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to me, Lazarus, Open Car and Arriving here..
are some of the best highlights off deadwing and relegating them to simple good songs is an aberration.

Not that I have anything against Coldplay but comparing Lazarus, which is sonically multi-layerd and imprinted with soul, is wrong.
They have nothing in common apart from the piano parts, which a quadrillion other bands use.

Lazarus is one of the most beautiful songs ever. Not to mention its lyrics are instantly memorable.

Actually, Shallow is my favorite song on this album. Yeah, I know it sounds more like a Tool song than a PT song (especially the chorus). But, being myself a Tool fan, that's definitely not a bad thing.

Pretty much every song on this album is good, though.

Porcupine Tree makes some beautiful music...the score for this album is pretty spot on.

Gavin Harrison is an excellent drummer and I always love the way his kit sounds to.

Open Car and Shallow are my favorites. I'm not the biggest prog fan.

I'd rate this closer to 92 or 93. This is my favorite Ptree and one of my all time favorite albums. I love every second of it.

All the songs you mention are very good songs. But I don't think they're up to par with previous PT output OR some of the other songs on the album.

And Lazarus does have a beautiful vocal melody, but I could absolutely see it in a Coldplay song as well. I wasn't knocking the song or Coldplay, just saying they're similar--a little more similar than I would personally like them to be.

For the record, I like this album more than Fear of a Blank Planet or The Incident (which I am in the process of reviewing), and thats why it gets an 89 rating. Not the best, but certainly not the worst of PT

For some reason I don't enjoy this one as much as I should. Open Car (great chorus) and Lazarus are my favourites, and Arriving Somewhere But Not Here also has some stunning moments. Overall though, I don't know whether I prefer FoaBP or this one. They're both more or less the same in terms of stuff I like/stuff I dislike. I don't like the constant palm mute shenanigans of Deadwing and FoaBP, so I find myself ignoring much of what's going on behind that particular layer.

I hear that, the palm-muting is what makes Shallow and Open Car sound so damn mainstream. Its pretty unfortunate. I still prefer this to FoaBP though, because I think the amount of good musical ideas on this album is greater. Almost everything I liked about FoaBP sounds like it was directly ripped off from this disc or In Absentia.

FoaBP does sound like a direct continuation of Deadwing, yes, but Sleep Together is the best song Porcupine Tree has written this decade.

I like Fear Of A Blank Planet a little more, but I'm not knocking on deadwing because it's a great record as well. I haven't been disappointed by Porcupine Tree in a long time. I like everything the have done since Stupid Dream.

I might get heat for it, perhaps its because it was my first foray into the Tree but In Absentia is my personal favorite. I do really enjoy Deadwing and definitly recognise the significance of the Opeth/PT connection that I think starts with this record, as in the "heavyness" factor. I think In Absentia still had a rooted connection to the psych elements of earlier PT where as it seems to be replaced with "atmosphere" on Deadwing. Still its a great record I can chill out to from start to end but I think they have been losing ground with the later releases

Great album.

Psychadelic? Not sure I'd call them that. You know how I classify them? Progressive alt-rock. I think outside the progressive rock genre, they most closely resemble modern alt-rock.

Well you're right. They do resemble alt-rock a lot now (mostly because they're borderline metal now, but not quite), but the earlier albums are definitely psychedelic, and I think songs like Mellotron Scratch off this album still showcase that influence.

Jazzepat, In Absentia is also my favorite PT album, and I believe that was the one where the Opeth/PT collaboration started, though its more direct on Deadwing and Opeth's Damnation record. I disagree with you on the psych/atmosphere stuff though...Deadwing has a lot more of the slower building, droning and weird electronic qualities that older PT stuff had. In Absentia is where the aggression and change in the tone of lyrics came from, and I thought it was a very focused departure from everything up until that point.

Well, I don't have all their albums, so I can't be sure. But I don't hear any pyschadelia on what I do own.

Check out any of the first three albums, On the Sunday of Life, Up the Downstair, Sky Moves Sideways. The latter may as well be a Pink Floyd album, and OtSoL is unlistenable at parts. Hell, even Signify retains some of those really weird, trippy qualities to the songs.

yeah theres definitely psychedelic qualities to their early stuff. This album not so much, just a progressive album if you ask me.

I definitely hear psychedelic influence on Mellotron Scratch and Glass Arm Shattering, and the entire first minute of Arriving Somewhere but Not Here sounds like a spaceship sending beams out into the world before the Opeth-y guitar comes in.

Just check out Voyage 34... if thats not a psych album Im not sure what is. Fair point BoJay on In Absentia / Deadwing about the "turning point" I havent listened to either of them in a while, have kind of lost a bit of interest in the last couple of albums. Am planning a revival soon though, want to have a proper listen to them all from Stupid Dream (or Lightbulb Sun, what ever came first). They are coming out to Australia again early next year so will have to check them out again, a live setting tends to make me view some of the studio recordings in a different light. Still amazing that PT literally grew from a one man band to what it is now...