The Planet Skaro Buyers' Guide To...

[Anthony Williams]

So, for those of you that were with PS in the ezBoard days, the aim of this was to write career-spanning album reviews for your favourite bands. Here are the categories for the various albums:

***** - Essential

**** - Recommended

*** - Good, But Not For Everyone

** - Be Careful

* - Avoid

Select Compilations

Live Cuts

Tomorrow, I will be starting us off with The Planet Skaro Buyers' Guide To... Porcupine Tree!

Ant x

[Anthony Williams]

So, here goes with the first addition, from me....

The Planet Skaro Buyer's Guide to...... Porcupine Tree!

***** - Essential

Deadwing (2005)
This is frankly one of the best albums that I’ve ever heard. This is modern progressive rock at its best. Whilst I don’t doubt that Steven Wilson & co. would insist that their latest effort would be the best thing that they’ve ever done, it simply isn’t true. This album has it all – from beautiful ballads such as Lazarus and Mellatron Scratch, through to the overblown proggy Arriving Somewhere But Not Here, through to crunchy riff-driven tracks like Shallow and Open Car. What I find incredible about this album is that the heavier riffs on some songs are often offset by the distinctly Floydian textures and the subtle ballads. Frankly, unless you only listen to rap music, I can guarantee that there will be at least one track on this album that you will like.
Stand-out tracks: Shallow, Lazarus, Arriving Somewhere But Not Here, The Start of Something Beautiful

Fear of a Blank Planet (2007)
This is unashamedly a concept album. Fear of a Blank Planet is about the 11 to 15 year olds of today, sitting at home, curtains closed, playing on their PlayStations, texting on their mobile phones, downloading hardcore pornography and violent movies, taking drugs - numbing themselves to the world, becoming “blank”. The title unashamedly riffs off of Public Enemy’s Fear of a Black Planet. The album is the follow up to Deadwing, and there’s a clear progression in the sound – whilst overall, the album has a much more industrial sound, there’s still a ballad, in the form of the stunningly beautiful Sentimental. The centrepiece of the album is the blistering 17-minute track Anesthetize, which features a guest guitar solo from Alex Lifeson of Rush. One of my favourites, Way Out of Here has a lovely line which I feel deals with the fickleness of teenage relationships oh-so-well: "and I'll try to forget you, and I know that I will, in a thousand years... or maybe a week." Overall, this is an absolutely stunning album, which indulges in social commentary, as well as being a superb collection of music. In fact, it’s easy to get so wrapped up in the album that you don’t notice that it’s only six tracks long!
Stand-out tracks: Fear of a Blank Planet, Sentimental, Anesthetize, Way Out of Here.


**** - Recommended

Signify (1996)
This is the first album that was recorded as a full band. And, by god, it shows. This a band that is suddenly sounding extremely coherent. As a foursome, they are showing how they can properly rock out, whilst still maintaining the same sense of narcotic ambience that defined their first three albums. The opener, which is also the title track, is an absolutely storming riff-driven track, backed up by some rather nice synths. This is still a far cry from the latest four albums, but it is intense. This is a band that is constantly re-inventing itself, so there’s little surprise that they’ve changed so much in the last fourteen years. This album is experimental, jazzy, epic and consistent at the same time. It even has its pop moments (Sever), and its final track (Dark Matter) is the greatest track that Gabriel-era Genesis never wrote. This is an early masterpiece.
Stand-out tracks: Signify, Sleep of No Dreaming, Waiting Phase One, Waiting Phase Two, Dark Matter

In Absentia (2002)
This is the album where Porcupine Tree finally came into their own, moving away from the Pink Floyd tribute band sound that dominated their first three albums, and the blandness that dominated the two immediately prior to this. Up until this point, Signify had been their only real hint at greatness. This album has a really nice cyclical feel to it, almost as if you’re looking at a story – it opens with a blistering riff in Blackest Eyes, but ends with the beautiful and serene Collapse the Light into Earth. In terms of the style of songs, this is like a proto-Deadwing – where they haven’t quite got it right yet, but it’s still damned good. This is worth a listen if you’re curious about the Porcupine Tree. Plus, Trains has got to be one of the best songs ever written by any band ever. FACT.
Stand-out tracks: Blackest Eyes, Trains, The Sound of Muzak, Collapse the Light into Earth

The Incident (2009)
At the time of writing, this is Porcupine Tree’s latest studio album. Since the 1980s, there have been two schools of progressive rock – those who tried to relive the glory days of the 1970s, building their albums around long song suites, whilst emulating the sound, and those who trimmed out the fat and moved away from overblown compositions, whilst keeping up with the times. This, strangely, is an album that falls into both camps. A double-album, this has a bizarre structure. The first disc, whilst divided up into 14 tracks, is essentially one song. But it’s easy to listen to each track in isolation. Confused yet? The second disc is comprised of just four songs, that aren’t part of the song-cycle. This album is about both beginnings and ends, and as such also harks back to Porcupine Tree’s earlier efforts, whilst also maintaining the uniqueness of their post-2001 efforts. I can’t describe this album any better than this, so if you’re even vaguely interested in listening to Porcupine Tree, I suggest giving this album a go and seeing for yourself…
Stand-out tracks: The Incident (all of the first disc)


*** - Good, But Not For Everyone

On The Sunday of Life (1991)
I first listened to this album on Boxing Day, 2007. I woke up, horrendously hungover, and put this album on. I spent the next 75 minutes drifting in and out of consciousness, during which I was wondering whether or not someone had spiked my drink the previous evening. This is a delicious slice of psychedelia, which is wonderful for Porcupine Tree’s first effort. Especially as they weren’t a real band at this point, and the whole damned thing was just meant to be a huge in-joke. The whole thing was recorded by frontman Steven Wilson, alone in his bedroom. Yet, this doesn’t sound like an album of overdubs, this sounds like a band following their own drugged-up muse. Some tracks are downright disturbing (Space Transmission), whilst others are plain ridiculous (Message from a Self Destructing Turnip), but there are many lost classics in here, such as Radioactive Toy. This is so different to anything else that this band has done. Any progger should try this one out.
Stand-out tracks: Jupiter Island, Radioactive Toy, Nine Cats, Linton Samuel Dawson, And the Swallows Dance Above the Sun, This Long Distance

Up The Downstair (1993)
This is the real beginning of Porcupine Tree – gone is the humour from the first effort, and Steven Wilson is focusing on his belief that progressive music should focus on the “now” rather than the “then”. Synth loops and acid house rhythms are crossed with guitar solos. This is the sound of a band beginning to come together. It’s still early days, but damn… they’re getting there! Tracks like Synesthesia and Always Never really stand out, and are still occasionally played live today. This is very mellow, but well worth a listen.
Stand-out tracks: Synesthesia, Always Never, Not Beautiful Anymore


** - Be Careful

The Sky Moves Sideways (1995)
There’s something about this album that I’ve always found extremely disappointing. Perhaps it’s the fact that it might just be a little too Pink Floyd-esque. The two parts of the title track bookend the album, much like Floyd’s Wish You Were Here. Whilst this is undoubtedly a continuance from Up the Downstair in terms of sonic progression, it just doesn’t really go anywhere new overall. The feeling I get is just that it’s very derivative. It’s a shame, because this is an album that I desperately want to like, but struggle to.
Stand-out tracks: The Sky Moves Sideways (Phase One), The Sky Moves Sideways (Phase Two)

Stupid Dream (1999)
Stupid Dream is a strange anomaly in Porcupine Tree’s catalogue. It got rave reviews from the critics, but the band’s fanbase (myself included) describe it as a bitter disappointment. At best, this could be described as psychedelic pop. I won’t reprint what some fans have described this as! Personally, my problem with this album is that I just find it a little bland, maybe even Radiohead-esque at times. Sure, it has its moments – the lead single, Piano Lessons, is great fun – a nice bouncy rhythm that I could see charting if the band had had a bigger profile in 1999. Overall, this album isn’t dreadful, but as a follow-up to Signify, it’s damned disappointing.
Stand-out tracks: Even Less, Piano Lessons, Don’t Hate Me

* - Avoid

Lightbulb Sun (2000)
Another album that is loved by the critics, but the fans hate it. Indeed, most fans would describe this as the low-point in Porcupine Tree’s career. In comparison with any other Porcupine Tree release, this is horrendously bland. There’s a lot on this album that just comes across as plain tedious. The one track that I feel is really memorable (Hatesong) would fit in much better on In Absentia than on this album. My personal opinion is that you’re best off just downloading that track from iTunes or something, and not bother with this album at all.
Stand-out track: Hatesong

Select Compilations

Voyage 34: The Complete Trip (2000)
Okay, this is technically cheating. Voyage 34 was originally released as a two-track EP, with a further two-track EP being released of remixes of the original. This combines the two together into a four-phase song cycle. Recorded at the same time as Up The Downstair, these four tracks follow the events of the 34th LSD trip of a chap named Brian. Here, psychedelic music is regularly interrupted by the narrator, telling us what is going on. During this song cycle, both Pink Floyd and Ozric Tentacles are brought to mind, but not in the horribly derivative way that Floyd are ripped off on The Sky Moves Sideways. This compilation really has to be heard to be believed, as it’s absolutely superb. Phase II ends with the heavily distorted narrated line of “Is this trip really necessary?” – food for thought for our drug culture. Wonderful stuff!
Stand-out tracks: The whole album

Nil Recurring (2008)
I’m cheating again. Nil Recurring is an EP of outtakes from the Fear of a Blank Planet sessions. These songs either were remoulded into something else that made it onto the album, or just dropped altogether. It’s hard to understand why, as these tracks are superb. Robert Fripp (of King Crimson fame) plays lead guitar on the title track. My personal favourite, Normal eventually went on to become Sentimental on FoaBP, but in my opinion, is far better. The repeated line of “wish I was old and sentimental” plays off quite nicely on the line from Sentimental, where Wilson is heard to croon “don’t wanna be old, and I don’t want dependents.” If nothing else, Sentimental and Normal work extremely well played against each other. But, I digress. There are clearly pieces of Anesthetize in What Happens Now?, but this is managed without it sounding derivative. This is an often overlooked gem.
Stand-out tracks: Normal, Cheating the Polygraph

Live Cuts

Atlanta (2010)
Porcupine Tree are one of those bands that have released more live albums than studio. This is their eleventh live album, recorded in my home-to-be Atlanta, Georgia. But that’s not the reason I like it! The profits from the downloads of this album (for it is download-only) go to help Mick Karn (of Japan fame) pay for treatments that will make his life a little less painful while he’s in the final stages of terminal cancer. A worthy cause if there were ever one. However, this is also a superb live album in its own right – superbly mixed, with a superb setlist that storms through tracks from Signify onwards. There are b-sides and rarities played, making this any Porcupine Tree fan’s wildest live album dream. Absolutely brilliant.

Ant x