Porcupine Tree Classic Or Dud? Search & Destroy.

i haven't really listened to this guy seriously in years but i always enjoy 'trains' when it comes up on shuffle

what's his best record from the past 10 years?

what's his best record from the past 10 years?

If collaborations are in scope, I'd go with No-Man's Together We're Stranger and Schoolyard Ghosts. The Raven That Refused to Sing is, as mentioned, outstanding and easily the best of Wilson's solo work.

I haven't heard it yet but a lot of prog dudes whose opinion I really trust are going nuts over Raven so I would say that one, even though, like I said, I have not heard it.

I could well believe he's just released his best work. That track really was quite pleasant

Looking forward to hearing this and hoping it restores some of the goodwill that was sucked away by that terrible Storm Corrosion record from last year. Seriously, that thing had the potential to be so wonderful, but it was deathly boring.

Insurgentes is a great record as well, not so keen on Grace for Drowning.

I'm not too well versed in PT but the last one The Incident was ace

He's coming to my shop for an in-store on Saturday. He visited us the year before last as well and is a lovely bloke. Looking forward to it.

Okay, holy fuck this thing is good. Now that I've had some time to spend with it, I can safely say this is the best thing he's ever released and I don't think its too far of a stretch to say that this would stand up well amongst even the best of the 70s Genesis and Yes catalogs. For all the neo-prog bands out there right now, this is the first one that I actually feel captures 100% the spirit of the original, classic run of prog. Fucking stunning.

it really is that good, and it also sounds thoroughly modern. the fact that it was recorded live (not steven wilson's usual way of doing things) only adds to the energy of the album.

i'm guessing his remix work on crimson's lizard album got under his skin, because he's sprinkled that exact jazz sound throughout this album, and it adds just the right colour.

That's a good point, I actually forgot he was involved in working on that, but it makes total sense. This thing is just so fucking good.

it is a great album. Insurgentes is also great; Grace almost as good. All three are excellent and if P Tree is done (which it kind of feels like) I'm not really going to miss them that much if he keeps putting out work of this quality.

Given the highly positive reception for this new record, I'd imagine it's increasingly less likely in SW's mind that PT will return. I'm also not that sentimental about such a scenario, although I would've preferred if it they had finished with Nil Recurring instead of The Incident.

I liked the Incident. It was a little overlong but there were a lot of great songs on there (most of them on the second ancillary disc)

True, with the exception of "Bonnie The Cat", the second disc is pretty solid. My problem was with the weaker material of "The Incident" itself and the frequent lack of flow between the songs. The whole thing just felt rushed.

I preferred The Incident to Fear of a Blank Planet. It seemed to take a step away from prog-metal that mirrored the increasingly diverse sound of his solo records. "I Drive the Hearse" is top 5 SW.

Another thing I admire about him is the effort he puts into the packaging of his albums. The hardback illustrated books and whatnot are very special. I'm kicking myself for not picking up the limited edition of the new one, which is now going for €200.

Saw PT live once in Boston just so I could be in the same room as mega-genius, Richard Barbieri.

RICHARD BARBIERI !!!

all of you going bonkers over that raven song, have a listen to this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAc5JCKfgZ0

Listened. It's ok but nothing like as good as "The Raven..." Plus, who's to say whether Wilson ever heard it or not.

bought The Raven on impulse a while back and misplaced it and forgot about it and found it this morning and opened it and played it and wow....this is fantastic

it really is. also, he's playing melbourne in october.

Holy shit, this "Raven" album is awesome.

right? listened again today, I just love it.

I love how much it adheres to classic '70s prog (well, Genesis, at least) while not sounding retro and also finding ways to toss in other musical references (whomever upthread noted that Wilson remixing the Crimson catalog has rubbed off well on him was OTM).

Wilson has uploaded a recording of the first song PT ever played live, sounds pretty great to me:

https://soundcloud.com/#steven-wilson/porcupine-tree-voyage-34-nags

Best Porcupine Tree joke ever.

Desus & Mero & Funky Gary the darknet Porcupine Tree bootleg site moderator who came through with the shrooms pic.twitter.com/lgAdqiHJBo

— PAPPADEMAS (@PAPPADEMAS) February 4, 2020

New social media activity:

? https://t.co/J0DV1klOKy#PTCC pic.twitter.com/omodPlRhO4

— Porcupine Tree (@PorcupineTree) October 28, 2021

Really hope this is about new stuff & not just some lame remaster or reissue.

New album and tour!

Some folks are no doubt going to say that this is a reaction to the lukewarm response to the last two SW albums, which they've anticipated by making it clear that the album is "12 years in the making". A back-to-basics record, perhaps?

New track's a banger though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW5v4Ohxk5k

I'm cautiously optimistic and dig the first track but, man, I hate how far ahead Wilson releases first singles. The album isn't out for a full eight months, ffs.

New interview:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/mar/10/reunited-prog-rockers-porcupine-tree-on-surviving-their-rift-you-cant-help-but-feel-bitter

It did seem like Wilson just ran out of steam. I did not like 'The Incident' or much of his music that followed I heard all that much.

Stupid Dream > Deadwing was a really great run.

strange, because I find his solo albums much more involving than most PTree releases. that said I'm jazzed about this album and this tour, even though tickets were expensive as fuck. I've never paid this much money for Wilson or PTree in the past.

I think The Raven That Refused to Sing was fantastic and represented the peak of his solo work, been kind of diminishing returns for me since then, though I suspect it's more because I've kinda lost interest in the particular threads he's been chasing down, especially on the last two solo albums.

I am super excited for this one though.

That interview was weird, it does not paint a very pretty picture of Wilson and they all kind of do Colin dirty. There's not even a fleeting reference to him or acknowledgment that he was even a part of the band.

Yeah I wonder what went down with Colin Edwin

maybe i already said this before but colin used to live in the flat upstairs when my wife and i first moved in together. would hear him practsing his double-bass through the ceiling and it sounded cool, had no idea who porcupine tree were though. seemed like a nice guy

apparently that was in 1997-ish, just in case you were wondering (you so weren't)

I always felt that his kinda festi-dub meets the shopkeeper from Mr Ben vibe didn't really jive with the rest of the band.

It causes me mild dismay that some Porcupine Tree fans refer to them as "The Porkies". Still never really heard them, my taste in mainstream prog ceases at around 1976 though so maybe for the best. Apologies for shit contribution to the thread anyway.

theres only one porky and he does the prime cuts

In Absentia was a huge album for me in 2002-03 at the tail end of high school. I played it today for the first time in 20 years, and it still sounds wonderful to my ears, but I have no idea where to listen next in the Porcupine Tree discography and/or Steven Wilson Cinematic Universe. Should I move forward or backward from here? Are there specific albums I should seek out or avoid? Any pointers appreciated.

Stupid Dream and Lightbulb Sun are both pretty similar. I think I like those two slightly better but yea those 3 make up my favorite PT phase. They get a little heavier after that (Deadwing is still good), their prior stuff is spacey and nice but sometimes too derivative. Like it's a really good impression of King Crimson and Pink Floyd but he seems reluctant to do much that those groups don't do.

I also recently listened to In Abenstia for the first time in forever, it's really well made but it's made for a specific audience I think. Everyone I knew who was big into it was also into Radiohead and In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, it's music for misanthropic-leaning teenagers who spend a lot of time alone and have deep thoughts. My wife has a 19 year old cousin and I found out this era of PT is still really huge in the college dorms in Mexico

wilson has a huge following in Mexico. It's still the only place I've randomly run into people on the street wearing his or PTree tour shirts.

I'd recommend Deadwing after In Absentia, it's a very similar album with the same proportion of heavy stuff to ballads. Last few tracks on Deadwing are exceptional.