Porcupine Tree v. Glarung is a Lightbulb

[Sigz]

 

[KevShmev]

weird. i allways disliked porcupine tree.
and now im listening to in absentia and suddenly everything clicks and it sounds awesome :O

 

Also:

1. Arriving Somewhere But Not Here
2. Lightbulb Sun
3. Collapse the Light into Earth
4. I Drive the Hearse
5. Dark Matter
6. Stop Swimming
7. Anesthetize
8. The Sky Moves Sideways
9. Burning Sky (original version with the fake drums)
10. The Nostalgia Factory

[Zantera]

The list changes every now and then, but something like this:

1. Dark Matter
2. Hatesong
3. Trains
4. Last Chance to Evacuate Planet Earth Before It Is Recycled
5. Drown With Me
6. Sleep Together
7. Even Less (Full Version)
8. Mellotron Scratch
9. Always Never
10. The Sky Moves Sideways

[KevShmev]

The list changes every now and then, but something like this:

1. Dark Matter
2. Hatesong
3. Trains
4. Last Chance to Evacuate Planet Earth Before It Is Recycled
5. Drown With Me
6. Sleep Together
7. Even Less (Full Version)
8. Mellotron Scratch
9. Always Never
10. The Sky Moves Sideways

You do realize that you just included two songs (Drown with Me and the full version of Even Less) that aren't on any PT studio album, right?

[Zantera]

Was that a requirement? I thought it was just top10 PT.
If I can't pick those two songs, then just replace them with Gravity Eyelids and A Smart Kid.

[KevShmev]

Original question:

Take your favorite song from every album and rank it, just cause it's totally pointless and repetitive.

The obvious assumption there is to take your favorite song from the 10 studio albums and rank them in order, which pretty much everyone has done.

[jag66]

1. Arriving Somewhere But Not Here
2. Dark Matter
3. Trains
4. Lightbulb Sun
5. The Sky Moves Sideways
6. Fear of a Blank Planet
7. Pure Narcotic
8. The Incident
9. Always Never
10. Nine Cats

All great songs..

[Ħ]

Top 10 SW songs:

1. Insurgentes
2. The Start of Something Beautiful
3. No Part of Me
4. Heartattack in a Layby
5. Glass Arm Shattering
6. My Gift of Silence
7. No Twilight In the Courts of the Sun
8. Piano Lessons
9. Trains
10. Once

[Zantera]

Okay then I'll go with:

1. Dark Matter
2. Hatesong
3. Trains
4. A Smart Kid
5. Sleep Together
6. Always Never
7. The Sky Moves Sideways
8. Mellotron Scratch
9. The Nostalgia Factory
10. I Drive the Hearse

[Mladen]

I haven't listened to their debut, so this is what my list would probably look like:

1. Anesthetize
2. The Start of something beautiful
3. Dark matter
4. Lightbulb sun
5. Even less
6. The Sound of muzak
7. The Incident
8. The Sky moves sideways pt 1
9. Synesthesia

[Buddyhunter1]

Haven't listened to the first three albums yet so...

1: Trains
2: Hatesong
3: The Start Of Something Beautiful
4: Dark Matter
5: Time Flies
6: Sentimental
7: Don't Hate Me

[seasonsinthesky]

Is there a place(s) I can get all the B-sides, like a huge compilation or something? I just learned that they have so many songs that I've never heard, and I need to fix it ASAP.

Marc's comprehensive answer

a few random things missing:
- the "Lazarus" single (for "Half-Light" and "So Called Friend")
- Deadwing DVD-A (for "Mother and Child Divided" and "Revenant")
- "London" and "Disappear" demos from SW's SoundCloud page
- "Men of Wood" 1994 mix from TSMS remaster vinyl (not the latest reissue)
- Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape contains all of the non-OTSOL material, if you count this as a non-album release
- "Meantime" and "Tinto Brass (Live)" from the Burning Shed store (IA + Warszawa outtakes)
- "Black Dahlia" and "Flicker" instrumental from The Incident DVD-A
- Arriving Somewhere DVD (for the remix of "Mother and Child Divided" and gallery ambient piece by SW/Barbieri)
- "It Will Rain for a Million Years" from the Love, Death & Mussolini EP (early track that isn't on OTSOL or YHD, despite the name)
- Lightbulb Sun remaster bonus disc (for "Buying New Soul" backing track and "Novak")
- 2003 tour intro piece from ye olde PT website (archive.org i think)

and there are various demos and alternates officially released for "Russia on Ice," "Even Less," "Hallogallo," and "Oceans Have No Memory."

[The Letter M]

Is there a place(s) I can get all the B-sides, like a huge compilation or something? I just learned that they have so many songs that I've never heard, and I need to fix it ASAP.

Marc's comprehensive answer

a few random things missing:
- the "Lazarus" single (for "Half-Light" and "So Called Friend")
- Deadwing DVD-A (for "Mother and Child Divided" and "Revenant")
- "London" and "Disappear" demos from SW's SoundCloud page
- "Men of Wood" 1994 mix from TSMS remaster vinyl (not the latest reissue)
- Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape contains all of the non-OTSOL material, if you count this as a non-album release
- "Meantime" and "Tinto Brass (Live)" from the Burning Shed store (IA + Warszawa outtakes)
- "Black Dahlia" and "Flicker" instrumental from The Incident DVD-A
- Arriving Somewhere DVD (for the remix of "Mother and Child Divided" and gallery ambient piece by SW/Barbieri)
- "It Will Rain for a Million Years" from the Love, Death & Mussolini EP (early track that isn't on OTSOL or YHD, despite the name)
- Lightbulb Sun remaster bonus disc (for "Buying New Soul" backing track and "Novak")
- 2003 tour intro piece from ye olde PT website (archive.org i think)

and there are various demos and alternates officially released for "Russia on Ice," "Even Less," "Hallogallo," and "Oceans Have No Memory."

Thanks for filling my gaps out with that post!

I wish they'd (being SW himself) release a "Recordings"-type B-Sides release of songs from the IA/DW sessions on one disc, as there are some great songs between those two albums that didn't quite make the cut!

"Collapse" – 1:39
"Drown with Me" – 5:22
"Orchidia" – 3:19
"Futile" – 6:04
"Chloroform" – 7:15
"Meantime" - 3:34
"So Called Friend"  – 4:49
"Revenant" – 3:04
"Mother & Child Divided" – 4:59
"Half-Light" – 6:20
Total - 46:25

This would make an excellent companion disc to Recordings and both IA and DW.

-Marc.

[seasonsinthesky]

agreed! Recordings 2!

also, i missed the LBS demo of "Orchidia" with programmed drums, also from the PT website.

[skydivingninja]

Arriving Somewhere But Not Here
Trains
Shesmovedon
A Smart Kid
Dark Matter
Anesthetize
Burning Sky
The Sky Moves Sideways (Phase 1)
Radioactive Toy

I feel really bad putting Burning Sky and TSMS1 so low.

[TL]

My copy of Signify arrived today. Threw it on the stereo and gave it a spin from start to finish.

Such a great album, and this was definitely a great way to give it a first listen.

[jammindude]

Not to hijack....but I think I improved on my awesome mix CD.   It flowed *amazingly* but I was a little bugged that I didn't represent TI or UTD at all.   I didn't want to *force* anything that didn't work...and I wasn't going to sacrifice "flow" just for the sake of including every album.   But then I found a solution that was the best of both worlds.    I substituted "Dark Matter" for the equally good (IMO) "I Drive the Hearse" (one of the few INCREDIBLE stand alone tracks on TI)...and since it's two minutes shorter, it bought me the time to add one of my favorite tracks from UTD, "Not Beautiful Anymore" without sacrificing any other songs. 

Also, I like the way that the song order *feels* like a vinyl album.  There are four distinct sections to the mix, giving it a perfect "double album...four sided" feel. 

Final track listing:

1. Lightbulb Sun
2. Piano Lessons
3. Trains
4. Halo
5. Shesmovedon
6. Last Chance to Evacuate Planet Earth Before it is Recycled
7. Slave Called Shiver
8. Dislocated Day
9. Not Beautiful Anymore
10. Open Car
11. Heartattack in a Layby
12. Idiot Prayer
13. Sentimental
14. The Start of Something Beautiful
15. I Drive the Hearse

Total time: 79:38

Another nice segue on this mix....the part that starts with Open Car, then the sounds of a car pulling over into Heartattack in a Layby, then (interestingly enough) after the guy dies it goes into Idiot Prayer which *also* opens with the sounds of traffic in the background.   LOVED the way that worked out. 

[FlyingBIZKIT]

This is cool. I actually listened to your other one, and you were right about Sentimental flowing into TSOSB 

[TL]

For some reason, my computer keeps changing the genre on Signify to 'Electronica'. If I change it, it either stops displaying the album art, or just changes it back. It also initially identified the artist as 'Porcupine Tree; Propupine Tree'.

[Ħ]

Maybe you stole it.

[LCArenas]

I haven't listened to any PT Pre-Stupid Dream album as a whole. Which one is the best to start? Maybe Signify? Sky Moves Sideways? What do you recommend?

[jammindude]

I haven't listened to any PT album as a whole Pre-Stupid Dream. Which one is the best to start? Maybe Signify? Sky Moves Sideways? What do you recommend?

Tough one.  They are both good for different reasons.

The Sky Moves Sideways grabbed me quicker....but I think Signify is the better album.   As I mentioned earlier, I think the trick to liking Signify is to NOT look at the tracks.   Put in the CD...close your eyes...put on the headphones...and listen to the CD at least twice through before you EVEN LOOK at the track listing on the back of the CD.

[KevShmev]

That is great advice.  Signify is a helluva journey and is best enjoyed from start to finish, instead of getting hung up on certain songs not being "real" songs or merely transitional pieces or whatever.

[TioJorge]

Chloroform 

[Ħ]

all the pages torn?

[TioJorge]

Speak clear, can't hear.

[Sketchy]

Signify in the dark is so much win...

...but it does scare my dogs, notably the wierd weebly noises in Sever are the bits that cause the most response.

[TL]

Maybe you stole it.

It's disc 1 of the two disc digibook edition. I made a point of not so much as listening to a single song on youtube before my copy arrived, because I wanted to listen to the album properly.

Don't be an ass.

[TioJorge]

Hey guys, look at my avatar; it's a porcupine tree. HAR HAR. What's actually funny to me is that it's the complete opposite of what I pictured when I try to picture a real 'porcupine tree'. I always pictured the spines of the porcupine being the leaves and branches of the top of the tree, not underground it like some crazy, spiny, underground acorn that sprouted a tree on top of it.

topic turned on:
I really, really, really love Chloroform. That should have been on the album despite it having very little to do with the rest of the album's feel and would probably mess with the flow a bit, but it's just that good.

[Zantera]

Hey guys, look at my avatar; it's a porcupine tree. HAR HAR. What's actually funny to me is that it's the complete opposite of what I pictured when I try to picture a real 'porcupine tree'. I always pictured the spines of the porcupine being the leaves and branches of the top of the tree, not underground it like some crazy, spiny, underground acorn that sprouted a tree on top of it.

topic turned on:
I really, really, really love Chloroform. That should have been on the album despite it having very little to do with the rest of the album's feel and would probably mess with the flow a bit, but it's just that good.

I agree, and I also feel the same about Drown With Me and Futile. (though I'm not sure if the latter was written during or after IA)

[Buddyhunter1]

Futile is such an awesome song.

[Silver Tears]

Ah Drown With Me is beautiful 

[ReaperKK]

Ah Drown With Me is beautiful 

Yes!!! I remember discovering Mellotron Scratch and falling in love with that song, I then tossed IA on my ipod and nothing really stood out except I was driving down the road and Drown With Me came on, immediately fell in love with that song.

[Silver Tears]

Mellatron Scratch is my other love, you clearly have awesome opinions on music Reaper 

[skydivingninja]

Ah Drown With Me is beautiful 

One of my favorites.