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Russia On Ice

I love what you two have said about this one, I don't really have anything to add to that. It's an amazing song... possibly slightly beaten by Anesthetize? I'm not even sure about that.

I gotta say though PT > SP, even though SP have some better albums than PT have so far managed.

Oh, and hooray! I'm not a dork!

10

Dude, even though it's across the internet I mean, you have seriously changed my life. I would say that Overall, Billy Corgan has produced a better discography, but unless Oceania lives up to greatness, Steven Wilson has all the energy-potential now.

It is close though. I mean, Don says don't mention the others, but I have to:

Tool, John Butler Trio, Pink Floyd, Radiohead - It's such an uninspired list. Sure, they all have their masterpieces when things are going right for them, but I would never ever put faith in any of them, to randomly produce a good album. Meanwhile, absolutely everything BC or SW have put their beak in I love or at least like.

I know it might be hard for you to envision, but seriously epitome, you caused a musical evolution wave across all my colleges and acquaintances - It is absolutely ridiculous SW is not a huge deal right now. Or at least, you know, a sell out stadium legend. I just can't see where he hasn't taken over this industry.

10. Feel So Low

Well everyone knows this is the Fadeaway of Lightbulb Sun. The thing is that given Lightbulb is generally a much better album, this is such a more welcome slide down. Doesn't reach certain hights of course, but damn this is absolutely essential.

9

frankB wrote:
I think in terms of overall discography, SW is ahead of BC. PT have put out more albums and EPs than SP and BC's discography is damaged (for me at least) if you consider Zwan and the Teargarden stuff). MCIS is my favourite album of all-time though, so BC gets good points there.

In terms of "energy-potential", SW is still flying high... BC I'm not so sure of. I hope Oceania can win me over and get me thinking he's still got *it*, but I'm not confident.
frankB wrote:
That's great It is hard to believe PT aren't more popular.

Feel So Low

I love this. It makes me feel so... fucking miserable.

10

frankB wrote:
I can easily see him becoming that stadion rockstar with PT if he continues making...stuff...like The Incident. I mean, apart from the mainstream sound they sadly embraced, PT are becoming more popular with every release and tour.
Thank god that he keeps the things real and wide with his solo music and no-man.

Feel So Low

The "real" album experience ends for me with the massive bells at the end of Russia On Ice.
Everything else - the blurry noise part of it and Feel So Low - rather feels like a worthy bonus section.
Feel So Low is good addition, though, not necessarily a PT song.
I could easily see this one performed by no-man or Blackfield (and as far as I know, it actually is a Blackfield live song).
However, this is another tender divorce-themed song that finally closes one of the very best albums of all times - there is no other way to it.

8/10

epitome wrote:

I'm going to get deeper into that The Incident thing when we review the album - don't worry I'm not generally considering popular bands to be bad (how should I be a SP fan in the first place if I did so).

We could do another ranking after Recordings, because that one feels like the end of an era.

OK Recordings then.

Oh, by the way - you guys don't have to wait for my reviews before proceeding. I know sometimes I'm slower than you, and so forth, so if it's there, take a piece of it

I don't think The Incident was selling out either. It kept some of the sound of FOABP and mixed in some of PT's other styles. Overall, it's not one of their best albums, but still very good and the only "commercial" song on it is Drawing The Line (which I love).

I like to follow your lead, Franky!

And as for SW>BC (or the other way ), of course it's just a matter of opinion. I liked Zeitgeist and American Gothic, which I know some don't, but Teargarden was hit and miss and generally seemed to lack any kind of ambition or inspiration (which is why I'm worried about BC's future music too).
I don't agree about PT's rarities not being great - I love almost all of them, but again, that's just personal taste. I have no problem with instrumental music and enjoy some fully instrumental albums. SP's old rarities are often great but there are some duds in there too.

SP in the 90s were my favourite band. Now, I probably wouldn't put them in my top 10... or would I? Maybe at the bottom of that. PT would be at the top though.

Yeah it's like this whole arm wrestle going on. For me, I thought parts of Teargarden were great, but the general vibe surrounding it, and the stupid idea to make EPs and not albums really dragged it down... For instance Spirits in the Sky, that sucked. Arse. But The Fellowship, which came from there, was fucking brilliant in the stuido. Then there was Cartoon Lightning Strikes and Owata - For me, these are actually fantastic SP songs, but there is just so much backlash surrounding them that one begins to question. There was no question with Zeitgeist though, that shit ruled period. I loved Zeitgeist, and at the time I thought it was their best record, but then there was all this succumbing to 'We were just starting up' shit, as if confessing the album was bad - but it fucking wasn't and that makes me angry.


And then what. Where's the follow up? Oceania, I guess, But damn they have taken their sweet time. I guess five years isn't terrible for a band who has released a ton of Eps and extras inbetween, but fuck that I say, this is SP - only the greatest band on earth, we don't have time for fucking around, just get out there and give us the best.

Which they're doing apparently. And they've been ramming this June 19 date so much down we're gonna have to forget all the other Oceania release dates. Looks legit of course, but I really hope they don't cheesy up the songs this time. And there's going to be that moment, about a quarter to halfway though the album when ya realize - shit - that ain't Jimmy

Lightbulb Sun tomozo guys..

As I said before, ranking good bands is a difficult thing beacuse they keep changing their positions all the time (at least that's what they do for me).
I say PT and original SP (1988-2000) are on one level but each band is totally different and can't be compared to the other one for good.
I happen to like random songs all the same by all of them so those are album tracks, demos and outtakes and that said, original SP had the stronger catalouge with even almost every throwaway snippet being great when some of PT's album tracks fell flat (Pure Narcotic) but PT, on the other hand, had way better concepts and queues behind their albums while you could listen to SP songs randomly without them losing much of their atmosphere.

By the way, I truly enjoy the discussion going on today with you guys.

Yes I'm looking for the revelation our great minds reach, that BC and SW have been both been ripping off the same obscure underground band we've never heard of, and somewhere lost in the abyss there's a man who is more talented than both put together...

frankB wrote: Axl Rose

Yeah why haven't we heard some guns covers goin on yet? Is it too close to the original sound?

I feel I should now bring up the infamous Bilven Wilgan again

Lightbulb Sun

This is one of the few and only lovestories in my life.
Back in late 2000 I got a tape copy of LBS (yes, tape, back in 2000 copying CDs was rather uncommon) from a very dear friend of mine (the godfather of my sister).
It was a c-90 tape and to the full album of LBS were some selected bonus tracks from elder PT releases added by him (namely: Even Less, Synesthesia and Radioactive Toy).
He told me to listen to it for this was a band's newest album he would like to take me to in a few weeks.
It totally blew my mind and I almost couldn't bare the emotional tension of Russia On Ice, so I had listen to this song in a few sittings the first few times (!).
The very first time I was listening to the album late at night and half asleep on my walkman which gave the whole thing a very angelic and gothic feeling.
On Russia On Ice I had to turn off the thing and jump around the room for it was too much for me.
The few weeks until we got to the show there was literally NOTHING else in my life than this PT tape. Nothing.
I remember the show in a small location which rather looked like a stretched bar than a hall.
There maybe were 150-200 people and the atmosphere was very familiar.
The show was even more impressing than the album, I don't remember every tune for I wasn't familiar with anything besides LBS and some older tracks but I think they played an extended version of Even Less, Russia On Ice of course and Stop Swimming (with SW announcing it as "The tune closest to prematurely death he has written, yet").
After the show, my friend would walk up to SW (who surprisingly came down the stage after the show, after they had packed their instruments and when their maybe were 50 fans left) and talk to him.
I was like "Oh my god, this is a common man that brings up this genious music!".
SW talked a little about the concept of LBS (it was a sort of a divorce album for him and should illustrate the different stages of a relationship's break) and he said something like "being happy this isn't an old-farts thing only!" with an amused look at me (I was 15 years old then, had long hair down to my ass and must have looked like one of those ).
This night, especially the meeting with SW and the weeks with the LBS tape before it changed the whole way I looked at music instantly.
Afterwards, PT would become a sort of backwards thing for me. While I wasn't too happy with neither In Absentia nor Deadwing, I totally digged their back catalouge and started to worship it instead.
I would visit them three more times in 2003, 2007 and 2009 (leaving out the Deadwing era show for some reason).
Uff...back to the album.
Besides my emotional and nostalgic feelings and it's significance in my life, this is a masterpiece by any means.
There isn't a single weak spot top find. Every tune is a hit and works in the context.
The way everything climaxes in Russia On Ice is awe-inspiring, all of the lyrics have depth and the music is pure balm to your soul.
The best cure for a heartbreak; it literally saved my life and even inspired me to include Russia On Ice as the music the listen to in the finale of one of my romantic novels (some quotes from the lyrics included).
LBS somehow manages to sum up everything PT was until 2000 without being neither too trippy (Sky Moves SW) nor too 101 (Stupid Dream).
This is the most underrated album I have ever listened to and, hands down, the best and most important British rock album released since Joy Divison's Closer in 1980.
It should have it's place in music history that it deserves, rather than still being an insider tip to PT fans.
Words can't describe the love I feel for this piece of art and though there are other PT albums that feel to be on one level with LBS, this one gets the pie for my favourite album by them for all the teenage memories.
A masterpiece.

11/10

Wow, that's an amazing story Don. Most of us only get to meet Steven Wilson in our dreams

PORCUPINE TREE Lightbulb Sun Review By Frankie


Lightbulb Sun was presented to me as being one of, if not, the best PT album. And since I'd already heard Russia on Ice, expectations were high.

My first impression was disappointment. First song great, last song great, Russia on Ice great, and a bunch of standard rock songs in between. Whaaaat???

I guess I should save the comparisons between this and FOABP for that review, but we can at least compare this to the previous albums. Each PT album offers a different ride, and this is no exception. However I think some of the other albums themes are stronger / more present, than what LS offers. Play any song off Up the Downstair, Signify and Stupid Dream, and blind you should quickly recognize which album. Lightbulb Sun songs though, kind of blend in. True yes, there is a sound here, but it's more a watermark feel, rather than an obvious signature such as the Stupid Dream orchestration, or the bass on Signify.

If Stupid Dream was mainstream, then this is commercial. True, songs like Piano Lessons and Pure Narcotic are radio friendly, but Lightbulb Sun as a whole is just one rock radio crowd-pleaser. The music journalists will give it great reviews, the djs will put on the singles after 10pm, PT are going to be the next big thing. Well, I wasn't there, so I'm not sure what happened, but I think this is what they were going for. Just in general sound. Call me old fashioned, but this just isn't different enough from Stupid Dream, the way Stupid Dream is different from Signify, and Signify from Sky moves Sideways.

Despite those criticisms, it's still a great album. There isn't a dull moment on here. Songs like Where we would be and Feel So Low need to be listened to more often. And although this feels less like a full rounded album as Stupid Dream, this is much better than that one. Hmm. And definitely better than the older albums bar Signify. OK, so this is their second best album to date.

Thing is I listened to all the later one's before this

Frankie's album score: 9 out of ten

Frankie's song average: 85.00%

OVERALL RATING: 87.50%

Wow, Don, that's a great story. I didn't know you'd been into PT that long or that you'd met SW. That's great!

Lightbulb Sun

One of my three favourite PT albums. This is basically their "alternative rock" album, a little more stripped down than their other releases, although it does still have experimental moments such as Russia on Ice and Evacuate. As you both said, there isn't a weak moment on the album.

10

Recordings

1. Buying New Soul

How the hell did this not make Lightbulb Sun? One of PT's best songs period.

10

I think SW was underground enough in 2000 to allow himself to talk to his listeners.
He had some gentle chats with maybe 6 more groups of people (and some photos) after this show.

Buying New Soul

I think it wasn't fully finished when LSB already was.
Otherwise it should definitly have opened the album, followed by the tracklist we know - that would have made an epic album!
Anyway, this is all we love from PT.
Another prog classic to me without any flaws.
The intro has some of the most beautiful melody lines I have ever heard.

10/10