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"Fear of a Blank Planet"
Cover of the Roadrunner Records promo single.
Promotional single by Porcupine Tree
from the album Fear of a Blank Planet
Released	2007
Recorded	October–December 2006
Genre	Progressive rock progressive metal
Length	7:28 (album version) 4:18 (single version)
Label	Roadrunner Records
Songwriter(s)	Steven Wilson
Porcupine Tree singles chronology
"Lazarus" (2005) "Fear of a Blank Planet" (2007) "Way Out of Here" (2007)

"Fear of a Blank Planet" is a Porcupine Tree song released in 2007. It appears as the first track on the album of the same name.

A promotional single of the song was released in Europe and the United States, by respective record labels. Both promos contain an edited version of "Fear of a Blank Planet" with the swearing removed. The lyrics deal with two common neurobehavioural developmental disorders for teenagers in the 21st century: bipolar disorder and attention deficit disorder.

Music video

On 16 April 2007, the same day as the European release date, the music video for the title track debuted on Porcupine Tree's MySpace, though it was temporarily removed a day later in the wake of the shootings at Virginia Tech due to the band finding the content, namely children wielding guns, distasteful at the present. On 25 April 2007, the video was launched on the Fear of a Blank Planet microsite to view in high resolution and was replaced several months later by the live projection for "Sleep Together". The video is now included as a bonus along with the 17-minute film for "Anesthetize" on the DVD-A version of Fear of a Blank Planet.

Appearances

The song appears during the end credits of the video game Control.

Track listing

Personnel

Porcupine Tree

• Steven Wilson – vocals, guitar
• Richard Barbieri – keyboards
• Colin Edwin – bass
• Gavin Harrison – drums

Additional musicians

• John Wesley – backing vocals

Live version

On 1 December 2023, a live version of the track would be released as the second and final single in promotion of the band's live album Closure/Continuation.Live, the first single being "Harridan". The live version of the track was recorded on 7 November 2022 at the Ziggo Dome arena in Amsterdam, Netherlands by Music for Nations. The single was released alongside a live video.

In honor of Richard Barbieri, who was formerly in a band called Japan. The lyric "he's in a band, they sound like Pearl Jam" was changed to "he's in a band, they sound like Japan".

Personnel

Porcupine Tree

• Steven Wilson – vocals, guitars
• Richard Barbieri – keyboards
• Gavin Harrison – drums

Touring

• Randy McStine – guitars, backing vocals
• Nate Navarro – bass

References

1. "Guy Tkach hails the highly-collectable 'unknown' superstars of New-Prog". Record Collector, May 2008 issue, page 41. Retrieved 10 May 2008.
2. "Watch Fear of a Blank Planet from Closure/Continuation.Live". Porcupine Tree. 1 December 2023. Retrieved 18 December 2023.
3. Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet (CLOSURE/CONTINUATION.LIVE - Official Video), retrieved 18 December 2023
4. Werksman, Hans. "Porcupine Tree: "Fear of a Blank Planet" from new album "Closure/Continuation.Live" on December 8". Retrieved 18 December 2023.

• 2007 songs
• Fiction about bipolar disorder
• Porcupine Tree songs
• Songs about mental health
• Songs written by Steven Wilson