Each Porcupine Tree album ranked from worst to finest
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The information that Porcupine Tree are returning with a brand new album this summer season was greeted with loads of hysterical shrieking by the band’s big fan base. On ice since 2010, Steven Wilson’s pioneering trendy prog crew have a brand new album on the best way, Closure/Continuation, and dwell exhibits on the horizon, too. The sneaky devils. After all, the brand new album has quite a bit to dwell as much as, as this countdown of Porcupine Tree’s studio albums goals to show. What a band they have been (and are).
10. On The Sunday Of Life (1992)
Partly impressed by Steven Wilson’s love of XTC alter-ego The Dukes Of Stratosphear, the primary Porcupine Tree album bears little resemblance to the progressive colossus that might ultimately emerge. However inside the quirky psychedelia of songs like Radioactive Toy and the title observe lurks loads of the mild subversion and zealous curiosity that has outlined every little thing below the PT banner. A curio, maybe, however a really shiny one.
9. Up The Downstair (1993)
Initially deliberate as a double album, to be launched in tandem with psychedelic trance tour Voyage 34, Up The Downstair was an simple leap ahead. Specifically, the title observe and Burning Sky showcased a extra blatantly progressive ethos. Porcupine Tree would make many higher data, however this felt like an genuine place to begin for one thing particular. The re-recorded model, dwell drums from Gavin Harrison, is the superior one.
8. Signify (1996)
The second when the Porcupine Tree sound – as malleable and unpredictable because it at all times was – coalesced round a bona fide ensemble, fairly than Wilson plus employed palms. Eschewing the long-form experiments of Voyage 34 and The Sky Strikes Sideways in favour of shorter however no much less adventurous songs, Signify was filled with revelatory moments, not least the gorgeously unnerving Each Dwelling Is Wired and the epic, brooding Darkish Matter.
7. The Sky Strikes Sideways (1995)
An outright celebration of progressive rock tropes, The Sky Strikes Sideways wore its debt to Pink Floyd with pleasure. What got here throughout most strongly on PT album three was that Steven Wilson was dragging the previous howling and shrieking into the longer term. The sprawling title observe is an authorized traditional, however the semi-improvised splurge of Moonloop is the album’s wild apex.
6. Lightbulb Solar (2000)
Porcupine Tree have been totally of their imperious stride by the point their sixth album emerged within the 12 months 2000. The chemistry between Wilson, keyboard maestro Richard Barbieri, bassist Colin Edwin and drummer Chris Maitland was on show all through, with bleak epic Russia On Ice and the shimmering alt-rock of the title observe representing two distinct sides to the band’s character.
5. Silly Dream (1999)
The album that turned Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt into the world’s largest Porcupine Tree fan, Silly Dream was a masterclass in mixing elegant melodies with deeply proggy music constructions. Opener Even Much less is just one of many all-time nice PT tunes; Stranger By The Minute is likely one of the nice alt-rock hits that by no means was; and Don’t Hate Me is a genuinely chilling story of unhinged obsession. We are able to see Åkerfeldt’s level.
4. Deadwing (2005)
Topping the breakthrough brilliance of In Absentia was by no means going to be straightforward, however Deadwing got here near at the very least equalling its predecessor. A few of Porcupine Tree’s best songs are contained inside: the magnificent, future-prog sprawl of Arriving Someplace However Not Right here, the wistful Lazarus, the art-metal rush of Halo. Extra importantly, maybe, the band have been now an unstoppable dwell act, and that’s the place these songs really soared.
3. The Incident (2009)
The ultimate album of Porcupine Tree’s authentic run earlier than they stepped away from all of it, this 55-minute conceptual feast, with a bonus EP generously thrown in is PT’s most overtly prog-friendly report. It’s additionally considered one of their absolute best: a scintillating, all-encompassing odyssey by way of each facet of the band’s sound; from the heaviest of skronk-metal freakouts (Occam’s Razor) to the nostalgic, Floydian monolith of Time Flies. Carried out dwell in its entirety upon launch, The Incident was a reasonably good place to cease. Quickly.
2. In Absentia (2002)
Revered as a twenty first century prog traditional, In Absentia was the second when every little thing got here collectively for Porcupine Tree. Purposefully heavier than earlier data, however nonetheless fuelled by Steven Wilson’s clever songwriting, it’s the sound of an amazing band turning into even larger. In Absentia has hits (at the very least in prog phrases) like Blackest Eyes, Trains and Strip The Soul, nevertheless it’s additionally a quietly perverse affair, as Wilson assimilated left-field heaviness into his band’s armoury, twisting his songs into unprecedented shapes. Pure genius, principally.
1. Worry Of A Clean Planet (2007)
Porcupine Tree’s catalogue is filled with rounded and cohesive albums, however none hit the spot with fairly the enduring affect of their ninth. Worry Of A Clean Planet distilled all of the riff-driven depth and post-rock audacity of earlier data right down to a gleaming, diamond core of meticulously refined perfection. The title observe is a skull-rattling dash by way of modernity’s vapid cacophony; Anesthetize is an astonishing, 18-minute tour-de-force; the closing Sleep Collectively is transferring and menacing in equal measure. Most impressively, and positively not by design, Worry Of A Clean Planet made prog appear cool as fuck. Which, after all, it truly is.
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