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Porcupine Tree: Worst to Best Albums
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ม.ค. 2018
- That's right we're counting down all of Porcupine Tree's albums! When there's no 'bad' album, how do they all rank?
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![Porcupine Tree - Deadwing [Documentary]](/img/n.gif)
Man, you really put the 'sex' in 'dyslexia'. ...Or should I say, the 'ni' in In Absentia...
[Insert Monty Python reference]
No big deal - really
THE KNIGHTS WHO SAY NI
HAHAHAHAHAH!!! oh god! This is gold! @NotesReviews .. No offence ,man .
Just if he wants to look for the phonetics, it’s pronounced like “in absensha”. It’s the term that’s used when a disappeared person is declared legally dead, it’s said that they’re “dead in absentia”.
OMG there I was thinking 'this canadian needs some grammah lezzons'
"Stupid Dream and Lightbulb Sun was considered disappointing for the fanbase."
Bro, what planet are you on?
Many people, like myself, consider those two albums as a serious turning point for the band and some of the best work they ever put out.
true, but a lot of fans at the time were turned off by the more focused and streamlined songwriting approach. I thought it was great and it seems like most fans also think so.
Except I've never heard of such things until now. That's all that I'm saying.
Lightbulb sun is a awesome album
He's on a blank planet
Lightbulb sun is probably one of their best albums.
I think it’s worth to note that the first three albums were all virtually SW solo albums. He recorded all instruments against a drum machine. The Sky Moves Sideways does have some “guest appearances” from people who eventually became PT members, but still very much just Steven. PT wasn’t a band proper until “Signify”
1:53
> Is wearing a Taylor Swift shirt
“It reminds me of, like, Red by uh... King Crimson”
I know who would of thought it possible 😂
That's what i was thinking to say when i first saw the guy "Worst to best for P.T. Says the man who's wearing a taylor swift hoodie" Anyway opinions are just like buttholes everybody has one LOL!!!
Hey this is a man of culture with guilty pleasures 😂
Talking about Porcupine Tree with Pink Floyd and Genesis in the background... and wearing THAT Taylor Swift hoodie. I love it! haha
I Aim to please :)
That's what i was thinking to say when i first saw the guy "Worst to best for P.T. Says the man who's wearing a taylor swift hoodie" Anyway opinions are just like buttholes everybody has one LOL!!!
And the room
@@mirrorsandguns Mother!😱
Porcupine Tree has no bad albums period.
Yes they do. Metanoia and Staircase Infinities. Both quite dull. All the it including YHDS and Recordings plus the live albums are brilliant
@DylanG0125 I am aware of what they are. I have been a fan since November 93. Some of their compilations are great. These are not. Thankfully out of all their cannon, the rest of their music is great.
@DylanG0125 My mum gave me a Compilation Disc from a Magazine and it had the Upstairs title track on it. Loved. I knew no more about PT untill a small piece in Record Collector two years later. First album I obtained was the Sky album. It blew me away. Love the Marillion album from 2001. Nothing wrong with rambling. It's when people do not talk that causes issues.
On the Sunday of Life and Voyage 34 are pretty bad imo.
@@zezimashelpr On the Sunda of Live is not s band album. Taking that into account, it is okay. It has two stonking tracks. Voyage 34 parts 1 and 2 are okay. Parts 3 and 4 are pants
In-Ab-Sen-Tia :3
C'mon! ...yeah but it in any case it's not in absentinia, I was just thinking maybe Notes reads it too fast every time.
And there's also A-NES-THE-TIZE lol
Cringed ever time! And then the anesti- tine- ize!, argggh
In AbsentSHA. In AbsentSHA!
Exactly lol it's not that hard
I must be an odd PT/SW fan, because I absolutely love 'Voyage 34,' 'Signify,' 'In Absentia,' 'Hand. Cannot. Erase.,' 'Raven,' and 'To The Bone.' Is there anyone else out there, like me, who just loves it all? ;-)
I like every album I purchased but yes, as fans, we are not going to like everything on every album but I love this group and nothing more to say!
Good shout, you named most of my favourite albums on your list, i kinda like them all, i needed to give some albums a few more listens , but il like that about PT , They do make you think, Steven Wilson is a genius
TTB and Voyage 34 were average for me. The rest I dig!
@@chadrandazzo2305 Now I can add, I love ‘The Future Bites,’ too-although I totally understand that this album is not everybody’s cup of tea.
Unpopular opinion, I don't like all of Raven. I do love some of it though. Big Wilson fan btw.
The debut over Lightbulb Sun and Signify? That's a unique choice to say the least.
Sound Gardener listen i love otsol as much as the next psychhead but over lbs and signify????
I would never do a top ten list for anything because I don't have much favourites of anything, but I could not get into their earlier space/psych rock albums.
In Absentia is by far their best album. Gravity Eyelids blows me away every time
deadwing is my personal favorite... man, it's so hard to put a proper list together.
Max Dee agreed, Deadwing is my personal Favourite, It’s way above In Absentia for me (most people say Absentia is the better of The two) it’s such a perfectly pleasing album all the way through!!
Deadwing s definitely their best album
Probably my least favourite. It depresses the shhh out of me for some reason.
@@jeanjacqueslundi3502 i think everything that SW produces depresses something out of somebody. but yeah, this one is particularly depressing, let alone the cover!
Agreed on the Mellotron Scratch 😊
Count me on that!
I don't think its controversial to think that's one of their best songs because Deadwing and Mellotron Scratch made me obsessed with them.
My top 3 is
1. Fear of the Blank Planet
2. In Absentia
3. Deadwing
I love your vids! Keep it up!
Please review any It Bites album
That's the only 3 for me
as a millenial, i really got kicked in the face by the whole Fear album.
Mine:
1. Lightbulb Sun
2. Fear of the Blank Planet
3. In Absentia
Mine would be
1. The sky moves sideways
2. In Absentia
3. Fear of the blank Planet
My Worst to best:
10. On a sunday of life (but radioactive toy is one of my top 10 songs of PT)
9. The incident
8. Signify (but "Waiting"
Absolutely the same as mine top list. The only thing that I could complain about is that I prefer stupid dream over lightbulb and signify over up the downstairs, so we have:
10. On A Sunday
9. The Incident (really, why should I like it?)
8. Up The Donwstair
7. Sky Moves Sideways
6. Signify (I like this album a lot, even if it's strange and "transitory" for the band)
5. Lightbulb Sun
4. Stupid Dream ("Piano Lessons"
Dheeraj N Love Lightbulb Sun. Porcupine Tree has an amazing discography, overall...many changes over time.
My list is the same but I put Deadwing over In Absentia.
Some good choices there....
Where would you put Voyage 34?
My God, I'm 62, and have only just heard my first Porcupine Tree track!,......can't make up my mind if I'm lucky, in that I can just download everything and immerse myself in it, or I have lost a band that is/was massive, and I'll never see. Its fu**in' incredible!
BEST COMMENT EVER!
have fun with all those albums! welcome to the fanbase!
I’m 51, i’ve been a fan since 2003 or thereabouts, and i felt the same way at the time. I first heard in absentia, still their best to me, but there was a bunch of stuff to go backwards and discover... i love discovering a band with a large back catalogue... i did see the band quite a few times and own several dvd/blurays, all worth checking out. I have always followed bands’ members careers to see what else they did, and i discovered these guys because the keyboardist was in the early 80’s band ‘japan’, one of my favorite bands ever... Have fun!
Hey good news, they’re about to go on tour!
This is one of the few album reviews in which I enjoy how the lister speaks and introduces his opinion, congratulations, you speak so well and your tone is enjoyable.
In addition, these albums and songs are so great that even the songs you commented give me a slight view of how your personality and life is and was just because of the opinion you have of them. I mean, for example, liking Mellotron Scratch the most says somehow so much about you
My list is kind of weird and I was sad to see you put Signify so low. I felt like it was the first actual time the "Porcupine Tree sound" began to truly take form and I loved it. And I'm probably one of the select few that truly adores Lightbulb Sun and thinks that it's the most beautiful blend ever of all the bands styles and sounds. For me:
1. Lightbulb Sun
2. Signify
3. The Sky Moves Sideways
4. Deadwing
5. Stupid Dream
6. Up the Downstair
7. Fear of a Blank Planet
8. In Absentia
9. On the Sunday of Life
10. The Incident
Signify at 2 is heartening. So underated.
Signify is One of my favourite for sure. I agree...that's where I think PT really found a solid identity.
1. In Absentia/Fear - I go back and forth between these two a lot. In Absentia was my introduction to the band and songs like Blackest Eyes and Trains blew me away. But Fear is clearly the better "Album" so it's hard to choose which I like more.
3. Deadwing - This holds a very very very emotional track for me in Lazarus. I saw him perform it live while I was in a rough spot in life and it just takes me away every time.
4. Sky Moves Sideways
5. The Incident
6. Stupid Dream
7. Lightbulb Sun
8. Signify
9. Up the Downstairs
10. On the Sunday of Life
Incredible! Thanks for this, you're very passionate to prog rock, I love it. I trust your list and your personal recomendations. Greetings!
Omg thank christ u made it clear that you still love signify!! Dark Matter is one of my faves. Love you notes xxx
Signify is an amazing work of art... Sleep of No Dreaming is one of my favourite songs from PT. The lyrics speak to me on a different level. It is a darker album, of course, but holds so much beauty.
Signify is underated for sure probably a bit too understated for some perhaps.
I love Sleep of no Dreaming, total masterpiece.
Dude, Up The Downstair is an incredible album. As is Voyage 34. Soooo good
Voyage 34 is arguably my favorite album of theirs to listen to. It really deserves more recognition.
1- The Sky Moves Sideways
2- Up The Downstair
3- Stupid Dream
4- Signify
5- Fear of A B. Planet
Nice list!
Your name, Boy and the beast, mother! The Room, Porcupine tree. You and I would get along swimmingly. Metanoia and Voyage 34 are some of my favorite PT albums, but they're not ones I throw on often. You kind of need a solid chunk of time to listen the whole thing in one go, or you need to be semi-active. I find they feel really good when performing tasks like video editing.
Dead Wing is number 1.
Agree. How is FOABP better than Deadwing?!
Totally agree dude.
Porcupine tree is my all time favorite band, and deadwing is one of only three albums that i love every song on (the other too being Lateralus, by tool, and Orange rhyming dictionary, by jets to brazil) the start of something beautiful is in my opinon the greatist piece of music ever written. and its not even my favorite song by them. also this video did not go into enough detail on how well Anesthetize works in the middle of fear.
Rasalcon Omg, Jets to Brazil. That takes me back to being 16 again. Saw them live after they dropped Dictionary I completely forgot about JTB. Gonna go put that on now.
1. In Absentia
2. Fear of Blank Planet
3. Deadwing
4. Sky Moves Sideways
5. Stupid Dream
6. Lightbulb Sun
7. Signify
8. Up the Downstair
9. the Incident
10. On the Sunday of Life...
Great list man!
12. On The Sunday Of Life (I couldn't get into this)
11. The Incident (Time Flies is the best song, and its still not amazing)
10. Stupid Dream (Too pop)
9. Lightbulb Sun (Shesmovedon, and Russia On Ice, what great songs, make the rest that)
8. In Abesntia (Too much filler)
7. Voyage 34 (A concept album, that's not an album)
6. Signify (I love every song on this, but its the transition between "Sky Moves Sideways" and "Lightbulb Sun" and its just too "rough" i guess.)
5. The Sky Moves Sideways (Pink Floyd "Wish You Were Here" Pt. 2)
4. Nil Recurring (I know, its an EP, but its Fear Of A Blank Planet Disc 2)
3. Fear Of A Blank Planet (It's more of a metal album and its structured so well. Its one of the best)
2. Up The Downstair (This was the first PT album I ever heard and for that reason, it had become one of my favorites
1. Deadwing (What do i say here?! It's Iron Maiden and Pink Floyd had a baby. Now this is a masterpiece)
Time flies is the worst song on The incident
Regardless of the album rankings, Porcupine Tree is by far one of the most overlooked bands since the early 90’s.
A very creative and sophisticated group who I managed to get a lot of different people into. Oh and without a doubt
“ The Sky Moves Sideways “ is a modern day masterpiece.
Do you think you could rank Rush's albums? I'd love to see that.
Oh man! Yes! I will need to start working on that, there's a bunch from the 80s that I'm not that familiar with...
Oh man that's great! I subbed yesterday and I absolutely love the stuff you're putting out! 80's rush is not the best though. Cheers!
Rush came alive in the 80s.
Rush is garbage and each album should be burned. Porcupine Tree puts them to shame. Lifeson is cool though
@Paul Lebowski absolutely agree, among other bands like Floyd, Yes, The Who .... I hear many different influences. I am a big Rush fan and I just discovered PT. I am thrilled by their music and Steven's. This is great for the quarantine. I just discovered them 2 weeks ago. I have plenty of listening to do. Anyway, I like your comment and could not agree more.
Great review dude nice channel love how you come as you are, way to go
I think I found out about Porcupine Tree back in 2002, when I bought In Absentia. I've never really gotten to explore PT's discography before In Absentia but absolutely love everything they've put out since then.
I absolutely LOVE Mellotron Scratch. Definitely one of my favourite songs ever too!
I'd say Deadwing is my favourite album from them (that I've listened to). Love everything about it!
Awesome review. Really encourages me to go back and check some of their older stuff!
Hey notes! I’m fairly new to your channel, with the Tools Lateralus Album review you did being the first video I watched on your channel. Which I have to say that your insight and the way you presented your thoughts about the songs, was just fantastic! I’ve had my own spiritual like experiences with this album, specifically the title track Lateralus!
But I really enjoy your videos, and I feel like with your insight and knowledge, with just talking about music and dissecting it, is deserving of so much attention. I hope your channel grows man, I really do!
I have to personally thank you for introducing me to new genres of music, it’s very liberating.
And with that said, I’d like to suggest an album that you might just enjoy, kind of falls in line with the kind of music you like.
But I highly recommend an album called Panopticon by Isis! You never know, it might just resonate with you 🙂
Awesome mate. Totally different rankings to you but I love how you break the albums down and use that to rate them. Exactly what I do .... just come to different conclusions! Subscribed to you none the less!
I fucking love the incident. Transports me to my childhood
First time watching a video of yours and literally at the first second I was like: this guys is my favorite person ever!!!
-Talking about my favorite band
-Having movies I love on the back (The Room, Your Name and Wind River For example)
- Some Pink Flloyd and Genesis
- Taylor Swift hoodie
Dude YOU ARE AWESOME!!!!
Very succinct and clear descriptions of your reactions, interpretations of each album...Fear of a Blank Planet happens to be my favourite album by Steven Wilson with Porcupine Tree. However I would group that one as the top of three, the other two being In Absentia and Recordings, which I noticed straightaway that you did not include in your list...?
Yo Notes... you know what you should do? I personally watch your channel to discover new music within the prog/rock/metal genre. For these worst to best you should definitely create a Spotify playlist with your favourite tracks from each album. At least I find I'd really enjoy that in my journey discovering PT's earlier albums for example. It's shame in this case Fear Of a Blank Planet is not on Spotify for whatever reason. Just an idea :)
You might be on to something! I already have playlists for each of my starter packs. Maybe I'll include artists from these worst to best to give a feel for each of the albums :)
Thanks for this. We just saw SW in concert two nights ago in Phoenix. Great show!
1. Deadwing
2. Stupid Dream
3. In Absentia
4. Fear of a Blank Planet
5. Lightbulb Sun
6. Signify
7. Up the Downstairs
8. The Incident
9. The Sky Moves Sideways
10. On the Sunday of Life
+1 on Deadwing
There are 2 kinds of Porcupine Tree fans, ones that think SMS is the best album ever, and the ones that don't put it in top 5. I'm former
1 - The Sky Moves Sideways
2 - Up The Downstair
3 - Fear Of A Blank Planet
4 - On The Sunday Of Life
5 - Signify
6 - Deadwing
7 - The Incident
8 - Stupid Dream
9 - In Absentia
10 - Lightbulb Sun
Oh, by the way, thanks for your 'low to high review', I found it enjoyable and informative, and have to agree with your number 1.
I see Tommy Wiseau in the background.
My list as follows worst to best.
12 - Metanoia
11 - On The Sunday Of Life
10 - Stupid Dream
09 - Up The Downstair
08 - The Incident
07 - The Sky Moves Sideways
06 - Signify
05 - Lightbulb Sun
04 - Voyage 34
03 - Fear Of A Blank Planet
02 - In Absentia
01 - Deadwing
This is probably the most authentic and unique PT worst to best I’ve ever got into. Cool that you put their debut over Signify and Lightbulb Sun, and Sky Moves in the 2nd place!
1. Fear of a Blank Planet + Nil Recurring
2. In Absentia + Futile
3. Deadwing (Vinyl version)
4. The Incident
5. Lightbulb Sun
6. Signify
7. The Sky Moves Sideways
8. Up The Downstair
9. On The Sunday of Life
10. Stupid Dream
Cannot wait for Closure/Continuation!
Voyage 34 and Metanoia are a different vibe, but they fit well with Sky Moves Sideways. Love that era.
What about Recordings? That's one of my favorites! Or is it not considered an "actual album"?
i believe steven has done well creating a whole new ambient with albums. every pt album has a unique and different world in their own. i cannot compare them. man, i even love the track "access denied", and some early "yellow hedgerow dreamscape, karma, altamont" kinda stuff. this man got to hypnotise me
Notes often expresses my own thoughts about songs and albums brilliantly, especially here. I can’t get over the fact that somebody analyses music and indeed PT like I do....and have been doing for 25 YEARS. How on earth does he find time to do this with hundreds of bands??
I'm always amazed at how many people are passionate about this band and yet how little we agree on favorite songs/albums. I started with Signify, so perhaps I have a bias for it, but when you listed that as their worst (or least best), I almost just moved away. But then I couldn't help myself...I guess this might be better than a random ordering, but I would put Deadwing and In Absentia above most of the others, and I would probably put Signify more than halfway up the chain. Voyage 34 has some good moments, but a lot of it is either pretty derivative or unstructured. At least Signify is not derivative, not to mention that there are whole albums that hardly compare to Dark Matter by itself. Thanks for doing this though. It was an interesting take, even if we see things differently.
This is a nice presentation of your favorites, with good descriptions for each. Part of me wants to do an equally-detailed presentation of my favorites, but I'm sure that it would take me days of preparation and work to do a good job of it. My list is very different than yours:
- Deadwing
- Stupid Dream
- In Absentia
- Fear of a Blank Planet
- Lightbulb Sun
- (Recordings)
- The Sky Moves Sideways
- (Coma Divine - Live)
- Signify
- Up the Downstair
- Voyage 34
- The Incident
- On the Sunday of Life
For me, Deadwing is easily the best (although I could really do without the song "Halo"). I also like the EP which was released with Deadwing, and included the song "So-Called Friend". After choosing that album for #1, it's pretty hard for me to choose an order between "Stupid Dream", "In Absentia", "Fear of a Blank Planet", and "Lightbulb Sun".
Aside: I am a little annoyed with "Fear of a Blank Planet", because it seemed a little too pandering to me. "Fear of a Blank Planet" was a pretty heavy-handed reference to "Fear of a Black Planet", but the theme of the album is not on a *planetary* scale. I think would have been much better to name it "Fear of a Blank *Culture* ". I also think that having "Anesthetize" as a 17-minute song is just pandering to the fans who kept wanting a super-long progressive-rock song. "Anesthetize" is really three separate songs where Steven just removed the gap of silence between the songs. But ignoring those nit-picky comments, it's a great album. And I also really like the "Nil Recurring" EP which was a companion to "Fear of a Blank Planet".
I added "Recordings", which you didn't include. I realize it isn't quite the same as the other studio albums since it's "just a bunch of songs" which were left over from previous sessions they had done, but both "Buying New Soul" and "Even Less" are big favorites of mine, and there aren't any songs on "Recordings" which I don't like. In fact, for me it's only very slightly less liked than my picks for #2-#5.
"The Sky Moves Sideways" comes next, and then I added "Coma Divine". "Coma Divine" is another case of me kinda-cheating, given that it's a live album. But this happens to be the second or third album I ever bought from Porcupine Tree (I bought two of their albums on the same day), and it was on the strength of those "first" three albums (the first three that I bought) that I told the record store owner "Yeah, make sure to save me a copy of any album these guys ever release in the future".
And by putting "Coma Divine" where I did, I give it the credit for having "Radioactive Toy", which is certainly a great song. And by giving that song to "Coma Divine" instead of "On the Sunday of Life", "On the Sunday of Life" drops to the bottom of this list of albums (IMO). Good album, and I like many of the songs. But "Radioactive Toy" is a great song, and if you remove that from "On the Sunday of Life", then all the remaining songs are good songs, but nothing that competes with the other albums.
After that I have Signify. Then a little lower down is "Up the Downstair", and "Voyage 34", at basically a tie.
I suspect the biggest surprise is that I have "The Incident" so low on the list. I actually like "Time Flies" quite a bit, and I like a few of the other songs too. But this is the album that I play the least. Btw, I believe the theme of the album is not some single incident which all the songs are referring to. It's a variety of completely unrelated incidents, where each of those incidents is "THE (life-changing) INCIDENT" in some individual's life. That's why the songs don't seem to mesh together very well. But I must admit that I play this album so little that I've forgotten most of the songs.
That's my list, and I'm sure that almost no one will agree with all of it. I could go into a lot more detail if I had the time, and I'm sure the exact order would change if I did take that time. Best wishes to all of those who disagree with my order. That is unless your list has "The Incident" as #1 and "Deadwing" at the bottom of the list! :)
One thing which can be a major effect our enjoyment of albums is how well they fit with our own life experiences, or where we were in our life when we discovered the album. To give one example of that, I suspect that I might give a higher rating to "Lightbulb Sun" than many others would. That's because I had many issues with getting sick when I was a young guy, so the song "Lightbulb Sun" is really easy for me to relate to.
(however I also love-love-love "Russia on Ice", and I haven't spent much time drinking on alcohol on ice! :) ).
In Ab Sen Tia* You're Welcome.
and "FOR AY"
My ranking goes as follows (though I'll let you know, I never listened to "The Incident")
I'll say that 8-1 are all fantastic though, and they really don't have any bad albums.
10: On The Sunday Of Life
9: Stupid Dream
8: Signify
7: Up The Downstair
6: Lightbulb Sun
5: Voyage 34
4: The Sky Moves Sideways
3: In Absentia
2: Fear of a Blank Planet
1: Deadwing
Here is my personal list:
01. Deadwing
02. Fear Of A Blank Planet
03. Stupid Dream
04. Up The Downstair
05. Lightbulb Sun
06. In Absentia
07. Sky Moves Sideways
08. The Incident
09. On The Sunday Of Life
10. Signify
11. Voyage 34
Ok thats it. We’re done notes! You just said you “didn’t like to the bone”.....ouch 😊
We all have opinions
Deadwing is my favorite album for sure. They have a great catalog.
I think you meant shallow not swallow
LMAO!
1. Fear of a blank planet
2. In absentia
3. Lightbulb sun
4. Up the downstair
5. The incident
6. Stupid dream
7. Deadwing
8. The sky moves sideways
9. On the Sunday of life
10. Signify
Man Sky moving sideways is so good, like so crazy good. Can listen to 36min version full day.
Respect for putting it where is should.
Really agree about In Abstentia and FOABP and glad you like Stupid Dream so much it is a great pop rock album in the best possible way. Not really given Sky Moves Sideways a proper listen so must try to as you rate it so highly. Would love a review of Rare Porcupine Tree and eps. There is so much out there would be good to know your thoughts on the essential ones to track down
I started listening to Porcupine Tree after one of my favorite channels, Deadwing Dork, explained where his name came from.
I've found a lot of music from his channel. He always starts his streams with music he's into and that's how I found Ayreon, Phideaux and Porcupine tree.
Huge Porcupine Tree fan here. To be honest, I don't even compare the albums myself, I find them all brilliant. But it's nice to see your point of view, thanks!
A fair review. Totally disagree on some choices, but appreciate your comments. FoaBP is my joint favourite - totally with you re your comments about cohesiveness, pacing etc - with Lightbulb Sun, which also features my favourite PT song, Last Chance To Evacuate Planet Earth.... I'm pleased to see On The Sunday Of Life placing so highly - to think that this is SW's earliest recorded work is remarkable - a gifted songwriter and arranger long before he discovered his confidence as a frontman and facility as a musician
I was hoping you would settle on the same one! Like you, FOABP was the album which introduced me to Porcupine Tree and it is certainly my favorite of them all! That's the one I love to introduce to people who have never heard of them before. I cannot listen to this album without going all the way to the end! It's meant to be taken in as a whole. May I just say that Steven Wilson has an amazing ear for classic rock too! I recently got the new 6 disc vinyl box set release of his remixed versions of 5 of my favorite Yes albums with the redesigned art from Roger Dean! They sound wonderful. The individual performances are clearly brought to the fore while softening the edges just a bit to make it all sound more musical.
Drawing the Line is AMAZING!!!
Drawing The Line brings down the album? It's one of the highlights for me.
That chorus by Steven is well sung and shows an awesome vocal range. My two cents though.
I really enjoy your love for the band and the music. I was blown away by Stupid Dream, and have been on board since, collecting all I could lay my hands on, including all the side projects and collaborations. In appreciation and addition to your worst to best list, I would like to come up with a surpise. Number 1: ''Recordings'' . Given that this is basically an album with ''B=sides'', (+ an extended version of Even Less(1+2), the overall quality is so great that I often return to this album. The opening song ''Buying New Soul'', is incredibly beautiful, ''Ambulance chasing'' is great with all the tribal beats, and many of the other songs are unpretentious but as a whole this album has so much to enjoy. Maybe it is just my way of saying how much I love this band. For this reason I put Coma Divine on #2 (excellent live renditions, trippy and very differnt from the CD versions) and #3 41/2. As others have said; you can't go wrong with Porcupine Tree, and hopefully I have made some newcomers aware of these 3 lesser known parts of the bands discography.
Say it with me: "In. Abb. Sent. Cha." Great video. Thanks for the insights!
Great list man, I agree with you about Fear, but to me Deadwing it's a bit upwards haha
Check it out:
10 - On The Sunday of Life
9 - Signify
8 - Stupid Dream
7 - Up the Downstair
6 - Lightbulb Sun
5 - The Sky Moves Sideways
4 - The Incident
3 - Deadwing
2 - In Absentia
1 - Fear of a Blank Planet
Even though I think Absentia was a bit more personal to me, Fear is just amazing and beautiful
Good review. I love PT and have most of their albums. I mostly agree. But I wouldn't expect anything less from someone with a Dream Theater box set on the shelf behind them. My best DT item is my Live Scenes from NY CD that was released on 9-11 with the NY skyline and World Trade Center in flames. It was recalled that day, but I picked it up on 9-12 because the record store hadn't pulled it. (Yeah, I was a little too pre-occupied on 9-11 to stop at the mall on the way home.)
I've been following PT since the mid-90s, my first album being 'The Sky Moves Sideways', which is still my favourite, but I love all of them. I bought TSMS on a whim in a Toronto electronic music store because I liked the title, having no idea the journey I was about to begin. I have the US release, which included Stars Die (not as a bonus but as part of the album, and it's still my favourite version because I think Stars Die brings the album into a perfect balance). Anyway, great ranking. It's nice to see some love for 'On the Sunday of Life'! I feel that's their most underrated album. Voyage 34, btw, was originally supposed to be on Up the Downstair as a single 30-minute track, but Wilson decided to release on its own as a single with Phase I and Phase II. Later, he released The Complete Trip. Phase III and Phase IV are actually ambient remixes of Phase I and Phase II, the first one done by Astralasia and the second one done by Wilson and Richard Barbieri. The throbbing baseline in the first two parts, which a lot of people seem to think he ripped off of Pink Floyd, was actually inspired by Manuel Göttsching's 1975 album 'Inventions for Electric Guitar'.
1. Up the Downstair + Staircase Infinities (These two were meant to be one double album but it wasn't completed in time)
2. The Sky Moves Sideways
3. Voyage 34
4. On the Sunday of Life
5. Lightbulb Sun
6. Stupid Dream/Signify
7. Fear of a Blank Planet (Overrated imho)
8. In Absentia
9. Deadwing
10. The Incident (I can't get into it at all, I don't know why)
Oh yeah and
2.5 Nil Recurring
Good list. I agree fully
My list
1. Deadwing
2. In Absentia
3. Fear of a Blank Planet
4. Lightbulb Sun
5. The Sky Moves Sideways
6. The Incident
7. Stupid Dream
8. Signify
9. Up the Downstair
10. On the Sunday of Life
For some reason I don't get much of a Pink Floyd vibe from Sky Moves Sideways and Up The Downstair. Lips Of Ashes from In Absentia reminds me of Pink Floyd the most
Nice video!
Greetings from Chile.
Interesting observations and ordering. Regarding fans not loving Stupid Dream and Lightbulb Sun when they came out - yeah, I got into PT with Signify, which I adored, so SD and LS didn’t quite land for me. At the time. But damn, they grew on me! I know most fans consider the In Absentia-Deadwing-Fear of a Blank Planet period as the best PT, but for me it’s now all about Signify-Stupid Dream-Lightbulb Sun.
1)Fear...
2) In Absentia
3)Stupid Dream
4)Lightbulb Sun
5)The Sky Moves....
6)Signify
7)Deadwing
8)Signify
10)Up The Downstairs
11)On the Sunday....
Lightbulb Sun is the only PTree album I don't have, but everyone is saying it's so great. Am I missing something?
In-ab-sench-a
My list (of the albums on this list so no Recordings:():
1. In Absentia
2. Stupid Dream
3. Deadwing
4. Fear of a Blank Planet
5. Signify
6. The Incident
7. Lightbulb Sun
8. Up the Downstair
9. On the Sunday of Life...
10. Voyage 34
11. The Sky Moves Sideways
Hard to pick a worst Porcupine Tree album - worst would still be in my top 10 albums that year. Would like to see a video on Steven Wilson works outside of Porcupine Tree ( good work on this video - I'm new to the channel )
anybody know where I can get PT albums in physical? Can't find them anywhere
Try Ebay. You''ll find anything you need. Or ''Burning Shed''.
Jorge Luis Rojas hmv?
At first time I thought that was Steven Wilson with short hair speaking
I never knew Steven Wilson ran his own reaction channel.
Brilliant..................How did i miss this! Love this band and Steven Wilson's solo stuff
Even though I disagree with 40% of what you said, as a huge PT fan I have to say, I 100% respect your opinion
"Up the Downstair" is not 'they', it's still just Steven Wilson on all instruments and a drum machine. PT doesn't start to become a band until Signify.
Technically Sky Moves Sideways but Signify is the one where it was all 4 of them on all the songs
Okay, I'll go back and check out Blank Planet again, which didn't grab me when it came out. My favorite studio PT is Deadwing, but I mostly like to listen to their live albums. (PS. it's "In Ab-SEN-tee-a")
Worst to best: deadwing, on the sunday of life, the incident, in absteina, fear of the blank planet, lightbulb sun, signify, up the downstair and the sky moves sideways
So what you're saying is, apart from Fear Of A Blank Planet, all their albums are transitional mishmashes with the odd great track.
My Ranking from worst to best:
On the Sunday Of Life
The Incident
Signify
Up the Downstair
Stupid Dream
Lightbulb Sun
In Absentia
The Sky Moves Sideways
Deadwing
Fear of a Blank Planet
I love Deadwing, one of my all time favourite albums.
Glad you gave bonnie the cat some love but how could you not love the deadwing title track?? That’s one of my favorites. Sidenote: It’s pronounced
In Ab-sen-sha. (Listen to the mars voltas song by the same name.)
I'm putting my tier for each album on the side
10 - Lightbulb Sun B
9 - In Absentia B
8 - Stupid Dream B
7 - On The Sunday Of Life A
6 - Deadwing A
5 - Signify A
4 - The Incident S
3 - Up The Downstair S
2 - Fear Of A Blank Planet S
1 - The Sky Moves Sideways SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Yeeee good album!
The incident isnt an S tho
Lightbulb Sun is probably my favourite PT record
Nice. Subscribed.
Sleep of no Dreaming is probably in my top 10 PT songs :p I especially love the live version from Anesthetize.
Personally my Favorite album is and will always be Deadwing (I know this album perfectly) especially because of the song Arriving Somewhere but not Here, for the rest it's pretty much the same as your List! :)
This is gonna be a tough one but i'll try my best
1: In Absentia/Lightbulb Sun (Have a strong appreciation for both albums as they are the albums that resonated with me the most (not much lyrically but musically). I can't choose which one is better because both of these albums have such strong songs like Russia on Ice, Shesmovedon, Trains, Blackest Eyes etc. so both albums are a tie for me)
3: The Sky Moves Sideways
4: Stupid Dream
5: Fear of a Blank Planet
6: Deadwing
7: Up the Downstair
8: Signify
9: On the Sunday of Life
10: The Incident (i dont hate the album, it's just the most musically uninteresting album the band has released IMO)