Porcupine Tree Classic Or Dud? Search & Destroy.

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.