Porcupine Tree New Album and Tour

Another thread derailed.

Jared wrote: In other news, inspired by this thread, I've just bought Raven for £4 and am looking forward to giving it my undivided attention...

First time hearing The Raven...??

nick_h_nz wrote: Catcher10 wrote: I'm not negative or positive about the post.......I'm neutral as I have no comment till I receive the album. I have learnt my lesson in this regard, too. Leaving aside that this is a “single edit”, any single can sound completely different within the context of an album, than it does apart from it. Personally, I never listen to pre-release singles for this exact reason. I would rather hear the singles for the first time, when I listen to the album for the first time. In the past, back when I did listen to pre-release singles, I found all too often that one of two things so often occurred. Either I was blown away by it, and then completely underwhelmed by the album itself; or I was so disinterested by the track, or even outrightly disliked it, that it put me off buying the album. (The latter only becomes apparent, when I eventually decide to give the album a listen, because someone insists I am missing out, and I realise they are right, and even the song that put me off, I find I often end up enjoying - so long as it is in the context of the album.) It doesn’t surprise me, even though I’ve not heard it yet, that people are not particularly engaged with the new PT material. Everything I’ve seen said about it indicates that it is indeed closure/continuation and a sound somewhat like a combination of The Incident and The Future Bites. Given that neither of those albums are held in particularly high regard around these parts, it’s figures that the new songs aren’t exactly going to set hearts alight. (As The Incident is a top five PT album for me, and TFB quite probably my favourite SW solo album, I am hoping to quite enjoy the new PT when it finally comes around.)

Catcher10 wrote: The Raven was tops for me for a long time, but as of the past couple years Insurgentes has taken over the top spot for me. HCE is also right up there as well.......I would say The Raven is #3 for me today.

Jared wrote: nick_h_nz wrote: I would have agreed with you, and said that you are right, and I am the one drawing the connecting lines between GfD, SC and Heritage, I really would have. But I just read Brendan’s post and I am 😱😱😱 If Steven Wilson himself is drawing the same connecting lines as I have heard, then I’m taking that as a win! 🤪 And you are quite right to do so..  Furthermore, if you had independently spotted the musical connections between these three albums without any hint from SW, then I'd say you have a very finely tuned musical ear. All I can say is that between you, Brendan and Cristi, the PMT is in safe hands..  I merely base my comparisons on the albums I know and enjoy, which I freely admit paint a rather patchy picture. I know of but have never paid any attention to his Storm Corrosion album, however it's one I'll certainly check out in time... I simply couldn't get into or appreciate the sound palette of Heritage at all and if I'm being quite honest, don't think I would have noticed any musical comparison between it and GfD, even if SW himself had sat me down and asked me to play them back to back, pointing out key references on the way....

Necrotica wrote: Grumpyprogfan wrote: Another thread derailed. How? We've been talking about PT/SW the entire time, so it's not like we completely changed subjects

While Prog fans commonly appreciate twists and turns in the music, it seems that that is fairly often not so appreciated when it comes to forum threads. ;) For me the best long-running conversations tend not to be very faithful to how they began and do take twists and turns. I tend to enjoy digressions provided it's not bickering or very negative and the like, but lord knows, I was born a rambling man. Speaking of negativity, regarding Porcupine Tree's "Herd Culling", I'd just as soon choose that it had been culled so that I never would have herd it. Pretty meh to my ears, but then maybe I just don't "get" Steven Wilson and Porcupine Tree.

Edited by Logan - May 23 2022 at 20:09

nick_h_nz wrote: Necrotica wrote: Jared wrote: nick_h_nz wrote: I would have agreed with you, and said that you are right, and I am the one drawing the connecting lines between GfD, SC and Heritage, I really would have. But I just read Brendan’s post and I am 😱😱😱 If Steven Wilson himself is drawing the same connecting lines as I have heard, then I’m taking that as a win! 🤪 And you are quite right to do so..  Furthermore, if you had independently spotted the musical connections between these three albums without any hint from SW, then I'd say you have a very finely tuned musical ear. All I can say is that between you, Brendan and Cristi, the PMT is in safe hands..  I merely base my comparisons on the albums I know and enjoy, which I freely admit paint a rather patchy picture. I know of but have never paid any attention to his Storm Corrosion album, however it's one I'll certainly check out in time... I simply couldn't get into or appreciate the sound palette of Heritage at all and if I'm being quite honest, don't think I would have noticed any musical comparison between it and GfD, even if SW himself had sat me down and asked me to play them back to back, pointing out key references on the way....   Thank you, I appreciate the shoutout  Being on the PM team has been really fun and rewarding so far - of course, the benefit of discovering a bunch of new bands is always nice as well  Also, to your defense, I don't really hear a ton of similarities between the three albums either. Grace for Drowning and Storm Corrosion are similar in some ways, but Heritage seems like the odd one out. In any case, GfD would probably be my second favorite SW solo album after HCE  Storm Corrosion is poasibly the link, then, I guess - as you hear similarities between GfD and SD, but Heritage seems the odd one out to you. For me, there is no real odd one out, but if I had to pick one, I would have said GfD. I find SC and Heritage to be incredibly similar and reminiscent of each other. Far more so than SC and GfD to my ears, anyway. GfD would probably also be my second favourite SW album (though after TFB, not HCE). Insurgentes, Hand and Bone are probably battling it out for third place, and it depends on my mood and the day which would be the victor. As for derailing, I have never thought this thread has derailed at all. It has remained on topic the whole time, which is kind of a miracle on this forum. I suppose it is subjective as to what is “on topic”, so if you are particularly anal and pedantic about it, I guess it has gone off on a tangent, but it is one so acutely close, it has barely diverged. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Don't get me wrong, GfD definitely has its retro parts for sure. To me though, about 80% of Raven - as much as I enjoy the record - just plays out like a retro pastiche. Still well-made songs in my opinion, but I have to be in the right kind of mindset to enjoy that album. Well, I guess the outlier would be the title track, which is more like Wilson's take on Radiohead  (I suppose that's why I said 80%)

Edited by Necrotica - May 24 2022 at 02:47

I don't think the thread has derailed in any way, the conversation has still been about the band and its members. 

Edited by Cristi - May 24 2022 at 07:48

Cristi wrote: I don't think the thread has derailed in any way, the conversation has still about the band and its members.

Multiple posts of Storm Corrosion, Opeth, and SW solo material? I haven't heard much discussion of Wilson's new touring band mates... Randy McStine and Nate Navarro. I am familiar with Randy through his work with Marco Minnemann. He is superb. Nate, don't know much about him, but I'm sure he is amazing also.