I'm generally quite fond of his work, though admittedly due to the often-dark nature of it a certain state of mind or mood is required to really appreciate it. But once you get there, man, there's just nothing like it. No matter how many times you play them, songs like "Routine", "Drive Home", and "Russia On Ice" never seem to lose their emotional impact.
I do generally like the Porcupine Tree stuff more than the solo albums. Some of the earlier PT albums are not quite as involved and I can just throw them on whenever. Admittedly my favorite PT tracks are the more commercial-sounding ones, like "Piano Lessons", "Stranger By The Minute", "Shesmovedon", "Trains", and "The Sound Of Muzak".
As talented as he is, I do have to admit I have two somewhat persistent caveats with SW's work:
1. The "Music Industry Rant" Songs - I suppose you can call me a hypocrite as I just listed two of these above as favorites ("Piano Lessons" and "The Sound Of Muzak"), but usually I really can't stand these, two in particular being "Four Chords That Made A Million" and "Fear Of A Blank Planet". It's not that I don't empathize with him being frustrated; I just feel these songs stand out as too obvious and way out of place next to everything else.
2. Dynamics - it's great that his stuff isn't brick-walled and he cares about dynamic range, but sometimes it's just too much. Almost every one of his albums I've heard (particularly the latest,
To The Bone) is full of moments where things get super quiet and then BOOM. On songs like "3 Years Older", "Routine", and "Pariah" I'm always fiddling with the volume knob.
The guy made me a prog fan though. Also, he's got the surround thing down pretty well