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8. Even Less (Extended)

The extension continues the great thing that the song already was, but I wouldn't say it necessarily improves it. I find the Even Less demo from Ambulance Chasers far more essential.

10

frankB wrote:
You won't be too keen on a lot of SP tunes either then?

Even Less (Full Version)

Great. The "second half" adds a lot more of a proggy vibe to it and has some great lyrics. I suppose I can kind of see why it was chopped in half for the album, as the rest of the stuff on Stupid Dream is more concise and poppy, so the second half of this track maybe wouldn't work that well on that album. Works nicely here though

10

epitome wrote:
Hey Smashing Pumpkins are a whole other deal. You have to dig pretty deep to find their mediocre tracks.

I thought though that In Formaldehyde could have used a bigger finish. Not strong enough for me to give top marks.

frankB wrote:
I know, I was just joking with ya

Even Less Uncut X-rated additional nudity and cg-gore version
Yes!
This gives the song the right atheist point and I feel like the 2nd part is really essential to it.
I love how the tribal phase turns into mellowness.
The greatest SW quote is also featured (Fuck you and your book too).
Instant classic and one of the big epics.

10/10

9. Oceans have no memory

Good sound. But of course nothing big.

6

Oceans Have No Memory

Sounds a lot like Fleetwood Mac's instrumentals from the 60s to me - a good way to finish the collection.

7/10

DON wrote:
I'll go with that

PORCUPINE TREE Recordings Review By Frankie

I've never been a fan of B-side compilation albums. The songs are sub-standard, they don't flow properly, there isn't much of an overall feel, and no artistic statement being made. It's like ripping the chapters out multiple books and throwing them together. Chapters that weren't even good enough to be included in the real book. But hell, if the band's that good, we're willing to gobble up whatever crumbs fall from the table.

Recordings is no exception to this rule. Opener Buying New Soul seems to have fallen on here accidentally, not being ready in time for Lightbulb and not kosher with In Absentia, so this isn't actually a b-side. What it is is an unfortunate masterpiece that just came along either way to early, or way to late. It's the sort of thing that might have been suited to a Soundtrack, given it's own video and sold as single with it's own b-sides. Hell, maybe that did happen. Guess I'm too lazy to do the proper research

Instead it winds up here on a substandard set that's not sure whether it's an EP or a full album. Following this opening masterpiece is clunky piano riff that makes you put your hands to your ears, in utter shock of the world that is now upon you. Because beyond Buying New Soul, there isn't much of mention. OK, so it isn't that bad. But when you consider that some of these songs aren't outtakes that were actually recorded to fill the gaps in on this record, one wonders if they could have done a better job. I'll be damned if I can tell them apart from the actually b-sides that are on here.

The second best mention after BNS is probably the short instrumental Oceans Have No Memory. This I can at least see being put over the P.A. before the start of a PT concert. And maybe even In Formaldehyde and Disappear might rock up unexpectedly in the set list, but I'd say they're seriously not up to scratch with the average PT number.

In short, Buying New Soul is an essential for any PT fan's collection. But I wouldn't be surprised if they just rip it from Recordings onto a better made compilation of their own making.

Frankie's album score: 5 out of ten

Frankie's song average: 70.00%

OVERALL RATING: 60.00%

Recordings

As much as Frankie disagrees with compilation albums, I do love them.
It is always an interesting and impressing look behind the scenery with any band, especially if they're as good as PT.
As the third and last entry into the SD-LBS era, Recordings turns out to be left in the middle of them.
It's not as epic as LBS was but not as soapy and 101 as SD, aswell.
One could easily break it down to the two essential operas "Buying New Soul" and "Even Less (full length)" and a bunch of b-sides but that would miss the whole point.
I love b-sides, I'm addicted to outtakes and rare takes and it's pleasure comparing those to what ended up on an album, so Recordings is a rich treasure to me because one can only guess why those songs remained unused.
What about "Even Less"? Was the 2nd half really too experimental for the album or did SW find his atheist innuendos too harsh?
Would "Cure For Optimism" have landed on a solo album if there was any at this time?
Should they have put "In Formaldehyde" on the album instead of...say, "Pure Narcotic"?
Where the ass is "I Fail"?
....you get the point.
Listened to it as an album, Recordings has a a good flow to me, I usually only feel the urge to skip "Untitled" for some reason.
Of course a compilation can't live up to their best albums but there are some proper albums that can't live up to Recordings either (Stupid Dream, In Absentia, Deadwing, The Incident), so this compilation is found somewhere in the middle of the era it came from; not a classic like LBS and no sell-out pop album like SD.
Recommended to those who wanna know more.

8/10

Recordings

Hmmmm... I think Frank's downloaded MP3s of this album must be faulty

I do agree that compilation albums don't always have a great flow (although neither do some proper albums some bands release), but I don't think Recordings falls into this category. The songs fit together well (helped by the fact they were all recorded in the space of a couple of years, I suppose) and it has a great feel to the album.

I think I'm the only one who doesn't think of these songs as b-side quality too. The only song that seemed b-sidey to me was Untitled (as I said, it really sounds unfinished) and even that one is still interesting enough that I rated it a 6. The rest of the songs range from good to great with tracks 1, 2, 3, 6, 7 and 8 being as good as many PT official album tracks.

A great album that feels like a true album and is far better in quality than a b-side compilation should be (off the top of my head I can't think of a better one).

8

epitome wrote:
I think Pisces has the better album feeling.

Pisces is another good example of a b-side collection having the feel of an album although it is let-down by a few weak tracks at the end, which really highlight it's b-side origins

Which weak songs in detail do you mean?
Strangly enough, there's no weak track on Pisces to me...I can even handle the noisy deconstruction of The Animals' Girl Named Sandoz which most seem to hate .

Actually, it's just really Girl Named Sandoz that I don't like. It's not a good song to begin with and Billy's especially nasal whining does nothing to improve it Also, Spaced is a bit weak but I suppose it's ok as a weird outro track. And then there's La Dolly Vita - I quite like this, but it's still one of the weaker songs on the album, so it makes for a bit of a weak ending for me.

Counting it as an album I do think it is one of SP's weakest, maybe joint with Gish - but I still like those, so it's not really a complaint (oh, and that's unless you count Teargarden pt 1 as an album, in which case that's easily their worst! )

EDIT: Weak must be my word of the day (or should I say week?)

I loved Spaced from the first moment on - maybe because of it's odd sounding and the strange things Billy keeps telling.
La Dolly Vita was one of those songs I always used to forget about, until I came back to it on a hot summer night some years ago which connected me to it in a special way.
But to be fair, Pisces was the first glimps of early Pumpkins for me (even before I knew SD and Gish), I actually got this album on a rather young age in my youth when SP were the best band I knew by far, so some overrating is inevitable.

Getting off the track in the PT thread for talking about SP - Billy would love us for doing so

Top 20 Porcupine Tree songs (Up to 2000)

1. Voyage 34 (Phase II)
2. Radioactive Toy
3. Even Less
4. Dark Matter
5. Voyage 34 (Phase I)
6. Idiot Prayer
7. Russia On Ice
8. Buying New Soul
9. Waiting (Phases I and II)
10. A Smart Kid
11. Sever
12. Synesthesia (Extended)
13. Lightbulb Sun
14. Fadeaway
15. Sky Moves Sideways (Alternate)
16. Sleep With No Dreaming
17. Mute
18. Burning Sky
19. Stars Die
20. No Reason to Live, No Reason to Die

Album Scores:
1.Signify 92.28%
2.Lightbulb Sun 87.50%
2.Voyage 34 87.50%
4.Stupid Dream 82.73%
5. Up the Downstair 77.50%
6. Staircase Infinities 70.00%
6. The Sky Moves Sideways 70.00%
8. Recordings 60.00%
9. On the Sunday of Life 58.33%
10. Insignificance 50.50%
11. Metanoia 37.15%
12. Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape 32.00%

Surprised to see Russia on Ice so low down on your list, Frank. I don't think I can even come up with a list, too many great songs to choose from.

As for my favourite albums so far, this would be my top 3:

Lightbulb Sun
The Sky Moves Sideways
Signify

I really feel uncomfortable to rank PT albums for at least the half of them deserves the 1st place...let's just move on here...