Porcupine Tree v. Glarung is a Lightbulb

[TL]

So I already know the answer to this, but;

I was originally introduced to Porcupine Tree years ago with Deadwing, and soon after In Absentia and Fear of A Blank Planet. With The Incident, I wasn't following the band closely enough to know when it was coming out, but was to know that it was on its way, and to know a few details. I happened to be in a music store the week of its release, and bought it sight unseen. I greatly enjoyed it. As time went on, I decided to go back into their catalog, beginning with Lightbulb Sun months ago (maybe a year or slightly more, I don't remember), which I bought the DVD-A version of, and within the last month, Stupid Dream, which I first heard a track from a couple of weeks ago, and immediately bought the DVD-A version.

Long story short, should I check out Signify? If so, what are the odds of me enjoying the albums prior to that?

[LieLowTheWantedMan]

Signify I find to be an entirely different beast than any of their albums, even the other psychedelic ones. It's kind of the one that begs the most to be listened to in full, and lots of the album is psychedelic noodling. It's tough to digest, but it's really an awesome trippy album. Plus, it has what is IMO their best song, Dark Matter.

As for the albums before that, I find them easier to get into than Signify. TSMS is my favourite PT album myself, but I find it requires a taste for a calmer kind of psychedelia. Especially Moonloop (Improv), which while it would appeal greatly to fans of genres like Krautrock, lots would be bored to shit by it. UtD is pretty easy to digest and like I find. OtSoL is a pretty immature album, but I still love it.

[1neeto]

Loving IA. But I still like TI more than Deadwing.

 ...
...
You get your tookus out of here and never come back.
 
But srsly... People call me insane. That's the most psychotic thing I've ever heard. Deadwing is a masterpiece of the ages; TI is a bland, boring failure with the exception of a handful of tracks.

Well opinions are like assholes...

And BTW this has to be the most entertaining thread there is! Holy crap so much laughs, gotta love the Bernice thing. Lmao that was great. And the farthole thing wtf!

[jammindude]

Signify I find to be an entirely different beast than any of their albums, even the other psychedelic ones. It's kind of the one that begs the most to be listened to in full, and lots of the album is psychedelic noodling. It's tough to digest, but it's really an awesome trippy album. Plus, it has what is IMO their best song, Dark Matter.

As for the albums before that, I find them easier to get into than Signify. TSMS is my favourite PT album myself, but I find it requires a taste for a calmer kind of psychedelia. Especially Moonloop (Improv), which while it would appeal greatly to fans of genres like Krautrock, lots would be bored to shit by it. UtD is pretty easy to digest and like I find. OtSoL is a pretty immature album, but I still love it.

I agree with all of this...but I will also say that Signify grew on my *by leaps and bounds* over repeated listens.   It's just kinda weird that with 12 tracks on the album, there's really only about 6-7 actual *songs*.    The rest feel more like intros, codas, and transient mood pieces.   But if you don't focus on any of the individual *tracks*, and just play the album front to back a few times...it's really amazing.   Almost like Dark Side of the Moon.

[LieLowTheWantedMan]

Signify I find to be an entirely different beast than any of their albums, even the other psychedelic ones. It's kind of the one that begs the most to be listened to in full, and lots of the album is psychedelic noodling. It's tough to digest, but it's really an awesome trippy album. Plus, it has what is IMO their best song, Dark Matter.

As for the albums before that, I find them easier to get into than Signify. TSMS is my favourite PT album myself, but I find it requires a taste for a calmer kind of psychedelia. Especially Moonloop (Improv), which while it would appeal greatly to fans of genres like Krautrock, lots would be bored to shit by it. UtD is pretty easy to digest and like I find. OtSoL is a pretty immature album, but I still love it.

I agree with all of this...but I will also say that Signify grew on my *by leaps and bounds* over repeated listens.   It's just kinda weird that with 12 tracks on the album, there's really only about 6-7 actual *songs*.    The rest feel more like intros, codas, and transient mood pieces.   But if you don't focus on any of the individual *tracks*, and just play the album front to back a few times...it's really amazing.   Almost like Dark Side of the Moon.

Totally true.

[KevShmev]

Signify definitely has an awesome vibe and flow, and I agree about those shorter, almost transitional pieces.  Take something like Pagan: on its own, you wouldn't think much of it, but as a bridge between Sleep of No Dreaming and Waiting, it is just perfect.  Radiohead did a similar thing with Kid A and Treefingers.

[Mladen]

Signify could have been great, but Idiot prayer, Intermediate Jesus and Light mass prayers are such a snooze-fest. I actually challenged myself to get to Dark matter without skipping these songs, it was one of the hardest things I've ever done.

[Zantera]

Signify could have been great, but Idiot prayer, Intermediate Jesus and Light mass prayers are such a snooze-fest. I actually challenged myself to get to Dark matter without skipping these songs, it was one of the hardest things I've ever done.

Kinda like on In Absentia with The Creator Has a Mastertape and Strip the Soul then. (aka. getting to Collapse is a challenge)

[Jirpo]

I love Strip the Soul. Top 6 on the album for me

[skydivingninja]

Idiot Prayer is AWESOME

[jag66]

Idiot Prayer is AWESOME

Yep..

[Sketchy]

^ This exactly

[LieLowTheWantedMan]

Signify could have been great, but Idiot prayer, Intermediate Jesus and Light mass prayers are such a snooze-fest. I actually challenged myself to get to Dark matter without skipping these songs, it was one of the hardest things I've ever done.

Idiot Prayer is fucking amazing, Intermediate Jesus works well in the album (not so much alone though) and Light Mass Prayers makes an awesome lead-in to Dark Matter.

[The King in Crimson]

Signify could have been great, but Idiot prayer, Intermediate Jesus and Light mass prayers are such a snooze-fest. I actually challenged myself to get to Dark matter without skipping these songs, it was one of the hardest things I've ever done.

Idiot Prayer and Intermediate Jesus are great. LMP is still hard to get into even after all of the listens I've done.  Probably the weakest track on Signify, IMO.

Signify could have been great, but Idiot prayer, Intermediate Jesus and Light mass prayers are such a snooze-fest. I actually challenged myself to get to Dark matter without skipping these songs, it was one of the hardest things I've ever done.

Kinda like on In Absentia with The Creator Has a Mastertape and Strip the Soul then. (aka. getting to Collapse is a challenge)

I love both of those songs. Well, Strip is good, Creator is one of the best on the album.

[TioJorge]

Light Mass Prayers is amazing for what it is. It's obviously not meant as a 'classic' song, it's all the same humming 'prayer' over and over for crying out quiet. That said, it's beautiful and I've used it so many times to relax to (and ended up being lulled into a maniacal dream). It also serves it's purpose to ease the listener into Dark Matter, which is one of PT's greatest accomplishments. Signify in its entirety is truly a masterpiece; it's right up there with OTSOL for me, which is also a masterpiece that is doomed to be misunderstood by the likes of my fellow blokes who shall forever condemn me as an insane man for having that album as one of my favorites.

P.S. OTSOL kicks the everliving pathetic (like, stringy, green, gooey) shit out of The Incident.

[KevShmev]

P.S. OTSOL kicks the everliving pathetic (like, stringy, green, gooey) shit out of The Incident.

Kind of early to be drinking, isn't it? 

[The King in Crimson]

Light Mass Prayers is amazing for what it is. It's obviously not meant as a 'classic' song, it's all the same humming 'prayer' over and over for crying out quiet. That said, it's beautiful and I've used it so many times to relax to (and ended up being lulled into a maniacal dream). It also serves it's purpose to ease the listener into Dark Matter, which is one of PT's greatest accomplishments. Signify in its entirety is truly a masterpiece; it's right up there with OTSOL for me, which is also a masterpiece that is doomed to be misunderstood by the likes of my fellow blokes who shall forever condemn me as an insane man for having that album as one of my favorites.

P.S. OTSOL kicks the everliving pathetic (like, stringy, green, gooey) shit out of The Incident.

I agree with most of this entire post.  LMP is nice, but it's always just that space before DM kicks in.  It's rarely even a track to me at all when I listen to the album.

Signify is my favorite PT album, though.

P.S. OTSOL kicks the everliving pathetic (like, stringy, green, gooey) shit out of The Incident.

Kind of early to be drinking, isn't it? 

You'll never hear me claim that OTSOL is a great or even good album, but it has a sort of inventive charm that sometimes comes from a young artist getting their first material out to the world.  There's a bunch of clunkers, but IMO, the good songs are far more interesting than the boring transitional pieces and ploddingly uninteresting metal riffs on The Incident.

[KevShmev]

OTSOL does have a certain charm to it, and definitely has a handful of very nice tracks, but nothing on it, not even Radioactive Toy, touches I Drive the Hearse, Time Flies or Bonnie the Cat. 

[Zantera]

Opinions right? Just like how some people say that "Feel So Low" is PT's worst song by far, meanwhile others think it's one of their best. Who is right? Everybody since it's all subjective opinions anyway.

I haven't listened to OTSOL in a while now, but Nostalgia Factory and Radioactive Toy are just awesome. There are a few other great ones as well, Nine Cats for example.

[LieLowTheWantedMan]

Never heard anyone say that about Feel So Low (it being worst). It's not very good. Don't hate it or anything though.

[Sketchy]

I have to admit I find Feel So Low to be one of my favourite song, not just of Porcupine Tree. I just like how it comes after the heavy bit of ROI and is just slow and sad.

[The King in Crimson]

OTSOL does have a certain charm to it, and definitely has a handful of very nice tracks, but nothing on it, not even Radioactive Toy, touches I Drive the Hearse, Time Flies or Bonnie the Cat. 

I've never been fond of IDTH or Bonnie the Cat and Time Flies is much too long.  In fact, I hated Bonnie when I first listened to TI, but now it's just kinda meh to me. So it has improved.

Radioactive Toy is a great song though. One of my favorites. 

Never heard anyone say that about Feel So Low (it being worst). It's not very good. Don't hate it or anything though.

I've never liked it, but I'm not a fan, in general, of those types of songs ie very, very obviously sad songs.  I just don't connect with them.

[FlyingBIZKIT]

Feel So Low is easily one of the best from LS.

[ACID_FOX]

FINALLY got FOABP on vinyl. Mind = Blown.

First time hearing the B Sides in the context of the album - much better than expected, might actually prefer it to the normal (lol) track listing after a few listens.

[MasterShakezula]

Feel So Low is alright, but I think Russia On Ice would have been better to close things out. 

Granted, ROI is my favourite song of PT, so I'm biased as fuck on that. 

[LieLowTheWantedMan]

Never heard anyone say that about Feel So Low (it being worst). It's not very good. Don't hate it or anything though.

I've never liked it, but I'm not a fan, in general, of those types of songs ie very, very obviously sad songs.  I just don't connect with them.

I just think it has the most lackluster lyrics in the bands history and the verses have one of the most boring vocal melodies I've ever heard. The chorus, though, is pretty nice, and the guitar works.

[The Letter M]

FINALLY got FOABP on vinyl. Mind = Blown.

First time hearing the B Sides in the context of the album - much better than expected, might actually prefer it to the normal (lol) track listing after a few listens.

After Nil Recurring was released, I've always listened to FOABP in the order that it was released on the vinyl, with "Cheating The Polygraph" between "My Ashes" and "Anesthetize", and the other tracks at the end. "What Happens Now?" is a better album-closer than "Sleep Together", and I LOVE the way that "Nil Recurring" reprises the same drum groove heard at the end of the opening title track, while "Normal" is a bit of a reprise of bits from "Sentimental" and "Anesthetize".

The whole last side of the vinyl just sounds like a group of well-placed nods to the previous sides and says "Well, time to properly wrap all of this up, but leave you all hanging with the last song". As part of the concept, "What Happens Now?" is more satisfying to me, as a listener, for an ending because it really leaves the whole idea up in the air. The "main character" (if there could be one) has decided that nothing's changed and it will be the same ("Nil Recurring") and has decided that maybe he's the one that needs to change ("Normal"), but even with that in mind, there's still doubt and wonder ("What Happens Now?"), and with the end of the song, it's like "...wait, what?"

"Sleep Together" is a good piece, but I just feel like "What Happens Now?" wraps up the album a whole lot better. Same thing for "Half-Light" over "Glass Arm Shattering".

-Marc.

[jammindude]

Signify could have been great, but Idiot prayer, Intermediate Jesus and Light mass prayers are such a snooze-fest. I actually challenged myself to get to Dark matter without skipping these songs, it was one of the hardest things I've ever done.

 

Idiot Prayer is my ALL TIME FAVORITE PT INSTRUMENTAL...Mother and Child Divided might be a close second, but it's really not very close at all.

Intermediate Jesus one of the "mood pieces" I spoke of.  I do like it, but I just don't even look at it as an independent track.   Light Mass Prayers even more so...it's more like an interlude.

[TL]

Well, I just ordered a copy of Signify. It should arrive some time this week, and I'll give my impression of it then. I'm really looking forward to hearing it.

[seasonsinthesky]

i love 'Light Mass Prayers'. it's incredibly haunting and surreal. when i think of the atmosphere of Signify, i think of it (and probably "Idiot Prayer" because it is, indeed, awesome).

"Pagan" is a bit useless, though.

[Ħ]

I KNOW

WHAT





WILL BE

[FlyingBIZKIT]

I STILL PLACE KEYS IN THE IGNITION

[Phoenix87x]

Sleep of no dreaming is probably my fav off of signify.

[FlyingBIZKIT]

I really like Waiting and Dark Matter

[Phoenix87x]

Dark matter is a very cool song. (one which I need to listen to more often)