Commit 5e9daa1

# Trains - Porcupine Tree

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"Trains" is the opening track of *In Absentia* (2002), the album that pulled Porcupine Tree out of the cult-prog underground and into the wider rock conversation. It is the band at full power — Steven Wilson's gentlest melodic instincts wired straight to Gavin Harrison's first appearance behind the kit, with Richard Barbieri's atmospherics and Colin Edwin's bass doing the quiet load-bearing work in the background.

### Why it lands at 5/5

The song is essentially three songs stitched into one without ever feeling like a medley. It opens on a fingerpicked acoustic figure that sounds almost like a folk lullaby, lifts into one of Wilson's most singable choruses, detonates into a heavy mid-section, and then — famously — collapses into a sparse hand-clap and banjo break before the final return. Every section earns the next.

### Trivia & Deep Cuts

- **In Absentia debut:** This was the first Porcupine Tree album with Gavin Harrison on drums. He auditioned by playing on "Trains," and the song's odd-time fills are essentially his calling card.

- **The hand claps:** That iconic clapping breakdown was recorded by the whole band (and producer Paul Northfield) clustered around a single mic in the live room. Wilson has said it was meant to feel "communal," like the song collapsing into a campfire.

- **The banjo:** Yes, that's a real banjo. Wilson played it himself — he wanted a "rural" timbre to contrast with the heavy guitars, partly inspired by his obsession with mid-period King Crimson and partly by American folk records.

- **Steven Wilson on the lyric:** He's described "Trains" as being about nostalgia and the way a single recurring sound from childhood — in his case, the trains he could hear from his bedroom — can hold an entire emotional landscape.

- **The album cover:** The blurred-face photography on *In Absentia* was shot by Lasse Hoile, who became Porcupine Tree's long-term visual collaborator. The aesthetic was a deliberate break from the band's psychedelic-era artwork.

- **Live staple:** "Trains" has closed or near-closed almost every Porcupine Tree set since 2002, and it returned as a centerpiece of the 2022 *Closure/Continuation* reunion tour, twenty years later. Few prog songs survive that long without becoming a chore — this one only gets better.

A perfect opener, a perfect single, and a near-perfect argument for prog rock as an emotional form rather than a technical one.

Rating: 5/5

<lastBuildDate>Wed, 20 May 2026 20:22:51 GMT</lastBuildDate>

<pubDate>Wed, 20 May 2026 20:22:51 GMT</pubDate>

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<title><![CDATA[PASETO vs JWT: Choosing the Right Token for the Job]]></title>

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<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ahmed Samil Bulbul]]></dc:creator>

<pubDate>Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>

<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h1>PASETO vs JWT: Choosing the Right Token for the Job</h1>

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