Steven Wilson

I like both In Absentia and especially Deadwing, but Fear of a Blank Planet burned me out of Porcupine Tree.  I have two of SWilson's solo releases: The Raven That Refused to Sing, which I like quite a bit, and Hand.Cannot.Erase. which I think is pretty good.

[QUOTE=cemego]Initially didn't like it.  Took forever to grow on me, but Fear of A Blank Planet has become one of my all time favorite PT albums.  I thought The Incident was crap.  Cant get through it.  Deadwing was kinda lame too.  In Absentia was nice, and anything before that was awesome (Lightbulb, Stupid Dream, Signify... all great).  I am one of these Steve Wilson zombies.  I like pretty much most anything he does.  I love No-Man as well which has led me into some wonderful music (like Henry Fool).  Also he is responsible for my love of Opeth as well.  So its very difficult for me to say anything bad about Mr. Wilson.[/QUOTE

My first Wilson/PT album was Grace for Drowning, which was a nice surprise for modern sounding prog, and then Comma Divine. I had heard some PT stuff rapidly on YouTube and didn't do much for me, but these two albums sold it to me. Then I got all the Gavin Harrison era albums, and next year I got The Raven. So far, my favourite albums from him are Comma Divine and The Raven (actually, I went to see the Raven concert, and it was one of the finest concerts I have attended, I just loved every song). I feel Comma Divine has something special that I find missing from the studio albums with Gavin Harrison (and I do feel that a small bit of it is Maitland really working wonderfully with the ambient sort of songs)... I also got the Warzawa concert with the same line-up, and even though not as great as Comma Divine, it seems like a continuation of the same, and great too. However, I haven't got any of the studio albums with that line-up, and I guess I still have to get them, though I understand they sound more pop and less ambient than the live ones.

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.

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

Classic PT (Downstair to Lightbulb)

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.

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.

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.