Porcupine Tree Classic Or Dud? Search & Destroy.

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.