Steven Wilson

Watchmaker wrote: I'm giving "Wild Opera" by No-Man a try. It seems very interesting. I'll probably try "Together We're Stranger" sometime today as well. I searched for the "Stone to Flesh" album, but am rather shocked that I can't find it anywhere for free. What site do you usually use for free music? Thepirat....ummm...YouTube, yes...YouTube... Joking aside, if you google something like "stone to flesh Jansen", the second result is the full album uploaded on YouTube (at least for me). You can also search Youtube directly. There, it is the first result. Bandcamp is an amazing site for free music. Bands upload their own music there and let you listen to it for free or buy their products. Spotify has also a good variety of well known artists, but I'm new to it so I don't know its limitations. You can generally stream about 99% of music for free on the Internet, legally and safely. Google is your friend

In general PT over Wilson .....

In Absentia and Deadwing are very very good; I never understood how Blank Planet could end up as the highest rated PT album. I respect SW's solo work but he hasn't come up with anything as good as In Absentia and Deadwing.

I am far more impressed with his post-production work than any writing/playing he has done. I have not heard everything of his, and scant any in the last 7-8 years.

micky wrote: yeah.. I should have been a bit more careful jumping into your thread.  It is a running joke... one running for years.  Goes back to one of my finest moments on the forum when he actually did join the forum years ago and came around hunting for some hero worship and love and he was getting it.. man how the jockies were flying around the forum.. well me and my AR thugs weren't haven't any of that .. so we crashed his thread.. and sort of ran him off. Never seen him back in fact.  anyhow... I do like teasing some of the guys here for still enjoying his obviously lame and uninspired solo stuff. Especially putting them as best of year winners on this site over much more creative fresh, and simply better albums

Could have been nice to have him (SW) as a natural long-term ally but thanks to big Mick and his pals (all dead or imprisoned now) what's left instead is only...lonely Micky.

Watchmaker wrote: Together We're Stranger, Schoolyard Ghosts and Returning Jesus are all great and pretty much equal to my ears. Flowermouth is a bit weaker. The rest I have not heard yet. Now that we're at it, give the album "Stone to Flesh" a listen. It is a collaboration between Barbieri and Jansen (both members of the band Japan) and I find it to be excellent.

Classic PT (Downstair to Lightbulb)

I have seen Porcupine Tree 4 times since 2001 and I have missed them a few times. 

Watchmaker wrote: I would agree that FoaBP is a tiny bit overrated mainly because of Anesthetize being the magnificent song it is. Most people seem to forget that they rate an album and the other songs have to be stellar too. I would give it an 8.5/10 and a straight 9/10, had they replaced Sentimental with Normal (from Nil Recurring). Also the "fanboy service after In Absentia" accusation is BS. If they had wanted that, they would have done it past The Incident. Also, albums Like Deadwing and FoaBP brought many new fans to the band. If I recall correctly, they wanted to blend jazz music into PTree and somebody (Richard Barbieri is the obvious culprit) didn't want that, which led to the end of the band. That doesn't sound like fan service to me, especially if you do it after your most commercially successful album (The Incident). I guess the recipe just stopped working and they called it a day. Now as far as his solo work is concerned, there was a poll not long ago about PT and SW albums. I stand by my original opinion, that PT have the edge just because of the amount of work they have released. I believe, though, that the next SW album could be the one that will change my preference. No-man is an excellent project for what it is (soft, relaxing, electronic, pop, ambient music). The song Things I Want to Tell You from Together We' re Stranger is one of my favourite songs of all time. Especially the ending. It doesn't always work when it comes to No-man, but, when it does, you get things like this. I really want to fully get into his other projects as well. It's just that there is so much free music out there that you have to set some of it aside.

I would agree that FoaBP is a tiny bit overrated mainly because of Anesthetize being the magnificent song it is. Most people seem to forget that they rate an album and the other songs have to be stellar too. I would give it an 8.5/10 and a straight 9/10, had they replaced Sentimental with Normal (from Nil Recurring). Also the "fanboy service after In Absentia" accusation is BS. If they had wanted that, they would have done it past The Incident. Also, albums Like Deadwing and FoaBP brought many new fans to the band. If I recall correctly, they wanted to blend jazz music into PTree and somebody (Richard Barbieri is the obvious culprit) didn't want that, which led to the end of the band. That doesn't sound like fan service to me, especially if you do it after your most commercially successful album (The Incident). I guess the recipe just stopped working and they called it a day.
Now as far as his solo work is concerned, there was a poll not long ago about PT and SW albums. I stand by my original opinion, that PT have the edge just because of the amount of work they have released. I believe, though, that the next SW album could be the one that will change my preference.
No-man is an excellent project for what it is (soft, relaxing, electronic, pop, ambient music). The song Things I Want to Tell You from Together We' re Stranger is one of my favourite songs of all time. Especially the ending. It doesn't always work when it comes to No-man, but, when it does, you get things like this.
I really want to fully get into his other projects as well. It's just that there is so much free music out there that you have to set some of it aside.