What does anyone hear in Porcupine Tree?

 I've had Porcupine Tree/ Steven Wilson's solo work recommended to me a lot and when I've checked it out I've found it very underwhelming and unprogressive. With Early PT it sounds like there ripping off Early Pink Floyd with a hint of Beatlesque pop but at least these albums aren't overrated or anything. But with this bands release in the 2000s I get even more frustrated. A lot of their songs follow a set formula with alt rock influences and poppy choruses followed by some "Prog Metal" riffs and the production sounds way too clean to the point that it lacks any meat to it. The long songs lack any interesting structures and get buried under long ambient sections. It's obvious that Steven Wilson was trying to be the next Pink Floyd/King Crimson and failing miserably. His solo work gets even more derivative and many songs sound like imitations of early Genesis and King Crimson and the Canterbury scene. I'm not trying to criticize Modern Prog or it's musicians just that I have little interest in it, I like bands like Tool and Primus that have clear Prog influences but don't try to sound like or harken back to the 70s and as a result they often aren't called Prog which I think isn't a bad thing, bands that are called Neoprog often sound a bit dull to my ears like they lack an artistic edge.the new British Art Rock/Post-Punk bands I've been really enjoying such as black midi and Black Country, New Road and I feel like there going for a unique style that has influences from Prog without repeating it. Overall what I'm saying is that Progressive Rock had such an amazing run in the early 70s that maybe it's ok that we leave it there and expand on the ideas that inspired them without copying there music.

Yeah and I'm enjoying this exploration

^ Ah, yes, he came to my mind too...

Canterbury23 wrote: As a 19 year old Prog fan who got into the genre with the 70s classics it's been interesting dipping my toe into Modern Prog. (...)  I've had Porcupine Tree/ Steven Wilson's solo work recommended to me a lot and when I've checked it out I've found it very underwhelming and unprogressive. With Early PT it sounds like there ripping off Early Pink Floyd with a hint of Beatlesque pop but at least these albums aren't overrated or anything. But with this bands release in the 2000s I get even more frustrated. A lot of their songs follow a set formula with alt rock influences and poppy choruses followed by some "Prog Metal" riffs and the production sounds way too clean to the point that it lacks any meat to it. The long songs lack any interesting structures and get buried under long ambient sections. It's obvious that Steven Wilson was trying to be the next Pink Floyd/King Crimson and failing miserably.

I pretty much agree with your assessment here, though I would probably write it down differently... For me, too, Steven Wilson is more harking back and compiling from his musical influences than creating "original" music. PT has never been able to convince me... However, his outings under the No-Man monniker, with Tim Bowness, are maybe more interesting. Not necessarily prog, but to me it is more original and more proper to these artists/musicians than any other endeavour he (Wilson) has been in. In my opinion.

nicely put!