A marvellously reassuring fact about Steven Wilson is that no matter what music he releases, or what project title it goes under, it will be worth listening to. Even if the music ends up not really fitting in with your own personal tastes, it will be still worth the time spent investigating it, because he always delivers something interesting. The last 2 albums released under his Steven Wilson solo title have received mixed reactions, especially from the prog community. Mainly because Steven released 2 absolutely belting albums with The Raven That Refused to Sing, and it’s follow-up, Hand Cannot Erase. These were 2 landmark albums that prog fans adored, and totally took to their hearts. The next album, To The Bone, definitely changed in musical style, with more typically shorter pop-structure tunes that left some people a little disappointed. Yet it was the next 2 following releases where Steven was exploring in more electronic & sound design musical avenues, where even his more fervent admirers were feeling that he was perhaps veering away from what they knew & loved best.
I personally like the music that was produced for both The Future Bites and The Harmony Codex, but I don’t particularly love it, if you know what I mean. Good albums by anybody’s standards, yet for me, not great albums that I would want to revisit over & over again. As with all of his new ventures, I 100% do want to hear them, and actively look forward to their release dates. And for this brand new album (his 8th official full-length solo release), The Overview was easily one of my most anticipated albums of the year. It has also been claimed by many as the return of Steven Wilson to the prog scene. ‘The Return of the Progfather’ was the title of one published article, which of course has ignited a lot of interest among fans of prog music, especially those that yearn for a musical return to his golden period of Raven/Hand albums. Fuelling this fire was the announcement that The Overview would be a ‘concept’ album, and only contain 2 tracks, each roughly around 20 minutes in length. Therefore possibly harkening back to the glory days of Close to the Edge, Supper’s Ready, and other such epics from that 70’s era, which would often see one song fill up an entire side of a vinyl LP.
Without going into lots of detail about the concept, that has already been posted in numerous other articles & interviews, it’s about the experience of astronauts in space seeing the Earth from above, and the shift in perspective it can give the viewer. And after hearing about that strange effect that has only been experienced in person by the very limited few, it was enough inspire Steven to create the music that is featured in these 2 lengthy tracks. The first one is named Objects Outlive Us, and the second being the title track The Overview. On further inspection, these 2 tracks aren’t intrinsically linked to each other, nor are the lyrics, so this isn’t a concept album where there is a part 1 & part 2, only separated because of the limited running time of each side of a vinyl album. I’ve already read & listened to the many reviews about this album, and also the many interviews that Steven Wilson has done to promote his latest release. Both set pieces are made up of various sub-sections that have their own titles & characteristics, and the listener may think that these feel more like a series of songs than an elongated musical & lyrical theme. Yet they were composed one section directly after the other, the same way they appear on this album, and it is that which gives the entire thing it’s linear movement.
So what you essentially have here are 2 individual suites of assembled musical pieces. Some of the sections flow into each, whereas some others finish completely and a new section begins. Yet each of the 2 main titled tracks have their own identity, both musically and with their own lyrical themes too. The only real connection perhaps being a shared inspiration behind them both, and likely a similar time-frame during which they were written and recorded. Going into this album I was apprehensive that this could possibly be a self-indulgent experiment of extensive sound design, with mainly synth-orientated instrumental landscapes, interspersed with some occasional electronic percussion, and littered with sound effects to make up for the lack of basic tunes. This was my main worry after seeing the direction that Steven appeared to be heading in after the electronica & experimental vibes from his previous 2 solo releases. And with those concerns in mind, I approached this album with hope as always, yet with an underlying acceptance that this might be the one where I find very little that appeals to me, and that this may be the point where I consider getting off the train with this Steven Wilson musical journey that I’ve been on. I’m incredibly happy to say that this wasn’t the case at all.
Objects Outlive Us starts off with the section titled No Monkey’s Paw. This opens up with Steven’s solitary falsetto vocal swimming in almost endless reverb. The lead vocal becomes dryer, and is then backed with keyboards and bass guitar, and various spacey sound effects. It’s a very brief song indeed, yet serves as a soft introduction to this sprawling 23 minute epic. Very quickly we move into the next section, The Buddha Of the Modern Age, with it’s opening piano lines and vocals which have an almost chant quality about them, in a similar vein to Yes during their Tales From Topographic Oceans period. This just grows and grows, with added layers of vocals, drums becoming more active, and eventually more instrumentation accompanying to build this up to a crescendo, and then to finally close with the piano on its own once again.
The solo piano continues, leading perfectly into the main musical theme of the next section, which is Objects Meanwhile. The 6 progressing 3-note chords played on the piano soon give way to the main song kicking in, which is led by a strummed acoustic guitar, and includes some superb lyrics from Andy Partridge of XTC fame. Now I’ve never really been a lyric person as it’s always been the music alone that gets my interest first and foremost. Yet in this instance I found myself listening to the lyrics and loving them. I cannot applaud Steven highly enough for having the foresight to get an outsider in to do proper justice to the theme on this section of the track, and hats off to Andy Partridge for delivering the goods so marvellously. Musically this section has Floyd-isms in abundance, and it’s no wonder when they are one of Steven’s favourite bands of all-time, and so ingrained in his DNA that their influence on him often seeps out into his music. I adore the moment where the main tune drops out, to be replaced by an overdriven bass on its own. Which in turn becomes this fantastic rock middle-eight piece, even featuring a Thin Lizzy style harmony guitar at one point. The main song returns for another verse, and closes with the same theme it started with. Even as merely a small part of the first track, this song section stands out on its own as great piece of song-writing.
The Cicerones starts with a pair of finger-picked acoustic guitars, which eventually become accompanied by a softly played electric guitar and a swelling mellotron keyboard, which in turn takes us back to that 6 chord musical theme from the previous section. I’m not sure when the part titled Ark actually begins, but I’m guessing it’s here as the theme starts its slow climb up in layers of instruments & vocals, with the volume and ferocity of the drumming also building with each cycle of these 6 chords. I love how this part grows in intensity, of which the drummer for this track, Russell Holzman (son of keyboardists Adam Holzman), does an outstanding job. Again this song features chant style vocals, which harkens back to those Yes vibes once more, and it’s another tune that builds to a climax, leaving space for the next section as the final musical stabs fade away.
Cosmic Sons Of Toil is the title of the next part, and it’s here where it starts getting very tasty indeed. This is an instrumental tune, with a great drum groove that gives it a jamming feel to it all, yet overall this is actually very structured. It’s also the first part of this lengthy track to feature a proper guitar solo, and this one is provided by the marvellous Randy McStine. He’s a fantastic player, and clearly brought on board to bring another musical perspective into the project, as we all know Steven Wilson is a very capable guitarist in his own right. I love the energy of this section of the tune, and it’s one of my personal highlights from Objects Outlive Us. Not only is this a great workout for both McStine & Holzman on guitar & drums respectively, but I have to bring attention to the excellent bass playing that has been happening throughout this entire track, which comes from Steven Wilson himself. No guest bass players on this album, Steven plays it all, and his confidence as a bassist seems to have grown massively since undertaking all the bass playing on the recording of the last Porcupine Tree studio album, Closure/Continuation. These 3 players together make such a great sound in a power-trio format, that I would love to hear more from them in the future, if ever another similar project was in the works.
And finally we’re into the closing section, which starts off titled No Ghost On The Moor. This is essentially a reprise of No Monkey’s Paw, bookending this track, in a similar fashion to other prog classics such as Jethro Tull’s A Passion Play, or Rush’s The Fountain Of Lamneth, etc. Yet this time the tune is extended with an totally stunning guitar solo from Randy McStine. It’s not particularly complex or busy in its execution, it’s just absolutely the right solo for the music, from the gorgeous tones to the choice of notes, it’s such a perfect piece of playing. As the supporting music comes to a close I’m guessing we are entering in the section titled Heat Death Of The Universe, where the guitar continues on with its plaintive style, fading in the distance to eventually sustain on a really low note from a descended vibrato bar. And as that note sustains, there’s a swell of keyboard generated sound-effect which build to a climax, then silence as the full track reaches it’s conclusion.
The title track of the album, The Overview, is the 2nd and final track on this release. This one is broken down into 4 distinct sections. There’s less flow between the parts, and it literally does feel more like 4 pieces of music tagged together. Yet bizarrely there is an underlying cohesion to it all, because somehow it works. The opening section is called Perspective. It starts with some spacey sound effects accompanied by a distant unintelligible radio noise, which soon drops out to give way to a sequenced synthesiser pattern in the style of Pink Floyd’s On The Run. The rest of this section is made up of keyboards, drum programming, and various sound design aspects. And while this is going on you have Steven’s wife Rotem delivering a spoken-word narration about far-off stars & galaxies, and their distance from our planet. This is my least favourite part of the entire album. I just find it musically to be a bit of a filler, and hearing somebody reeling off a list of space statistics in a text-book manner, does absolutely nothing for me.
After around 5 minutes of the fairly aimless opening part, the main meat & veg of this number comes at last, with the fantastic A Beautiful Infinity. Just in the same way that Objects Meanwhile is the Pink Floyd/structured-pop of the first track, this is the main commercial part of The Overview track. Once again its acoustic-guitar led, yet this time probably veering more to the Syd Barret era of Floydisms in it’s obvious influence. It’s a beautifully written song, fabulously adorned with its 70’s music retro vibes, and features a very tasty brief guitar solo from Niko Tsonev. I’m also a huge fan of the stripped-back piano & vocal middle-eight section, which is a lovely part even on its own, and actually has its own title of Borrowed Atoms. And then out of nowhere comes the stunning acapella vocals, which sounds like something straight out of 90125 era Yes. It gives me goose-bumps every time I hear this, and it’s my absolutely favourite small piece of the entire album. The song restarts and carries on in the same gorgeous manner as previously, this time with the layered vocals, and even bringing in a keyboard with a sound straight off Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here. And then the whole thing just abruptly ends.
The next section has the title Infinity Measured In Moments. This contains some further narration by Rotem Wilson, yet for some reason it works better this time, as the groove and melody of the tune are so strong here. There are some layered vocals featured fairly early on, yet the main bulk of this section is an instrumental, and has some very cool showcase moments for the musicians involved. First up is another incredible solo from Randy McStine. I love the noises he gets out of his instrument, and his guitar tone is to die for. Straight after that the song drops down to reveal a pair of ukuleles keeping the rhythm going, and the tune then kicks back in with a brilliant solo from keyboardist Adam Holzman. And as the song fades out it leaves the twin ukuleles carrying on the melody, and these are also played by Randy McStine. He has certainly left his mark on this album, as not only has he provided some stellar moments, but on some sections he has also been actively involved in the sound design aspects of it too. His many talents are clearly a good reason why he was chosen to be involved with this project, and also to be a part of the live touring band as well. And lastly I must make a special mention to drummer Craig Blundell who plays so well throughout this and the previous section too.
The final part of this track is titled Permanence. This is a really stripped back tune as far as instrumentation goes. It’s essentially a shimmering keyboard sound dowsed in various sound effects, accompanying a dreamy sounding saxophone solo from Theo Travis. Normally a piece of music like this on its own wouldn’t do that much for me, yet tagged onto the very end of this track it works so well, to bring the listener back into a dreamy/spacey state after the musical journey that they’ve been on. It has a vibe about it that is incredibly reminiscent of the love theme from the movie soundtrack of Blade Runner by Vangelis. All these references I’ve made are not accusations from me of plagiarism … no, far from it. I find it fascinating to see where the influences have come from that work their way into Steven Wilson’s music. And with him being a huge fan of so many bands that have been highly influential on us all, it’s of no surprise that he’ll occasionally sound like another band or artiste, and genuinely have no idea whatsoever of any similarities. This full track kind of feels a bit short with a running time of 18 minutes plus, which is around 5 minutes shorter than its predecessor. I think one more section in the mid-point would have balanced things out a little better, yet regardless, in the main this is another fine Steven Wilson composition.
I’m a bit late with this review, as the album had been out for around 3 weeks while I finished off this article. However, this has given me way more time to listen to this album a good dozen times or more, and as such I have a far deeper relationship with it. The very first time I heard it, I knew that this was a great quality album, and in my opinion, superior to Steven’s last 2 solo ventures. I don’t dislike his more recent work, I just felt that they were lacking when compared to his entire solo career so far. With regards to sound quality, both The Future Bites and The Harmony Codex have been exemplary. It was mainly the song-writing, and the heavier reliance on sound design and electronic instrumentation, that made them not strike a chord with me as much as I had hoped they would. Yet for Steven Wilson to arrive at this point in his career, he could have only done so by experimenting with his 2 previous solo outings. The Overview album has the best of both worlds incorporated within its 43 minutes running time, featuring both traditional rock instruments, as well as the more digital side of music with various keyboard sounds & experimental sound design.
To sum up The Overview, it’s a marvellous album, which will undoubtedly have way more appeal than Bites or Codex, and for some listeners they might even prefer it to 2018’s To The Bone. Is this the glorious return of Steven Wilson to progressive music? … well I personally don’t think he ever went away. He simply moved into other musical territories in a deliberate effort not to repeat himself, and ended up producing music that may have had a more limited appeal to those fans who adore Raven or Hand. This is certainly not a return to that era of his career. It’s definitely got more recognisable characteristics that would naturally appeal to the majority of prog fans, and for me I think that the quality of his song-writing has gotten back on track. I much prefer the method of writing a great song, and then figuring out how to embellish it with great arrangements and sonic dynamics. Whereas in recent times it felt that the sound design was becoming the priority, and then using that to inspire the song-writing, even if that wasn’t actually the case at the time.
Lastly, I just want to tell a story about my first listening experience of The Overview. Unfortunately I didn’t have the luxury of listening to the album in a darkened auditorium, with Dolby Atmos surround sound, or an accompanying film created especially to enhance the overall experience. No, for me it was sitting in the front of a transit van, on route to work on a show in Inverness. And although you’d expect that to be a poor way to enjoy a product of this quality, it just so happens that the van has a great sound system, and the audio was being streamed in a reasonable standard from Apple Music. So my playback experience was actually very good, but what made this so special was the incredible visuals that accompanied it, as we made our way through the Scottish Highlands. It was getting close to noon, it was a beautiful sunny day, and the scenery was magnificent. As the journey progressed, the album reached the section of Infinity Measured In Moments, and just as Randy McStine started ripping out that splendid solo, the sun was glinting off the snow-topped mountains in the most majestically glorious manner. I’ll never ever forget that, as in that moment the music and visuals fused together in perfection. It was hardly 2001 A Space Odyssey, but the views of bonny Scotland at times can be just as wondrous.
TRACK LISTING
01. Objects Outlive Us (23:17)
[a] No Monkey’s Paw [2:00]
[b] The Buddha Of The Modern Age [2:26]
[c] Objects: Meanwhile [6:31]
[d] The Cicerones / Ark [3:43]
[e] Cosmic Sons Of Toil [3:00]
[f] No Ghost On The Moor / Heat Death Of The Universe [6:00]
02. The Overview (18:21)
[a] Perspective [4:57]
[b] A Beautiful Infinity / Borrowed Atoms [5:20]
[c] Infinity Measured In Moments [5:06]
[d] Permanence [3:25]
Total Time – 41:38
MUSICIANS
Steven Wilson – Vocals, Piano, Keyboards, Guitars, Basses, Percussion, Strings, Sound Design, Programming, Celesta
~ With:
Randy McStine – Sound Design [1a,1d & 2a], Sound Effects [1a], Vocals [1b & 1d], Backing Vocals [1c,2b & 2c], Guitar [1c,1f & 2b], Lead Guitar [2c], Guitar Solo [1f], Moog Solo [2b], Ukulele [2c]
Adam Holzman – Mellotron [1b], Hammond Organ [1b & 1d], Modular Synth [1c,1f & 2b], Rhodes Piano [1d, 1f & 2b], Moog Solo [2c]
Russell Holzman – Drums [1b,1d & 1f]
Willow Beggs – Vocals [1b & 1d]
Leo Travis – Saxophone [1c], Flute [1f], Soprano Saxophone [2d]
Rotem Wilson – Spoken Word [2a]
Craig Blundell – Drums [2b]
Niko Tsonev – Guitar Solo [2b]
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Steven Wilson HQ
Country of Origin: UK
Date of Release: 14th March 2025
