Porcupine Tree v. Glarung is a Lightbulb

[ReaperKK]

I was comparing Dream Theater's and Porcupine Tree's discographies, and I have come to the conclusion that PT is much more consistent. I love 9 of PT's 10 albums.

I agree with you

[The King in Crimson]

Overall, I prefer DT but DT's worst album is much worse than PT's worst album so there is that.

[Ħ]

Hm, DT vs PT. Tough call. At this point, PT's albums are more interesting and eclectic to my ears, but that's because I've heard every DT song hundreds of times. I'd say pre-Octavarium DT albums are on par with post-TSMS PT albums.

[KevShmev]

Overall, I prefer DT but DT's worst album is much worse than PT's worst album so there is that.

I disagree.  PT has been far more consistent (I call everything from The Sky Moves Sideways through The Incident 4 1/2 or 5 stars), but On the Sunday of Life, despite having some good stuff on there, is easily the worst studio album by either band. 

[Zantera]

The only PT album I could give a 5 would be Fear of a Blank Planet. The other albums all have songs I like less. Not bad songs, but still songs that aren't as good as the best.

And I'd say that WDADU is pretty much equal to OTSOL.

[FlyingBIZKIT]

This is hard...but:


Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
Deadwing
Scenes from a Memory
Lightbulb Sun
In Absentia
A Dramatic Turn of Events
Fear of a Blank Planet
Falling into Infinity
Awake
Images and Words
Stupid Dream
The Incident
Signify
Train of Thought
When Dream and Day Unite
The Sky Moves Sideways
Up the Downstair
Octavarium
Black Clouds and Silver Linings
Systematic Chaos
On the Sunday of Life...

[The King in Crimson]

Awake
------
Signify
Lightbulb Sun
------
Six Degrees
Deadwing
Images and Words
------
Up The Downstair
A Dramatic Turn Of Events
Octavarium
Fear Of A Blank Planet
------
Scenes From A Memory
In Absentia
Falling Into Infinity
Stupid Dream
------
Systematic Chaos
Train Of Thought
When Day And Dream Unite
The Sky Moves Sideways
On The Sunday Of Life
The Incident
------
Black Clouds And Silver Linings

That's probably how I'd rank them.

[Ħ]

Stupid Dream
Fear Of A Blank Planet
Scenes From A Memory
Falling Into Infinity
Deadwing
Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence
---
The Incident
In Absentia
Train Of Thought
Images And Words
Lightbulb Sun
---
Octavarium
A Dramatic Turn Of Events
Systematic Chaos
Awake
Signify
Black Clouds And Silver Linings
Up The Downstair
---
On The Sunday Of Life
The Sky Moves Sideways
When Dream And Day Unite

So pretty even throughout.

[skydivingninja]

I'm going to do this all in one color because the other posts make my eyes bleed.

Lightbulb Sun
Images and Words
In Absentia
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
Scenes From a Memory
Stupid Dream
Fear of a Blank Planet
Octavarium
Signify
The Incident
Deadwing
A Dramatic Turn of Events
Awake
Up the Downstair
Falling Into Infinity
Black Clouds and Silver Linings
On the Sunday of Life
WDADU
Train of Thought
SC

So DT/PT have some great highs, but in the middle of the pack, PT shines with fantastic albums, while everything from BC&SL-SC is either mediocre or bad...and its filled almost entirely with DT.  So yeah, PT's more consistently good, but DT has some amazing highs as well.

[Jirpo]

Cool rankings idea. I grouped them into little tiers.

Images and Words

Fear of a Blank Planet
Lightbulb Sun

In Absentia
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
Deadwing
Awake
A Dramatic Turn of Events

Signify
Scenes from a Memory
The Sky Moves Sideways
Up the Downstair

Stupid Dream
Train of Thought
When Day and Dream Unite

Falling into Infinity
Black Clouds and Silver Linings
Octavarium
The Incident

On the Sunday of Life
Systematic Chaos

[pain of occupation]

I'm going to do this all in one color because the other posts make my eyes bleed.

really, only the yellow is difficult to decipher.

[Ultimetalhead]

I'm going to do this all in one color because the other posts make my eyes bleed.

Lightbulb Sun
Images and Words
In Absentia
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
Scenes From a Memory
Stupid Dream
Fear of a Blank Planet
Octavarium
Signify
The Incident
Deadwing
A Dramatic Turn of Events
Awake
Up the Downstair
Falling Into Infinity
Black Clouds and Silver Linings
On the Sunday of Life
WDADU
Train of Thought
SC

So DT/PT have some great highs, but in the middle of the pack, PT shines with fantastic albums, while everything from BC&SL-SC is either mediocre or bad...and its filled almost entirely with DT.  So yeah, PT's more consistently good, but DT has some amazing highs as well.

Maybe this is just me, but I have no idea how anyone can put On the Sunday of Life anywhere else but the bottom and be somewhat serious about it. 

[Buddyhunter1]

...especially when Train Of Thought is below it.

[Dark Castle]

I will never understand the love Train of Thought gets.

[Sketchy]

... I actually really like On The Sunday Of Life. It's hillarious.

[Zantera]

Something like this:

5/5
Fear of a Blank Planet

4.5/5
Signify
Stupid Dream
Up the Downstair

4/5
Deadwing
Awake
Lightbulb Sun
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
Scenes From a Memory
The Incident
In Absentia

3.5/5
Images & Words
The Sky Moves Sideways
Train of Thought
A Dramatic Turn of Events

3/5
Falling Into Infinity
Black Clouds & Silver Linings

2.5/5
On the Sunday of Life
Octavarium
Systematic Chaos

2/5
When Dream and Day Unite

[Mladen]

Scenes from a memory
Images and words

Awake
A Dramatic turn of events
Deadwing
Fear of a blank planet

Six degrees of inner turbulence
Systematic chaos
Black clouds and silver linings
In absentia

Lightbulb sun
Stupid dream
Train of thought

Octavarium
When dream and day unite
The Incident
Up the downstair

Falling into infinity
Signify

The Sky moves sideways

I love Porcupine tree, but Dream Theater is Dream Theater. Nuff said.

[Nick]

I'm going to do this all in one color because the other posts make my eyes bleed.

Lightbulb Sun
Images and Words
In Absentia
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
Scenes From a Memory
Stupid Dream
Fear of a Blank Planet
Octavarium
Signify
The Incident
Deadwing
A Dramatic Turn of Events
Awake
Up the Downstair
Falling Into Infinity
Black Clouds and Silver Linings
On the Sunday of Life
WDADU
Train of Thought
SC

So DT/PT have some great highs, but in the middle of the pack, PT shines with fantastic albums, while everything from BC&SL-SC is either mediocre or bad...and its filled almost entirely with DT.  So yeah, PT's more consistently good, but DT has some amazing highs as well.

Maybe this is just me, but I have no idea how anyone can put On the Sunday of Life anywhere else but the bottom and be somewhat serious about it. 

I agree.

[skydivingninja]

I'd rather listen to Nine Cats than pretty much anything off of SC, WDADU has unlistenable production (but some good songs) and a bad singer, and TOT just has Vacant and ITNOG.  OTSOL may be a little long, but it never really offends me the way the other three do. 

I'm going to do this all in one color because the other posts make my eyes bleed.

really, only the yellow is difficult to decipher.

I use the blue ADTOE theme, so people using purple/red, blue/red, and yellow/green weren't helping me out. 

[TioJorge]

I'm going to do this all in one color because the other posts make my eyes bleed.

Lightbulb Sun
Images and Words
In Absentia
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
Scenes From a Memory
Stupid Dream
Fear of a Blank Planet
Octavarium
Signify
The Incident
Deadwing
A Dramatic Turn of Events
Awake
Up the Downstair
Falling Into Infinity
Black Clouds and Silver Linings
On the Sunday of Life
WDADU
Train of Thought
SC

So DT/PT have some great highs, but in the middle of the pack, PT shines with fantastic albums, while everything from BC&SL-SC is either mediocre or bad...and its filled almost entirely with DT.  So yeah, PT's more consistently good, but DT has some amazing highs as well.

Maybe this is just me, but I have no idea how anyone can put On the Sunday of Life anywhere else but the bottom and be somewhat serious about it. 

Why is this so baffling to some people? How is the album fundamentally any different from any other album? Because it was created with the mindset of 'screwing around'? Well, any reason doesn't matter I suppose because if someone can garner enjoyment out of it, that's all it takes. I'm one of the very few (if only) person here that (srsly srs bznss) puts OTSOL above many other albums (I'm not sure why we're rating PT and DT albums together but what the fuck) with the thought that I actually enjoy said album more than say, The Incident (and most DT albums, certainly, if not all of them at this point; I don't know, I haven't listened to DT in years it seems) and be completely srslysrs about it. Either way, you don't need to understand why, and I'm not sure why the subject of people liking the album comes up time and again; as if the people that like it (and like it more than another album that is considered OMGsmilePRODUCTIONLYRICSOFCOOLARTWORKOFAWESOMETHOUGHTSOFDEEPSHIT) are trolling. It's kind of preposterous. Just like the album. So it fits! Yay!

Christ. No rating here cause every DT album will be under every PT album except TI, which I&W would be above, and that's all I've got. So fucking poppycock.

[The King in Crimson]

There's a frenetic, whimsical energy to OTSoL that I can really appreciate.  Granted, most of the album is pretty much rubbish (which is why it's so low in my ranking), but it doesn't bore me like The Incident nor does it offend my sensibilities like BC&SL.

[Ħ]

Agreed with OTSOL. I think it's interesting (and enjoyable) to listen to on occasion, unlike WDADU.

[Ultimetalhead]

ಠ_ಠ

[Ħ]

What can I say? Charlie Dominici is just a boringly harsh vocalist.

[Nick]

ಠ_ಠ

[Zantera]

https://starsdie.com/wp/porcupine-tree-octane-twisted-2cddvd-to-be-released-november-5th/

New PT CD/DVD live. Obviously we all knew about this, but getting a release date and a name is awesome.

[Nick]

Wait, I thought the RAH show was being released?

[Zantera]

It was being discussed about both the RAH show and one from the Incident-tour, looks like we'll be getting the latter.
Perhaps they're saving the RAH show for a future release (like the 25 year anniversary or something) or it wasn't good enough recording-wise.

[Nick]

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE.

I mean, I'm sure this will be awesome, however the Radio City set was just fucking incredible and I was hoping to have a DVD of that set.

[KevShmev]

They have said from the start that the RCMH show would not be recorded and released for video release, as they wanted it to be a snapshot in time for only the band and fans who went; this is not new news.  It was rumored that a CD of that show might be a part of this package deal with the Chicago DVD, but that was never set in stone.

[Nick]

I knew that RCMH wasn't happening, had no hopes of that, but RAH was a possibility and had the same set + Trains and so that's what I was hoping for.

At least I have a spectacular bootleg DVD of the RCMH show, it was sooo fucking good. Honestly, for the thousands of bootlegs I have, it's one of the few that has actually gotten regular play in the last year or two.

[ColdFireYYZ]

The Radio City show was amazing. Unfortunetly I was still a relatively new fan so I didn't know some of the earlier material (I didn't have Stupid Dream and I had just gotten The sky Moves Sideways). I was hoping that some of it would be released but I'm sure the new DVD will be great. I'll have to look into the Radio City bootleg though. I've heard of it but I never got it.

[FlyingBIZKIT]

FUCK YES


I love The Incident.

[Pockets17red]

I knew that RCMH wasn't happening, had no hopes of that, but RAH was a possibility and had the same set + Trains and so that's what I was hoping for.

At least I have a spectacular bootleg DVD of the RCMH show, it was sooo fucking good. Honestly, for the thousands of bootlegs I have, it's one of the few that has actually gotten regular play in the last year or two.

RAH wasn't filmed as well. The audio was recorded though.

[Ultimetalhead]

Watching Arriving Somewhere again. What a fantastic performance, marred by too many video effects. I'm glad Lasse learned from that mistake.