Went hiking last week with a couple of old friends. And, as middle-aged guys are wont to do, we spent some time complaining about the current state of affairs re politics, education, and pretty much anyone younger than us.
At one point during a conversation about music, someone asked, “Is anyone even making good pop music anymore?” (I should mention here that, at one point in our lives, we were all professional musicians; the other two still have careers in music.) “As a matter of fact,” I began…then told them both about my long-time love affair with the work of Steven Wilson.
Wilson released a new album last Friday—To the Bone—and it’s exquisite. I’d go on in greater detail, but Daniel Cordova over at Metal Injection says it all in just a single paragraph:
This record reminds me a lot of another prog giant that also dabbled in pop. Fight me if you want, but that dude’s name is Peter Gabriel. Like Wilson, Gabriel started out in a progressive band before going solo. Each of his solo albums expanded his sonic pallet with a variety of instrumentation, influences, and effects. Peter Gabriel tapped Tony Levin and Robert Fripp (King Crimson) and Kate Bush to play on various releases. Over the years, Wilson recruited Marco Minneman, Guthrie Goven, Nick Beggs (Kajagoogoo), Adam Holzman and recently Craig Blundell and David Killar. In 1986, Peter Gabriel dropped the goliath album So which featured tracks like “Red Rain,” “Sledgehammer,” “In Your Eyes,” and many more great proggy and poppy tracks. It took a while to get here, but the point is that To The Bone is Steven Wilson’s So. Albeit, the state of music as a whole is in an entirely different place than it was when So dropped. To The Bone doesn’t have the chance to be the international best seller So is, but it is on the same creative level.
Be sure to check out Cordova’s entire review. Then go over to Wilson’s YouTube channel, where he’s uploaded three videos from the new album. Then, of course, buy the damn record.
