UP THE DOWNSTAIR

My favorite album from among Porcupine Tree's pre-Signify druggie era. From the opening chunks of sound, you know the band is going to try some awkward things out here, and they always strike me as fun. I have the remastered version, with the human drummer and all, and I think it sounds great. Synesthesia and Always Never stand out as the two more straightforward songs, melody-wise. However, the beauty of this album is in the vocal-free passages (okay, it's mostly vocal-free for the entire album). I was afraid I wouldn't like this one, being more a fan of later Porcupine Tree, and not really being a big fan of trippy ambiance and all that, but this one is just chock full of fun and upbeat cheer, in a way. For some reason, as weird as it is, it strikes me as a rather happy album, which is rather unusual for Porcupine Tree.

I can understand why this would not work for a lot of people, but for me, it's the best thing they composed until Signify, and even now still ranks in the top half of my Steven Wilson library.