Lightbulb Sun is the sixth studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, first released in May 2000, and later reissued in 2008 on CD, DVD-A surround sound, and vinyl.

[6] He also spoke of the influence of metal music on the album, stating, "... part of the beauty of the guitar solo on 'Where We Would Be' comes from the fact that it was played relatively straight but then fed through so many distortion and lo-fi processes that it began to fizz and disintegrate.

[6] String sections in Lightbulb Sun were arranged and produced by Dave Gregory from alternative rock band XTC[7] at Christchurch Studios, Clifton, Bristol in January 2000, recorded by John Waterhouse.

"The tracks "Four Chords That Made a Million", "Where We Would Be" and "Russia on Ice" were premiered during the Stupid Dream tour in 1999, several months before Lightbulb Sun's release.

[citation needed] The track "Last Chance to Evacuate Planet Earth Before It Is Recycled" features a speech by the leader of the Heaven's Gate religious cult.

[10] The song "Feel So Low" was re-recorded in 2004 by Blackfield, which is a project that consists of Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson and Israeli singer/songwriter Aviv Geffen.

Later live renditions of this track by Blackfield were sung entirely in English but differed significantly from the Porcupine Tree original, as they added a long, heavy instrumental section at the end.

"[3] Allmusic praised the album's quality and its more commercial direction, and called the tracks "Feel So Low" and "The Rest Will Flow" "flat out two of Wilson's best tunes anywhere.

"[4] Sputnikmusic praised the album as an "incredible work that shows the vast amount of ideas and amazing gift of songwriting that Steven Wilson possessed in the late 1990's."

"[21] The Real Musician music website echoed similar sentiments, and considered it to be "the last 'old' Porcupine Tree cd" (prior to their move into a more metal direction with 2002's In Absentia), and continued "Out of that old band, Lightbulb Sun is the very best album they created".

In many ways, Porcupine Tree can serve as a listener's entree into a heretofore unexplored genre: if you're a rock fan but not so into prog, (it) can ease you in gently.

A double vinyl edition of the remaster was released through Tonefloat on 8 July 2008, in memory of Michael Piper, a member of the Porcupine Tree crew, founder of the Gates of Dawn record label, who died in April 2008.