{"id":28984,"date":"2025-03-30T05:30:11","date_gmt":"2025-03-30T09:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=28984"},"modified":"2025-02-03T11:40:48","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T16:40:48","slug":"take-five-porcupine-tree-classics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/30\/take-five-porcupine-tree-classics\/","title":{"rendered":"Take Five: Porcupine Tree Classics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Guitarist, producer, singer and songwriter Steven Wilson is a progressive rock hero for the 21st century. As a remix master extraordinaire, he has overseen new mixes of classic albums by King Crimson, Genesis, Jethro Tull, Caravan and many others in and beyond the prog subgenre. He has released a critically-acclaimed string of albums under his own name, plus many more as part of bands No-Man, Bass Communion, Storm Corrosion, I.E.M. and Blackfield. But it was with Porcupine Tree that Wilson first came on the scene.<\/p>\n<p>Originally a pseudonym for his solo music endeavors, by the mid 1990s Porcupine Tree had evolved into a proper band. The first release featuring the band lineup was 1995\u2019s <em>The Sky Moves Sideways<\/em>. Like Porcupine Tree releases before and after it, that album was a critical success, and it set the stage for the group\u2019s eventual superstar status. Porcupine Tree\u2019s on-and-off history continued (and may have ended) with 2022\u2019s <em>Closure\/Continuation<\/em>, but the group\u2019s back catalog \u2013 11 studio albums plus many more EPs, live releases and limited-edition packages &#8212; is filled with gems. In celebration of the 30th anniversary of <em>The Sky Moves Sideways<\/em>\u2019 release, here are five must-hear tracks from Porcupine Tree.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cRadioactive Toy\u201d from <em>On the Sunday of Life\u2026<\/em> (1992)<\/strong><br \/>\nIn the early 1990s, Steven Wilson self-released a pair of cassette-only albums, crafting a fictitious back story for a nonexistent band he called Porcupine Tree. Wilson played nearly all the instruments, sang all the songs, and composed all of the music on those releases. The lyrics for some of the songs were written by Wilson\u2019s friend Alan Duffy, but Wilson wrote lyrics for the remainder of the tunes, including a standout track, the epic-length \u201cRadioactive Toy.\u201d That song was a highlight of the first official Porcupine Tree album, compiled from those cassette releases.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/C9hjOqCKE-U?si=OlEHONyxDkkXot7I\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cThe Sky Moves Sideways Phase 1\u201d from <em>The Sky Moves Sideways<\/em> (1995)<\/strong><br \/>\nHalfway through sessions for the third Porcupine Tree album, Wilson formed an actual group. Bassist Colin Edwin and keyboardist Richard Barbieri (the latter formerly of art rock group Japan) joined him along with drummer Chris Maitland. The new group recorded the majestic 32-minute title track for the album, splitting it into two parts a la Pink Floyd\u2019s <em>Wish You Were Here<\/em> centerpiece \u201cShine On You Crazy Diamond.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rwKOrA-9d10?si=5CFDpA0skjpABHCP\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cEven Less\u201d from <em>Stupid Dream<\/em> (1999)<\/strong><br \/>\nThe fifth studio album from Porcupine Tree found Steven Wilson moving away from the atmospheric space rock that characterized earlier albums. For <em>Stupid Dream<\/em>, Wilson employed a more melodic, song-based approach; the result was a successful balance of progressive and mainstream styles, and the album expanded Porcupine Tree\u2019s audience. The extended coda of \u201cEven Less\u201d features an authentic recording of a broadcast by a mysterious government-run numbers station.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9odYTgy_Xmk?si=fYKa3O6Z7oL7NqXj\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cArriving Somewhere But Not Here\u201d from <em>Deadwing<\/em> (2005)<\/strong><br \/>\nPerhaps the most representative track in all of Porcupine Tree\u2019s catalog, \u201cArriving Somewhere But Not Here\u201d is a remarkable synthesis of all of the textures and styles that informed the group\u2019s sound. There\u2019s metal, strong melody and harmony, compelling lyrics, a great arrangement and searing guitar solos. Even more remarkably, the track is merely one of several outstanding songs on Porcupine Tree\u2019s eighth studio release, a concept album. On its release, <em>Deadwing<\/em> was also the band\u2019s most commercially successful outing to date, and marked the group\u2019s second record to feature drummer Gavin Harrison.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2qSPD_h0KQ4?si=fOPcamyE9XgwNGcf\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cTime Flies\u201d from <em>The Incident<\/em> (2009)<\/strong><br \/>\nThe last album to be released before Porcupine Tree went on extended hiatus (and the last to feature bassist Colin Edwin), <em>The Incident<\/em> was a concept album; it\u2019s essentially a song cycle. Among the most accessible sections of the acclaimed work is \u201cTime Flies,\u201d a fan favorite and centerpiece of the album.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JTEWlSTQ1RI?si=Olq9iBq5lbNETw6C\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Guitarist, producer, singer and songwriter Steven Wilson is a progressive rock hero for the 21st century. As a remix master extraordinaire, he has overseen new mixes of classic albums by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18295,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1718,2059],"class_list":["post-28984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","tag-porcupine-tree","tag-steven-wilson","cat-27-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28984"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28985,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28984\/revisions\/28985"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}