Can anyone reccomend me the best of the best Porcupine Tree songs?

I really like this song, it's just super chill and cool.


I don't know how it is in relation to their other songs but I dig it.
 
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Blah.

The more time goes on, the more I realize that Gavin Harrison has been a total cancer on the creativity and potential of the band. The guy is soulless; Porcupine Tree used to be great because of their adventurous experimentation and their honest vulnerability. Gavin is a robot. He sucks.

But hey, that's just my opinion, and who the fuck am I?

/cranky

My favorite album is Recordings, a collection of B sides from the Stupid Dream and Lightbulb Sun sessions. Hard to find, but every track is gold (with the exception of the instantly skippable 'Access Denied'). But my favorite record is Signify, the first 'band' album. It's dark, atmospheric, honest, and awesome.

As far as tracks go, check out:

Even Less (the 14:10 minute extended version if you can find it)
Dislocated Day
Dark Matter
Strip the Soul
A Smart Kid
The Sky Moves Sideways
Stars Die
Where Would We Be
Russia On Ice


EDIT: Even though I can't stand Gavin, In Absentia is still the shit, and the first record a metalhead should start with.

EDIT 2: SW's newest solo record Insurgentes is awesome. Dark and experimental, sort of like what the Signify era band would make today. Chk it.
 
thanks brooks - didnt know of this -
My favorite album is Recordings, a collection of B sides from the Stupid Dream and Lightbulb Sun sessions.

WIL FIND IT ...SOON I HOPE

my first cd by them is - Stupid Dream


there are other metal shoe gazer bands out the as well.
 
ohh... Porcupine Tree <3, my favourite band (besides Nevermore and Sanctuary, of course ;))
I never get tired of their songs.

My personal favourites:
Trains
Sentimental
Lazarus
Start of Something Beautiful
A Smart Kid

I could name two dozens more songs, but these are the ones that came to my mind first :)

EDIT: This guy at the piano on my avatar is actually Steven Wilson.
 
Blah.

The more time goes on, the more I realize that Gavin Harrison has been a total cancer on the creativity and potential of the band. The guy is soulless; Porcupine Tree used to be great because of their adventurous experimentation and their honest vulnerability. Gavin is a robot. He sucks.

But hey, that's just my opinion, and who the fuck am I?

/cranky

My favorite album is Recordings, a collection of B sides from the Stupid Dream and Lightbulb Sun sessions. Hard to find, but every track is gold (with the exception of the instantly skippable 'Access Denied'). But my favorite record is Signify, the first 'band' album. It's dark, atmospheric, honest, and awesome.

As far as tracks go, check out:

Even Less (the 14:10 minute extended version if you can find it)
Dislocated Day
Dark Matter
Strip the Soul
A Smart Kid
The Sky Moves Sideways
Stars Die
Where Would We Be
Russia On Ice


EDIT: Even though I can't stand Gavin, In Absentia is still the shit, and the first record a metalhead should start with.

EDIT 2: SW's newest solo record Insurgentes is awesome. Dark and experimental, sort of like what the Signify era band would make today. Chk it.

half agree.

newer PT is definitely soulless compared to the old stuff, but it's not gavin's fault. He's a great drummer and has tons of feel, it's Wilson's fault for pandering to the fact that Gavin can play much more complex stuff and writing in that style now, taking in more riffy, metalized moments in the music that I don't want to here in PT.

I've said it before, it seems to me that PT, Opeth and Katatonia have all turned into the same band over the last decade. There's a little too much mutual influence going on in that circle of friends/musicians.

but yeah, In Absentia is great and of course lightbulb sun and the older stuff is very magical prog rock with a great catchy but not at all cheesy pop sensibility and great atmosphere.
 
...it's Wilson's fault for pandering to the fact that Gavin can play much more complex stuff and writing in that style now, taking in more riffy, metalized moments in the music that I don't want to here in PT.


I seem to be blaming Gavin for that. I suppose you're right - SW wouldn't do it if he didn't want to. He just looked at his options: keep going in the explorative psychedelic direction, or move towards metal. He got 'known' from the Opeth collab, and decided that was the way to go.

Oh well. I've been spinning the Stars Die: Delirium Years comp, and couldn't be happier.

And for the record, Bass Communion is the shit.
 
I haven't really heard Bass Communion but as far as their side projects go, I do like No-Man and Blackfield. I far prefer the early PT to the latter in that the newest stuff, while still quality IMO, sounds like a band trying to fit somewhere else. Sad to see Waiting not listed yet.
 
I think that both blackfield and Insurgentes is far superior to anything else mr Wilson has ever done...

By the way, in Gavin's defense, Hatesong from the live dvd is just amazing, no matter how you look at it... Much better than any version I've heard with Maitland behind the kit.

And at least Gavin doesn't look creepy while playing:


Which reminds me, Shesmovedon is a great song, and includes one of few good SW solos... (and once again, gavin plays it better)


yup.
 
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Edwin never gets any props for his bass playing. Even on the new insipid material his bass playing still stands out to me.

Anyway - Stupid Dream, Lightbulb Sun, and In Absentia are definitely their best albums. Deadwing has one great song (Arriving Somewhere...), two good songs (Halo and Deadwing) and the rest are mediocre to terrible. FoaBP has terribly shitty lyrics and too many Meshuggah-esque moments. The Incident isn't as bad imo as FoaBP was, but it's still pretty boring once you hit the mid-mark of disc 1.

As far as their early material, I love Voyage 34 (and the remixes), The Sky Moves Sideways, and Up the Downstair.
 
Blah.

The more time goes on, the more I realize that Gavin Harrison has been a total cancer on the creativity and potential of the band. The guy is soulless; Porcupine Tree used to be great because of their adventurous experimentation and their honest vulnerability. Gavin is a robot. He sucks.

But hey, that's just my opinion, and who the fuck am I?

/cranky

My favorite album is Recordings, a collection of B sides from the Stupid Dream and Lightbulb Sun sessions. Hard to find, but every track is gold (with the exception of the instantly skippable 'Access Denied'). But my favorite record is Signify, the first 'band' album. It's dark, atmospheric, honest, and awesome.

As far as tracks go, check out:

Even Less (the 14:10 minute extended version if you can find it)
Dislocated Day
Dark Matter
Strip the Soul
A Smart Kid
The Sky Moves Sideways
Stars Die
Where Would We Be
Russia On Ice


EDIT: Even though I can't stand Gavin, In Absentia is still the shit, and the first record a metalhead should start with.

EDIT 2: SW's newest solo record Insurgentes is awesome. Dark and experimental, sort of like what the Signify era band would make today. Chk it.


I highly doubt Gavin has much to do with the bands shift in musical direction (unless you simply don't like his contributions?)...in fact I know he hasn't. And to call his playing souless is just... mind boggling to me. He is one of the most innovative and expressize drummers I have ever heard. I can understand not liking his "busy" style on some of the newer PT records, but as a drummer he is simply at another level beyond most musicians.
 
oops, should have read the rest of the thread first.
That said, most of my favourite PT songs are "pre-Garrison" era.

From the new stuff:

Blackest Eyes
Black Eyes Fading
Collapse the Light Into the Earth
Anesthetize
Way Out of Here
Blind House
Drawing the Line
Time Flies

Older material list forthcoming....got to run to work.