Steven Wilson
Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Prog Polls
Forum Description: Create polls on topics related to progressive music
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=110046
Printed Date: April 19 2024 at 16:35
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Topic: Steven Wilson
Posted By: mlkpad14
Subject: Steven Wilson
Date Posted: January 23 2017 at 15:47
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Do you prefer late Porcupine Tree to Wilson's solo work, or the other way around? I probably prefer late Porcupine Tree, but am very interested in what you guys think of this generation's finest prog musician. If you have any other opinions on his work feel free to mention them, and I will guarantee you a response. :)
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Replies:
Posted By: micky
Date Posted: January 23 2017 at 15:49
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define late... for there was a point that late PT and SWilson fell off the creative cliff and just started churning out sh*t for the fanboys... ------------- The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip |
Posted By: mlkpad14
Date Posted: January 23 2017 at 15:52
| By late I'm talking about albums such as "In Absentia" and "Deadwing." When it comes to Porcupine Tree, I've always looked to these two albums, as well as their song "Anesthetize." |
Posted By: mlkpad14
Date Posted: January 23 2017 at 15:54
| @micky I'm kind of new here. Is this how I mention you in a post? |
Posted By: micky
Date Posted: January 23 2017 at 16:00
hit the quote button.. upper right! Welcome to the site btw... then definitely late PT... I love me In Absentia... problem was it starting going off the rails after that IMO. ------------- The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip |
mlkpad14 wrote:Posted By: mlkpad14
Date Posted: January 23 2017 at 16:04
Hmmm am I doing it? Thanks! I have to say right after "In Absentia," they published "Deadwing." I think that's more so when they started going on the off path. I've been a good fan of Wilson for the past year or so. Also, how do you set up a poll?
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Posted By: Catcher10
Date Posted: January 23 2017 at 16:15
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I think with any artist, there are different points in their catalog that, ok, some may think are low points or whatever but I look at them as different stages or influences. We don't know the full story as to why an artist veers off course from maybe a path we like, down some different path....I look at it as just some different influence. IDC, as long as the music is good and with emotion I'll give it a good listen. That's why I can easily say I enjoy all eras of Rush, Genesis and specifically to your question PT and SW. For PT I do prefer the material after Signify, the early stuff is just ok, I listen but not too much. Although I listen to all SW solo material. All the albums have different moods....That maybe tough to deal with. -------------   
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Posted By: micky
Date Posted: January 23 2017 at 16:19
My dear wife likes Deadwing.. much more than I do.. but both think Fear of Braindead Fans was really were PT fell off the cliff.. we really did try to get into his solo stuff. Bought the things (now used for drink coasters) and even tried to see him live a couple of times. We just couldn't do it... so we got obliterated at the bar and savaged what was otherwise a wasted evening as far as polls? You just head to the poll section and create... it is a bit involved. You'll get the hang of it. I do think you have to reach a certain 'point' total in your posts. Perhaps 25.. not sure what it is these days. Once you reach a certain threshold you can make polls. If you try to do one and find you can't just do some spamming and get your post count up and then you should be able to. ------------- The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip |
Posted By: mlkpad14
Date Posted: January 23 2017 at 16:21
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In general, Steven Wilson is great with moods. Not all people are as great as conveying emotion as he is. I can probably listen to "Grace For Drowning" on repeat all day. I also love Rush, Genesis, but Floyd most of all!
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Posted By: omphaloskepsis
Date Posted: January 23 2017 at 16:22
| From day one I was weaned on SW first album. And I loved it. The entire PT and SW catalog is pretty unbelievable. Mr. Wilson is the midst of an amazing run. Grace, Raven, and Hand Cannot...Erase are as good as it gets. |
Posted By: mlkpad14
Date Posted: January 23 2017 at 16:25
Ok then! I will do exactly that! Ha ha did you mean to say Fear of Braindead? Spamming in full motion! I would be psyched if i went to a Wilson concert!
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Posted By: mlkpad14
Date Posted: January 23 2017 at 16:27
Man, I couldn't agree more! I'm patiently waiting for Blackfield V as well. :)
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Posted By: micky
Date Posted: January 23 2017 at 16:27
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oh never mind me... I have a bit of a history with SWilson.. and some of his fans. An inside joke for now.. and one you'll likely be in on to the point of facepalming everytime I open my yapper about SWilson. ------------- The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip |
Posted By: mlkpad14
Date Posted: January 23 2017 at 16:32
Oh man, ok. Good that you cleared that up.
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Posted By: micky
Date Posted: January 23 2017 at 16:38
 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 loveand 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  ------------- The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip |
Posted By: Manuel
Date Posted: January 23 2017 at 16:44
| It'll be hard for me to choose, since I like both PT and SW solo efforts. Since he was the main songwriter for PT, the influence of the other artists is what makes the difference, and on both cases, they are quite good. |
Posted By: mlkpad14
Date Posted: January 23 2017 at 16:50
Personally, I love his albums. They just appeal to me in their music and style. He still keeps a somewhat silly Instagram up, but man, I'm such a fan of his stuff. I don't know what to make of this little episode. He puts so much work into them!
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Posted By: mlkpad14
Date Posted: January 23 2017 at 16:54
It's quite hard! I think we can all agree that later Porcupine Tree was better than earlier Porcupine Tree. But then there's Blackfield... I'm just so excited for Blackfield V!
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Posted By: micky
Date Posted: January 23 2017 at 16:57
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well... hahahah.. yeah.. that he does. No one would ever accuse SWILSON of slacking off and not working. I do wonder what a vacation.. perhaps a signature booze, broads, and blow Micky weekend might do for HIS creative side. ------------- The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip |
Posted By: mlkpad14
Date Posted: January 23 2017 at 17:05
Yeah! That would be so great... My new dream!
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Posted By: micky
Date Posted: January 23 2017 at 17:07
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------------- The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip |
Posted By: Progosopher
Date Posted: January 23 2017 at 17:50
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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. ------------- The world of sound is certainly capable of infinite variety and, were our sense developed, of infinite extensions. -- George Santayana, "The Sense of Beauty" |
Posted By: cemego
Date Posted: January 23 2017 at 17:55
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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. ------------- listen to streaming stuff! no commercials! http://wmom.servemp3.com:8000/listen.pls |
Posted By: mlkpad14
Date Posted: January 23 2017 at 18:41
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[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 All makes sense, except... YOU THOUGHT DEADWING WAS LAME?? I thought it was their best album! Say you like "Arriving Somewhere But Not Here" or "Deadwing" or "Halo." They're all so good! "Fear of a Blanket" has the amazing "Anesthetize." It's great. However, after that, Porcupine Tree becomes silly. You said so yourself, you don't care for "The Incident." The album "Anesthetize" just pieces together old songs, which don't really fit together. "Octane Twisted" does the same. Then Wilson goes solo and he starts No-Man and Blackfield, and everything since then is amazing. However, I still want Porcupine Tree to regroup and make some actual new stuff (doubt it'll ever happen.) And "In Absentia" will always be classic. Nothing solo by Wilson will ever top "Grace For Drowning." Don't get me wrong, Wilson is my favorite current artist. Just spilling out my negatives. I haven't tried too much Opeth. I tried the album "Ghost Reveries," but was chased away by the metal growls. I'm scared to try much else by them. Was it just that album?
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Posted By: twosteves
Date Posted: January 23 2017 at 21:54
| like his solo stuff more because it has moments of a jazzy feel and think his keyboardist is very good. |
Posted By: Dellinger
Date Posted: January 23 2017 at 22:23
| 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. |
Posted By: uduwudu
Date Posted: January 23 2017 at 22:50
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I first heard the third album a long time ago and thought it was some guy and his mates wanting to be Pink Floyd. The awhile later I heard something else and ended up collecting shed loads of bootlegs, lie, studio outtakes, soundboards, footage. Lock stock the lot. There were some great ones and good laughs as well. A great way to get into a band. Playing to six people in clubs with great sound. One thing unreleased (and likely to remain that way) is the number that was performed for the Blank Plant tour but unreleased as SW's death growl (!) was probably not going to get the respect such a gimmick demands. Not with his voice anyway. So I got the studio albums, expanded and finally got a hold of Lightbulb Sun which had been out of print for ages. I recall seeing stacks of those in Tower Records as well... I tried some of the non P Tree stuff such as IEM, Blackfield and later solo albums and found I was definitely a P Tree fan but not necessarily an SW fan. Ok, so some music did not float my boat. What a shock. I liked Grace for Drowning (the only SW solo I do like) and wished that had been the last P Tree album rather than the to me, flat uneventful (non) Incident. Someone's mind was on other things, not P Tree. He may have been the writer in P Tree - and a fine one indeed - but it was the rest of the band contributing arrangements that made their music not just palatable but exceptional. And that to me was a big difference to P Tree at their best and SW with band. |
Posted By: Watchmaker
Date Posted: January 24 2017 at 03:08
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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. |
Posted By: mlkpad14
Date Posted: January 24 2017 at 05:13
This comment is so great. :) Starting to understand how much people like one more than the other. Interesting.
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Posted By: mlkpad14
Date Posted: January 24 2017 at 05:19
Steven Wilson has always been a hard-worker, and is the best prog artist of the new generation. The "fanboy service after In Absentia" is silly, but something definitely changed after "Fear of a Blank Planet." "Anesthetize" and "Oceam's Razor" were just so pointless. I created this poll totally unprepared XD. I haven't tried No-Man in detail. Only as background music :(. Any specific albums you can recommend me?
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Posted By: Watchmaker
Date Posted: January 24 2017 at 05:29
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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. |
Posted By: Khalie
Date Posted: January 24 2017 at 07:02
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I have seen Porcupine Tree 4 times since 2001 and I have missed them a few times. I don't think I ever missed a SW solo concert. For no rational reasons, I pay more attention to his solo work. ------------- Fluctuat nec mergitur. |
Posted By: Jeffro
Date Posted: January 24 2017 at 07:27
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SW is very hit or miss with me. I love the later heavier PT stuff. The earlier material is a little too spacey for me. I do like parts of The Incident. I tried listening to Hand Cannot Erase the other day and thought it was crap. I like a lot of The Raven That Refused to Sing.
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Posted By: Barbu
Date Posted: January 24 2017 at 09:11
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Classic PT (Downstair to Lightbulb) ------------- |
Posted By: digdug
Date Posted: January 24 2017 at 12:58
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I love Fear of a Blank Planet. Nil Recurring is really good as well. Also love In Absentia and Deadwing I found The Incident to be really boring I like SWs solo work more than The Incident but less than the classics mentioned above. ------------- Prog On! |
Posted By: mlkpad14
Date Posted: January 24 2017 at 14:40
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? |
Posted By: Catcher10
Date Posted: January 24 2017 at 15:36
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I've seen SW 2x.....GFD Tour and HCE Tour. Two very excellent shows, attention to detail is excellent...Especially sound wise, GFD and the quad sound was cool.. -------------
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Posted By: Barbu
Date Posted: January 24 2017 at 20:42
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. ------------- |
Posted By: Watchmaker
Date Posted: January 25 2017 at 02:20
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  |
Posted By: Tapfret
Date Posted: January 25 2017 at 02:56
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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. ------------- https://www.last.fm/user/Tapfret" rel="nofollow">  https://bandcamp.com/tapfret" rel="nofollow - Bandcamp |
Posted By: Blacksword
Date Posted: January 25 2017 at 06:13
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Porcupine Tree peaked around In Absentia/Deadwing for me. FOABP had some very good moments though. The Incident was a yawn fest.. Not heard enough of SW's solo efforts to really comment, but what I have heard sounds 'nice' but not particularly inspiring. ------------- Ultimately bored by endless ecstasy! |
Posted By: Lewian
Date Posted: January 25 2017 at 09:27
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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. |
Posted By: Dopeydoc
Date Posted: January 25 2017 at 13:28
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Porcupine tree IS Steven Wilson. No reason to make a choice. And my wife prefers Blackfield |
Posted By: dr wu23
Date Posted: January 25 2017 at 14:02
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In general PT over Wilson ..... ------------- One does nothing yet nothing is left undone. Haquin |
Posted By: mlkpad14
Date Posted: January 25 2017 at 14:04
Did you try "Grace For Drowning?" It was by far his best album, and sounds an awful lot inspiring too me! Also, a quick song to try is "Drive Home." If you ever have the will to, you can tell me what you think of the sick guitar solo it features. :D
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Posted By: mlkpad14
Date Posted: January 25 2017 at 14:29
Well, I've tried out the album, and it's really good, though I don't know if I'll continue listening to it in the future. In general, I never got into a lot of Japan stuff, but respect them, especially because of the great collaborations I've heard between David Sylvian and Robert Fripp. After all, Japan is partly Sylvian's band, isn't it? Please tell me if I'm talking rubbish. I know almost nothing about the band XD.
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