17.
Porcupine Tree
The Incident

A monster of an album, split over two discs, and including one track that takes up a whole CD in itself, the modern prog-rockers return with an offering that builds on their already rather self-indulgent back catalogue. Not really something to dip into, but if you have a couple of hours free, it can totally absorb you. Musical themes reoccur and the album builds and is layered in a way that can be both thrilling and overly dense and impenetrable. In terms of style, The Incident is a mix of the more progressive Fear Of A Blank Planet and its predecessor, the comparatively radio-friendly Deadwing. In other words, in amongst the floaty progressive sound there are choruses that would happily fit on MTV. The piano drives a number of songs, and I like the tracks with acoustic guitars as much as the heavier offerings. Simply too gigantic to be a contender for album of the year or even close to the top of the list (I still don’t feel I’ve properly got to grips with everything that’s to be found here), but an extremely impressive work that neatly straddles the boundary between ‘art’ and ‘pure entertainment’. The ambition alone here makes this well worth of a place on the list.