Porcupine Tree
Reason: PT has an atmosphere that’s pretty unique, for a huge part courtesy of Richard Barbieri.
Gavin Harrisson is amazing, but if you ask me so is Chris Maitland. It’s really the synthy, textular work that Richard provides.
I at least like every SW solo release, I’d rank them like this:
Love
Insurgentes
The Raven that Refused to Sing
Hand. Cannot. Erase.
Like
Grace for Drowning
To the Bone
My criticism would be that SW’s solo output, while of high quality, often feels like it’s emulating a certain type of music. That doesn’t really hinder my enjoyment, but still Porcupine Tree feel like they have a more unique sonic/stylistic footprint. On the other hand, SW’s solo career has enabled him to experiment with some other styles he couldn’t have forced upon his bandmates in PT.
That all said though, I feel To The Bone is playing it a bit too safe for its own good, as much as I understand the need for something more light-footed after the meticulous concept-driven album that came before. Still, I think Nowhere Now is one of his weakest tracks yet, and Permanating, well, SW is not only good at melancholy and can handle some ‘happy’ psychedelic pop, but those falset choruses really are pretty weak, especially in a live setting it shows.
I’m very curious what his next step will be, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he would revive Porcupine Tree at this point. He’s playing lots of PT in his live sets and that track The Same Asylum as before basically quotes PT’s song Prodigal.
This is all IMHO, Steven Wilson is probably my favorite musician and I wished I had a tenth of his songwriting talent.