Wheel of Prog - Porcupine Tree Albums Tier List 

I totally disagree with the Up the Downstair assessement. That album is the blueprint of PT, just a magnificent sound, very experimental, Synesthesia is the first song I ever listened to them 25 years ago and I instantly fell in love. Not to mention Signify which is masterpiece in my book.

This was a lot of fun! I would love to see more, and if you wanted me on there, I wouldn't say no ;)

Deadwing is my favorite, followed by In Absentia and Fear of a Blank Planet. I saw the Blank Planet tour which was amazing. I liked this format; do more please

I feel like "Wheel Of Opeth" would be a good one. Seems there's some controversy over some of the newer albums in some corners of the internet. Could even refine it further and do a ranking for best Steven Wilson and Mikael Akerfeldt collaboration across all projects?

Pure gold!!!

I love this episode! My ranking: E: Stupid Dream, Deadwing, Lightbulb Sun VG: Fear of a Blank Planet, The Sky Moves Sideways, Signify OK: In Absentia, Closure/Continuation, Up The Downstair D: On The Sunday of Life, The Incident

love this type of content guys. would love to watch more of it

1 In absentia 2 Stupid Dream 3 The sky mobes sideways 4 Signify

Do this again! Superfun idea! Do Opeth next :)

Great discussion thank you for posting

Deadwing is an absolute top album. My personal favorite S+++++ tier. Thank you for doing this! I'm very much looking forward to Pain of Salvation. Would love to see it as PoS is my favorite band.

The only band I ever collected live albums from and skipped the studio albums. The acoustics, arrangements, and sound are superb and have a more atmospheric feel when played live. One of the best sounding live bands ever. This album ranking is by far the one I agree with most. Yeah Gavin Harrison really made me enjoy Porcupine Tree a lot more. Big Big Train was on fire for a good 10 years during the Porcupine Tree hiatus. The 2010's was an incredible decade for Prog. Porcupine Trees influence really helped make modern Prog more risk taking and crossing over genres a great thing.

Wonderful format! Can't wait for the next one!

Signify is Essential . End of line.

The bass and drumming in Bonnie the Cat are amazing! If the staircase infinities were part of Up the Downstair it would be better for sure! My List: Essential - In Absentia, Blank Planet, Lightbulb Sun Very Good - Deadwing, Stupid Dream, The Incident Ok - Closure/Continuation, Signify, Sky Moves, Up the Downstair Diehard only - Sunday of Life

Love your concept of ranking. 🤘🏻🤩

'Nil Recurring' should have been added as Double CD or LP on "Fear Of a Blank Planet"... Because Nil Recurring Album has U probably know already has? 1) Nil Recurring 2) Normal 3) Cheating The Polygraph 4) Way Out of Here For me if PT added 'Nil Recurring' EP to 'Fear Of a Blank Planet' without ? for me it would be PTs Best Album Release!!! We All have our Favorite PT Album's Because most of them are Excellent!! PT has been Great almost 30 year's now and finally being recognized as a Great Band...

Most Albums are Between 40 and 50 Minutes if U Look at that Length?

More videos like this, very entertaining and informative too.👏

Lightbulb Sun is a masterpiece. It should cataloged as essential.

Essential: Lightbulb, In Absentia, Fear VG: Deadwing, Stupid Dream, The Incident OK: Recordings, Up The Downstairs, Voyage 34 For Fans: Sideways, Signify, Sunday

Great vid, so many classic albums in one list!

I like the concept. Maybe consider adding at the end to rank within the final tiers.

Thanks for a fun show. I don’t really like to rank albums but it’s fun to discuss. And this got me to go back and listen to these albums again. I have the 2 disc version special edition of Signify and I would definitely agree now that you guys got me to listen to it again , it’s definitely an underrated album😊

I prefer the 90s original Floyd meets electronic psychedelia sound. Of course, the Gavin Harrison era is great but I feel that it’s like a whole different project of Steven Wilson. Cool video for sure guys! Do Yes next!

Good stuff! This was fun to watch and participate in…in our own individual way. I love C/C and would also have it in very good 👍

Great show guys, would love my DREAM THEATER to be on this show ❤

I don't think there are Die hard onlys. But here's mine (from lowest to highest). I have included Voyage 34 and Recordings, as I think these should be included in Studio discography Okay - Voyage 34, Sunday (for people who like psychedelic), Incident, Downstair Very Good - Recordings, Signify (Dark Matter is my favorite, but there's too many instrumentals), Stupid Dream, Closure/Continuation, Lightbulb Sun (Where We Would Be is what keeps it from Essential) Essential - Fear, Sky Moves, Absentia, Deadwing

This is a great tier list. I really like sky moves sideways so I'd try to move it up but i don't know which one id bring down to make that happen.

sky moves sideways is essential!!!!!!!!

I’d switch Stupid Dream with Fear of a blank planet but I’m biased towards that record as hearing it playing in a record shop is what for me into the band.

Would love if you guys ranked SW solo albums. So much brilliant music

The disrespect for early PT from these guys is pretty impressive.

Great idea guys…keep this going

How about a review of the Steven Wilson albums

i love these videos

is The sky moves sideways ok? Absolutely essential.

If you include the Nil Recurring album with FoaBP then I would put it above both In Absentia and Deadwing, otherwise I would put it just under those two albums. All four songs on Nil Recurring are amazing IMO. I also really like the newer Closure/Continuation album, but would probably put that in the Very Good category. Most of the PT albums belong in the very good or essential categories. I think Stupid Dream is pretty good so I was glad to see that one ranked in the very good category.

I was doing a tier-along, so mine is Essentials: Lightbulbs Sun, Deadwing, In Absentia Very Good: Fear of a Black Planet, Stupid Dream, Closure/Continuation Good: Ona Monday of a Life, Signify, Sky Moves Sideways Die-Hards only: Up the Downstairs, The incident

signify so good ahhhh

I think Signify and Closure need to be swapped over.

Deadwing is my favorite and I did not like their last as much as you guys did.

Shallow no good…? That was the first song I ever heard by PT and got me hooked.

The relative rankings are probably reasonable, but the category names don't work for me when it comes to Porcupine Tree. The category "For diehard fans only" would be _"Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape"_ and _"Metanoia"._ All the other studio albums are at at least interesting and worthwhile. I'm a fan whose first album by then was _"Signify",_ and I expect that colors my impression of the albums. You might look back in 2020 and think the early albums were weak, but back when they were released they were some of the best new albums I could find. Also, for me this is one band where I'd throw in the live album "Coma Divine". That album gave a lot of people an overview of everything that Porcupine Tree had done up to that point. I'm clearly inconsistent though, as I wouldn't include the later live albums (even though they're great for live albums). I'd also say that Steven Wilson will be coming after *all* of you, for the repeated phrases where you're not listening to the whole albums as albums, but you're dividing albums up into songs that you play and songs that you don't play!

I'm with Roie - swap Closure/Continuation for Signify.

Great stuff 👌🏻 ..... and now Steven Wilson 🤪

Might take less time but a Gojira one would be awesome!

Good show.

My favourite is Anesthetize live since it covers so many of their best songs, and I think most are better live than the studio versions. From the studio albums, I think your ranking is pretty close though I would have had Signify and Closure/Continuation switched.

Enjoyed the show. The rankings were pretty close to how I'd do mine, but I would swap FOABP and Lightbulb Sun

Now, take all the bonus tracks and EP tracks and put them with their respective albums. Does that change things? 🤔

What about a King Crimson wheel?

1. Deadwing 2. Fear of a Blank Planet 3. In Absentia 4. The Incident 5. Lightbulb Sun 6. Stupid Dream

Interesting. The Incident actually is my favourite PT album. It's a journey from start to finish, would definitely put it in essentials. Up the Downstair is severy underrated, for me it's the best out of the early era.

It'd be great if you could add a fifth category in there, splitting "Very good" into "Good" and "Excellent" or something like that. That way you could have, or at least I would have: - Same essentials/masterpieces - Excellent: Lightbulb Sun, C/C - Good: Signify, The Incident or Stupid Dream - Ok: TSMS, Stupid Dream or The Incident - Same die-hard list

If there were no row restrictions, I would move all of the OK up to Very Good and move Deadwing down to Very Good. Too bad Recordings and Voyage 34 aren't on there, along with Coma Divine, Warszawa and Octane Twisted.

Really enjoyed these podcasts so far, but do have one request/suggestion: I am mostly just listening and not watching and you guys are often not saying what album you're talking about and I have to figure it out from context. For the benefit of folks who are listening and not watching, can Roie or the person spinning announce the album the wheel lands on before you start discussing? Otherwise fantastic idea and podcast! Thanks guys.

I wonder -- did you think about combining this wheel with Steven Wilson solo albums? It's always fascinating to me how almost every song was ALL Wilson, just like his solo albums. Yet fans mostly like PT much more than SW (as a whole). It's very interesting to me at least

And what about Voyage 34?, It´s not a PT album? 🤔. It really is, and its a very good one!

I'm torn. You guys like all the same albums I do but we didn't rank them exactly the same. Please advise.

Closure/Continuation would be in essential for me. I think it’s a perfect PT record. I’d knock Deadwing down just because it isn’t perfect . I like Signify more than Stupid Dream

Should have included Voyage 34 Complete Trip and made it 12

The incident played live its a different animal.

Have to disagree with Stupid Dream. Would have put it in essential. Probably my favorite PT album.

Would have picked the same picks

The Sky moves sideways is an essential record, if you don't get it you might as well stop listening to music and go play tennis for fuck'sake.

I liked the ranking but I don’t follow the logic of limiting the amount of albums per tier.

GUYS! You just made 2 BIG mistakes I cannot forgive: 1- Closure/ Continuation is a fucking ESSENTIAL, you either haven’t listened to it enough, or you haven’t attended to enough live performances, I strongly disagree with your assumptions and with the result, YOU ARE WRONG, period; 2- The Incident is at least very good, if not essential, but I would accepted a very good. Ok is not ok, once again I disagree with your assumptions and with the result. Thank you for the episode, I liked it and button liked it, cheers.

i agreed to all until Closer Continuation... ;)

Listening to this panel, the first impression that I got was that almost all the participants got on the PT bandwagon well after Gavin got hired. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, so my opinion is that C/C shouldn’t have been ranked as a PT album because we don’t have that BASS sound and the album is uninspired and bland, a product of lucrative speculation. In the end I’m ok with that because SW finally got the material gain that he should have got way earlier. The ranking is what it is. The earlier part of their career is a little undervalued, but “de gustibus non est disputandum”. PS The “least best” album is by far C/C

Is Daniel Brazilian?

Signify is E tier for me

“The title track of stupid dream was great” ah yes all 30 seconds of ambient sound 😂😂😂

You guys be ranking these albums and it seems like you haven't even listened to some at all; Up The Downstair is a superb album lol

Everything on the "Okay" tier is better than Lightbulb Sun, an easy listening but otherwise mostly unremarkable release with barely any personality

Up the downstairs is a masterpiece don't agree with you Sky moves sideways as well is excellent

This isn’t a tier list about which album is the highest quality or best musically from the band, it’s basically just a tier list from people who start listening at lightbulb sun or in Absentia and never took the time or attention to go back and listen to the old stuff. What I can’t understand is having the balls to say these albums are just okay while admitting that you haven’t really listened to them. There should have been a disclaimer at the beginning of this that nobody here is really much of a PT fan. What we as fans want to hear is how someone would rank these albums assuming they understanding and like what there is to offer in each album. But just saying “the sky moves sideways is just kind of whatever and it’s not my thing” isn’t interesting or meaningful. I could have predicted this tier list just by putting the rocky and poppy albums at the top and then cascading downwards based on the rockiness with all the psychedelic stuff at the bottom. This hurts to listen to. “Don’t give me Stupid Dream, give me in Absentia..” Dude you shouldnt on this panel…. Isn’t there someone available who can see more than one aspect of this band?

deadwing fear sky moves in absents metanoia nil recurring lightbulb sun stupid dream signify voyage 34 up downstair H/C on sunday of life incident recordings

Before I watch: Deadwing is S tier or I riot. The rest, meh.

Sky moves sideways just ok? clicked off immeidately

nice one. Please do the Dream Theater!