Man, you really put the 'sex' in 'dyslexia'. ...Or should I say, the 'ni' in In Absentia... [Insert Monty Python reference]

"Stupid Dream and Lightbulb Sun was considered disappointing for the fanbase." Bro, what planet are you on? Many people, like myself, consider those two albums as a serious turning point for the band and some of the best work they ever put out.

Talking about Porcupine Tree with Pink Floyd and Genesis in the background... and wearing THAT Taylor Swift hoodie. I love it! haha

I think it’s worth to note that the first three albums were all virtually SW solo albums. He recorded all instruments against a drum machine. The Sky Moves Sideways does have some “guest appearances” from people who eventually became PT members, but still very much just Steven. PT wasn’t a band proper until “Signify”

1:53 > Is wearing a Taylor Swift shirt “It reminds me of, like, Red by uh... King Crimson”

Porcupine Tree has no bad albums period.

The debut over Lightbulb Sun and Signify? That's a unique choice to say the least.

I must be an odd PT/SW fan, because I absolutely love 'Voyage 34,' 'Signify,' 'In Absentia,' 'Hand. Cannot. Erase.,' 'Raven,' and 'To The Bone.' Is there anyone else out there, like me, who just loves it all? ;-)

In Absentia is by far their best album. Gravity Eyelids blows me away every time

In-Ab-Sen-Tia :3

deadwing is my personal favorite... man, it's so hard to put a proper list together.

Great review dude nice channel love how you come as you are, way to go

Omg thank christ u made it clear that you still love signify!! Dark Matter is one of my faves. Love you notes xxx

This is one of the few album reviews in which I enjoy how the lister speaks and introduces his opinion, congratulations, you speak so well and your tone is enjoyable. In addition, these albums and songs are so great that even the songs you commented give me a slight view of how your personality and life is and was just because of the opinion you have of them. I mean, for example, liking Mellotron Scratch the most says somehow so much about you

Incredible! Thanks for this, you're very passionate to prog rock, I love it. I trust your list and your personal recomendations. Greetings!

My top 3 is 1. Fear of the Blank Planet 2. In Absentia 3. Deadwing I love your vids! Keep it up! Please review any It Bites album

Agreed on the Mellotron Scratch 😊

Thanks for this. We just saw SW in concert two nights ago in Phoenix. Great show!

My God, I'm 62, and have only just heard my first Porcupine Tree track!,......can't make up my mind if I'm lucky, in that I can just download everything and immerse myself in it, or I have lost a band that is/was massive, and I'll never see. Its fu**in' incredible!

Awesome mate. Totally different rankings to you but I love how you break the albums down and use that to rate them. Exactly what I do .... just come to different conclusions! Subscribed to you none the less!

My Worst to best: 10. On a sunday of life (but radioactive toy is one of my top 10 songs of PT) 9. The incident 8. Signify (but "Waiting"

I fucking love the incident. Transports me to my childhood

Oh, by the way, thanks for your 'low to high review', I found it enjoyable and informative, and have to agree with your number 1.

Man Sky moving sideways is so good, like so crazy good. Can listen to 36min version full day. Respect for putting it where is should.

Hey notes! I’m fairly new to your channel, with the Tools Lateralus Album review you did being the first video I watched on your channel. Which I have to say that your insight and the way you presented your thoughts about the songs, was just fantastic! I’ve had my own spiritual like experiences with this album, specifically the title track Lateralus! But I really enjoy your videos, and I feel like with your insight and knowledge, with just talking about music and dissecting it, is deserving of so much attention. I hope your channel grows man, I really do! I have to personally thank you for introducing me to new genres of music, it’s very liberating. And with that said, I’d like to suggest an album that you might just enjoy, kind of falls in line with the kind of music you like. But I highly recommend an album called Panopticon by Isis! You never know, it might just resonate with you 🙂

Signify is an amazing work of art... Sleep of No Dreaming is one of my favourite songs from PT. The lyrics speak to me on a different level. It is a darker album, of course, but holds so much beauty.

My list is kind of weird and I was sad to see you put Signify so low. I felt like it was the first actual time the "Porcupine Tree sound" began to truly take form and I loved it. And I'm probably one of the select few that truly adores Lightbulb Sun and thinks that it's the most beautiful blend ever of all the bands styles and sounds. For me: 1. Lightbulb Sun 2. Signify 3. The Sky Moves Sideways 4. Deadwing 5. Stupid Dream 6. Up the Downstair 7. Fear of a Blank Planet 8. In Absentia 9. On the Sunday of Life 10. The Incident

This is probably the most authentic and unique PT worst to best I’ve ever got into. Cool that you put their debut over Signify and Lightbulb Sun, and Sky Moves in the 2nd place!

Your name, Boy and the beast, mother! The Room, Porcupine tree. You and I would get along swimmingly. Metanoia and Voyage 34 are some of my favorite PT albums, but they're not ones I throw on often. You kind of need a solid chunk of time to listen the whole thing in one go, or you need to be semi-active. I find they feel really good when performing tasks like video editing.

Very succinct and clear descriptions of your reactions, interpretations of each album...Fear of a Blank Planet happens to be my favourite album by Steven Wilson with Porcupine Tree. However I would group that one as the top of three, the other two being In Absentia and Recordings, which I noticed straightaway that you did not include in your list...?

I think I found out about Porcupine Tree back in 2002, when I bought In Absentia. I've never really gotten to explore PT's discography before In Absentia but absolutely love everything they've put out since then. I absolutely LOVE Mellotron Scratch. Definitely one of my favourite songs ever too! I'd say Deadwing is my favourite album from them (that I've listened to). Love everything about it! Awesome review. Really encourages me to go back and check some of their older stuff!

1. In Absentia/Fear - I go back and forth between these two a lot. In Absentia was my introduction to the band and songs like Blackest Eyes and Trains blew me away. But Fear is clearly the better "Album" so it's hard to choose which I like more. 3. Deadwing - This holds a very very very emotional track for me in Lazarus. I saw him perform it live while I was in a rough spot in life and it just takes me away every time. 4. Sky Moves Sideways 5. The Incident 6. Stupid Dream 7. Lightbulb Sun 8. Signify 9. Up the Downstairs 10. On the Sunday of Life

Yo Notes... you know what you should do? I personally watch your channel to discover new music within the prog/rock/metal genre. For these worst to best you should definitely create a Spotify playlist with your favourite tracks from each album. At least I find I'd really enjoy that in my journey discovering PT's earlier albums for example. It's shame in this case Fear Of a Blank Planet is not on Spotify for whatever reason. Just an idea :)

Dude, Up The Downstair is an incredible album. As is Voyage 34. Soooo good

Notes often expresses my own thoughts about songs and albums brilliantly, especially here. I can’t get over the fact that somebody analyses music and indeed PT like I do....and have been doing for 25 YEARS. How on earth does he find time to do this with hundreds of bands??

Nice video! Greetings from Chile.

1- The Sky Moves Sideways 2- Up The Downstair 3- Stupid Dream 4- Signify 5- Fear of A B. Planet

Regardless of the album rankings, Porcupine Tree is by far one of the most overlooked bands since the early 90’s. A very creative and sophisticated group who I managed to get a lot of different people into. Oh and without a doubt “ The Sky Moves Sideways “ is a modern day masterpiece.

Brilliant..................How did i miss this! Love this band and Steven Wilson's solo stuff

Do you think you could rank Rush's albums? I'd love to see that.

First time watching a video of yours and literally at the first second I was like: this guys is my favorite person ever!!! -Talking about my favorite band -Having movies I love on the back (The Room, Your Name and Wind River For example) - Some Pink Flloyd and Genesis - Taylor Swift hoodie Dude YOU ARE AWESOME!!!!

i believe steven has done well creating a whole new ambient with albums. every pt album has a unique and different world in their own. i cannot compare them. man, i even love the track "access denied", and some early "yellow hedgerow dreamscape, karma, altamont" kinda stuff. this man got to hypnotise me

12. On The Sunday Of Life (I couldn't get into this) 11. The Incident (Time Flies is the best song, and its still not amazing) 10. Stupid Dream (Too pop) 9. Lightbulb Sun (Shesmovedon, and Russia On Ice, what great songs, make the rest that) 8. In Abesntia (Too much filler) 7. Voyage 34 (A concept album, that's not an album) 6. Signify (I love every song on this, but its the transition between "Sky Moves Sideways" and "Lightbulb Sun" and its just too "rough" i guess.) 5. The Sky Moves Sideways (Pink Floyd "Wish You Were Here" Pt. 2) 4. Nil Recurring (I know, its an EP, but its Fear Of A Blank Planet Disc 2) 3. Fear Of A Blank Planet (It's more of a metal album and its structured so well. Its one of the best) 2. Up The Downstair (This was the first PT album I ever heard and for that reason, it had become one of my favorites 1. Deadwing (What do i say here?! It's Iron Maiden and Pink Floyd had a baby. Now this is a masterpiece)

Dead Wing is number 1.

I never knew Steven Wilson ran his own reaction channel.

Deadwing is my favorite album for sure. They have a great catalog.

1. In Absentia 2. Fear of Blank Planet 3. Deadwing 4. Sky Moves Sideways 5. Stupid Dream 6. Lightbulb Sun 7. Signify 8. Up the Downstair 9. the Incident 10. On the Sunday of Life... Great list man!

Voyage 34 and Metanoia are a different vibe, but they fit well with Sky Moves Sideways. Love that era.

Say it with me: "In. Abb. Sent. Cha." Great video. Thanks for the insights!

I started listening to Porcupine Tree after one of my favorite channels, Deadwing Dork, explained where his name came from. I've found a lot of music from his channel. He always starts his streams with music he's into and that's how I found Ayreon, Phideaux and Porcupine tree.

Nice. Subscribed.

Huge Porcupine Tree fan here. To be honest, I don't even compare the albums myself, I find them all brilliant. But it's nice to see your point of view, thanks!

I see Tommy Wiseau in the background.

I'm always amazed at how many people are passionate about this band and yet how little we agree on favorite songs/albums. I started with Signify, so perhaps I have a bias for it, but when you listed that as their worst (or least best), I almost just moved away. But then I couldn't help myself...I guess this might be better than a random ordering, but I would put Deadwing and In Absentia above most of the others, and I would probably put Signify more than halfway up the chain. Voyage 34 has some good moments, but a lot of it is either pretty derivative or unstructured. At least Signify is not derivative, not to mention that there are whole albums that hardly compare to Dark Matter by itself. Thanks for doing this though. It was an interesting take, even if we see things differently.

Porcupine tree is my all time favorite band, and deadwing is one of only three albums that i love every song on (the other too being Lateralus, by tool, and Orange rhyming dictionary, by jets to brazil) the start of something beautiful is in my opinon the greatist piece of music ever written. and its not even my favorite song by them. also this video did not go into enough detail on how well Anesthetize works in the middle of fear.

1 - The Sky Moves Sideways 2 - Up The Downstair 3 - Fear Of A Blank Planet 4 - On The Sunday Of Life 5 - Signify 6 - Deadwing 7 - The Incident 8 - Stupid Dream 9 - In Absentia 10 - Lightbulb Sun

I've been following PT since the mid-90s, my first album being 'The Sky Moves Sideways', which is still my favourite, but I love all of them. I bought TSMS on a whim in a Toronto electronic music store because I liked the title, having no idea the journey I was about to begin. I have the US release, which included Stars Die (not as a bonus but as part of the album, and it's still my favourite version because I think Stars Die brings the album into a perfect balance). Anyway, great ranking. It's nice to see some love for 'On the Sunday of Life'! I feel that's their most underrated album. Voyage 34, btw, was originally supposed to be on Up the Downstair as a single 30-minute track, but Wilson decided to release on its own as a single with Phase I and Phase II. Later, he released The Complete Trip. Phase III and Phase IV are actually ambient remixes of Phase I and Phase II, the first one done by Astralasia and the second one done by Wilson and Richard Barbieri. The throbbing baseline in the first two parts, which a lot of people seem to think he ripped off of Pink Floyd, was actually inspired by Manuel Göttsching's 1975 album 'Inventions for Electric Guitar'.

I was hoping you would settle on the same one! Like you, FOABP was the album which introduced me to Porcupine Tree and it is certainly my favorite of them all! That's the one I love to introduce to people who have never heard of them before. I cannot listen to this album without going all the way to the end! It's meant to be taken in as a whole. May I just say that Steven Wilson has an amazing ear for classic rock too! I recently got the new 6 disc vinyl box set release of his remixed versions of 5 of my favorite Yes albums with the redesigned art from Roger Dean! They sound wonderful. The individual performances are clearly brought to the fore while softening the edges just a bit to make it all sound more musical.

Good review. I love PT and have most of their albums. I mostly agree. But I wouldn't expect anything less from someone with a Dream Theater box set on the shelf behind them. My best DT item is my Live Scenes from NY CD that was released on 9-11 with the NY skyline and World Trade Center in flames. It was recalled that day, but I picked it up on 9-12 because the record store hadn't pulled it. (Yeah, I was a little too pre-occupied on 9-11 to stop at the mall on the way home.)

What about Recordings? That's one of my favorites! Or is it not considered an "actual album"?

i'm so damn right for "time flies" what a piece :-)

I really enjoy your love for the band and the music. I was blown away by Stupid Dream, and have been on board since, collecting all I could lay my hands on, including all the side projects and collaborations. In appreciation and addition to your worst to best list, I would like to come up with a surpise. Number 1: ''Recordings'' . Given that this is basically an album with ''B=sides'', (+ an extended version of Even Less(1+2), the overall quality is so great that I often return to this album. The opening song ''Buying New Soul'', is incredibly beautiful, ''Ambulance chasing'' is great with all the tribal beats, and many of the other songs are unpretentious but as a whole this album has so much to enjoy. Maybe it is just my way of saying how much I love this band. For this reason I put Coma Divine on #2 (excellent live renditions, trippy and very differnt from the CD versions) and #3 41/2. As others have said; you can't go wrong with Porcupine Tree, and hopefully I have made some newcomers aware of these 3 lesser known parts of the bands discography.

Drawing the Line is AMAZING!!!

Really agree about In Abstentia and FOABP and glad you like Stupid Dream so much it is a great pop rock album in the best possible way. Not really given Sky Moves Sideways a proper listen so must try to as you rate it so highly. Would love a review of Rare Porcupine Tree and eps. There is so much out there would be good to know your thoughts on the essential ones to track down

Drawing The Line brings down the album? It's one of the highlights for me. That chorus by Steven is well sung and shows an awesome vocal range. My two cents though.

Great list man, I agree with you about Fear, but to me Deadwing it's a bit upwards haha Check it out: 10 - On The Sunday of Life 9 - Signify 8 - Stupid Dream 7 - Up the Downstair 6 - Lightbulb Sun 5 - The Sky Moves Sideways 4 - The Incident 3 - Deadwing 2 - In Absentia 1 - Fear of a Blank Planet Even though I think Absentia was a bit more personal to me, Fear is just amazing and beautiful

This is a nice presentation of your favorites, with good descriptions for each. Part of me wants to do an equally-detailed presentation of my favorites, but I'm sure that it would take me days of preparation and work to do a good job of it. My list is very different than yours: - Deadwing - Stupid Dream - In Absentia - Fear of a Blank Planet - Lightbulb Sun - (Recordings) - The Sky Moves Sideways - (Coma Divine - Live) - Signify - Up the Downstair - Voyage 34 - The Incident - On the Sunday of Life For me, Deadwing is easily the best (although I could really do without the song "Halo"). I also like the EP which was released with Deadwing, and included the song "So-Called Friend". After choosing that album for #1, it's pretty hard for me to choose an order between "Stupid Dream", "In Absentia", "Fear of a Blank Planet", and "Lightbulb Sun". Aside: I am a little annoyed with "Fear of a Blank Planet", because it seemed a little too pandering to me. "Fear of a Blank Planet" was a pretty heavy-handed reference to "Fear of a Black Planet", but the theme of the album is not on a *planetary* scale. I think would have been much better to name it "Fear of a Blank *Culture* ". I also think that having "Anesthetize" as a 17-minute song is just pandering to the fans who kept wanting a super-long progressive-rock song. "Anesthetize" is really three separate songs where Steven just removed the gap of silence between the songs. But ignoring those nit-picky comments, it's a great album. And I also really like the "Nil Recurring" EP which was a companion to "Fear of a Blank Planet". I added "Recordings", which you didn't include. I realize it isn't quite the same as the other studio albums since it's "just a bunch of songs" which were left over from previous sessions they had done, but both "Buying New Soul" and "Even Less" are big favorites of mine, and there aren't any songs on "Recordings" which I don't like. In fact, for me it's only very slightly less liked than my picks for #2-#5. "The Sky Moves Sideways" comes next, and then I added "Coma Divine". "Coma Divine" is another case of me kinda-cheating, given that it's a live album. But this happens to be the second or third album I ever bought from Porcupine Tree (I bought two of their albums on the same day), and it was on the strength of those "first" three albums (the first three that I bought) that I told the record store owner "Yeah, make sure to save me a copy of any album these guys ever release in the future". And by putting "Coma Divine" where I did, I give it the credit for having "Radioactive Toy", which is certainly a great song. And by giving that song to "Coma Divine" instead of "On the Sunday of Life", "On the Sunday of Life" drops to the bottom of this list of albums (IMO). Good album, and I like many of the songs. But "Radioactive Toy" is a great song, and if you remove that from "On the Sunday of Life", then all the remaining songs are good songs, but nothing that competes with the other albums. After that I have Signify. Then a little lower down is "Up the Downstair", and "Voyage 34", at basically a tie. I suspect the biggest surprise is that I have "The Incident" so low on the list. I actually like "Time Flies" quite a bit, and I like a few of the other songs too. But this is the album that I play the least. Btw, I believe the theme of the album is not some single incident which all the songs are referring to. It's a variety of completely unrelated incidents, where each of those incidents is "THE (life-changing) INCIDENT" in some individual's life. That's why the songs don't seem to mesh together very well. But I must admit that I play this album so little that I've forgotten most of the songs. That's my list, and I'm sure that almost no one will agree with all of it. I could go into a lot more detail if I had the time, and I'm sure the exact order would change if I did take that time. Best wishes to all of those who disagree with my order. That is unless your list has "The Incident" as #1 and "Deadwing" at the bottom of the list! :)

I love Deadwing, one of my all time favourite albums.

1. Deadwing 2. Stupid Dream 3. In Absentia 4. Fear of a Blank Planet 5. Lightbulb Sun 6. Signify 7. Up the Downstairs 8. The Incident 9. The Sky Moves Sideways 10. On the Sunday of Life

1. Fear of a Blank Planet + Nil Recurring 2. In Absentia + Futile 3. Deadwing (Vinyl version) 4. The Incident 5. Lightbulb Sun 6. Signify 7. The Sky Moves Sideways 8. Up The Downstair 9. On The Sunday of Life 10. Stupid Dream Cannot wait for Closure/Continuation!

Hard to pick a worst Porcupine Tree album - worst would still be in my top 10 albums that year. Would like to see a video on Steven Wilson works outside of Porcupine Tree ( good work on this video - I'm new to the channel )

Ok thats it. We’re done notes! You just said you “didn’t like to the bone”.....ouch 😊

Lightbulb Sun is probably my favourite PT record

In Ab Sen Tia* You're Welcome.

Interesting! Signify is probably my favourite record of them.

A fair review. Totally disagree on some choices, but appreciate your comments. FoaBP is my joint favourite - totally with you re your comments about cohesiveness, pacing etc - with Lightbulb Sun, which also features my favourite PT song, Last Chance To Evacuate Planet Earth.... I'm pleased to see On The Sunday Of Life placing so highly - to think that this is SW's earliest recorded work is remarkable - a gifted songwriter and arranger long before he discovered his confidence as a frontman and facility as a musician

Even though I disagree with 40% of what you said, as a huge PT fan I have to say, I 100% respect your opinion

At first time I thought that was Steven Wilson with short hair speaking

My ranking goes as follows (though I'll let you know, I never listened to "The Incident") I'll say that 8-1 are all fantastic though, and they really don't have any bad albums. 10: On The Sunday Of Life 9: Stupid Dream 8: Signify 7: Up The Downstair 6: Lightbulb Sun 5: Voyage 34 4: The Sky Moves Sideways 3: In Absentia 2: Fear of a Blank Planet 1: Deadwing

Interesting observations and ordering. Regarding fans not loving Stupid Dream and Lightbulb Sun when they came out - yeah, I got into PT with Signify, which I adored, so SD and LS didn’t quite land for me. At the time. But damn, they grew on me! I know most fans consider the In Absentia-Deadwing-Fear of a Blank Planet period as the best PT, but for me it’s now all about Signify-Stupid Dream-Lightbulb Sun.

I think you meant shallow not swallow

I've only really listened to Fear of a Blank Planet and it was my introduction too, but still I agree with it being number 1 haha

Sleep of no Dreaming is probably in my top 10 PT songs :p I especially love the live version from Anesthetize.

Lightbulb Sun is the only PTree album I don't have, but everyone is saying it's so great. Am I missing something?

Stupid Dream, Lightbulb Sun, In Abstentia and Fear of a Blank Planet (a masterpiece) are my favorites. Although I like On a Sunday of Life...bc of this space rock and weird sounds, also the psychedelic phase of the band in Up the Downstair. I guess I just appreciate all their discography so much, nice band

Glad you gave bonnie the cat some love but how could you not love the deadwing title track?? That’s one of my favorites. Sidenote: It’s pronounced In Ab-sen-sha. (Listen to the mars voltas song by the same name.)

The incident is their only álbum i don't like, but time flies is awesome!

come on maan...! As a fan who bought the first pressing of the debut album...the least awesome is THAT album...and you have Up the Downstair below the debut too...insanity !:p fair play with your disclaimers though :-) Stupid Dream certainly didn't disappoint me..it's my fave

In Absentia blew me away and was my introduction to PT Every song is good. They opened for YES and it was like they were passing the torch. Then Deadwing Arriving Somewhere but not Here is my favorite song and great DVD too then Fear of Black Planet. 3 consecutive great albums.

I have the same opinion as you about the album "On the sunday of life", specifically I love the song "Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape"

i love the fact that he is wearing a t swift shirt and is takling porkupin true

So what you're saying is, apart from Fear Of A Blank Planet, all their albums are transitional mishmashes with the odd great track.

1. Fear of a blank planet 2. In absentia 3. Lightbulb sun 4. Up the downstair 5. The incident 6. Stupid dream 7. Deadwing 8. The sky moves sideways 9. On the Sunday of life 10. Signify

The album you named worst was my ex girlfriends favorite. My wife's favorite is Absentia. I was lucky, I bought On the Sunday of Life the month it came out, so I grew up with PT. I played their first album over and over until the 2nd album came out and then I play that relentlessly. So, I grew up with Porcupine Tree, every step of the way. So you noticed Steven Wilson liked to put epics mid album. I remember thinking, " Steven want's us to fall asleep the last third of the album. I used to play PT's early albums right when I went to bed and drift away. I remember several friends thought Steven Wilson sold out with Lightbulb Sun, so you got that right for sure. My least favorite is Voyage 34 even though I like it!

Okay, I'll go back and check out Blank Planet again, which didn't grab me when it came out. My favorite studio PT is Deadwing, but I mostly like to listen to their live albums. (PS. it's "In Ab-SEN-tee-a")

When are you going to do a worst to best David Bowie?

My list as follows worst to best. 12 - Metanoia 11 - On The Sunday Of Life 10 - Stupid Dream 09 - Up The Downstair 08 - The Incident 07 - The Sky Moves Sideways 06 - Signify 05 - Lightbulb Sun 04 - Voyage 34 03 - Fear Of A Blank Planet 02 - In Absentia 01 - Deadwing

Personally my Favorite album is and will always be Deadwing (I know this album perfectly) especially because of the song Arriving Somewhere but not Here, for the rest it's pretty much the same as your List! :)

anybody know where I can get PT albums in physical? Can't find them anywhere

Impossible. I love them all too much.