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Since the new Porcupine Tree album has just been released, maybe it's time for a new Porcupine Tree favourite album poll.


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What's your favourite Porcupine Tree album?  

24 members have voted

  1. 1. What's your favourite Porcupine Tree album?

    • On the Sunday of Life... (1992)
      0
    • Up the Downstair (1993)
    • The Sky Moves Sideways (1995)
    • Signify (1996)
    • Stupid Dream (1999)
    • Lightbulb Sun (2000)
    • In Absentia (2002)
    • Deadwing (2005)
    • Fear of a Blank Planet (2007)
    • The Incident (2009)
      0
    • Closure/Continuation (2022)
      0


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13 hours ago, BastillePark said:

I wonder how many here that say "Fear of A Blank Planet" is their favourite PT album is because Lifeson plays on it?

 

It's subjective as is any art but I rate it no better than 4th regardless of who plays any of the music.

It has zero to do with why it’s my favorite. 

 

It’s my favorite because it is simply a brilliant collection of dark, moody progressive rock by a band at the height of their absolute powers.

 

A perfect album and perfect theme that was very good foreshadowing to what we as a society have turned into today and how kids are truly zoned out on their devices in todays world.  

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this is my favorite porcupine tree guitar solo, still really impressed by it (i linked the time so if you hit play it should start the video just before the guitar solo)

 

maybe it's the all-time best guitar solo ever written by a non-guitarist? 

 

 

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16 hours ago, Todem said:

It has zero to do with why it’s my favorite. 

 

It’s my favorite because it is simply a brilliant collection of dark, moody progressive rock by a band at the height of their absolute powers.

 

A perfect album and perfect theme that was very good foreshadowing to what we as a society have turned into today and how kids are truly zoned out on their devices in todays world.  

Yup

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I wonder if anyone who previously voted would change their vote to Closure/Continuation, now that they've had some time to digest the album.

 

The general consensus is that it's a welcome release, comparable in quality to prior albums, but not an instant favorite.

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16 hours ago, stoopid said:

I wonder if anyone who previously voted would change their vote to Closure/Continuation, now that they've had some time to digest the album.

 

The general consensus is that it's a welcome release, comparable in quality to prior albums, but not an instant favorite.

My 4th favorite of all time from them. It get’s better and better with each and every listen. I love every single track. Not a weak song to be had.

 

My song rankings:

 

1. Chimera’s Wreck

2. Harridan 

3. Never Have

4. Love in the Past Tense

5. Rats Return

6. Of The New Day

7. Herd Culling

8. Dignity

9. Walk The Plank

10. Population Three

 

Seriously amazing album. 

Edited by Todem
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On 7/2/2022 at 4:13 PM, Mr. Not said:

this is my favorite porcupine tree guitar solo, still really impressed by it (i linked the time so if you hit play it should start the video just before the guitar solo)

 

maybe it's the all-time best guitar solo ever written by a non-guitarist? 

 

 

My favorite track from them all time. And non guitarist? Steven Wilson is certainly a very good guitarist my friend. 

 

Really? 

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21 minutes ago, Todem said:

My favorite track from them all time. And non guitarist? Steven Wilson is certainly a very good guitarist my friend. 

 

Really? 

 

it's hyperbole, but yes really:

 

-he finds metal "boring" now and denounces guitar shredding, saying it's more of a sport rather than musically oriented  

-he doesn't find the guitar to be inspiring in general and it's been increasingly taking a backseat in his compositions over the past decade

-he (happily) claims not to be the best guitarist, and often hires on other people to offset the workload, both in studio and live

 

all his words, and all fine. 

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4 hours ago, Mr. Not said:

 

it's hyperbole, but yes really:

 

-he finds metal "boring" now and denounces guitar shredding, saying it's more of a sport rather than musically oriented  

-he doesn't find the guitar to be inspiring in general and it's been increasingly taking a backseat in his compositions over the past decade

-he (happily) claims not to be the best guitarist, and often hires on other people to offset the workload, both in studio and live

 

all his words, and all fine. 

100%

 

SW is a kludgy guitarist, at best.  He's very creative and that offsets his technical deficiencies.  And yes, all fine.  He's a songwriter first, and multi instrumentalist.  He doesn't need to be a shredder / virtuoso to have my respect and enjoy his output.

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23 hours ago, Mr. Not said:

 

it's hyperbole, but yes really:

 

-he finds metal "boring" now and denounces guitar shredding, saying it's more of a sport rather than musically oriented  

-he doesn't find the guitar to be inspiring in general and it's been increasingly taking a backseat in his compositions over the past decade

-he (happily) claims not to be the best guitarist, and often hires on other people to offset the workload, both in studio and live

 

all his words, and all fine. 

So he can talk thru his ass all day LOL.

 

I have seen them live two times as well as Steve two times. That guy can play the guitar just fine. I have been playing 40 plus years myself.....he has written some iconic riffs and has played them live. 

 

He is a damn good guitar player regardless of words coming outta his mouth. What is coming outta his amp speaks volumes. 

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19 hours ago, stoopid said:

100%

 

SW is a kludgy guitarist, at best.  He's very creative and that offsets his technical deficiencies.  And yes, all fine.  He's a songwriter first, and multi instrumentalist.  He doesn't need to be a shredder / virtuoso to have my respect and enjoy his output.

Heart and soul is far more important to technical prowess in my book. 

 

Alex Lifeson anyone?

 

Agree with the bolded 100% and why I consider him to be a damn good guitarist. 

Edited by Todem
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I LOVE C/C - album of the year thus far (though I am also currently really into Mikael Akerfeldt's Sountrack for Clark, The Aristocrats with the Primuz chamber orchestra and RHCP Unlimited Love); but as much as I love C/C, it is still relatively new and I can't put it above IA, DW, or FoaBP.  I'd rank the PT albums and divide them into tiers:

 

Masterpieces

1). Fear of a Blank Planet (& Nil Recurring)
2.) In Absentia
3.) Deadwing
4.) C/C

 

Excellent
5.) Stupid Dream
6.) The Incident
7.) Lightbulb Sun

 

Good
8.) Signify
9,)  The Sky Moves Sideways

 

Developmental
10.) Up The Downstair

11.) On The Sunday of Life

 

Only time will tell if C/C will supersede those masterworks that we've had for ~15+ years.

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On 7/21/2022 at 8:50 AM, Todem said:

My 4th favorite of all time from them. It get’s better and better with each and every listen. I love every single track. Not a weak song to be had.

 

My song rankings:

 

1. Chimera’s Wreck

2. Harridan 

3. Never Have

4. Love in the Past Tense

5. Rats Return

6. Of The New Day

7. Herd Culling

8. Dignity

9. Walk The Plank

10. Population Three

 

Seriously amazing album. 

 

Totally agree - though my song ranking would be quite different.  I think Population Three is their best instrumental ever; some of the mellow guitar recalls Opeth, but the arrangement and structure is purely King Crimson.  I love Never Have and Love in the Past Tense, but I get why they didn't totally sit with the main 7 tracks.  Less developed, maybe a little less input from Gavin & Richard (Never Have is really like a SW solo work.)  I LOVE Chimera's Wreck, but there is something that bugs me a little about it - the drums in the intro. As a drummer, I am a card-carrying Gavin fan-boy for life, but I feel that intro is the sloppiest thing he has committed to tape.  I know it was sourced from the original jam with Steven and it's just a little brush (Blasticks) accompaniment to the acoustic thing Steven was doing - but it's just too loose and there are some spurious cymbal hits that bug me. Other than that, the track is pure gold.  However, my current ranking would be:

 

 

1. Harridan - yeah, it was the first single, but considered with the whole disc, it is just a tour de force and a drumming is phenomenal 

2. Of The New Day - beautiful, float away song.  Sorta fits the role of "Lazarus" for me; though completely different 

3. Dignity - Epic. Richard is really the secret weapon on this disc and stepped up the sound design to great effect.

4. Rats Return - Love the syncopated riff that is throughout nearly the whole tune.  Gavin killing it and Steven has some great melodies he plays against that same riff

5. Chimera’s Wreck - love all the parts, very proggy, as mentioned above, only thing that bugs me is Gavin's less than precise drumming on the intro.

6. Population Three - PT's best instrumental; Opethian moments, but structure is totally King Crimson.  This is like "Larks VI" a follow-up to "Level V" from Krim

7. Herd Culling -  the whole song is better than the initial radio edit released.  Love the dynamics. Surely Gavin suggested the part in 11 in the middle.

8. Love in the Past Tense - This song has some Gavin influence and a couple little bass riffs that actually remind me of Geddy a bit (the one at the very end sounds like something Ged did on LTTA live)

9. Never Have - Love this song, definitely recalls Blackfield, and to me feels like more of a SW solo effort that Gavin and Richard played along to.  

10. Walk The Plank - sort of the electronic experiment of the album, along the approach of SW's The Future Bites.  YET, the reason  I find it INFINITELY more interesting than anything on TFB comes down to one thing: Gavin. I could deal with SW's new electronic direction if he had some interesting formats and inventive musicianship (that was absent on TFB.) From what I've heard about his next solo disc (more adventurous) and the drummer that is recording some tracks for it, it could be a lot more interesting than TFB (that won't be difficult for me! lol) Even as, perhaps, my least fav on the disc - this track has some real charms and I find it stuck in my head often.  There is something challenging about it that I didn't like at first (maybe that 80's electronic influence again) but that I keep listening to trying to figure out what it is.  I kinda wonder if the lyrics "walk the plank" are in regards to Steven's falling out of love with the guitar.    

 

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Also interesting to note that in Steven's recently released autobiography, he discusses and lists his albums that he is proud of.  If I recall (gotta find that page) but IA was #1, FoaBP was also on the list, as is C/C.  HCE is there, as is TFB (yuck). He lists last his next solo album (Harmony Codex).  Notably absent were Deadwing, The Incident, all early PT, and The Raven.

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6 hours ago, cygnify said:

 

...I LOVE Chimera's Wreck, but there is something that bugs me a little about it - the drums in the intro. As a drummer, I am a card-carrying Gavin fan-boy for life, but I feel that intro is the sloppiest thing he has committed to tape.  I know it was sourced from the original jam with Steven and it's just a little brush (Blasticks) accompaniment to the acoustic thing Steven was doing - but it's just too loose and there are some spurious cymbal hits that bug me. Other than that, the track is pure gold.

 

Good to hear a drummer of your ilk vocalize that, because to my ears it seemed sloppy as well.  'Fine' but not the kind of approach I'd would have credited to Gavin in a blind listen.

 

I'm through probably 20 or more listens and certainly primed for the show in September, but I still don't feel fully engaged with the material.  There's sections that come on and I think "Okay, this is really good" but I still couldn't tell you what section is attributed to which song.  It's like a bunch of really good ideas that got sewn together.  If you're into folk art quilts, that's fine, but I've always liked how PT did this in a more seamless way.  And no, that pun (metaphor?) was not planned.  Deal with it.  lol

Edited by stoopid
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On 7/26/2022 at 12:24 PM, cygnify said:

 

Totally agree - though my song ranking would be quite different.  I think Population Three is their best instrumental ever; some of the mellow guitar recalls Opeth, but the arrangement and structure is purely King Crimson.  I love Never Have and Love in the Past Tense, but I get why they didn't totally sit with the main 7 tracks.  Less developed, maybe a little less input from Gavin & Richard (Never Have is really like a SW solo work.)  I LOVE Chimera's Wreck, but there is something that bugs me a little about it - the drums in the intro. As a drummer, I am a card-carrying Gavin fan-boy for life, but I feel that intro is the sloppiest thing he has committed to tape.  I know it was sourced from the original jam with Steven and it's just a little brush (Blasticks) accompaniment to the acoustic thing Steven was doing - but it's just too loose and there are some spurious cymbal hits that bug me. Other than that, the track is pure gold.  However, my current ranking would be:

 

 

1. Harridan - yeah, it was the first single, but considered with the whole disc, it is just a tour de force and a drumming is phenomenal 

2. Of The New Day - beautiful, float away song.  Sorta fits the role of "Lazarus" for me; though completely different 

3. Dignity - Epic. Richard is really the secret weapon on this disc and stepped up the sound design to great effect.

4. Rats Return - Love the syncopated riff that is throughout nearly the whole tune.  Gavin killing it and Steven has some great melodies he plays against that same riff

5. Chimera’s Wreck - love all the parts, very proggy, as mentioned above, only thing that bugs me is Gavin's less than precise drumming on the intro.

6. Population Three - PT's best instrumental; Opethian moments, but structure is totally King Crimson.  This is like "Larks VI" a follow-up to "Level V" from Krim

7. Herd Culling -  the whole song is better than the initial radio edit released.  Love the dynamics. Surely Gavin suggested the part in 11 in the middle.

8. Love in the Past Tense - This song has some Gavin influence and a couple little bass riffs that actually remind me of Geddy a bit (the one at the very end sounds like something Ged did on LTTA live)

9. Never Have - Love this song, definitely recalls Blackfield, and to me feels like more of a SW solo effort that Gavin and Richard played along to.  

10. Walk The Plank - sort of the electronic experiment of the album, along the approach of SW's The Future Bites.  YET, the reason  I find it INFINITELY more interesting than anything on TFB comes down to one thing: Gavin. I could deal with SW's new electronic direction if he had some interesting formats and inventive musicianship (that was absent on TFB.) From what I've heard about his next solo disc (more adventurous) and the drummer that is recording some tracks for it, it could be a lot more interesting than TFB (that won't be difficult for me! lol) Even as, perhaps, my least fav on the disc - this track has some real charms and I find it stuck in my head often.  There is something challenging about it that I didn't like at first (maybe that 80's electronic influence again) but that I keep listening to trying to figure out what it is.  I kinda wonder if the lyrics "walk the plank" are in regards to Steven's falling out of love with the guitar.    

 

Great write up.

 

Love in the Past Tense takes me back to The Police. In fact it is heavily influenced by the last and IMO best Police Album Synchroncity. Stewart Copeland influence all over this one for Gavin and every time I listen to this song it just melts into my soul. Such a lush piece of music from all three of them and I love Steven’s falsetto vocals in spots......I just love this song big time. And it is a clear departure from the proper 8 tracks of the standard album. "Never Have" is quite Steven Wilson HCE solo feel but that album is brilliant and I can see why I was drawn to this song so quickly.

 

The Future Bites was a massive disappointment for me. It never clicked for my taste and I simply make pretend he never produced that record. Just crappy to my ears and nothing grabbed me whatsoever. To The Bone for me was his best and most effective attempt at writing a “pop” styled record while also keeping the great chops and melody element I have come to adore from SW and PT. 

 

The bottom line for me is there is not a weak track at all on this brilliant prog record. I could not be happier they are back.....and my sincere hope is they reignited their creative juices and want to make another record of fresh material and do a far more extensive North American tour in the future. I am going to really be bummed I missed them on this go around......but no doubt there will be a Blue Ray documentation of this tour and I will be purchasing that!!!

 

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22 hours ago, bathory said:

I liked the early pink floyd ripoff era more than the "we've heard radiohead, mate" era 

 LOL; yeah, Steven wears his Floyd influences on his sleeve. But really, neither PF nor Radiohead ever rocked as hard as PT on IA-DW-tI-C/C.

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