One of my favorite bands, Porcupine Tree has just released a new album called Fear of A Blank Planet.
The album 's theme revolves around a dark vision of paralyzed hyper-medicated youth brought into a state of consistent oblivion by the mood altering chemicals they are fed by doctors who diagnose them with all manner of hyperactivity, depression and a.d.d type disorders. The album has a brooding sinister vibe that speaks of flaccid minds bored in front of the tv, stoned in the mall and verging on destruction.
As a person who has worked with teenagers for the last 23 years, I too fear a blank planet of young people zombie-fied more from legal mood-alteration prescriptions than from street X, Acid or Weed. We all know people who are truly needful of medication, but my experience tells me masses of young people are being misdiagnosed and medicated into a grey stupor. Better living through chemicals is crap-think.
You can hear samples of the new album on P-tree's MySpace.
To balance out the dark audio - also on the iPod this week --- Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach - Painted from Memory - a great album of crooning.
