy joke that became a reality. Good, but not quite as funny as Toad The Wet Sprocket.