Porcupine Tree studio album marathon and ranking + my thoughts on each album
Context: I've been a Porcupine Tree fan for about a decade now, and decided to finally do a marathon (over about a week) of all of their studio albums in order. I have been listening to most of their albums for a while of course but there was a few that I still hadn't heard in full or at least hadn't in a long time. Also for further context, I tend to prefer the prog rock/metal side of things (Raven That Refused to Sing is my favorite album Steven has ever done) but do enjoy the more psychedelic early work quite a bit too. I will now attempt to rank them in order of least favorite to most favorite and give my thoughts and #1 track from each. I'll do a top 10 PT songs list at the end too.
11. Up the Downstair: Let me start by saying that I like all their albums, but something has to be in last place so I guess this is it. This album is still pretty great and I enjoy it a lot while its on, but it doesn't stick with me much after listening to it. It lacks some of the fun quirkiness of the first album, and doesn't quite have the songwriting level that would follow on albums like Signify. Top Track: Burning Sky
10. The Sky Moves Sideways: I actually really love this album, it's a great one to just get lost in, but the more jam-band nature of it makes it harder to rank any higher than their other albums. I like the nod to Shine on You Crazy Diamond with the split title track and overall this one is pretty unique in the discography for being a lot more free form. Top Track: The Sky Moves Sideways Phase 2
9. On the Sunday of Life: A very strong debut album. Sure, it doesn't have the sound that Porcupine Tree would become known for, but you can hear traces of it throughout even this album. (especially Radioactive Toy). Despite being a little bit immature, I think this album is more memorable than the two I have below it on this list and I enjoy the quirkiness of it. Top Track: Nine Cats. I really like the odd vocal melody on that one and the surreal lyrics. Radioactive Toy is probably the actual best song on the record, but Nine Cats is my favorite.
8. Closure/Continuation: I was very excited when this album was teased and announced because I never thought there would be another PT album since I'd become a fan. Overall though this album was a slight disappointment to me though. It's good, but not great in my opinion, and I was obviously hoping for something incredible for the first album from them in over a decade. The songs are good, but for the most part kinda have a lack of amazing riffs and there's also something a bit grating about the production of this album; it's just kind of harsh at moments and is especially noticeable on the song Harridan. The whole thing gets somewhat ear-fatiguing to me by the end despite being a shorter album overall. Still though, Dignity and Of the New Day are beautiful tracks and I couldn't in good conscious put this album below the debut, but I was tempted to. I think there are higher highs on On the Sunday of Life, but this album is a little more consistent all the way through. Top Track: Dignity
7. Stupid Dream: Overall very good album but I don't have a ton to say about it. Just really solid all the way through but not one I reach for and listen to as often. Big fan of when the heavy part comes in on Even Less though. That's where you can really hear a glimpse of what was to come for the band in the future. Stop Swimming is a beautiful closer too. Top Track: Even Less
6. Signify: By far my favorite of the more psychedelic days. Plenty of haunting and depressing songs with a good balance of ambience and groove. Something about Light Mass Prayers is magic to me, love walking around at night outside with that one on. Stupid Dream and Lightbulb Sun are obviously where they started coming into their true sound, but you can hear the beginnings of it here even stronger than the three previous albums. Top Track: Dark Matter
5. The Incident: I think I like this album a bit more than most, but I admit it was a step down after the golden age run of the band - but only a small step down. Still a very good album, although it definitely feels a little more disjointed than say In Absentia or Deadwing, but still lots of top tier PT tracks. (I know that The Incident was technically supposed to be all one track, but nonetheless it still feels a little disjointed) Top Track: Bonnie the Cat; with I Drive the Hearse as a very close second place.
4. Fear of a Blank Planet: It seems that depending on who you ask this album or In Absentia are usually considered Porcupine Tree's magnum opus, but I think personally this one is a lot weaker than In Absentia. Still an incredible album though, but a lot of my enjoyment of it is from the track Anesthetize, and the rest of the album is very solid albeit a bit underwhelming compared to that masterpiece of a song. Top Track: Anesthetize (obviously) I also partook in the multi-musician long distance cover that was put together five years ago, along with the full album In Absentia one. https://youtu.be/qaEs5SDZCVk?si=k8hYd9wJ30Oo-8PM here's a link for any that haven't seen that project yet.
3. Lightbulb Sun: This is the album where the more focused hard rock/metal sound finally began to realize itself and nearly every song on it is fantastic. Plus, it has the one happy sounding Porcupine Tree song! (The Rest Will Flow) Really torn between the Shesmovedon, Russia on Ice, and the title track for the best song on this album. I think I'll go with Top Track: Shesmovedon though for that solo.
2. In Absentia: This album is very near perfection and has some of Porcupine Tree's greatest songs on it. My favorite band of all time is Opeth, and this album and Deadwing are the most influenced by their sound. Mikael Akerfeldt's influence on PT, and Stevens influence on Opeth made both bands better in my opinion, and I think that both bands are at their best when they are doing extremely melancholy music with spooky/uneasy atmosphere. Top Track: Trains
1. Deadwing: I was very torn between Deadwing and In Absentia for the top spot, but gotta give it to Deadwing. Like I said, I like the spooky stuff and this whole album was based on a script for a ghost story. It features Mikael Akerfeldt on a guitar solo too, and on my favorite PT song no less. The album feels a bit more focused overall than In Absentia as well, and I think it is the pinnacle of the golden age of the band. I also want to say that I love Shallow, even though I've heard that Steven wishes he hadn't written such a radio friendly song? I'd argue that other albums such as Lightbulb Sun, have tracks just as radio friendly. But all that said at the end of the day it's a lot of fun to play on the guitar. Top Track: Arriving Somewhere But Not Here
That concludes this writeup, but I will finish out with an attempt to pick my top 10 Porcupine Tree songs. Let me know what you think!
Arriving Somewhere But Not Here
Trains
Heartattack in a Layby
Blackest Eyes
Shallow
Open Car
Shesmovedon
Anesthetize
Bonnie the Cat (I named my cat after this song)
Lightbulb Sun