Steven Wilson What Songs Would Make Your SW "Best Of" Compilation?

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sjcorne

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Since the announcement of the new album, I’ve been on a bit of an SW binge - mostly the solo LPs, with a bit of Porcupine Tree thrown in. I thought it might be fun to put together a “Best Of” compilation from all his surround releases I've got, probably just as a FLAC playlist for now and eventually a DTS-CD for the car.

I’m curious to hear from other fans - what songs would make your SW “Best Of” compilation? You’re welcome to include tracks from any of his various projects (Porcupine Tree, No-Man, Bass Communion, etc), as long as they’re available in surround ;)

Here’s mine at the moment - it’s really tricky keeping it under 80 minutes...
  1. “Pure Narcotic”
  2. “Shesmovedon”
  3. “Where We Would Be”
  4. “Trains”
  5. “Heartattack In A Layby”
  6. “Lazarus”
  7. “Mellotron Scratch”
  8. “My Ashes” (live version from Anesthetize)
  9. “Insurgentes”
  10. “Deform To Form A Star”
  11. “Drive Home”
  12. “Hand Cannot Erase”
  13. “Routine”
  14. “Pariah”
Your turn! This should generate some interesting discussion, I'm sure...
 
Excellent idea!

Coincidentally, I've spent last few days selecting mine personal Porcupine Tree best of tracks but so far the total count is 27... I'll post here when I cut these down to top twenty at least and also work on the running order some more. And as of now, I'm not able to picture merging these with SW solo stuff, so I'll probably select another compilation from those alone and then maybe see about a final clash :)
 
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sjcorne, hope that is Pariah from Home Invasion, Ninet's vocals are so much more powerful live than in the studio.
That version, actually the whole album, is what finally pushed me over the precipice going from casual listener to fan.

I actually haven't picked up the Home Invasion Blu-Ray yet, but I had a similar experience with Anesthetize - I didn't totally get the Fear Of A Blank Planet album until I heard it performed live. I still prefer the live version to the studio DVD-A.
 
1. Voyage 34 - Phase 1
2. The Sky Moves Sideways - Phase 1
3. Moon Touches Your Shoulder
4. Waiting - Phase 1
5. Sever
6. Idiot Prayer
7. Every Home Is Wired
8. Dark Matter
9. Piano Lessons
10. The Rest Will Flow.
 
I'll stick strictly to studio material released under his own name here:

1. Harmony Korine (5:08)
2. No Twilight Within The Courts of the Sun (8:37)
3. Significant Other (4:31)
4. Only Child (4:24)
5. Get All You Deserve (6:17)
6. Sectarian (7:41)
7. Deform To Form A Star (7:51)
8. No Part of Me (5:45)
9. Raider II (23:21)
10. Like Dust I Have Cleared From My Eye (8:01)

1. Luminol (12:10)
2. Drive Home (7:37)
3. The Holy Drinker (10:14)
4. The Watchmaker (11:42)
5. The Raven That Refused To Sing (7:57)
6. First Regret/Three Years Older (12:19)
7. Perfect Life (4:46)

1. Routine (8:58)
2. Ancestral (13:30)
3. My Book of Regrets (9:35)
4. Happiness III (4:31)
5. To The Bone (6:41)
6. Pariah (4:46)
7. People Who Eat Darkness (6:02)
8. Song of I (5:21)
9. Song of Unborn (5:55)

Three discs, in chrono/album order, and I think they flow pretty well.
 
Well I haven't got the brain capacity to come up with a list right at this moment, but I can tell you that 'Stars Die' is missing from all of the lists above!
It would be near the top of my list and one track that I would love to hear in 5.1 one day, although that's extremely unlikely...
 
Well, I don't see any reason to limit it to the length of a disc! Everything's on streaming these days... I'm going to go with two essential songs from each album. I'll stick with the albums that I have really spent time with - so mostly, Porcupine Tree, Blackfield, and solo albums:

Porcupine Tree:

The Early Years:
1) Radioactive Toy
2) Nine Cats
3) Synesthesia
4) Always Never
5) The Sky Moves Sideways (Phase One)
6) Stars Die (not really from an album but recorded around The Sky Moves Sideways)
7) Waiting (Phase One)
8) Dark Matter
9) Stranger by the Minute
10) A Smart Kid
11) Last Chance to Evacuate Planet Earth Before It Is Recycled
12) Hatesong
13) Ambulance Chasing
14) Even Less (Full-length Version)

The Later Years (In Absentia was hard to pick just two from...):
15) .3
16) Heartattack in a Layby
17) Drown With Me (kind of an in between song)
18) Arriving Somewhere... But Not Here
19) Mellotron Scratch
20) Fear of a Blank Planet
21) Anaesthetize
22) Time Flies
23) I Drive the Hearse

Blackfield:

24) Open Mind
25) Blackfield (Extended)
26) This Killer
27) End of the World
28) Waving
29) Life is an Ocean
30) From 44 to 48

Solo:
31) Veneno para las Hadas
32) Significant Other
33) Deform to Form a Star
34) Like Dust I have Cleared From My Eye
35) Luminol
36) The Pin Drop
37) Routine
38) Happy Returns
39) My Book of Regrets
40) Don't Hate Me (cheating a bit here)
41) To the Bone
42) Song of Unborn


Whew! Did I miss anything?
 
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