Jimmy Higgins
Contributor
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2001
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- Calvinistic Atheist
So, anyone in the prog field should be familiar with Steven Wilson. He has been putting albums out since the very late 90s, and his presentation has shifted tremendously from spacey prog to short form prog to hard though not quite metal prog to jazzy prog. His split from Porcupine Tree after his first quasi-solo album The Incident (under Porcupine Tree) led to a decent louder and more chaotic Insurgentes. After that, he'd release a trilogy of albums (unrelated) that would unthinkably blow the previous out of the water.
Grace For Drowning was remarkable, The Raven That Refused to Sing was powerful, and Hand Cannot Erase was like Dark Side of the Moon. Incredible sounds, and each unique in its own right, but Wilson seemed to be running out of areas to go. So, he went pop-ish. To The Bone comes out with a bit of trepidation. Honestly, this album, while much more pop than his previous, certainly had a lot of elements in it that were great, and some of the topics were very dark. The People Who Eat Darkness was remarkable.
But then we get to The Future Bites, which is an album I have a hard time getting. Wilson is his own artist, and while he may borrow themes every once in a while (this is inevitable given the year it is and getting to the prog world decades late), he paints as he paints. So the question is, how much of this is a prog album using pop to tell a story and how much is it maybe his lesser talented way of writing electronic pop? Steven Wilson isn't a stranger to pop like sound. Stupid Dream and Lightbulb Sun are not saturated with condescending prog elements. And he has had several songs that should be radio "pop" hits across the board with tracks like Piano Lessons, Trains, She's Moved On and ballads like My Ashes, Lazarus, Postcard. He can write a tune that has broader appeal.
But The Future Bites goes beyond any of that, and well into the electronic sound, a giant leap from even To The Bone. The album starts off well with Unself, but seems to end prematurely (intended?) and hits right into Self which again, it becomes hard to tell how much is designed to feel a little overindulgent with the pop element and what just isn't right. Some of the album has hooks, but nothing feels complete (again, is this intended?). 12 Things I Forgot has the most potential, but feels, again, like a fraction of a track. Personal Shopper is nice, though broken in half with a spoken word portion by Elton John, of which is hard to tell if this enhances or diminishes the track. Then there is the album length, under 40 minutes! Yipes! It feels like the Veronica Mars movie... you want to like it, it has stuff going for it, but it is over too fast. Steven Wilson music always has layers, moments, that push a track along, it rarely is ever relies on a single thing to work. I wonder if his aim was too successful and ended up diminishing, in part, this album or whether his craft at making such music is limited and he should stick with forms like My Ashes and Trains and just get a promoter to work harder in getting it over.
The funny thing about this album is just how personal some of his fans are taking it. Many Steven WiIson fans are distraught as if he came to their house, fucked their wife, kicked their dog, and drove off in their car. This isn't my favorite Steven Wilson related project, not by a long shot. With prog music, if you aren't musically inclined like me, you usually need to dig into it and it gets better with time. The easier it is to get into a song, the quicker it seems to diminish in value. This album requires little reflection, which means, for me, it is doomed to less replay.
Grace For Drowning was remarkable, The Raven That Refused to Sing was powerful, and Hand Cannot Erase was like Dark Side of the Moon. Incredible sounds, and each unique in its own right, but Wilson seemed to be running out of areas to go. So, he went pop-ish. To The Bone comes out with a bit of trepidation. Honestly, this album, while much more pop than his previous, certainly had a lot of elements in it that were great, and some of the topics were very dark. The People Who Eat Darkness was remarkable.
But then we get to The Future Bites, which is an album I have a hard time getting. Wilson is his own artist, and while he may borrow themes every once in a while (this is inevitable given the year it is and getting to the prog world decades late), he paints as he paints. So the question is, how much of this is a prog album using pop to tell a story and how much is it maybe his lesser talented way of writing electronic pop? Steven Wilson isn't a stranger to pop like sound. Stupid Dream and Lightbulb Sun are not saturated with condescending prog elements. And he has had several songs that should be radio "pop" hits across the board with tracks like Piano Lessons, Trains, She's Moved On and ballads like My Ashes, Lazarus, Postcard. He can write a tune that has broader appeal.
But The Future Bites goes beyond any of that, and well into the electronic sound, a giant leap from even To The Bone. The album starts off well with Unself, but seems to end prematurely (intended?) and hits right into Self which again, it becomes hard to tell how much is designed to feel a little overindulgent with the pop element and what just isn't right. Some of the album has hooks, but nothing feels complete (again, is this intended?). 12 Things I Forgot has the most potential, but feels, again, like a fraction of a track. Personal Shopper is nice, though broken in half with a spoken word portion by Elton John, of which is hard to tell if this enhances or diminishes the track. Then there is the album length, under 40 minutes! Yipes! It feels like the Veronica Mars movie... you want to like it, it has stuff going for it, but it is over too fast. Steven Wilson music always has layers, moments, that push a track along, it rarely is ever relies on a single thing to work. I wonder if his aim was too successful and ended up diminishing, in part, this album or whether his craft at making such music is limited and he should stick with forms like My Ashes and Trains and just get a promoter to work harder in getting it over.
The funny thing about this album is just how personal some of his fans are taking it. Many Steven WiIson fans are distraught as if he came to their house, fucked their wife, kicked their dog, and drove off in their car. This isn't my favorite Steven Wilson related project, not by a long shot. With prog music, if you aren't musically inclined like me, you usually need to dig into it and it gets better with time. The easier it is to get into a song, the quicker it seems to diminish in value. This album requires little reflection, which means, for me, it is doomed to less replay.